Introduction History Daily Life Culture References
Source

Introduction

At one time there existed an Aboriginal people who lived in what is now central Ontario between Lake Simcoe and Lake Huron. French explorers called them "Huron" because the bristly way the men wore their hair reminded the explorers of wild boar, which were called "hure" in French. The Huron referred to themselves as Wendat, which means "people who live on the back of a great turtle." The Wendat believed that the back of this great turtle was an island that supported the whole world. After the Wendat were forced from their land, some of them called themselves Wyandot, meaning "floating islanders", because they no longer had a homeland to live on. Today the descendants of the Wendat have a community just north of Quebec City in the province of Quebec. The Wyandot live in the state of Oklahoma in the United States. Others live in Southern Ontario and Kansas City, in the state of Kansas, without an established community.