The Jesuit Relations: Native and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America. By: Allan Greer

The Jesuit Relations: Native and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America. By: Allan Greer

Tiffany Woodmansee

The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America was written by Allan Greer. Allan Greer is a history professor and vice principal of University College at the University of Toronto. He received several prizes for his works such as the John Porter Prize and the Allan Sharlin Prize. Is was published by Bedford/St.Martins and presented in 2000. The Jesuit Relations is basically a collection of stories of the encounters of the Jesuits with the Native Americansas well as a great deal of information on how the Natives dealt with disease, medicine, diplomacy, and war.
In all I think this book was really good. Seeing that down the blood line of my family I have some Native American in me, I was interested in learning of some of their customs and I was excited to start reading this book. I believe that Greer wrote this book because he wanted to share with everyone, willing to read this book, about what he's passionate about. He also must have known that all this history is important to knowing how we came to be and how we became accustom to certain traditions or beliefs.
This book is split up into eight chapters and each of these chapters contain several stories. Although all the chapters were quite interesting and enjoyable to read and learn about, my favorite chapters were chapters 3 and 4.
Chapter 3 was on disease and medicine, and I liked this chapter because it was interesting how the Indians cured their sick and what contributed to them believing their ways were most correct even though in the end of the chapter they end up asking the Jesuits for their help. Some people might think that the Indians way of curing was just crazy but they believed that it really cured since that's what their ancestors did. The ways in which they would cure would usually be using herbal remedies, but for this one disease called aoutaerohi, they would often play a game of lacrosse or a game of dish. Aoutaerohi is a disease where a demon the size of a fist would live in one part of the persons body, usually the part that hurt them. This demon would come in their dreams and tell the sick person that they would need to play a game of lacrosse or a game of dish in order to get well. So upon awakening from this dream they would tell the village sorcerer
and they would organize the game of choice. In the Relations it doesn't say how many of these rituals actually worked, but when they did they thought it to be diabolical.
In chapter 4 named diplomacy and war it spoke of the ways they would communicate for a truce and the way in which they would surprise attack each other. I liked this chapter because of a long story about the treaty at Three Rivers, and how they were able to put past wars behind them to come together to agree on a truce for sake of peace and to negotiate getting some of their people back from being held captive by rival tribes. This story focuses on an Iroquois man who came a long way to sacrifice his life for his village in hopes of making a truce between the other villages. This man was so courageous and brought many gifts, some which were materialistic such as wampums, and some non-materialistic such as his will to hold back from revenge.
The most memorable story and quote that I enjoyed reading actually goes along with the previous paragraph on chapter 4. The story is about when the Iroquois man named Kiotseaeton came to the Three Rivers to propose a peace treaty. This man was so genuine in the way he spoke and danced to show how he felt and what he was talking about. In this story he brought a total of seventeen materialistic and non-materialistic presents. The most memorable quote is from one of these presents, which happens to be the fourth one. He says, "I passed by the place where the Algonquins massacred us last spring. I saw the spot where the fight took lace in which they captured these two prisoners here. I passed by quickly,for I did not wish to see the blood that had been shed by my people... When they saw that my heart was capable of seeking vengence, they called out to me... Think of the living- that is the important thing..." I really liked this story and quote
because it shows that people who think they are very different were able to come together for sake of peace, and it shows how strong a mans will power is.
In conclusion this book was well written in a sense that the author wrote the book with a collection of stories from certain Jesuits perspectives, but in reality it was a very true. He wrote in a way to capture the audiences attention by using these stories that were very descriptive and riveting. I enjoyed reading this book and anyone who likes learning of Native Americans and our interactions with them back in the seventeenth- century would also like as well.