A small man with a big gun
Not everyone in the Peterborough area celebrates the anniversary of Champlain’s arrival (First of a two-part guest column)
There is always at least two sides to every story. I write the following to share another perspective of how Samuel de Champlain is understood and remembered by some.
Champlain was a mean man. Champlain was racist, prejudiced, and oppressive. Champlain engaged in hate crimes that would see him arrested and jailed by today’s standards. Champlain was a murderer. Champlain was a gigolo. Champlain made a lot of people sick. The after effects and repercussions of Champlain’s visit to the Kawarthas seriously affected the lives of the people that were here originally for centuries to come. The aftermath of which is still being felt by communities today.
What has Peterborough’s historians all excited these days is that Champlain travelled through this area exactly 400 years ago, during the month of August and again in November. In 1615, Champlain was escorted through the area that is now Peterborough, Ontario by a group of Huron/Wendat. He used the ancient portage between Chemong Lake and Little Lake (now Chemong Road), and stayed for a short period of time near what is now Bridgenorth. As a result, the Mayor of Peterborough has declared this week “Champlain Week” and the Trent Valley Archives is hosting a book launching event that is showcasing a new text by local historians that features Champlain and his travels through the Kawarthas.
There is much fanfare and a celebratory sense attributed to Samuel de Champlain and his explorations, specifically his visits to Ontario. Local historians have been building up for months now to commemorate this history. Promoting this new book back in April, one of the authors, Elwood Jones told the Examiner: “Champlain is very important to our area, especially to the First Nations and French culture. He was part of New France and it means a great deal he came through this area.”
I have to ask: It means a great deal, how and to whom?
To many Indigenous peoples, Champlain represents the beginning of an era of disruption, disease, discrimination, colonization, relocation, and ultimately the continual oppression of the rights of our peoples. Why would we celebrate that? What are we being reminded of here in this commemoration to honour and remember Champlain?
In a recent Examiner article Peter Adams (another author of the aforementioned book) stated “For me personally, I knew of Samuel de Champlain as the father of Quebec and the father of Canada, but I never thought of him as he really, truly is, from the point of view of immigrants of the first Europeans, as the father of Ontario.”
For me, I think of Champlain as he really, truly is, from the point of view of the people who greeted, welcomed, guided and cared for him while he was here– the original peoples of this land. From this perspective, hearing that Champlain is often called the father of Canada, Quebec, New France, and in this instance the father of Ontario, sounds somewhat absurd, especially in light of the fact that people were already here. How does one birth a place that already existed? And already existed with various nations of people living there for thousands of years? This does not fit into our beliefs or any of the teachings I have learned.
Granted we can understand Champlain as the first white European to visit this area. We can credit him with helping to establish a French settlement which established one of the cultural foundations upon which Canada would later be built. We can also credit him because he made the first accurate maps of the Canadian coast and interior. However, in terms of the latter, we must also give credit to the Indigenous peoples who acted as Champlain’s guides. These guides knew the lay of the land intimately and without their knowledge about geography, navigation, hunting, and tracking, Champlain and his men would have most likely been perpetually lost, hungry and cold. Champlain did not really know where he was. In fact Champlain did get lost in the bush for two to three days following a hunting expedition.
Many historians who have tried to retrace Champlain’s steps in Ontario consistently allude to the fact that Champlain was not very accurate in his accounting of distances and as Elwood Jones points out “his landmarks were transient, such as trees and bends in the river,” so that it is “impossible to be precise” in knowing exactly where he went and when. Champlain relied on the knowledge of the Indigenous guides to get him through the interior of Ontario. Thus we can argue that the first maps he created were a joint effort. Credit should be given where credit is merited.
Curiously, Champlain is regarded with an almost mythic grandeur by the mainstream public. And this is how he is presented and taught to children in school. To us, he is known as a little man with a big gun and an even bigger sword. Champlain’s sojourn in Ontario (in a greater context in all of eastern Canada too) set off a series of events and consequences that produced a lot of turmoil for the original peoples of these lands.
Champlain described us as savage peoples in need of European help to become civilized and saved. He consistently belittled and disrespected Indigenous philosophies, politics, spirituality, and social mores in his writings, yet he was known to consort with many Indigenous women from various nations. He makes derogatory comments in his journals about Indigenous women and the practices of various nations. But it is ok for him to marry a 12 year old girl. In particular, his accomplice Etienne Brule was also well known in the histories for emulating his mentor. The close relationships that Champlain and his men developed with the original peoples of these lands resulted in the spread of many diseases, several of which were deadly.
Champlain’s visits were also a catalyst for a massive change in the relationships between the Huron/Wendat, the Algonquin, the Mississauga, the Nippissing to name a few and the Haudenosaunee to the south. Breaking traditional protocol, Champlain took it upon himself to single-handedly shoot at the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Chiefs during a wartime council. Historical reports gauge that he murdered anywhere from 2 to 5 Chiefs that day. This single act laid chaos upon the Haudenosaunee. My late friend Ernie Benedict, Elder from Akwesasne, told me it would have taken at least 1 year for the Haudenosaunee to recover from that ordeal. The repercussions of this event set in motion many years of disorder between the original peoples of these lands.
The fur trade began in earnest after Champlain’s explorations and the relationship between the beaver and the original peoples of these lands was changed forever. Champlain was also responsible for the introduction of guns into many Indigenous communities which affected political relationships between nations and stimulated a more violent vying for the control of European trade. With the fur trade also came the introduction of alcohol to our peoples.
However, the most detrimental effect of Champlain’s visit was actually what he left behind: the continual persecution of our people through the legacy of his writings.
Tomorrow: Part 2