The 1654 Wendat Texts Recorded by Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot

The Jesuits of the seventeenth century engaged in intensive missionary work with the Wendat (Huron) living in what was then called New France, now Ontario and Quebec. A great deal is known about this work thanks to the Jesuit Relations, a collection of reports that were sent by these missionaries to their superiors back in Europe and which were later published. One significant source of information about both the Jesuits and the Wendat which has not been analysed significantly by scholars is texts published in these reports written in the Wendat language and translated into French and English. One potentially informative text was written down from words spoken by a trio of Wendat speakers—Jacques Oachonk, Louis Taieron, and Joseph Sondouskon—in 1654 by Jesuit Father Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot, who was very knowledgeable about the language. The text forms a message that the Wendat wanted sent to a Catholic congregation in Paris, France. Based on some fifty years work with the language, dealing largely with the dictionaries and grammars written by Jesuit linguists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the author has translated this text with a view toward documenting the Wendat language and culture.