Wyandot

Not Free of Confict

The chaos the Wyandot and the Odawa found in Wisconsin, their next refuge, worked to their advantage as they collected furs from other tribes and organized canoe fleets to take them to Canada. But the Iroquois attacked Wyandot and Ottawa villages along with those of the tribes supplying them with furs. Moving inland into western Wisconsin, they angered the Dakota, and so even after the combined forces of the Wyandot, Ojibwe, Nipissing, and Odawa destroyed an Iroquois war party in 1662, the Wyandot were not free of conflict. Wisconsin was not conducive to raising the corn on which they depended, and 500 Wyandot and Odawa starved to death during the winter of 1661 to 1662.

The Wyandot wandered from place to place until 1701, when Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac invited them to Fort Detroit. By 1725, they were on the move again, this time moving into the Ohio Valley, which had grown rich in resources during the empty years after the Iroquois had driven out all its inhabitants. The Wyandot grew strong, and their population increased. Soon, they were the most influential tribe in the Ohio Valley. They had also become adept at playing the political games that the Europeans set up. They were allies of the French until around 1640, when the British moved into Ohio Country. After the French routed the British, the Wyandot became allies of the French until the British emerged the victors in the French and Indian War (1754–63). They joined other Native American tribes to drive British military and settlers out of the Ohio Valley in 1764. They fought for the British in the American Revolution and continued to fight the Americans when the British withdrew.

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