THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
Jesuit Relations
Vol. 59, (1673-77), pp. 219-225.
p. 219 The third Mission is that of Saint Francois Xavier, a short distance beyond the bay des Puants. It is a sort of center for a great many nations dwelling in its vicinity.
Father Andre ministers to those who live on the bay des Puants; . . . Thus it may be said that he has a church fully formed; it consists of four or five hundred Christians.
p. 221 . . .The Father baptized as many as a hundred and forty last year.
Father Allouez has charge of the Outagamis and Mascoutins, one hundred and sixty of whom he has admitted to baptism within a year. The cross that this missionary planted amid these villages is venerated there, and the name of Jesus Christ is adored with great respect in all these wild and pagan lands. . . . The bark chapel which the Father erected in the village of the Mascoutins is filled several times every day. Thirty-seven adults and seventy-five children have been baptized in it; there are as many as twelve tribes, speaking three different languages, and comprising no less than twenty thousand souls, gathered in this village alone. Father Silvy went there to help Father Allouez in his labors, to which he was no longer equal. (see fn. 47)
OF THE MISSION OF ST. JAQUES TO THE MASKOUTINS, AND OF ST. MARC TO THE OUTAGAMI.
Father Claude Allouez thus relates what has been accomplished in these Missions: [1674]
The Mission of St. Jacques to the Machkoutench, Kikabouas, Miamis, and other tribes, is far less advanced than the other. . . ."
. . . The Machkoutens always cherish a great respect for the cross which is planted among them.
p. 223 . . . The Miamis hold their cross in no less respect. . . ."
There exists in this country a species of idolatry; for, besides the head of the wild ox, with its horns, which they keep in their cabins to invoke, they possess bearskins, stripped from the head and not cut open in the middle. They leave on them the head, the eyes, and the snout, which they usually paint green. The head is raised on a pole in the middle of their cabin, the remainder of the skin hanging along the pole to the ground. They invoke it in their sicknesses, wars, and other necessities. This spring, it pleased God to direct me to the cabin of a Kikaboua captain,-- where, having noticed one of these idols, I undeceived him so thoroughly that he promised me, as soon as his son should come, to make of this bearskin a dress for his children. A woman of the Machkoutens, . . .
p. 225 This mission would require 2 missionaries on account of the 2 nations, who dwell in it who speak 2 different languages; and because of the multitude of people who are continually arriving, in great numbers, to take up their abode in it.
Let us see what father alues says of the few months which he spent with the outagamis in the year 1675.
I was unable to go to this mission earlier
than the autumn, after the savages had left their village to go hunting. I went
in quest of them into the forest, along the rivers and ponds where they were
hunting beaver and deer. I experienced much consolation in all the cabins that
I encountered in the space of 40 leagues. . . .
_______________
47--We here insert letters by Allouez, giving an account of his work for the years 1674-75. The first letter is made in Douniol (t. ii, pp. 217-219) part of the Relation of 1673-74; but that text is modernized. We follow a text in Martin's handwriting (probably copied from a Roman MS.), appended to the Montreal MS. of the Relation of 1673-79. The second letter is taken from that Relation; it is erroneously placed with the other letter (ut supra), in Douniol.
Return
to TOC, p. 3
Continue to
next part of Miami Collection
[return to Miami
Collection Menu]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology List of Publications]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology Home]
Last updated: 15 December 2000
URL: http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/home.html
Comments: webmaster@www.gbl.indiana.edu
Copyright 1996, Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology and The Trustees of
Indiana University