Huronia is a

historical region Historical regions (or historical areas) are geographical regions which at some point in time had a cultural, ethnic, linguistic or political basis, regardless of latterday borders. They are used as delimitations for studying and analysing soc ...

in the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

area of eastern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

. It is positioned between Lakes Erie,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, and

Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawato ...

. Similarly to the latter, it takes its name from the

, an

Iroquoian The Iroquoian languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking. As of 2020, all surviving Iroquoia ...

society that flourished in the years leading up to contact with Europeans. The term Huronia, which was coined by later Europeans, is distinct from the term the Huron themselves used for their dwelling place, which is ("the peninsula country"). Other translations suggested are "the island apart", "the separate country", "the country with a separate language", "the one village", or "the villagers." At the time of first European contact, Wendake was "one of the most densely populated territories north of Mexico." It consisted of twenty to twenty-five settlements occupying about between

Nottawasaga Bay Nottawasaga Bay is a sub-bay within Georgian Bay in Southern Ontario, Canada located at the southernmost end of the main bay. The communities located on Nottawasaga Bay are Meaford, The Blue Mountains, Collingwood, Wasaga Beach and Tiny. ...

and

Lake Simcoe Lake Simcoe is a lake in southern Ontario, Canada, the fourth-largest lake wholly in the province, after Lake Nipigon, Lac Seul, and Lake Nipissing. At the time of the first European contact in the 17th century the lake was called ''Ouentironk' ...

West to East, and Matchedash Bay and the swampy basin of the

Nottawasaga River The Nottawasaga River is a river in Simcoe County and Dufferin County in Central Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Great Lakes Basin, and is a tributary of Lake Huron. The river flows from the Orangeville Reservoir in the town of Orangeville, ...

, North to South. The population was estimated to be 20-30 thousand. Following the dispersal of the Ontario Iroquoians during and after the

Beaver Wars The Beaver Wars ( moh, Tsianì kayonkwere), also known as the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars (french: Guerres franco-iroquoises) were a series of conflicts fought intermittently during the 17th century in North America throughout t ...

, came to mean new lands as far away as

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

and

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

where the Huron resettled. Early European maps and accounts do not use the term Huronia; rather,

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

missionaries used terms such as , or, later, . In his 1745 Huron–French dictionary, the Jesuit Father

Pierre Potier Pierre Potier (22 August 1934 – 3 February 2006) was a French pharmacist as well as a chemist. He held the position of Director of the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (1974 to 2000), as well as a teaching position at the Muséu ...

defined the Huron term as "", referring to the pre-dispersal homeland. The geographic scope of Huronia has been fluid over time. One of the earliest European written conceptions of Huronia, by the Jesuit

Jérôme Lalemant Jérôme Lalemant, S.J. (Paris, April 27, 1593 – Quebec City, January 26, 1673) was a French Jesuit priest who was a leader of the Jesuit mission in New France. Life Lalemant entered the Jesuit novitiate in Paris on 20 October 1610, after which ...

in 1639, included the land of the

Petun The Petun (from french: pétun), also known as the Tobacco people or Tionontati ("People Among the Hills/Mountains"), were an indigenous Iroquoian people of the woodlands of eastern North America. Their last known traditional homeland was sou ...

(a related people whose territory is sometimes retrospectively called the Petun Country), which lay to the west of the core Huron territory. This core Huron territory was termed "Huronia Proper" by the late 19th and early 20th century historian Arthur E. Jones.: "Father Arthur E. Jones was among those who believed the Petun Country extended to Owen Sound.... He used the term 'Huronia Proper' when he was referring specifically to the Hurons In the 20th century, the territory lent its name to the Huronia movement, a northern-oriented political movement in Ontario which pursued regional autonomy.

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External links

Huronia Museum, Midland, ON

{{coord, 44.686962, N, 79.931059, W, display=title History of Simcoe County Geographic regions of Ontario Wyandot Cultural regions

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