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NORTH AMERICAN MARTYRS FEAST DAY ~OCTOBER 19 TH ~ Talk and movie brought to you by the Explorers of the Past

North American Martyrs Talk

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Page 1: North American Martyrs Talk

NORTH AMERICAN MARTYRS FEAST DAY

~OCTOBER 19TH~

Talk and movie brought to you by the Explorers of the Past

Page 2: North American Martyrs Talk

FRENCH EXPLORATION OF CANADAEarly Visitors to “New France”

• 1497 John Cabot (Italian)• 1535 Jacques Cartier went up the St.

Lawrence R. and named Que bec (What a beak!). He planted a cross, claiming land for Francis I

• Early 1600’s Samuel de Champlain started first settlement in Nova Scotia, called Port Royal.• 1608 settles Quebec• Fight with Iroquois

Mission Work Begins• 1615 Joseph Le Caron of the

Recollets• 1625 Jesuits are sent to assist

Recollets• Jean de Brebeuf, Charles Lalemant,

Enemand Masse• Sainte Marie founded on Georgian

Bay among the Huron people (aka Wyandot)• 1,000 miles from Quebec

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WHO WERE THE HURON & IROQUOIS?• Horticulturalists after ~1300

• C4/C3 in bones, dental caries, Harris lines, C-14 dates, etc.

• Iroquois & Huron are broad terms• Iroquois (5 tribes) & Huron (4 tribes)

confederacies • “own territory, councils, customs, and

history” (Trigger, 19)• Huron settlements on edge of

Algonquin territory, allowing for trade• Pushed from St. Lawrence River to Lk.

Huron by the Iroquois• Iroquois lived in upstate New York

• Blocked French expansion into Ohio

Complex Linguistic PictureIroquois and Algonquin

"You may have been a famous professor or theologian in France, but here you will merely be a student and with what teachers! The Huron language will be your Aristotle and, clever man that you are, speaking glibly among the learned, you must make up your mind to be mute in the company of these natives.“

~Jean de Brebeuf

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WHO WERE THE HURON & IROQUOIS?

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WHO WERE THE HURON & IROQUOIS?• Huron Population

• 30,0000 estimated early on• Census taken by Gabriel Lalemant estimated 12,000

inhabitants in 32 villages, 700 “cabins,” and 2,000 hearths. Estimate of 4,000 families (Trigger, 18)

• Matrilineal descent• Men lived with the wife’s family, women had a large

role in the community

• Lived in long houses within palisaded villages• Average house 18 m long with 3 hearths

• Up to 30+ people, with an estimated 2.5-3.5 square meters per person. (Trigger 70)

• Women lived within the settlement and clearing, men went out into forests

• Villages moved at 10-30 yr. intervals• Women farmed, men hunted

• Squash, beans, corn• Bear (w/dogs), deer, beaver, fish etc.

• Warfare• Three reasons among Iroquois

(Trigger, 52)• 1) Personal prestige

• Tests of endurance and bravery

• 2) Retaliation for past violence• 3) Religious Ideals

• Sacrifice to Iouskeha, ritual torture

• Identified with warfare, the sun, and the force that made human life possible

• Sacrifice ensured a continuation of the natural world.

• Witchcraft• Fear of people casting spells and

causing physical harm.• Witchcraft warranted the death

sentence• Danger for the priests (Trigger

102)

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JESUITS AMONG THE HURON

• French Jesuits viewed as relatively accepting of the Huron culture, working with, not against• Charles Garnier (O’Brien 210)

• Traveled with and lived with the Hurons, often in the same homes

• Many hardships and fears• People slow to accept the faith• Sexual promiscuity (in the eyes of the French)• Close quarters, smoky • Hurons feared witchcraft and sorcery

Mission Work Begins• 1615 Joseph Le Caron of the

Recollets• 1625 Jesuits are sent to assist

Recollets• Jean de Brebeuf, Charles Lalemant,

Enemand Masse• Sainte Marie founded on Georgian

Bay among the Huron people• 1,000 miles from Quebec

• Jesuit Relations

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RISING TENSION IN “NEW FRANCE”

Disease & Superstition• Diseases precede and occur during

the time of the Jesuits• Disease and hardship often blamed

on the black robes• Many did not want to convert

• Seen as the religion of the Europeans.

Iroquois & Dutch Relations• Dutch had control of Hudson River valley

(began 1625)• Provided Iroquois with weapons in

exchange for pelts• Beaver pop. dwindles, Iroquois move north

• Champlain allied with the Huron, making the French a target• Fought with Iroquois war party at what is

now Lake Champlain. First encounter with guns.

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EXAMPLE OF A MARTYRDOM

• Hailed as a living martyr back home.• Pope Urban VIII gave dispensation to

say mass with mutilated hands• Visited with mother in Orleans, but

quickly went back to Osserneon• Martyred because infectious disease

and crop failure seen as his fault. • Tomahawked and thrown into the

Mohawk River Oct. 18, 1646

St. Isaac Jogues• Sent to New France in 1636• Captured by Mohawk Iroquois in 1642

• Lived as a slave at Osserneon (home of Kateri Tekawitha in the 1650s)

• Tortured, lost fingers• Seen in the movie

• Ransomed and returned to France with the assistance of the Dutch @ Fort Orange

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THE END• Seminaries founded and failed, especially due to

disease and unwillingness to learn• Disease, famine, and Iroquois attacks caused the

Huron population to dwindle• Sainte Marie abandoned and burned• Some Jesuits followed the Huron in their diaspora• Assimilation into other tribes, intermarriage with

French• Some continued to practice Christianity for

years.• Huron/Wyandot people currently live in OK, KS,

MI, and Quebec.

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SUGGESTED RESOURCEShttp://www.amazon.com/The-Huron-Farmers-Cultural-Anthropology/dp/0030316898

http://www.amazon.com/Saints-American-Wilderness-Deaths-Martyrs/dp/1928832903/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1445656150&sr=1-1&keywords=saints+of+the+american+wilderness