The children of Aataentsic : a history of the Huron people to 1660

Trigger's work integrates insights from archaeology, history, ethnology, linguistics, and geography. This wide knowledge allows him to show that, far from being a static prehistoric society quickly torn apart by European contact and the fur trade, almost every facet of Iroquoian culture had undergone significant change in the centuries preceding European contact. He argues convincingly that the European impact upon native cultures cannot be correctly assessed unless the nature and extent of precontact change is understood. His study not only stands Euro-American stereotypes and fictions on their heads, but forcefully and consistently interprets European and Indian actions, thoughts, and motives from the perspective of the Huron culture. The Children of Aataentsic revises widely accepted interpretations of Indian behaviour and challenges cherished myths about the actions of some celebrated Europeans during the "heroic age" of Canadian history. In a new preface, Trigger describes and evaluates contemporary controversies over the ethnohistory of eastern Canada. Frontmatter Illustrations (page xi) List of Maps (page xvi) Preface to the Carleton Library Series Reprinting (page xix) Preface to the 1987 reprinting (page xxv) Preface to the First Edition (page xxxix) CHAPTER 1 Introduction CHAPTER 2 The Huron and Their Neighbours (page 27) CHAPTER 3 The Birth of the Huron (page 105) CHAPTER 4 Alien Shadows (page 177) CHAPTER 5 Forging an Alliance (page 246) CHAPTER 6 The Quiet Years (page 331) Notes Chapters 1-6 (page 435) CHAPTER 7 The Interregnum and the New Alliance (page 455) CHAPTER 8 The Deadly Harvest (page 499) CHAPTER 9 The Storm (page 603) CHAPTER 10 The Storm Within (page 665) CHAPTER 11 The End of the Confederacy (page 725) CHAPTER 12 Betrayal and Salvation (page 789) CHAPTER 13 Conclusions (page 841) Notes Chapters 7-13 (page 851) References (page 857) Index (page 885) The Children of Aataentsic is both a full-scale ethnohistory of the Huron Indian confederacy and a far-reaching study of the causes of its collapse under the impact of the Iroquois attacks of 1649. Drawing upon the archaeological context, the ethnography presented by early explorers and missionaries, and the recorded history of contact with Europeans, Bruce Trigger traces the development of the Huron people from the earliest hunting and gathering economies in southern Ontario, many centuries before the arrival of the Europeans, to their key role in the fur trade in eastern Canada during the first half of the seventeenth century