Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People

WYANDOTTE
NATION
Right: Bronze sculpture of a Wyandot
Indian family, a tribute to the city’s founding
people, the Wyandots.
Prior to European contact more than a
dozen tribes along the St. Lawrence River and
Upper Great Lakes Region collectively called
themselves Wendat. They were all closely
related with many cultural similarities, yet they
each retained unique tribal names. Five of
those tribes comprised a powerful confederacy
known as the Wendat (Huron) Confederacy.
The founders of the confederacy were the
Attignawantan. Another tribe, the Tionontati,
lived adjacent to the Attignawantan; however,
they were not part of the Wendat Confederacy.
After a series of wars and ensuing defeat at
the hands of the Iroquois Confederacy, in the
early 1650s these people joined two other
dispersed people groups—the Wenrohronon,
and Attawandaron. They henceforth united
as one, set aside their unique tribal names,
and collectively called themselves Wandat.
The new tribal name was a unique dialectal
variation of Wendat.
After being dispersed from their ancestral
homelands, the Wandats settled near Fort
Detroit in 1701. Within a few years a portion
of the tribe ventured south into the Ohio
Country. They eventually settled near what
would become Upper Sandusky, Ohio. In
Michigan and Ohio, after sustained contact
with the British, their traditional name
Wandat became corrupted and spelled as
Wyandot. Pressure from settlers forced the
Treaty of 1843 and their removal to land west
of the Mississippi River (Kansas). Another
Treaty in 1855 effectually terminated the
Wyandot as a recognized tribe; however, in
1857, some Wyandots who were unwilling
to accept United States citizenship relocated
to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). After the
Civil War concluded, the Treaty of 1867
reinstated the Wyandots as a tribe. By 1871
approximately 200 citizens had successfully
reorganized a tribal government. The name
Wyandotte was officially used after the 1867
Treaty and reflects an influence in its spelling
from the French language. In 1937 the
Wyandottes again reorganized under provisions
of the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act
of 1936 and adopted the name—Wyandotte
Tribe of Oklahoma. Upon adopting a new
tribal constitution in 1999, Article I of the
constitution again changed the tribal name
to the Wyandotte Nation.
Today, the Wyandotte Nation claims over
five thousand enrolled members nationwide
with descendants still living in Oklahoma, Ohio,
and the Canadian province of Ontario. Other
estimates include approximately ten thousand
Wyandotte descendants living primarily in the
Great Lakes region of Canada and the United
States. The tribe hosts their annual cultural
days, including language and history classes,
along with their Pow Wow and various
cultural activities in September of each year.
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