The highlands south and west of Nottawasaga Bay extending west to the southeastern shores of Lake Huron in Ontario. Population As many as 8,000 before contact in 1616. After a series of epidemics swept the area during the 1630s, only 3,000 Tionontati, in nine villages, had survived by 1640. Of these, about 1,000 Huron and Tionontati managed to escape the Iroquois in 1650 and reach temporary safety on Mackinac Island (Upper Michigan). The remainder of the Tionontati were either killed, or captured and later adopted into the Iroquois.

The mixed Huron-Tionontati group that escaped became known afterwards as the Wyandot. Names Tionontati was the name given them by the Huron and translates as "on the other side of the mountain." Variations (with approximately the same translation) were: Conkhandeerrhonon, Quieunontati and Khionontateronon. From the moment of their first meeting, the French called them the Gens du Petun, "Tobacco Nation." Eventually shortened to Petun,