OAS ARCH NOTES 85-3:17-9
John Steckley
In an earlier work (Steckley 1982.30-1), the Wenro were presented as being adopted into the Turtle clan of the Huron. This took place in 1638, when about 600 of them migrated from their precariously-positioned traditional home east of the Niagara River and dangerously close to the Seneca. The evidence for their joining the Turtle came from the following entry in a Huron clan list of the mid-1650’s:
“Andia8ich /Turtle/ tionnenria honnontre/a/ hotienrotori”
(op. cit. p.30)
A tentative translation for the phrase “tionnenria honnontre/a/ hotienrotori” was set out as, “When they were small in number they adopted the Wenro as their /maternal/grandchildren” (op. cit., p.31, addition mine). The term hotienrotori was taken as meaning ‘they are Wenro’, without being broken down into constituent meaningful elements (outside of the pronominal prefix -hoti- meaning ‘they’). It is here suggested that if this term is analyzed according to its constituent parts, a reason may be put forward for why, beyond the small size of the Turtle clan, the Wenro were adopted into the particular clan.
Ways in which the name Wenro has been represented
| Ouaroronon | Sagard 3:804 |
| Ahouenrochrhonon | JR8:115-6 |
| *Weanohronon | JR16:252-3 |
| Wenronronon | JR17:24-5 |
| Wenroronon | JR17:212-3 |
| Oneronon | JR18:234-5 |
| Awenrehronon | JR21:230-1 |
| Oenronronnon | JR39:138-9 |
(* = is changed from the -8- in the French version)
The heretofore most accepted translation of Wenro is the one first put forward by J.N.B. Hewitt in 1910. Taking a Huron noun meaning ‘moss’ -wenr- (see Potier 1920:454), a verb -o- referring to being in water or on or in something wet (op. cit., pp.401-2) and a suffix -ronnon- meaning ‘people’ (op. cit., p-66 #7) Hewitt translated ‘Wenroronnon’ as “The people of the place of the floating soum” (Hewitt 1910:932, as cited in White 1978:411).
While the elements chosen are probably correct, a different interpretation of their combination will be set forth here. Further, it is suggested that the term hotionrotori is unanalyzable in itself because it is made up of two separate words, not one: hotienro and otori. The first part should be translated as ‘they have moss on something wet’, and the second should be ‘it is covered’ (op. cit., P.431*). The combined translation would be ‘they are covered with moss’.
A combination of -wenr- ‘moss’ and -ori- ‘to be covered’ was used in Wyandot, which can be considered a dialect of Huron, as the term for the ‘moss-backed turtle’ (Barbeau 1915:72 fn 2 and 86 fn 1). Significantly, it was the usual term for the Big Turtle clan, the leading clan of the Turtle phratry (ibid.).
The hypothesis, then, is that like the Bear and Deer ‘tribes’ of the Huron, the Deer and Wolf ‘divisions’ of the Petun, and the Erie or Cat tribe, the Wenro were named after an animal: the turtle. When they migrated north to Huronia, they joined with their ‘Turtle brothers’ among the Huron and may well have formed the nucleus of the Big Turtle clan of the Turtle phratry of the Wyandot.
Were Other Neutral ‘Tribes’ Named After Animals?
This question should be posed as at least two and possibly three other Neutral political units are named in the Huron clan list cited above. First, we find in the Wolf clan entry the word “Ahonrek”. This is clearly cognate with the underlined term appearing in the tribal list given below, recorded in the Relation of 1656 as part of the vision speech of an Iroquois spirit:
| “I made you conquer the Hurons, the Tobacco Nation, the Ahondironons, Atiraguenrek, Atiaonrek, Tekoulguehronnons/Atrakwaeronnon/ and Gentuetehronnons /Erie/; … (JR42:197 – additions mine) |
It is tempting to say (as in Steckley 1982:31) that this term is derived from the verb -riy- meaning ‘to chew or suck’ (Potier 1920:346 #43*) as this is the verb from which the Huron term for wolf, bone-chewer, is derived (op. cit., p.450). More evidence is needed, however, before this can be established conclusively. I suspect at this point that Ahonrek or Atiaonrek was the ‘tribal’ name for the people who lived in the Niagara region, as the tems Niagara and Ahonrek never appear in the same list.
Additionally, under the entry for the Hawk clan we find the words ‘hatiraenre” and “Araenre”. While it is possible that these terms are derived from a noun and verb combination -,ara,enie- (Potier 1920:245) meaning ‘to roll or turn over’ (as was suggested in Steckley 1982:31), and that this term could refer to the spirally dive of a hawk, lacking further evidence, this is highly speculative at best. More likely, but still speculative, is the possibility that the hatira,enre were the Hawk ‘tribe’ of the Neutral.
Finally, in the Fox clan entry we find the term “skanda,ona” along with the term for fox. No translation that is satisfactory has emerged to date. Interestingly, if this name could be connected in some way with the Ahondironnon, we would have all known Neutral groups incorporated into the list1. Again, further research is necessary.
Conclusion
To conclude, there is reason to believe that the Wenro were adopted into the Turtle clan of the Huron because they were already known as the ‘Turtles’. It is possible that the other ‘tribes’ of the Neutral also had animal names, ones referred to in the Huron clan list. Whether or not they too were adopted into the Huron cannot really be said.
1 – It is the opinion of the author (to be argued elsewhere) that the “Antouaronons” and the “Kakouagoga” appearing in the map attributed to Claude Bernou (c1680) are not references to Neutral tribes.
Bibliography
Barbeau, Marius
1955 Huron and Wyandot Mythology. Ottawa: Dept. of Mines, Geological Survey, Memoir 80.
Hewitt, J.N.B.
1910 “Wenrohronon” in the Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 30, vol. 2, pp. 932-4.
Potier, Pierre
1920 “Radices Huronicae” in the 15th Report of the Bureau of Archives for the Province of Ontario, Toronto, Clarkson W. James, pp. 159-455.
Sagard, Gabriel
1866 Histoire du Canada … vol. 3, Paris: Edwin Tross.
Steckley, John
1982 “Huron Clans and Phratries” in Ontario Archaeology 37:29-34.
Thwaites, Reuben G.
(JR) 1959 The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. 73 vols. New York: Pageant.
White, Marian
1978 “Neutral and Wenro” in The Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15, Northeast, Trigger, B., ed., Washington, Smithsonian Institution, pp.407-411.