The Hurons and Five Nations: 1600-1700
Warfare in Five Nations Society The image of the Iroquois as warrior Evidence of Iroquois warfare, 1600-1650 The “mourning war” in Iroquois culture The example of Louis Joncaire as a war captive and Seneca adoptee (1687 to circa 1700)
Warfare and European Contact Localized conflict between Native residents and European newcomers Intentional entry of Europeans into existing warfare relationships - 1603: Champlain’s meeting with Native people at Tadoussac - 1609: Champlain’s offensive with his allies to Ticonderoga
The Iroquois Wars Early conflicts (1641-1647) - Raid on Huron flotilla near Montreal, 1643 Attacks on Huron villages (1647-1649) Dispersal of Huronia (1649) Dispersal of the Petun (1650), Neutral (1651), and Erie (1657)
Contact-Era Factors in Warfare Existing conflicts Traditional understandings/purposes of warfare Trade Firearms Disease Christianity and religious factionalism
Historiography of the Iroquois Wars R. Douglas Francis, Richard Jones, Donald B. Smith, Origins, 4th edition (2000) --, Origins, 1st edition (1988) Arthur Lower, Colony to Nation (1946)
After the Iroquois Wars Iroquois control in southern Ontario French-Iroquois entente French missions in the St. Lawrence Valley French trade with the Ojibwa and Ottawa of the Upper Great Lakes French and Algonquian offensives against the Iroquois in the Lower Great Lakes, 1687 Ojibwa movement into southern Ontario by 1700
“The Outaouacs claim that the great river belongs to them, and that no nation can launch a boat on it without their consent. Therefore all who go to trade with the French, although of widely different nations, bear the general name of Outaouac under whose auspices they make the journey.” Father Francois le Mercier, 1666-67