The Jesuit Relations Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America

by Greer, Allan

• ISBN13: 9780312167073
• ISBN10: 0312167075
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-07
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

The Jesuit Relations is a massive, 73-volume library of French Jesuit missionaries' perspectives on Native North America in the 17th century. Due to the vastness of the collection, these documents, vitally important in telling the story of early American encounters, have been virtually unteachable until now. Allen Greer deftly binds them into a collection, and his introduction provides background on these Jesuits, the Natives, and their co-habitation in early North America. Greer has created a rich resource of journal entries by famous missionaries as well as a wealth of natural history, ethnographic detail, and travel diction through firsthand accounts of early American history.

Author Biography

ALLAN GREER is professor of history and vice principal of University College at the University of Toronto. Author of The People of New France (1997); The Patriots and the People: The Rebellion of 1837 in Rural Lower Canada (1993); Peasant, Lord and Merchant: Rural Society in Three Quebec Parishes 1740–1840 (1985), he is also the recipient of the John Porter Prize, the Prix Lionel-Groulx, the Sir John A. MacDonald Prize, and the Allan Sharlin Prize. He is currently working on a book on the seventeenth-century Mohawk "saint" Kateri Tekakwitha.

Table of Contents

Foreword	iii
Preface	v
List of Maps and Illustrations	xiii
Introduction: Native North America and the French Jesuits	1	(2)
The Society of Jesus of Europe and Abroad	3	(3)
Iroquoians and Algonquians	6	(3)
The Colonization of New France	9	(2)
The Canadian Missions	11	(3)
The Jesuit Relations and Their Readers	14	(2)
Confronting the Other: The Problem of Cultural and Historical Difference	16	(4)
Montagnais Hunters of the Northern Woodlands	20	(17)
Paul Le Jeune Winters with Mestigoit's Band, 1633--1634	21	(7)
Journal [of a Winter Hunt], 1634	23	(3)
Paul Le Jeune
On Their Hunting and Fishing, 1634	26	(2)
Paul Le Jeune
The Montagnais Described	28	(7)
On the Beliefs, Superstitions, and Errors of the Montagnais Indians, 1634	28	(4)
Paul Le Jeune
On the Good Things Which Are Found among the Indians, 1634	32	(3)
Paul Le Jeune
How to Settle Disputes and Discipline Children	35	(2)
What Occurred in New France in the Year 1633, 1633	36	(1)
Paul Le Jeune
Jean de Brebeuf on the Hurons	37	(33)
Language	38	(3)
Of the Language of the Hurons, 1636	38	(3)
Jean de Brebeuf
Religion, Myth, Ritual	41	(9)
What the Hurons Think about Their Origin, 1636	41	(5)
Jean de Brebeuf
That the Hurons Recognize Some Divinity; Of Their Superstitions and of Their Faith in Dreams, 1636	46	(2)
Jean de Brebeuf
Concerning Feasts, Dances...and What They Call Ononharoia, 1636	48	(2)
Jean de Brebeuf
Law and Government	50	(11)
Of the Polity of the Hurons and of Their Government, 1636	51	(8)
Jean de Brebeuf
Of the Order the Hurons Observe in Their Councils, 1636	59	(2)
Jean de Brebeuf
The Huron Feast of the Dead	61	(9)
Of the Solemn Feast of the Dead, 1636	61	(9)
Jean de Brebeuf
Disease and Medicine	70	(24)
Huron Medical Practices	72	(6)
[Cure by Lacrosse], 1636	72	(1)
Jean de Brebeuf
[Cure by Gambling], 1639	73	(2)
Jerome Lalemant
[Satisfying the Soul's Desires], 1639	75	(3)
Jerome Lalemant
The Influenza Epidemic of 1637	78	(11)
The Malady with Which Our Little Household Has Been Afflicted, 1637	79	(2)
Francois Le Mercier
The Help We Have Given to the Sick of Our Village, 1637	81	(1)
Francois Le Mercier
Ossossane Afflicted with the Contagion, 1637	82	(7)
Francois Le Mercier
Of the Hurons Baptized This Year, 1638, 1638	89	(1)
Francois Le Mercier
Smallpox among the Hurons, 1639	89	(2)
Of the Persecutions Excited against Us, 1640	90	(1)
Jerome Lalemant
A Medical Duel: Father Allouez and the Potawotamis	91	(3)
Of the Mission to the Potawotamis, 1666--1667	92	(2)
Claude Allouez
Diplomacy and War	94	(25)
Peace Negotiations at Three Rivers, 1645	95	(11)
Treaty of Peace between the French, Iroquois, and Other Nations, 1644--1645	96	(10)
Barthelemy Vimont
Iroquois Attacks on the Algonquins, 1647	106	(5)
Some Iroquois Surprised after Defeating the Algonquins; A Woman Kills an Iroquois and Escapes, 1647	106	(5)
Jerome Lalemant
The Hurons Annihilated, 1649	111	(8)
Of the Capture of the Villages of the Missior of St. Ignace, in the Month of March of the Year 1649, 1648--1649	112	(7)
Paul Ragueneau
Writings on the Natural Environment	119	(17)
Montagnais Explanations of a Solar Eclipse	119	(3)
Of Their Customs and Their Belief, 1637	120	(2)
Paul Le Jeune
The Moral Qualities of Animals	122	(1)
Various Matters, 1647--1648	122	(1)
Jerome Lalemant
Earthquakes, Comets, and Other Prophetic Signs	123	(9)
Three Suns and Other Aerial Phenomena Which Appeared in New France, 1662--1663	124	(2)
Jerome Lalemant
Universal Earthquake in Canada and Its Marvelous Effects, 1662--1663	126	(5)
Jerome Lalemant
Of the Comets and Extraordinary Signs That Have Appeared at Quebec and in Its Vicinity, 1664-1665	131	(1)
Francois Le Mercier
Nature as a Storehouse of Resources	132	(4)
Of the Condition of Canada over the Last Two Years, 1666-1667	132	(4)
Francois Le Mercier
Missions to the Iroquois	136	(19)
Mission to the Mohawk Country, 1667	137	(3)
Of the Mission of Ste. Marie among the Mohawk Iroquois, 1667--1668	137	(3)
Francois Le Mercier
The Mohawks Converted	140	(6)
Of the Mission of the Martyrs in the Country of the Mohawks, or the Lower Iroquois, 1669--1670	141	(5)
Jean Pierron
The Iroquois Mission of Sault St. Louis/Kahnawake	146	(9)
Letter of October 14, 1682, 1682	147	(8)
Claude Chauchetiere
Martyrs and Mystics	155	(31)
The Ordeal of Isaac Jogues	155	(16)
How Father Isaac Jogues Was Taken by the Iroquois, and What He Suffered on His First Entrance into Their Country, 1647	157	(14)
Jerome Lalemant
A Native Saint	171	(15)
Catherine Tagahkouita: An Iroquois Virgin, 1744	172	(14)
P. F. X. de Charlevoix
Exploring the Mississippi	186	(32)
On the First Voyage by Father Marquette toward New Mexico and How the Idea Was Conceived, 1674	188	(24)
Jacques Marquette
APPENDICES
Chronology of Events Related to the Jesuit Relations (1534--1773)	212	(2)
Questions for Consideration	214	(1)
Selected Bibliography	215	(3)
Index	218