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Ontario History

Petun to Wyandot: The Ontario Petun from the Sixteenth Century by Charles Garrad, edited by Jean-Luc Pilon and William Fox Gary Warrick

Women and Education Volume 107, Number 1, Spring 2015

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1050686ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1050686ar

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Publisher(s) The Ontario Historical Society

ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital)

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Cite this review Warrick, G. (2015). Review of [Petun to Wyandot: The Ontario Petun from the Sixteenth Century by Charles Garrad, edited by Jean-Luc Pilon and William Fox]. Ontario History, 107(1), 139–142. https://doi.org/10.7202/1050686ar

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This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ book reviews 139

plants in Windsor. The improvement of dependence on Detroit’s economy. But af- municipal assets, public health, telephone ter 1900, Windsor would rebound to truly service, electricity and streetcars, all led to become an industrial dynamo. the notion that Windsor was becoming a The lack of any substantive conclusion is “distinct urban community.” a major flaw in Brode’s work. What is a gen- Chapter 7 looks at events during 1887- erally well written and informative chrono- 92. Hiram Walker’s investment in the logical overview of the history of Wind- building of the Lake Erie, Essex & Detroit sor to 1900 falls flat at the end. With no River Railroad, provided an important summation or encapsulation of arguments link between Windsor and the surround- made throughout the book, the reader may ing countryside. The extension of the Ca- feel that something is missing. Certainly it nadian Pacific Railway established Wind- is an abrupt end to Brode’s otherwise useful sor as part of a major North American rail story! I would also question the utility of a system. By the late 1880s, Windsor had selected bibliography, instead of listing all become a stronghold for residents wanting reference sources used. Finally some of the the annexation of to the United black and white images used to accompany States, because of perceived regressive tar- the text are of poor quality. Apart from iffs. There was local support for reciprocity. these shortcomings, I’d recommend The The growth in population resulted in the River & the Land as a publication to add expansion of town limits and Windsor was to your library. It is a welcome addition to incorporated as a city on 24 May 1892. the literature about the history of Windsor. The final chapter investigates the Victo- Stay tuned for volume 2 (1901-1945), and rian era from 1893-1900. In 1891, the rise volume 3 (1946-2009). of anti-Catholic feelings and racial discord is noted. The “Panic of 1893” triggered an John C. Carter economic downturn in Detroit. This had a Research Associate, School of Humanities, negative effect on Windsor because of its University of Tasmania Petun to Wyandot: The Ontario Petun from the Sixteenth Century by Charles Garrad, edited by Jean-Luc Pilon and William Fox

Gatineau, QC: Canadian Museum of History and University of Ottawa Press, 2014. 623 pages. $89.95 paperback. ISBN 978-0-77662-144-9 (www.press.uottawa.ca).

he history of Iroquoian speaking teenth Century is a clear demonstration that peoples in sixteenth- and seven- archaeologists can make unique contribu- teenth-century Ontario is normally tions to history, by integrating historical Ttold by historians and ethno-historians. Ar- (written and oral), archaeological, and an- chaeologists are viewed by most historians thropological evidence. This book repre- as second-class scholars of history—people sents the culmination of over fifty years of who mend broken pots and stone tools of research and will become an essential en- ancient times. Charles Garrad’s Petun to cyclopedic reference for any archaeologist Wyandot: The Ontario Petun from the Six- or historian who is interested in the early

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seventeenth-century this group after their . 1650 dispersal from The goal of Charles their Ontario home- Garrad’s book is to land. However, like bring the seventeenth- the name “Huron” century Petun out of (also a misnomer and obscurity onto the cen- a pejorative term), tre stage of Ontario “Petun” is entrenched history (xxvii). Garrad in the academic litera- has achieved this goal ture, so Garrad decid- without any doubt. He ed to use this name to was motivated to write avoid confusion. the book in response Chapter 2 presents to a 1985 challenge by and interprets the Bruce Trigger, the rec- seventeenth-century ognized authority on cartographic and his- Huron-Wendat archae- torical data, noting ology and history. that errors in locating Petun to Wyandot: the Petun were simply The Ontario Petun from copied by map makers the Sixteenth Century is organized into from the original maps. This is a caution- eleven chapters and five appendices. In the ary note to historians to avoid accepting Foreword, Charles Garrad summarizes his any historical map as accurate. Garrad fifty-year academic interest in Petun archae- combines the locations of archaeological ology, culture, and history and he declares village sites, historical trails (reconstructed that the book is the culmination of his life’s from nineteenth-century settler roads), work. The author is one of those rare non- and recorded distances between villages, professional archaeologists whose research in his detailed reconstruction of the geog- and publications are highly respected by raphy of the Petun, reminiscent of Conrad the professional archaeological community. Heidenreich’s research on the Huron. His commitment and respect for Petun his- The origins of the Petun are investi- tory have also been honoured by the Wyan- gated in Chapter 3, using a combination dot (descendants of Petun); they formally of oral history and archaeology. This chap- adopted him in 1975 and 1999. ter offers the most complete compilation Chapter 1 introduces the Petun, sum- of nineteenth-century studies of Petun marizing the history of the Petun, Huron, (Wyandot) oral history in print, but sadly and Neutral in the seventeenth century. the oral history is too poorly preserved to Garrad justifies the use of the name “Pe- pinpoint the origin for this people. Ar- tun,” which is actually a misnomer from chaeology, on the other hand, indicates Champlain who called the Iroquoian peo- that the Petun probably represent a ca. ples of the Collingwood region “Nation de A.D. 1580 migration of a few communi- Petun,” meaning Tobacco People. Garrad ties of Neutral (Iroquoian speakers who explains that Wyandot is probably the best lived in the Hamilton-Brantford region in name for the Petun and was likely a self-ap- the early seventeenth century), who jour- pellation and became the official name for neyed up the Grand River valley to south

