In 1636 the last great Wendat Feast of the Dead was held in what is now Ontario. The Wendat Confederacy only had a few years left before the devastation of the diseases brought by European colonizers and the war with the Haudenosaunee brought the Wendat to their knees. The Jesuit priest, Jean de Brebeuf recorded the events and his admiration for the ritual in the Jesuit Relations which is where we get much of the information about this particular ceremony and a greater insight into the Wendat world as it was on the precipice of disaster.
This episode is going out early to subscribers and will be out next week to regular listeners.
Sources:
The Children of Aateantsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 by Bruce Trigger
Huron Wendat: The Heritage of the Circle by Georges E. Sioui
The Huron-Wendat Feast of the Dead: Indian-European Encounters in Early North America by Erik R. Seeman
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