Article Tools
- Text Size
- Add a comment (
- Print this article
- Email this article
In the seventeenth century, French fishermen, fur traders, and explorers were landing in New France, which included not only Quebec but all the lands watered by the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes.
They traded and made alliances with native Indian tribes such as the Hurons and Algonquins. But for a long time, their small numbers and the vast territories they traveled made it difficult for them to dominate the Indians, as the Spanish in Mexico and South America had done with the more united, sedentary, and agrarian Indians of those regions.
By making treaties with the Hurons, the French automatically incurred the bitter opposition of their enemies, the fierce and warlike Iroquois nation—and especially the Mohawks, a branch of the Iroquois.
Childhood in Captivity. This was the inhospitable world into which Kateri (Catherine) Tekakwitha was born in the year 1656, near upstate Auriesville, New York (now the site of the shrine to the North American Jesuit martyrs). Ten years before, about a mile or so away from her village, the great…
The full article is available to subscribers only
Access all articles, daily meditations and readings, as well as special resources, by becoming a subscriber. View subscription options.
Special Offer: 2 week free web-only trial subscription. Sign up now.
Existing Print & Web-Only Subscribers: Login for full access.