Georges E. Sioui

This is a scholarly and occasionally difficult text by a Wendat historian, a descendant of those who remained (after the epidemics and massacres in seventeenth-century Huronia/Wendake) and migrated to Loretteville, Quebec. HURON WENDAT provides the reader with insights into Wendat culture from an "Aborigino-centric" perspective. Not having much knowledge of archeology, I found the early chapters of the book rather hard going. In these, Sioui traces the movement of the Wendat into the land just east of Georgian Bay, traditionally known as Wendake, and the growth of the Wendat population from about 1300 on. Sioui states that the Wendat played a key role in an extensive aboriginal trade network--one that the French capitalized on. The sedentary agricultural lives (focused on the growth of corn, beans, and squash) made the Wendat villages the hub of early commerce. They had strong alliances with several Algonquian-speaking peoples whose lands extended to the Atlantic ocean. The most accessible part of the book for me was the detailed discussion of Wendat society, which attempts to redress European accounts of torture and cannibalism. A fascinating look into a fascinating people, and a book that begs re-reading.… (altro)