Huron Feast of the Dead

With this demographic change, well before European arrival, the traditional mortuary customs started evolving into what are more recognizable as Feasts of the Dead.

This change considerably increased the size of the ossuaries, as the extended period meant that graves held several hundred individuals.

They believed that they had to protect their dead when they moved, and they started to rebury them every time a large village migrated.

[3] The ceremonies occurred at the end of the winter months, before the Huron had to undertake tasks associated with agriculture and spring hunting.

The exchange of gifts and the symbolism of a united burial ground became defining elements of the Feasts of the Dead.

[5] Gabriel Sagard, a French missionary writing in the 1620s, described the purpose of the rituals: "By means of these ceremonies and gatherings they contract new unions and friendships amongst themselves, saying that, just as the bones of their deceased relatives and friends are gathered together and united in one place, so also they themselves ought during their lives to live all together in the same unity and harmony, like good kinsmen and friends.

Significant grave offerings were expected as they demonstrated the generosity and wealth of the giver, as well as theoretically guaranteeing the goodwill of the deceased souls.

All communities were warned when a feast was to take place, and the dead were transported from great distances so friends and relatives could be buried together.

[8] Members of other native groups were often invited, in order to confirm powerful bonds, but combined burials among different tribes were rare.

This change in customs both encouraged and required the fur trade, as the process of renewal of alliances was a key part of the Feasts.

[6] Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary, was invited in the spring of 1636 to a large Feast of the Dead outside the village of Ossossané, the capital of Wendake.

His first-person account provided insight into contemporary Huron mortuary customs and has remained the most cited source on the topic.

Brébeuf's account is a unique view of a notable feast that occurred at the height of Huron mortuary customs just before their rapid decline.

[10] Wrapped in fur packages, the bones were returned to the homes of relatives, where a feast was held in memory of the dead.

The journey to the new site was often long (possibly several days) and was a time for public mourning, punctuated by sharp cries of the participants.

(...)They laid on the ground their parcels (...) They unfolded also their bundles of robes and all the presents they had brought, and placed them upon poles (...) in order to give foreigners time to view the wealth and magnificence of the country.

[15] A high rate of mortality from infectious European diseases and warfare due to the fur trade increased the frequency and size of the Feasts of the Dead until the Wyandot dispersal in the middle of the seventeenth century.

As farmers moved into the region north of Lake Ontario, they unintentionally plowed up areas that had once been Huron ossuaries.

Between 1947 and 1948, archaeologists from the Royal Ontario Museum uncovered the ossuary burial site of Ossossané, which Brébeuf had described in his account.

It also showed a dramatic decline in the average age of the dead, from 30 to 21, believed to be evidence of disease epidemics.

In 1999 the Royal Ontario Museum bowed to pressure and agreed to return the Ossossané remains to the Huron groups for reburial according to their traditions.