Wenrohronon
 | This article's factual accuracy is disputed. (May 2026) |
Wenrohronon people Wenrohronon | |
|---|---|
| Before 1600–1638 | |
 Wenro and neighboring nations in the early 17th century | |
| Common languages | Wenro (Iroquoian languages) |
| Religion | Traditional Iroquoian religion |
| Demonym | Wenro |
| History | |
• Established | Before 1600 |
• Disestablished | 1638 |
| Population | |
• 1600 | Unknown (estimated in the low thousands) |
• 1650 | 600 refugees adopted into the Wendat |
| Today part of | Descendants among the Wyandotte Nation |
The Wenrohronon or Wenro people were an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, historically from western New York.
The Wenro were dispersed by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in the late 1630s during the Beaver Wars. The Neutral Confederacy had previously protected the Wenro from the Seneca but had withdrawn their support leaving them open to raids. The Wenro subsequently sought asylum with the Wendat. The Jesuit Relation of 1639–1640 records 600 Wenro arriving at the village of the village of Ossossané on Nottawasaga Bay. A decade later the Haudenosaunee attacked both the Wendat and the Neutral in order to take control of the fur trade and replenish population lost to epidemics.[1][2]
Name
[edit]The name "Wenrohronon" translates as "people at the place of the floating scum." According to early ethnohistorian John Hewitt, this was a reference to the oil springs at what is now Cuba, New York.[3] These oil springs were the first recorded source of petroleum in what is now the United States.[4] Modern archaeologists, however, place the Wenro further to the north in the vicinity of the Old Orchard Swamp (south of Medina, New York).[1]
Territory
[edit]Jesuit missionaries recorded that the Wenro's territory was located east of the Neutral and west of the Seneca. This places the Wenro to the north of the Erie who lived south of the Buffalo River. Wenro territory may have encompassed the territory between the Niagara River to the Genesee River, however, it is likely they inhabited only a single village. Due to their alliance with the Neutral, the Wenro served as a buffer between the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat.[1]
The Wenro were an Iroquoian people who are thought to have been closely related to the Neutral. They likely spoke a language that was mutually intelligible with that spoken by the Wendat. Like most Iroquoian groups, they were almost certainly characterized by a matrilineal social structure, communal living in longhouses, and an agricultural economy centered on the cultivation of the "Three Sisters" (maize, beans, and squash).[1]
History
[edit]17th century
[edit]Most of what in known about the Wenro appears in the Jesuit Relations. The Wenro were recorded by Franciscan missionary Joseph de La Roche Daillon in 1627, who may have encountered them at the site of Oil Springs. Daillon noted their use of crude petroleum (then a largely unknown substance) as a medicine. The editors of American Heritage Magazine writing in the American Heritage Book of Indians suggested the French visitors encountered the Wenro shortly after they had lost an internecine war, probably with the Senecas, accounting for the relatively small size of their territory, as they were on fair terms with the Erie and good terms with both the Neutrals and Wendat at that time.[5].[dubious – discuss] Daillon was likely preceded twelve years prior by Étienne Brûlé, who passed through an unspecified land "west of Seneca territory" in 1615; Brûlé made no records of his travels but reported them to Samuel de Champlain a few years later. The Wenro were forced to migrate to Wendat territory in 1639 with many dying along the way; the 600 survivors who completed the trip were adopted into the Wendat confederacy.[6]
Later history
[edit]In 1649, the Wenro joined a group of Wendat in fleeing to the Tionontati after the Wendat were dispersed by the Haudenosaunee. By 1680, this group had formed the Wyandot people and were living at Michilimackinac. They migrated to the Détroit area in 1701 and by the mid-18th century had spread into the Ohio Country. The former Wenro played a leading role among the Wyandot that lived in Ohio. The Wyandot actively supported the French during the French and Indian War and the British during the American Revolutionary War. They were part of the Northwestern Confederacy formed after the war to resist American expansionism. In the early 1840s, American removal policies forced the Wyandot to relocate to Indian Territory (Kansas) west of the Mississippi River and a few years later to northeastern Oklahoma. [7] Today, descendants of the Wenrohronon are enrolled in the Wyandotte Nation, located in Northeastern Oklahoma.[8]
Language
[edit]| Wenro | |
|---|---|
| Region | New York, Pennsylvania |
| Extinct | 17th century |
Iroquoian
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
qgv | |
| Glottolog | wenr1236 |
Wenrohronon was an Iroquoian language and thus was related to Susquehannock, Wyandot, Erie and Scahentoarrhonon.[9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d White, Marian E. (1978). ""Neutral and Wenro"". In Trigger, Bruce (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 15. pp. 407–411.
- ^ Trigger, Bruce G. The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 0773506268.
- ^ "Wenrohronon". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved February 23, 2026.
- ^ "Seneca Oil Spring". The Historical Marker Database. HMdb.org. Retrieved February 23, 2026.
- ^ Josephy, Alvin M. Jr., ed. (1961). The American Heritage Book of Indians. American Heritage Publishing. pp. 188–219. LCCN 61-14871.
- ^ Downs, John Phillips; Hedley, Fenwick Y. (1921). History of Chautauqua County, New York, and Its People. American Historical Society. p. 11. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
- ^ Garrad, Charles (2014). Petun to Wyandot: The Ontario Petun from the Sixteenth Century. University of Ottawa Press.
- ^ "Wyandotte Nation". Native Nations Center for Tribal Policy Research. University of Oklahoma. Retrieved September 11, 2025.
- ^ "Wenrohronon". Accessgenealogy.com. August 21, 2015.
Further reading
[edit]- Hart, John P.; Engelbrecht, William (June 2012). "Northern Iroquoian Ethnic Evolution: A Social Network Analysis". Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. 19 (2). Springer: 322–349. doi:10.1007/s10816-011-9116-1. JSTOR 23256843. S2CID 144725088.
- Hawkins, Alicia L. (2001). "Genoa Frilled Pottery and the Problem of the Identification of the Wenro in Huronia" (PDF). Ontario Archaeology. 72. Ontario Archaeological Society: 15–37.
- Ridley, F. (1973). "The Wenro in Huronia". Anthropological Journal of Canada. 11 (1): 10–19.
External links
[edit]- Wyandotte Nation, Oklahoma, official website
- Wendat Nation, Quebec, official website