Iroquois' destruction of Huronia
Iroquois' destruction of Huronia
In 1649, the Iroquois attacked and massacred.
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| In 1649, the Iroquois attacked their weakened enemy and Huronia was destroyed. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's History)
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They benefitted from the weakened state of the Huron nation, laid waste by epidemics and divided by the presence of so many Christian converts. The Hurons had no European weapons either for the French refused to sell to them.
The Jesuits Daniel, Jogues, Lallemant, and Brébeuf were taken prisoner, tortured, and executed.
"About twelve hundred Iroquois came," a Huron remembered. "They took their anger out on the Fathers: they stripped them naked; they tore their fingernails off. They rained blows on their shoulders with sticks, on their kidneys and stomach and legs and face, and no part of their body was spared this torment."
Huronia was bathed in blood and fire. The Iroquois laid waste to Huronia.
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| As the Huron began to die of European diseases, they turned their anger on the missionaries. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's History) |
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Their vengeance knew no limit. Of the thirty thousand Hurons, a few thousand survived: some of which decided to live on the Île d'Orléans under the protection of the cannons of Quebec. "Since the faith entered into their hearts," wrote Father Le Jeune, "and they began to adore the Cross of Jesus Christ, He shared with them a part of this Cross, exposing them to miseries, torments and cruel deaths. In a word, this people has been wiped off the face of the Earth."
"My brother," a Huron chief said to a Frenchman, "your eyes cheat you when you look at us: you think you are seeing living beings, whereas we are only the spectres and souls of the departed."
It was the end of a people and a culture.
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| Just 40 years after allying with the French, the Huron nation was destroyed. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's History) |
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Forty years after meeting the explorer Samuel de Champlain, the Huron nation was merely a vestige of its former self. A powerful nation had disappeared, victim of the fur trade, and an excess of zeal to convert it to Christianity. The beaver, the crucifix, and the Iroquois had killed it.
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