Therefore, it was a woman's responsibillity to record her geneology and she would recite clan lineage at special ceremonies. The original clan names have been lost (or destroyed), but by 1750, there were a total of ten in three groups: Turtle (Big Turtle, Hawk, Prairie Turtle, Small Turtle); Deer (Bear, Beaver, Deer, Porcupine, Snake); and Wolf.
Each clan had a chief and the chief was chosen by the clan mothers. The council chose the head chief, but traditionally he was from the Bear or Deer clan, being able to trace this lineage through his mother.
Though women did not directly own all property, farmland was owned by their matrilineal clans.
If a man and woman, or boy and girl, were in the mood; they usually went into the woods where they could have some privacy; not that they had to hide what they were about to do. The Huron frowned on public expression of jealousy or restriction of sexual freedom, so you could choose any lover you desired, regardless of age or marital status.
When an unmarried girl became pregnant, she would round up all of her lovers, each one of whom must say that the child was his. From them, she chose the one she liked best. This was why kinship was always passed through the mother, since actual paternity could rarely be established.
To begin the courting process, the young man would paint his face and adorn himself with the finest ornamentation, in an attempt to make himself more handsome. He would bring the girl a present, which might be a wampum necklace, bracelet, chain, earring, or beaver robe. If the girl liked the boy, she accepted the gift and they would spend the next several nights together, where they would engage in sexual intercourse, but were not allowed to speak to one another. This was considered to be the first stage of the marriage ceremony
If the girl was not pleased with the boy, for whatever reason, she could reject him at anytime during the process. But if things were going OK up this point, the second stage of the wedding took place. The families of both, together prepared a feast of dog, bear, moose, or fish and invited all friends and relatives. Once they were all gathered, the father of the girl announced the couple’s marriage and the feast began. Future sexual relations between the husband and wife did not play a vital role in holding a marriage together and marriages could be dissolved almost as easily as they were created. In the Jesuit Relations, there is an account of this freedom:
A Savage having absented himself from home, for I know not what reason, his wife, being wooed in his absence, married another. A few months after these second nuptials, the first husband returned and wished to have her back again; the other one not consenting to give her up; the father of the woman decides the contention without appeal. He takes a stick, carries it a short distance away, and sticks it in the ground. He says, ‘He who shall first bring back that stick shall have my daughter’ and he tells them to run. The woman was assigned to him who had the better legs, and suit was so entirely settled, that it was never more spoken of except as a joke. This demonstrates their inconstancy in marriage.
Contrary to the Jesuits carefree description of them, however, after the birth of a child, couples rarely separated. If they quarreled or became estranged, friends and relatives would intervene to try to save the marriage. If a person became widowed, they would have to wait three years before they could take another spouse, and then only with the permission of the family of the deceased. Without this permission, punishment could be torture or even death.
Sexuality also played an important role in healing and was used as part of a curing ritual, known as the Andacwander. In 1624, the Recollect Gabriel Sagard, who lived among the Huron for a year, describes the ceremony:
There are assemblies of all the girls in a town at a sick woman’s couch. When the girls are assembled they are all asked, one after another, which of the young men of the town they would like to sleep with them the next night. Each names one, and these are immediately notified by the masters of the ceremony. All come in the evening to sleep with those who have chosen them, in the presence of the sick woman, from one end of the lodge to the other, and they pass the whole night thus, while the two chiefs at the two ends of the house sing and rattle their tortoise shells from evening till the following morning when the ceremony is concluded. The young also might be asked to simply dance naked in front of the sick.
The power of sexuality could be healing, but just as important were periods of abstinence. From the Jesuit Relations: As regards morals, the Hurons are lascivious, although in two leading points less so than Christians, who will blush some day in their presence. You will see no kissing nor immodest caressing; and in marriage a man will remain two or three years apart form his wife, while she is nursing.
Abstinence was also important for the accomplishment of many sacred events, and was believed to bring dreams, essential to all Huron rituals. Prior to a sporting competition, the players from each village fasted, abstained from sexual intercourse, and sought dreams that would bring them victory.
