Review by Choice Review
Steckley (Humber College, Ontario) is reportedly the last known speaker of the Wyandot language, which he learned through 30 years of editing, translating, and learning from the oldest surviving Wyandot/Huron texts, in large part from the linguistic work of the Jesuits who lived among the Wyandot in the 17th and 18th centuries. This culmination of Steckley's work is a history of the Wyandot from the formation of the Petun, Huron, and possibly the Neutral peoples in the mid-17th century into the 18th century, with some reference to the 19th and early 20th centuries. The book's central focus is 1747, when Jesuit Father Pierre Potier compiled detailed censuses of two communities on Bois Blanc Island in the Detroit River. Steckley's central thesis is that clans kept the Wyandot strong, enabling them to survive forced migration and the splitting up of ancestral villages and tribes. Steckley demonstrates that the Wyandot clan structure was dynamic in nature, despite its static depiction in classic anthropological literature. The author's uniquely personalized writing style makes this work accessible to interested readers outside of academia. Alongside Kathryn Labelle's Dispersed but Not Destroyed (CH, Oct'13, 51-1069), this work makes an invaluable contribution to a better understanding of Wyandot history. --Brendan F. R. Edwards, First Nations University of Canada
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
