User:Isobel.w18/The Jesuit Relations

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TO ADD TO INTRO:

The Jesuits directed the majority of their efforts toward converting the Iroquois, Hurons, Montagnais, and Algonquins, though they had contact with many other tribes.

These texts are microcosms of Indigenous-European relations in North America.

-The need to decontextualize these documents in non-Eurocentric and de-colonial frameworks. These documents may have been re-circulated back to New France, which changes how scholars can understand their ethnographic and knowledge-producing value.

SECTIONS TO ADD:


 * Martyrdom
 * Textual incongruities
 * Context within France
 * Nature

IMAGES TO ADD


 * Kateri Tekakwitha
 * Jogues

Other information to add:

QUOTES/CONCEPTS TO ADD FROM RONDA'S ARTICLE

Jesuit perspectives on nature, “Provided Jesuits with both a justification for mission work and a racial theory for Europeanization,” (Ronda).

Many Indigenous peoples and priests “correctly sensed that Christianity was the prime carrier of European values and that the Jesuit mission was concerned with far more than religious conversion.”

Indigenous people pretending to be loyal to Christianity while continuing to practice their original religion.

-the idea that once Indigenous peoples were Europeanized, they could be more easily instructed

-belief that a few French families could settle, then convince some Indigenous people to convert, who would be good examples and allow more widespread conversions

Indigenous Resistance
Indigenous people largely rejected Jesuits' attempts to impose sedentary life on them. A Huron religious leader gave a speech about how the Huron are dying at younger ages and before the Jesuits they lived longer. “Such powerful attacks on Christianity and its effects on traditional ways of life were repeated constantly by native priests throughout New France. Their potent arguments frequently thwarted Jesuit efforts.” Many Indigenous parents rejected European education for their children.

Goddard, Peter A. “Converting the ‘Sauvage’: Jesuit and Montagnais in Seventeenth-Century New France.” The Catholic Historical Review, vol. 84, no. 2, Catholic University of America Press, 1998, pp. 219–39, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25025209 .

“Jesuits explained the relatively small number of neophytes through reference to this demanding model of conversion.”

“The New Christians…could be held up as exemplars of a new, disciplined kind of Christianity, a religion which allowed them to transcend sauvage conditions and alight with confidence on the path of civilization.”

Leahey, Margaret J. “‘Comment Peut Un Muet Prescher l’évangile?’ Jesuit Missionaries and the Native Languages of New France.” French Historical Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, [Duke University Press, Society for French Historical Studies], 1995, pp. 105–31, https://doi.org/10.2307/286901 .

Canadian government published a three volume edition in 1858.

Reuben Gold Thwaited then edited The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents

Lucien Campeau made critical editions of all papers from missions

Brebeuf: focusing on what groups had in common

Richter, Daniel K. “Iroquois versus Iroquois: Jesuit Missions and Christianity in Village Politics, 1642-1686.” Ethnohistory, vol. 32, no. 1, Duke University Press, 1985, pp. 1–16, https://doi.org/10.2307/482090.

Textual Incongruity
Because a major purpose of these texts were to raise revenue, oftentimes, events were exaggerated in order to maintain the audience's interest.

One specific example of textual incongruity is found in Jean de Brébeuf's writings. Brébeuf was a very prominent missionary who is known for his attempts to immerse himself in the language, culture, and religious customs of the Huron peoples. Specifically, Brébeuf observes religious and funerary rites of the Iroquois. Brebeuf explains to the audience the creation stories, but actively seeks to find allusions to the Biblical creation story in this description.

-include information on Brebeuf also using pejorative language, and how these texts need to be read in a nuanced way because missionaries immersed themselves and worked to understand Indigenous cultures more so than other European missionaries. Still, they show a lot of bias, and it's essential to remember that the primary motivation for this missionization was land theft and profit.

Martyrdom
Another important theme in these texts is that of martyrdom. The relations included violent descriptions of Jesuit missionaries being killed or maimed by Indigenous peoples, for example, the death of Isaac Jogues, who died after being captured by the Mohawk.

-describe bias within these accounts and how the Jesuits may have exaggerated them or portrayed themselves as more innocent than they were

-Kateri Tekakwitha's martyrdom, and how modern-day scholars have been skeptical of how true or exaggerated Jesuit Relations depictions of her are.

The Jesuits also published the story of Kateri Tekakwitha, who converted to Catholicism and is canonized by the Catholic Church. They describe how she found fulfillment through spirituality, and self-deprivation as a demonstration of her faith.

-People who converted, especially very prominent people such as Tekakwitha, were portrayed as embodiments of good virtue.

Nature
The Jesuit Relations also provide evidence for early European settlers' attitudes toward nature. These missionaries by and large did not view nature as peaceful or a place to cultivate spiritual practice. Rather, they believed that the woods needed to be turned into European-style settlements and agricultural fields. Throughout the Relations, there are many accounts of missionaries being afraid of or intimidated by the woods, for example, Le Jeune's description of a journey through the woods, Journal of a Winter Hunt, published in 1634. Le Jeune details physical hardships of carrying a great deal of belongings in the cold, with little food.

Le Jeune also describes some customs of the Huron, such as hunting and fishing practices. Le Jeune attempts to explain the spiritual context for certain hunting practices, such as explanations for how and why the Iroquois had specific rituals for hunting beaver and disposing of their bones. In his text, Le Jeune expresses skepticism for these traditions' validity, and bias is very visible.

Le Jeune blamed Montagnais peoples for hardships during "Journal of a Winter's Hunt"

The Jesuits initially believed that the differences between Europeans and Indigenous peoples were attributed to environment, socialization, and education, rather than biology. This ties into how the Jesuits wanted to "civilize" North America and create European-style settlements.

Resettlement policy: disastrous for Hurons and Montagnais. People who settled in permanent villages were criticized by enemies and Europeans

The term "sauvage" and how it has been used and weaponized

Settlements
The Jesuits, at first, primarily lived with Indigenous peoples, especially the Iroquois and the Huron. They settled throughout modern-day Quebec.

The vast majority of the Jesuits who settled in North America were males. Many did not marry, but some took Indigenous wives.

(note: maybe cut this section and add any other relevant info to other sections? feel like it isn't the most relevant to the Relations themselves plus there's already some info in the publication section)

Context within France
These Relations were written during the Counter-Reformation in Europe, during which Catholicism gained popularity and the Church reformed itself. The Jesuits grew in power during this period, even achieving influence within Louis XIV's court. This garnered suspicion and rivalry from other religious sects. This rivalry could potentially be a factor that propelled the Jesuits to exaggerate their religious wins in North America.

For the most part, these texts were only published and read within France and New France.

Economics--The Relations contained a lot of Le Jeune's theories around how the land could be used; resources it could offer France, and possibility of increased employment of Frenchmen. Le Jeune also wrote in the Relations about the poverty of Indigenous people, comparing them to France's poor. This was largely to further convince French government of the urgency of colonizing and to justify colonization as bringing wealth to Indigenous people, rather than an inherently violent process. In fact, it is made clear that the main goal of these Relations was to further not only Jesuit religious interests, but French economic interests.