Nation Iroquoise: A Seventeenth-Century Ethnography of the Iroquois

167 Pages·2003·0.683 MB·English

by  José António Brandão, K. Janet Ritch

NationIroquoise
theiroquoiansandtheirworld
Editors
Jos´eAnto´nioBranda˜o
MaryDrukeBecker
WilliamA.Starna
Nation Iroquoise
a seventeenth-century
ethnography of the
iroquois
Editedandwithanintroductionby
Jose´ Anto´nio Branda˜o
Translatedby
Jose´Anto´nioBranda˜owithK.JanetRitch
universityofnebraskapress
lincolnandlondon
Thisbookwaspublishedwiththeassistanceof
theAssociationforCanadianStudiesinthe
UnitedStatesandtheGovernmentofCanada.
(cid:1)2003bytheUniversityofNebraskaPress
Allrightsreserved
ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
CompositionbyWilsted&TaylorPublishingServices
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Nationiroquoise.English.
NationIroquoise:aseventeenth-centuryethnography
oftheIroquois/editedandwithanintroduction
byJos´eAnto´nioBranda˜o;[translatedbyJos´e
Anto´nioBranda˜owithK.JanetRitch].
p. cm.—(TheIroquoiansandtheirworld)
TextcontainsFrenchtranscriptionandEnglish
translationoforiginaldocumentwith
introductioninEnglish.
‘‘...itseemsunlikelythat‘NationIroquoise’was
writtenbysomeoneotherthanRene´Cuillerier...’’
Includesbibliographicalreferences(p.)andindex.
isbn0-8032-1323-9(cloth:alk.paper)
1.IroquoisIndians—Sociallifeandcustoms.2.Iroquois
Indians—History—17th century. 3. Iroquois Indians—
Governmentrelations.4.Canada—History—To1763
(NewFrance)I.Branda˜o,Jos´eAnto´nio,1957–
II.Cuillerier,Ren´e,17thcent.III.Title.IV.Series.
e99.i7n3713 2003
974.7004(cid:1)9755—dc21
2003050751
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
partone:context
TheIroquoisandTheirFrenchNeighbors 3
NationIroquoiseandItsAuthorship 13
parttwo:thedocument
NotesonTranscriptionandTranslation 41
NationIroquoise 46
TheIroquoisNation 47
appendixes
Appendix1 109
Appendix2 111
Notes 117
Bibliography 137
Index 145
Map:IroquoisSettlementsaround1660 4

Preface
Ifound the document that is published here in transla-
tionforthefirsttimeintheNationalArchivesofCanada
in the late 1980s while doing research on Iroquois cul-
tureandonIroquois-Frenchrelations.Titled‘‘NationIro-
quoise,’’thedocumentwasahandwrittencopyofanun-
signedandundatedFrench-languageethnographyofthe
Iroquoisleftbysomeonewhohadbeenacaptiveamong
theIroquois.TheoriginaldocumentwashousedintheBi-
blioth`equeMazarineinParisandhadlainburiedthere(asI
laterlearned)sinceabout1789,andthetranscripthadbeen
inCanadasinceitwasmadein1931.1Ilearnedthatthedoc-
umentwasunused,butnotunknown.FatherLucienCam-
peau,historianoftheHuronsandoftheJesuitmissionsin
Canada,andW.J.Eccles,historianofNewFrance,hadboth
seenthedocumentandhadmadetranscriptsofitdecades
earlier.Indeed,asearlyas1900LouisBertrand,achronicler
oftheSulpicianorderofmissionaries,noteditsexistence,
andWaldoLelandlisteditinhis1932guidetomaterialsre-
latedtoAmericanhistoryhousedinParis.2Yetitappears
that ‘‘Nation Iroquoise’’ remains little known and rarely
cited,andthedocument’sauthorshipisunresolved.3Need-
lesstoadd,ithasremainedoutsidetheresearchscopeofstu-
dentsoftheIroquoiswhodonotreadFrench.
vii
preface
Itseemedobvioustomethattheinformationin‘‘Nation
Iroquoise’’ was valuable, and it informed my analysis of
earlyIroquoisculture.4Asaresultofthatworkandofcon-
versationsaboutthedocument,scholarsinavarietyofdis-
ciplinesexpressedaninterestinthedocumentandwon-
deredwhetherIcouldidentifywhowroteitandprovidea
translationforstudentsoftheIroquoiswhodidnotread
French.Alreadyintriguedbythepuzzleofthedocument’s
authorship, Ineeded littleprodding toundertake there-
searchtodeterminewhomighthavewrittenit.Afterall,ifit
canbeestablishedthatthedocumentisanoriginaleyewit-
nessaccountofIroquoissocietyintheseventeenthoreigh-
teenthcentury,onecanadditasanindependentvoicecon-
tributingtothebodyofmaterialabouttheIroquois.
Ihadcompletedmyresearchonthedocument,thecon-
textofitscreation,itsauthorship,andadrafttranslation
whenitwasbroughttomyattentionthatotherpublished
versions of the document existed. Janet Ritch, who had
agreedtolookovermytranslation,learnedfromLyseRoy
andAlainBeaulieuabouttwopublicationsdealingwiththe
document.In1996Aur´elienBoisvertpublishedanedited
andannotatedversionof‘‘NationIroquoise’’basedonthe
Biblioth`equeMazarinemanuscript.ThatsameyearClaude
G´elinas and Roland Viau had planned to publish, along
withotherdocuments,aversionofthedocumentbasedon
thecopyintheNationalArchivesofCanada.Disappointed
by the quality of the editorial work in Boisvert’s book,
amongotherthings,theywentaheadwiththeirplans.5
Despitethesepublications,Ithoughtthatmyresearch
couldbeausefulcontributiontotheextantliterature.Al-
viii
preface
thoughBoisvertandIarrivedatasimilarconclusionabout
authorship, my analysis of the document, the question
ofauthorship,anditsdateoforiginismoredetailedthan
Boisvert’s and is grounded in a wide range of historical
sources.Boisvertdevotesonlyfourpagestothesematters
andprovidesnosourcesfortheconclusionsoffered.6G´eli-
nas and Viau did not seek to ascertain authorship and
providednoeditorialcommentonthehistoryofthedocu-
mentorregardingitscontents.Viau,inalaterwork,attrib-
utedthedocumenttoaJesuitpriestwhomBoisvertdidnot
mention and who I contend could not have written the
document.7Noneofthesepublicationsofferedatransla-
tionofthedocument.
YetanotherFrenchtranscriptionofthedocumentisof-
feredherebecausetheextantprintedversionsaredifferent
fromthemanuscriptdocumentthatservesastheirsources.
G´elinas and Viau’s publication is based on a copy of the
‘‘original,’’andthereareanumberofdifferences(mostly
inspellingvariantsandinlackofindicationofdeletedor
addedwords)betweenthecopytheyusedandthe‘‘origi-
nal’’inParis.Theyalsofailedtoindicatethe‘‘pagebreaks’’
in the document. Boisvert’s Nation Iroquoise is based on
theParisdocument,butthepublishedversionisseriously
altered: periods were added, new paragraphs and subject
headings were created, spellings of Native groups were
modernized,numberswerespelledout,andoriginalpage
breakswerenotindicated.Inorderforreaderstomakesense
oftheEnglishtranslation,itseemedbesttoofferaversionof
thetranscriptionthatservedasitsbasis.Thetranscription
presented here adheres as closely as modern technology
ix