Nation Iroquoise: A Seventeenth-Century Ethnography of the Iroquois PDF
Preview Nation Iroquoise: A Seventeenth-Century Ethnography of the Iroquois
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
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