A. Heritage and Identity · Interactions of Indigenous Peoples and Europeans prior to 1713

Effects of Contact: Disease, Missions and Change

A1.1 A3.5 A1.2 A2.4About 45 minutes

Learning goals

I can describe positive and negative consequences of contact for Indigenous peoples and for Europeans.
I can tell short-term consequences from long-term ones.
I can explain why diseases from Europe were so deadly.
I can read a simple graph and ask whose perspective a source shows.

Words to know

consequence
Something that happens because of an event or action. It can be positive, negative or both.

short-term
Happening soon after an event, and not lasting long.

long-term
Lasting a long time, or showing up many years later.

epidemic
A disease that spreads quickly to many people at the same time.

immunity
The body's ability to fight off a disease, often because people have met that disease before.

mission
A place where missionaries lived and worked to spread their religion.

convert
To change someone's religion, or to change your own.

perspective
The point of view of a person or group, shaped by who they are and what they believe.

Let's start with a question

When two peoples meet, both change. They trade, learn from each other, and sometimes harm each other.

Today we look at the consequences of contact between First Nations and Europeans before 1713. Some were helpful. Some were terrible. Some were short-term, and some still affect people today.

Learning from each other

The newcomers learned a great deal from First Nations:

How to travel by birchbark canoe, snowshoe and toboggan.
How to grow and cook corn, beans and squash.
How to make maple sugar.
Medicines, like the cedar remedy for scurvy you learned about in the lesson on explorers.
Many place names: Québec comes from an Algonquian word meaning "where the river narrows", and Canada from the Iroquoian word kanata.

First Nations people got metal tools, kettles, cloth and other goods that many found useful, and new allies.

Disease: the most terrible consequence

Europeans brought diseases such as smallpox, measles and influenza (the flu). These diseases had never been in North America before, so people here had no immunity to them.

Epidemics spread along trade routes, sometimes even before Europeans reached a village.
Between 1634 and 1642, epidemics killed more than half of the Wendat people.
Many Elders died. They were the keepers of knowledge, stories and history, so their loss hurt communities for generations.
Many other nations also suffered great losses.

No one at the time understood germs. Some Wendat noticed that sickness often came after the missionaries' visits, and blamed them.

Estimated Wendat population before and after the epidemics of 1634 to 1642 (numbers from The Canadian Encyclopedia). The dashed part of the top bar shows that historians are not sure of the exact number; they estimate between 20 000 and 25 000.

Missions and religion

Catholic missionaries came to convert First Nations to Christianity. The Jesuits built a mission called Sainte-Marie among the Hurons (1639 to 1649), near present-day Midland, Ontario. You can visit a reconstruction of it today.

Some Wendat became Christian. Many others kept their own spiritual beliefs.
Missionaries pressured people to give up their ceremonies and beliefs. Families and villages became divided between Christians and people who followed traditional ways.
The French sold guns more readily to Wendat who had become Christian.

The Jesuits wrote yearly reports, the Jesuit Relations, which describe Wendat life. They are an important primary source, but they show the missionaries' perspective.

Other changes

Daily life: metal tools, kettles and cloth replaced some traditional tools and clothing. Some skills, like making clay pots, were used less.
Beaver: many more beavers were trapped to trade. In some areas beavers became scarce, so hunters had to go farther, into other nations' lands. This caused conflict.
Alcohol: some traders traded brandy. It caused great harm. Many First Nations leaders, and the Church, spoke out against it.
Land: French farms and towns spread along the St. Lawrence on Indigenous lands, without treaties to share the land.

Consequence	For whom?	Positive or negative?	Short- or long-term?
Metal kettles and tools	First Nations	Mostly positive (useful)	Short- and long-term
Learning to use canoes and snowshoes	French	Positive	Long-term (still used today)
Epidemics	First Nations	Very negative	Short-term deaths; long-term loss of people and knowledge
Communities divided by religion	First Nations	Negative	Long-term
Beavers trapped out in some areas	First Nations; the land and animals	Negative	Long-term
Big profits from furs	French merchants	Positive for them	Short- and long-term

Sorting consequences helps us think like historians. Some are positive for one group and negative for another.

