Jesuit Relations

The Jesuit Relations

Rebecca Wasmund

Introduction• Annual reports of French

missionaries• Attempts to convert natives of

North America to Catholicism.• Biased sources - Jesuits did not

(and did not want to) understand some aspects of aboriginal life.

• Missions with Iroquoians and Algonquians and in Canada.

• First missions to Canada failed due to English raiders

• Jesuits believed they were “sacrificing themselves”

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Introduction• Began succeeding in 1640,

when many natives were decimated by wars and epidemics

• Relations were written for audiences back home in France

• Relations never claim that Canada was ever fully Christianized

• Cultural gap between those writing Relations and natives being observed

• Natives were “noble savages” - pure, representations of what society could be



Chapter One• Earliest Relations written by

Father Paul Le Jeune, focused mostly on the Montagnais

• Le Jeune traveled with Montagnais to hunt

• Natives faced great hardships - traveled far, sometimes very little food

• Natives mocked the Europeans for their illogical love of beaver skin

• Natives superstitious - certain rituals must be followed to ensure successful hunts.



Chapter One• Believed being called Messou

restored world after flood (so some Indian fables relate to biblical stories)

• Described rituals used to consult spirits of the future

• Praised Indians - strong, agile, of good mind, patient

• Frenchmen impatient, quick to anger, unable to survive short periods without food - opposite of Indians

• Indians very forgiving, admirable



Chapter Two• Hurons - best documented

group of Natives

• Brebeuf conversed with Hurons about their views, but dismissed them as foolish when writing for European audience

• Unique feminine plural conjugation existed in Huron

• Some similarities to story of Adam and Eve in beliefs regarding origin of man

• Believed some inanimate objects were animate



Chapter Two• Interesting ceremonies for

fishing placed value on virginity - Jesuits saw positives in that

• Natives hospitable - Brebeuf expressed hope that they would be capable of Christian charity

• Brebeuf challenged belief that lack of central leader led to anarchy - Hurons lacked powerful leaders, yet lived peacefully

• Leaders sometimes succeeded by nephews or grandsons (if properly qualified), not sons



Chapter Three• Jesuits brought epidemics -

when natives began dying, they spent time baptizing them rather than trying to cure them

• Dances, singing, sports games thought to cure different ailments

• Entire villages would inconvenience themselves if they thought it would heal a fellow villager from whatever ailed them

• Obviously these things often didn’t cure anything - but yet natives still believed earnestly



Chapter Three• Indians amazed by way

Frenchman nursed their sick• Indians not always interested in

being baptized, as they wanted to live as long as possible and not consider death lest it overtake them

• Jesuits sometimes baptized children against their parents’ will

• Epidemics made natives lose faith in sorcerers and some turned to Christianity for explanations and security.



Chapter Five• Believed solar eclipses were

due to a man threatening Manitou’s wife

• Animals tenacious - God gave animals anger to repel enemies

• In 1663 many earthquakes, eclipses, other natural phenomena

• Some natives claimed to predict the earthquakes

• Natives and Jesuits both terrified and surprised by natural disasters



Chapter Five• When France and allies made

peace with Iroquoians, New France prospered

• Were finally able to utilize resources that were previously off-limits because the Iroquoians kept them confined with threats of violence

• Many new resources harvested: were fisheries, mines, new crops and new domesticated animals

• Prosperity compared to life in France



Documents

Jesuit Relations