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of Collingwood to take advantage of rich tion of inferred site dates from Native and beaver trapping grounds in the vast wet- European artifacts is innovative. Chapter 8 lands of Luther Marsh and headwaters of addresses Petun subsistence and economy, the Nottawasaga River. The probable Neu- with a focus on the fur trade. Garrad makes tral origin of the Petun has implications for a convincing case for the Petun as trappers the origins of the southern Bear nation of of beaver (four times the amount of beaver the Huron-Wendat (Attignawantan) be- bones in garbage dumps in Petun as op- cause the Petun and southern Bear Huron posed to Neutral and Huron village sites) spoke a similar dialect of Wendat language and their control of the rich beaver trapping (as noted in Appendix C of the book). grounds in southwestern Ontario. In fact, Chapter 4 provides an excellent pres- Garrad argues that the entire reason for the entation of the various seventeenth-cen- origin of the Petun was to become involved tury written descriptions of the Petun from in the fur trade by establishing villages in Champlain, and the Recollet and Jesuit proximity to the rich beaver marshes of the missionaries. Garrad’s summary of the ac- headwaters of the Grand River. tivities of the various Jesuits in the Huron- One of the most important chapters Petun missions is written as biographical in the book from both an archaeological sketches. and historical perspective is Chapter 9. Chapter 5 focuses on the Jesuit Mis- The author reconstructs the chronological sion of the Apostles to the Petuns. In sequence of Petun villages, using archaeo- addition to a chronicle of events from logical and historical data from previous 1639-1650 in Petun country, this chapter chapters. The importance of this is that ar- discusses the motivation behind the Five chaeological villages can be identified with Nations attacks on the Petun and villages mentioned in the historical record. the Huron. Garrad believes that the Iro- The research potential is enormous be- quois attacks were an attempt to impose cause archaeological data can be compared by force the Great Law of Peace of the Five directly to historical accounts and events Nations Confederacy, and also to acquire situated in certain villages. To date, this women and children captives to bolster the cannot be done for any other Aboriginal population of the Iroquois after the devas- group in seventeenth-century Ontario. tation of the 1634-1640 epidemics of Eu- In Chapter 10, population estimates ropean disease. are provided based on historical and ar- Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9 present and in- chaeological information. Tragically, the terpret archaeological data amassed from Petun were devastated by disease and war, over fifty years of Garrad’s research on declining from 10,000 in 1616 to a mere over 54 sites in Petun country. Chapter 6 1,000 at the time of their dispersal in features Native artifacts, namely pottery, 1650. pipes, chert (stone used in tools, fire start- Chapter 11 links the modern Wyan- ing, etc.), spiritual artifacts, and marine dot communities of , Kansas, shell, and uses them to impose chronologi- and Anderdon (Detroit) historically to the cal order on the Petun archaeological sites. Petun of 1650, tracing the history of each Chapter 7 uses European artifacts (glass Wyandot community. This final chapter is a beads, copper and brass kettle fragments, gem, especially for the nineteenth-century iron knives and axes) to refine the dating history of the Wyandot. The five appendi- of archaeological sites. Garrad’s integra- ces deal with pottery types, faunal remains,

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linguistic data, wampum belts, and names fact, the Ontario Archaeological Society for the Petun. Of the five, appendix C, on has recognized this book by awarding it the linguistic data, should have been incorpo- 2014 Award for Excellence in Publishing. rated into Chapter 3 on Petun origins. It deserves to be read as part of a trilogy, The overall organization of the book which includes Kathryn Labelle’s Dispersed works well. Editors Jean-Luc Pilon and but Not Destroyed and John Steckley’s The William Fox, and Rudy Fecteau (who pro- Eighteenth-Century Wyandot. This book vided crystal-clear artifact photographs) will occupy a prominent place on the book- and Andrew Stewart (who drafted the ex- shelf of any serious scholar of Aboriginal cellent maps), in close collaboration with history and have an appeal for the general the author, created a readable book out of a reader as well. Charles Garrad should be huge body of historical and archaeological applauded for writing the definitive histo- data. It is rare to see the results of fifty years ry of the seventeenth-century Petun. I am of research being distilled into one volume. certain that the Petun-Wyandot ancestors In summary, Charles Garrad’s Petun to and living descendants are pleased. Wyandot is a wonderful example of inte- grating historical and archaeological data Gary Warrick, to produce a work of Aboriginal history. In Wilfrid Laurier University

John A. Macdonald: Canada’s First Prime Minister by Ged Martin Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2013. 215 pp., index. $19.95 paperback. ISBN: 978-1-45970-651-4. $9.99 e-book. ISBN: 978-145970-653-8 (www.dundurn.com)

ed Martin has long been a reliable and insightful guide to John A. Macdonald, offering over the years Goriginal essays on confederation debates, Macdonald and alcoholism, Macdonald’s accent, Macdonald and his Kingston, and the limits of archival research in under- standing Canada’s first prime minister. With this short book conceived for the “Quest Biography” series that already in- cludes forty portraits of people as varied as Tecumseh and Jacques Plante, Martin’s mandate is to initiate the curious more than to impress the learned. Freed of foot-

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