The Iroquois: voyageurs of the North-West and Oregon territories

Abstract

This thesis will posit that the Iroquois migrations into the Northwest and Oregon Territories are misunderstood in their interactions amongst both the Indigenous and frontiersmen. By Iroquois we specifically mean the French-speaking and Catholic Iroquois who settled in New France in Sault St. Louis (1680), Lac des Deux-Montagnes (1717) and in 1755 when the St. Régis Mission was established. After 150 years of acculturation (1650s to 1800s), these Iroquois had become a hybrid culture with a syncretic Catholicism. The Iroquois immigrated to the Saskatchewan River in 1799 to escape 'improvements of civilization' in the east and to follow the mode of life of their forefathers. Peter Fidler's three versions of the Chesterfield House incident, where 14 Iroquois and 2 Canadiens were killed, will be analyzed to provide a new understanding of the role of the Iroquois as central actors in the fur trade rivalries.