Some consequences of contact sorted into positive or negative and short- or long-term. The same change could be positive for one group and negative for another.

Worked example

Let's read the graph

Look at the graph of the Wendat population. About how many people were lost?

Before 1634: about 20 000 to 25 000 people. Let's use the smaller number, 20 000, to be careful.
By 1642: about 9 000 people.
Subtract: 20 000 − 9 000 = 11 000.
So at least 11 000 people died in about eight years. Using the bigger estimate, 25 000 − 9 000 = 16 000.

Somewhere between 11 000 and 16 000 Wendat people died. That is more than half of the nation.

Worked example

Whose perspective?

Jesuit missionaries wrote that the Wendat needed Christianity to be saved. A Wendat Elder might have said the Jesuits brought sickness and broke up families. Why are the two views so different?

Ask: who wrote or said it, and what did they believe?
The Jesuit believed his religion was the only true one. His goal was to convert people.
The Elder saw people dying and families divided. Her goal was to protect her people and their ways.
Each view comes from a different perspective. Historians use both and look for other evidence too.

They had different beliefs and goals, so they saw the same events differently.

Hands-on activity

Consequence sort

You need: 8 small pieces of paper, a pencil and a big sheet of paper.

On the big sheet, draw a large + to make four boxes. Label the top Positive and Negative, and the sides Short-term and Long-term.
Write one consequence on each small paper: metal kettles; epidemics; learning to use snowshoes; divided communities; profits for merchants; fewer beavers; new allies; loss of Elders' knowledge.
Place each paper in a box. Some may fit in more than one: put them on a line between boxes.
Add who it affected (First Nations, French, or both).
Explain your hardest choice to someone at home.

Your turn

Name two things Europeans learned from First Nations.

Why were European diseases so deadly for First Nations?

About how many Wendat were there by 1642, after the epidemics?

What was Sainte-Marie among the Hurons?

Give one negative consequence of contact besides disease.

Is "many Elders died, and their knowledge was lost" a short-term or a long-term consequence? Why?

More practice: warm-up

Name one disease Europeans brought.

What is an epidemic?

What were the Jesuit Relations?

Where does the name Québec come from?

Was a metal kettle mostly helpful or harmful to the families who used it?

More practice: on your own

How could disease reach a village before any European arrived there?

Why did trapping more beavers lead to conflict?

Why should historians be careful with the Jesuit Relations?

Give one consequence that was positive for one group and negative for another.

Why might some Wendat have blamed the missionaries for sickness?

Challenge

Explain how the epidemics could have made the Wendat weaker in later conflicts.

Using the graph, is "the Wendat lost about one person in ten" correct? Show your thinking.

Choose one consequence of contact and explain why it is still felt today.

Check your understanding

Quiz

Why did European diseases kill so many First Nations people?

Between 1634 and 1642, the Wendat population...

Which is a consequence that was positive for Europeans?

The Jesuit Relations show mainly whose perspective?

Which is a long-term consequence?

Sainte-Marie among the Hurons was...

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Contact had consequences for everyone, some positive and many deeply harmful for First Nations, in the short and long term (A1.1, A1.2, A3.5). Reading the population graph and the Jesuit Relations practises analysing evidence and perspective (A2.4).

How to help at home:

Talk honestly but calmly about the epidemics. Children may be upset; it is fine to be sad about history. Emphasize that these nations survived and are living communities today (the Huron-Wendat Nation at Wendake, for example).
Practise the question "Positive for whom?"
If you are near Midland, Sainte-Marie among the Hurons is a reconstructed historic site you can visit.

Common difficulties:

Thinking Europeans spread disease on purpose in this period: there is no evidence of that here before 1713; people did not understand germs.
Seeing only one side: encourage your child to name a consequence for each group.
Short- vs long-term: ask "Is it still affecting people years later?"