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Introduction

Marie-Christine Pioffet

Apprendre une deuxième langue autochtone dans les missions jésuites en Nouvelle-France : l’exemple du Dictionaire huron et hiroquois onontaheronon

Fannie Dionne
This article examines how Jesuit missionaries in New France learned and adapted the Onondaga language using their prior knowledge of Wendat. Through the study of the Dictionaire huron et hiroquois onontaheronon (Manuscrit 017), a trilingual French-Wendat-Onondaga manuscript, it highlights the linguistic learning processes and challenges faced by the Jesuits during their mission at Sainte-Marie de Gannentaha in the 17th century. The analysis reveals significant disparities between the Wendat and Onondaga translations, reflecting a gradual and incomplete learning process. This dictionary also demonstrates the collaboration between missionaries and Indigenous language speakers.

Pastorale jésuite et résistances autochtones dans le Dictionnaire français-huron, ms. 60 du fonds d’archives du Séminaire de Québec

Peter Murvai
The Jesuit dictionaries of the Huron language written by Jesuits missionaries offer important insights into the relations between Europeans and Aboriginals in North America during the 17th-18th centuries. Our analysis of a manuscript French-Huron dictionary reveals the missionaries’ efforts to adapt to the Wendat culture as well as various intercultural tensions and forms of Indigenous resistance to the colonial enterprise.

Niona kanwa nda kiona/Nous (exclusif) mais pas nous (inclusif) : la dénomination des nations non autochtones selon l’ethnonymie abénakise lors du contact (xvie et xviie siècles)

Philippe Charland
Since their first contacts with Europeans, the Abenakis have developed various ethnonyms to designate them. While this desire to identify the “Other” was not at all exceptional at the outset, since the process of identifying surrounding aboriginal groups had already existed for a long time, it is in the study of the process of creation that we find the most interesting elements. While the designation process is mostly straightforward, it also has its own history that evolves over time. For example, we can observe, through the analysis of ethnonyms, the sequence and intensity of contacts between the Abenaki and non-aboriginal groups. Also, the addition of new groups, whether from direct encounters (colonizing nations such as France and England) or indirect (other European nations), has expanded the hitherto known repertoire, eventually extending beyond the borders of Europe. This article will focus on the ethnonymy used by the Abenaki to designate non-native nations during the contact period (16th and 17th centuries). We’ll look at ethnonyms associated with defined states, undefined states, and religious groups, which will allow us, indirectly, to tell the story of contact from an Abenaki perspective.

Paroles (doublement) rapportées : les strates énonciatives du discours autochtone dans l’Histoire de la Nouvelle-France (1609-1618) de Marc Lescarbot

Nicolas Hebbinckuys
This article examines the (doubly) reported speech in the Histoire de la Nouvelle-France (1609-1618), a work in which Marc Lescarbot recounts the early years of French America from 1524 to 1609. This historiographical chronicle constitutes a relevant case study for analyzing Indigenous discourse as conveyed by travelers, given the dual status of its author: a direct witness when describing his personal experience in Acadia; and an indirect witness when reporting on expeditions in which he did not participate. In the first case, Indigenous speech is reported, as Lescarbot claims to have heard it himself, while in the second, it is doubly reported, as the chronicler relies on earlier texts that he compiles and reworks. By distinguishing between these two situations, this study first explores some of the discursive functions of reported speech, as theorized by Réal Ouellet, through examples of Lescarbot’s eyewitness testimony (Books iv and vi). In the second part, it analyzes the treatment of Indigenous discourse in the First Book of the chronicle, where Lescarbot recounts the episode of French Florida (1562-1565). This case study highlights the gap between Laudonnière’s original account and the palimpsest created by Lescarbot, thereby revealing the alterations made to the voice of the Other.

« Tu ne sçays ce que tu dis ! » Refus, rires ou encouragements autochtones face aux tentatives linguistiques jésuites en Nouvelle-France

Madeleine Savart
In the Relations sent to France, Jesuit missionaries in New France report a variety of Indigenous reactions to the Churchmen’s attempts at language learning in the first half of the 17th century. This article aims to distinguish between refusals, laughter and words of encouragement attributed to Indigenous speakers in response to the use of their language. It also demonstrates that the reproduction of these Relations in the pages of the Mercure François or their publication in print by Sébastien Cramoisy led to their transformation, as they were read by a wider audience.

La traite des fourrures vue par les Autochtones : de l’étonnement à la prise en compte de nouveaux rapports de production

Matthieu Tardif
Numerous French accounts show that the various Indigenous groups who first traded with the French were intrigued by the greed with which the latter pounced on their worn old beaver robes. This astonishment soon gave way to a certain contempt, to the extent that it was reported that some coureurs de bois were even beaten by their hosts when they pressed them too hard to deliver their pelts. Not proud of the image portrayed by the French traders, the authors of colonial sources were quick to overturn the accusation of covetousness. Some suggested that the Indigenous exploited French greed to extract excessive prices for furs, whose quality was also declining. As other aspects of colonial discourse show, however, the accusation is biased. While the Indigenous protagonists of the trade were quick to appreciate the value of beaver, they had nonetheless become dependent on European merchants, who were the purveyors of strategic manufactured goods in the North American geopolitical game. Beyond cultural singularities and rhetorical effects, we can see that the sources reveal an Indigenous awareness of the asymmetry of the fur trade and the exploitative relationship it entailed.

Les remèdes secrets des Autochtones : l’expression d’une résistance face aux Français dans les récits de voyage en Amérique aux xviie et xviiie siècles

Marianne Guernet
Over the 17th and 18th centuries, French colonialization overseas was driven by the quest for the trading monopoly of fur, rare minerals and new valuable plants for the European market. In this pursuit, the French were quickly challenged by the ancestral occupants of Turtle Island, and their knowledge of their environment. Dealing with new illnesses and unknown plants, French explorers, missionaries, settlers or travelers faced unforeseen resistance while striving to acquire Indigenous remedies and secret cures. This paper investigates colonial travel literature of the time to highlight the numerous Indigenous voices who not only tried to protect their botanical knowledge from the French, but also fought to keep practicing their ancestral medicine away from their invaders.

Comment faire l’histoire des Natchez ?

Gilles Havard
The interpretation of Native American history in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries has made considerable progress over the last century, but remains an open task. This intellectual project is based on the critical and combined use of colonial archives, ethnographic and linguistic studies, indigenous narratives, archaeological data and anthropological theory. The case study proposed in this article, that of the Natchez, allows us to compare the numerous descriptions from 18th-century French colonial sources with the indigenous accounts collected later on. Criticism of written sources, particularly those reporting on the Natchez attack of the French in 1729, involves uncovering the available literary models—tragedy, conjuring tale, fable, picaresque—which blur the boundaries between history and literature.