Huron-Wendat: The Heritage of the Circle. Rev. ed.

John Steckley teaches in the Human Studies Program at Humber College in
Toronto.

Sioui’s major goal in writing this book was to “bring about a
radical change in the way Amerindian societies and Circle societies in
general are perceived and written about.” In writing about his own
people, the Huron–Wendat, he draws on a rich variety of sources, from
the writings of the early French missionaries, Récollet and Jesuit,
through to the 19th- and early 20th-century works of William E.
Connelley and Marius Barbeau. The “radical change” he is seeking
involves a rethinking of historical and contemporary aboriginal
societies and of the future of humanity, from the viewpoint of a
“Circle” society, which sees the interconnectedness of all things,
as opposed to a “linear society,” which thinks more in terms of
social evolution.

A major strength of the book is the argument the author makes for a
meaningful dialogue between archaeologists and “Amerindians” in the
development of an Amerindian archeology that better reflects the needs
and interests of contemporary Native people. He draws attention to the
fact that Native people often see archeologists’ handling of the bones
and sacred objects of Native ancestors as “a symbolic repetition of
the way in which their ancestors were sacrificed by earlier Europeans
and Euroamericans, and therefore as a reaffirmation of white superiority
and moral ascendancy.”

One weakness of the book is its Huron–Wendat slant regarding
Iroquoian societies. Sioui renames “Iroquoians” as “Nadouek,” an
Algonkian name for Iroquois that is derived from an unflattering
connection with “snakes.” Although he claims that his portrayal of
an isolated and “warlike” Iroquois “in no way implies that the
ancestors of the Wendats ... were morally superior to the forebears of
the Iroquois,” the arguments he puts forward to support that claim are
not as persuasive as they could be.