Wyandot

The Wyandot are an Indigenous people of North America belonging to the Iroquoian language family. In many sources they are referred to by the exonym Huron, a term used by French colonists, while the people themselves are known as Wendat or Wyandot. Historically, they inhabited areas around the Great Lakes, especially the regions of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, with communities also developing in parts of present-day Ontario and Michigan.

Before widespread European contact, the Wyandot formed a confederacy of related communities and practiced a mixed economy of agriculture, hunting, and trade. They developed longhouse living and cultivated the three sisters crops—corn, beans, and squash—alongside other resources. The Wyandot engaged in extensive trade networks and established alliances with European powers, notably the French, during the 17th century.

The Wyandot experienced significant disruption during the Beaver Wars and subsequent Iroquoian conflicts, which led to population decline and dispersal. Surviving groups migrated within North America, with communities relocating to parts of Ontario, Quebec, Michigan, Ohio, and the broader Midwest. In the modern era, descendants live in Canada and the United States, organized in several recognized or autonomous communities. Canada hosts the Huron-Wendat Nation in Quebec, while in the United States, groups identifying as Wyandot include federally recognized or tribal communities in Oklahoma and other areas. Ongoing cultural and language revitalization efforts seek to preserve the Wendat language and Wyandot heritage for future generations.