Huron

/hyoor"euhn, -on/ or, often, /yoor"-/, n.

1. a member of an Indian tribe, the northwestern member of the Iroquoian family, living west of Lake Huron.

2. an Iroquoian language, the language of the Huron Indians.

3. Lake, a lake between the U.S. and Canada: second largest of the Great Lakes. 23,010 sq. mi. (59,595 sq. km).

4. a city in E South Dakota. 13,000.

[1625-35, Amer.]

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▪ South Dakota, United States

      city, seat (1880) of Beadle county, east-central South Dakota, U.S. It lies on the James River about 120 miles (200 km) northwest of Sioux Falls. Established in 1880 as a division headquarters of the Chicago and North Western Railway (Chicago and North Western Transportation Company), it was named for the Huron Indians and developed as an agricultural centre.

      The city's economy depends primarily on diversified agriculture (including corn [maize], wheat, soybeans, sunflowers, hay, cattle, and hogs). Manufactures include metal doors, construction equipment, electronics and electrical equipment, and novelty items. The economy is augmented by tourism in the pheasant-hunting season (which includes the annual Ringneck Festival in November) and by the South Dakota State Fair, held there annually in late summer. A popular attraction is the “World's Largest Pheasant,” a steel and fibreglass structure that stands 30 feet (9 metres) tall. Dakotaland Museum contains exhibits on local history; another attraction is the home (1894) of Gladys Pyle, the first woman elected to the South Dakota legislature and the first Republican woman elected to the U.S. Senate. Huron is the location of the family pharmacy of the U.S. senator and vice president Hubert H. Humphrey (Humphrey, Hubert H) (1911–78). Lake Byron, about 15 miles (25 km) north of the city, provides recreational opportunities. Inc. 1883. Pop. (1990) 12,448; (2000) 11,893.

▪ people

also called  Wyandot  or  Wyandotte 

      Iroquoian-speaking North American Indians who were living along the St. Lawrence River when contacted by French explorer Jacques Cartier (Cartier, Jacques) in 1534.

 Many aspects of Huron culture were similar to those of other Northeast Indians (Northeast Indian). Traditionally, the Huron lived in villages of large bark-covered longhouses (longhouse), each of which housed a matrilineal extended family; some villages were protected by an encircling palisade. Agriculture was the mainstay of the Huron economy; men cleared fields and women planted, tended, and harvested crops including corn (maize), beans, squash, and sunflowers. Hunting and fishing supplemented the diet.

      The Huron were divided into matrilineal exogamous clans, each headed by a clan chief; all the clan chiefs of a village formed a council, which, with the village chief, decided civil affairs. Villages were grouped into bands (each of which had a band chief and a band council, consisting of village chiefs, to deal with civil matters affecting the entire band), and all the bands together constituted the Huron nation. A large council of band chiefs and their local councils dealt with matters concerning the whole tribe. Women were influential in Huron affairs, as each clan's senior women were responsible for selecting its political leaders.

      The Huron were bitter enemies of tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy, with whom they competed in the fur trade. Before the 17th century the Iroquois drove some Huron from the St. Lawrence River westward into what is now Ontario, where related groups seem to have already been resident; four of these bands (the Rock, Cord, Bear, and Deer peoples) formed a confederacy called the Wendat that was destroyed by Iroquois invasions in 1648–50. The survivors were either captured and forced to settle among their conquerors or driven west and north. The latter remnants drifted back and forth between Michigan, Wisconsin, Ontario, Ohio, and Quebec. During the French and Indian War in the mid-18th century, the Huron allied with the French against the British and the Iroquois Confederacy.

      The Huron gradually reestablished some influence in Ohio and Michigan, but the U.S. government eventually forced tribal members to sell their lands. They subsequently migrated to Kansas and then to Indian Territory (present Oklahoma).

      Early 21st-century population estimates indicated some 4,000 individuals of Huron descent.

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