Huron-Wendat First Nation mulls dropping Huron from official name, citing link to colonization

Annabelle Olivier · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 03, 2025 3:48 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

Members of the Huron-Wendat First Nation successful Wendake, adjacent Quebec City, volition soon determine whether to driblet the connection Huron from their authoritative title, with a consultation being held astatine the extremity of April. 

Grand Chief Pierre Picard, who was elected successful October, said dropping the connection is portion of the process of decolonization and a mode for the federation to reclaim its identity.

"The connection Huron was imposed connected america by the colonizers," Picard said. 

"Wouldn't it beryllium important to due for ourselves the sanction Wendat portion letting spell of the sanction fixed to america by the colonizers," helium mused. 

The connection Huron was derived from the French connection "hure," which refers to the agelong bristly achromatic mane of a chaotic boar and was reminiscent of the hairstyle worn by Huron men astatine the time. 

"They had their heads shaved connected some sides and past they had what we would telephone contiguous a mohawk," said historiographer Denys Delâge.

WATCH | Decolonization and its antithetic meanings: 

Delâge said the connection Huron came into usage successful the aboriginal 1600s.

Europeans astatine the clip referred to Indigenous radical arsenic "savages" and giving them French names was 1 mode to "civilize" them, he explained.

Wendat, connected the different hand, means "people of the island" and refers to the origins of the Huron-Wendat radical successful the country astir Georgian Bay.

Delâge says he fully understands and supports the nation's efforts to reclaim its identity.

"It makes a batch of consciousness for them to instrumentality backmost their name," helium said. "It's of the utmost importance, and it's a mode of saying that they were present earlier us."

Picard said the thought to driblet the connection Huron isn't caller and is part of a question of reappropriation that has been ongoing.

He pointed to however radical utilized to notation to them arsenic the Hurons of Loretteville, oregon the Village-des-Hurons, it wasn't until the mid-1980s that the sanction of their municipality was officially changed to Wendake. 

"It's similar we didn't adjacent person our ain territorial identity," helium said.

Picard said portion helium believes there's wide enactment successful his assemblage for an authoritative sanction change, the consultation connected April 26 is lone a archetypal step. 

If there's a wide consensus, helium said, resolutions volition request to beryllium adopted and a record submitted to Indigenous Services Canada — a process that could instrumentality respective much months. 

In the meantime, however, Picard has taken to introducing himself publically arsenic the expansive main of the Wendat First Nation.