Georges E. Sioui

is the author of For an Amerindian Autohistory. He is president of the Institute of Indigenous Government, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Huron-Wendat
The Heritage of the Circle- Revised Edition

Georges E. Sioui

Translated by Jane Brierley 
 
Wendat, or Wyandot, was the name that the five confederated nations of Wendake gave to Huronia, the Ontario territory described by the French in the 1600s. In this book, Georges Sioui, himself a Wendat, tells the history of his people by describing their social ideas and philosophy and their relevance to contemporary life. Sioui argues that for human beings there is only one way of looking at life on earth, and that is as a sacred circle of relationships among all beings. Sioui reviews the Wendats' Creation mythology and explains their origins, migrations, theology, ethics, philosophy, oral literature, and sociology, and their role in Amerindian geopolitics. He then examines archaeology and its role in bridging the gap created by negative perceptions. Finally, he describes Wendat society from an Amerindian viewpoint, concentrating on the period from 1615 to 1650 and drawing on traditional ethnographic documentation.  

Reviews

. . .[A] powerful expression of a Canadian First Nations voice reclaiming both the authority and the responsiblilties of tribal scholarship and self- representation."

- Daniel Justice

University of Nebraska