Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma

The Wyandot and Huron are indigenous peoples of North America, known in their native language as the Wendat. Modern Wyandots and Hurons emerged in the 17th century from the remnants of two earlier groups, the Huron Confederacy and the Petun, who were located on the southeastern corner of Georgian Bay in what is now the Canadian province of Ontario before being dispersed by war. Wyandots and Hurons today live in various locations in Canada and the United States.

In the early seventeenth century, the people later known as Wyandots or Hurons called themselves the Wendat, which means "Dwellers of the Peninsula" or "Islanders", because the Wendat homeland was bordered on three sides by the waters of Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe. Early French explorers called them the Huron, either from the French huron ("ruffian", "rustic"), or from hure ("boar's head"), because, according to tradition, French sailors thought that the bristly hairstyle of Wendat men resembled that of a boar.

The Wendat were not a tribe but a confederacy four or more tribes with a mutually intelligible language. According to tradition, this Wendat (or Huron) Confederacy was initiated by the Attignawantans ("People of the Bear") and the Attigneenongnahacs ("Barking Dogs" or "Cord"), who confederated in the 15th century. They were joined by the Arendarhonons ("People of the Rock") in about 1590, and the Tahontaenrats ("People of the Deer") around 1610. A fifth group, the Ataronchronons ("People of the Marshes" or "Bog"), may not have attained full membership in the confederacy and may have been a division of the Attignawantan.

Closely related to the people of the Huron Confederacy were the Petuns (or Tionontatis, meaning "Tobacco People"), who lived further south. In the late 17th century, elements of the Huron Confederacy and the Petuns joined together and became known as the "Wyandot" (or "Wyandotte"), which is a variation of Wendat.

The western Wyandot eventually re-established themselves in the area of Ohio and southern Michigan. This group became commonly known to English speakers as "Wyandots" (notably in James Fenimore Cooper's novel Wyandotte, published in 1843). In the late 18th century, the Wyandot obtained a position of symbolic importance as the "uncles" to the Ohio Country tribes, who waged war against the United States in the 1790s. Some Wyandot of the Wyandot Nation of Anderdon still live in Michigan. However, most of the surviving people were displaced through Indian removal in the early 19th century, and today a large population of Wyandot (over 4,000) can be found in eastern Kansas and Oklahoma.

Each modern Wyandot community is a self-governing band:

• Huron-Wendat Nation just outside Quebec City called Wendake, with some 3,000 members
• Wyandot Nation of Anderdon in Michigan, with headquarters in Trenton, Michigan and perhaps 800 members
• Wyandot Nation of Kansas, with headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas, with perhaps 400 members
• Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma in Wyandotte, Oklahoma, with between 3,000 and 4,000 members