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The Petun or Tionontati were an Iroquoian-speaking people whose homeland was located in the area immediately to the west of the territory of the Huron Confederacy in Southern Ontario, a people to whom they were closely related. They were, with the Huron, dispersed by the Iroquois in the late 17th century. The remnants joined with some refugee Hurons to become the Huron-Petuns, later known as the Wyandot.
The Tobacco Indians were so called from their industrious habit of cultivating that plant. Petun was the nickname given to them by the French traders. It became an obsolete word for tobacco which had derived from the early French Brazilian trade.[1] In the Mohawk dialect of the Iroquois the name for tobacco is O-ye-aug-wa.[2] Ohio Valley colonial tradesmen and following settlers called the Wyandot, Guyandotte. The Guyandotte River in south-western West Virginia was named for these elements of Wendat who also migrated to the area during the Fur Trade wars.
^ "Historical Magazine," Vol. V, O. S., 1861, p. 263.
^ Gallatin's "Synopsis American Aboriginal Archives," Vol. II, p. 484.