The Shamans of the villages, also observed periods of sexual abstinence, to help control their supernatural powers. Shamans, who could be men or women, required prolonged fasting and the avoidance of sexual intercourse to obtain the necessary visions, though never practiced complete religious celibacy.
Abstinence was also important just before the execution of a Prisoner of War. The poor soul would be tortured for several days in the home of the principal War Chief, but it was important that the actual death take place outside at sunrise, so that the sun could witness of the fate of the warrior. This was a sacred event, and no one in the village could engage in sex the night before the prisoner’s death, but had to behave in an orderly and restrained fashion Sex was often used, however, in the torture of the prisoner before the final event.
These berdaches could be chosen at birth or adopt the lifestyle in adulthood, when they might choose to "come out of the closet", so to speak. Parents would also raise a male child as a female, because of the social and cultural benefits of a society that placed a high value on women. In these situations, the decision was not based on personality or behavior, and these children, were in fact, not free to choose their sexuality.
However, when an adult man became a berdache, it meant that they left their warrior status behind and assumed the position of women. In one account by the Frenchman Marquette in 1660s: "transvestites made war but they can use only clubs and not bows and arrows, which are the weapons of proper men." So while there was sexual tolerance, and even enouragement toward homosexuality, they too had their place in Huron society.
When the Recollects entered Huronia in the early 17th century, they tried to preach chastity and the importance of Christian marriages; concepts that seemed un-natural in the Canadian culture at that time. They didn't understand the priests' disinterest in women and could not imagine a life without sex. They were also insulted by the Recollects’ insistence on living apart from the Huron and refusal to participate in their activities. They understood why a Shaman would engage in celibacy for an extended period, but since they would share their supernatural experiences with the rest of the villagers, it was accepted. However, the priests kept this all a secret, so therefore must be engaged in some sort of witchcraft that required secracy.
This went contra to the Hurons' plans of matrimonial alliances, that would bring the French into kinship with their families. Many attempts were made to persuade priests to marry Huron women. According to Sagard: One of our greatest and most troublesome embarrassments was their continual pursuit of us, begging to marry us or make a family alliance....In these importunities, the women and girls were more insistent and plagued us more than the men themselves who came to petition in behalf of the women.
Many Frenchmen, on the otherhand, took Asquas as wives, causing Sagard to charge that they had established brothels in various parts of Huronia. Etienne Brule, a French trader, dressed like the Huron, hunted with the men, joined them in their ritual steam baths, and subscribed to their sexual practices (who wouldn't?). The Recollects accused all but a few traders of hampering their "moral" teachings and were aghast to find that they also insinuated that French women were not chaste, as the priests claimed, resulting in a clash between Christian ideals and normal European behavior, which amused the Huron but embarrassed the Recollects, since it undermined their credibility.
But they also handled most of the domestic chores, including farming, the manufacture of the lightweight birchbark canoes, necessary to their livlihood, and ensuring that their families were fed and well dressed. About eighty percent of their food came from crops, while the rest was supplied by the men in fishing or hunting. Any surplus crops were used as trade.
However, the hemp did not grow wild, and cannabis hemp was among the first crops harvested by Louis Hebert, the Parisian apothecary who was lured to Canada by his good friend and explorer Samuel de Champlain, to study herbal medicine. Canadian men tended to their "tobacco" crops with great care, not only for personal use, but also for trade; the first Canadian drug dealers. Again, this is not to pass judgement and while to some it may appear that the Huron people were a bunch of sex crazed junkies, but nothing could be further from the truth. These were all important elements in their culture, that arose from a need to procreate and the "tobacco" was not just a fringe benefit, but an important element in many of their sacred ceremonies.
planning to work among the Huron, he included this advice: Carry a tinder-box or a piece of burning-glass, or both, to make fire for them during the day for smoking, and in the evening when it is necessary to camp; these little services win their hearts.
