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.
Letter 72: Fort Pontchartrain
of Detroit and the Huron Savages
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Raudot, Antoine Denis, "Memoir Concerning the Different Indian Nations of North America: Translation of Letters 23 to 41 and Letters 45 to 72 inclusive" in Kinietz, W. Vernon, The Indians of the Western Great Lakes: 1615-1700, pp. 408-410. |
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They take the tongues of the buffalo and the flat sides, which they keep to carry to their village. It is the women who have the care of gathering this meat and smoking and preserving it.
Toward the end of April they return to their old village to do their sowing; they remain all summer, from time to time going on small hunts, but without going far away.
For their hunts of summer and winter they use large canoes of wood in which they carry all their baggage. One of these canoes would not dare separate from the mass, for immediately some guard canoes would run after it and break it and all that was in it. Likewise, one of these savages would not dare separate from the mass to go and hunt when they are on land, for immediately a band of young men who are guards would run after him to make him return, break his arms, and tear off all that he had on him. These savages have established this kind of law among themselves because those who go in advance would cause the animals to flee while killing only a very few of them, which would oblige them to go much farther to find some.
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I am, sir, etc. |
LETTER 72
Fort Pontchartrain of Detroit and the Huron Savages
Sir,
Part of the Ottawa savages and the Huron savages live in the straits of Lakes Huron and Erie near Fort Pontchartrain of Detroit, where His Majesty has an officer of the troops of this country who commands there. The land and the climate are not as fine as those of the Illinois, of which I have told you in my preceding letters. The snow, however, does not remain more than five to six days on the ground, and there is not more than a foot of it in the years when it falls the most; it is in the months of January and February that one sees it on the ground.
The Miamis and several other nations come to trade at this post, but all the pelts which come from this region, which is the south, are not as esteemed as those from the north, not being well enough furnished with hair, not even the beaver which besides this fault has still another- a very thick hide.
As I have told you of the Ottawa in one of my preceding letters I shall tell you now of the Hurons.
The Hurons do not have a plurality of wives, as the other savages have. They change them when they wish, and the wives have the same right, so much so that one could say that there are few men and women among this nation who have not had some hours of marriage together.
It is the girls who seek the men for marriage among these people, and they do not believe themselves married until they have children, for until this time the husband lives in his father's cabin and the wife lives in the cabin of her father, but when they have some children the husband goes to live in the cabin of the girl.
These savages are always covered and take great care to hide that which modesty forbids them to show. They as well as their wives are very hard-working, hence they sow much grain, which they trade to the French and the other savages.
The women and girls are very neat in their way, well oiled and combed, their faces clean; they do not tattoo nor mattach themselves. They are accused of loving themselves and loving the boys too much, and they willingly give their favors during the night, when it seems to them that all must be permitted. They are very subject to poisoning themselves at the least grief that betakes them; the men also poison themselves sometimes. To leave this life they use a root of hemlock or of citron, which they swallow.
This citron is a plant that grows in moist and shady spots and has only one stalk, where ripens a fruit rather like a small citron and not disagreeable to the taste; it does not do any harm, but the root is a very subtle poison. These savages, however, cure themselves of it by making themselves vomit (page 410) a great deal, which makes them throw out all this poison.
They bury their dead dressed with war equipment, after having greased and mattached them in order, they say, that they will not arrive in the other world as wretches. They raise little mausoleums of wood over their tombs on which their personal marks are carved.
These savages have missionaries, and one can say that it is they who have embraced Christianity with the most warmth and who seem the best Catholics. One can also say that among all the savages the king has none who are more faithful to him. They could make sixty warriors.
The ablest interpreters recognize two mother tongues among all the savages which are known to us, for there are, indeed, many others that are known only imperfectly and by account of others, since all the land of America is filled with them in all parts. These two mother tongues are the Algonquin, which has some resemblance with the language of all the savages of the lakes or who descend from there, and the Huron, which has an affinity with the Iroquois; however, the one and the other differ only by the pronunciation, the accent, and some dialects.
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I am, sir, etc. |
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