Samuel de Champlain Monument in Orillia
This beautiful bronze monument by British sculptor Vernon March is in Orillia, on the shores of Lake Simcoe in Ontario, Canada. It was erected in 1925 for the 300th anniversary of French explorer Samuel de Champlain’s visit to the area. Champlain was looking for a shorter passage to the West Indies. He explored and mapped the St. Lawrence waterway and parts of the Great Lakes, built the first settlement in New France, Quebec, and established fur trading with native peoples. He befriended the Hurons, pushed for their christianization and even participated in their war against the Iroquois tribes. He became governor of New France until his death in 1635.
I don’t know how many aboriginal people are depicted on monuments across North America, I’m guessing not many. I read that the positioning of these natives below Champlain and at the feet of the fur trader and the missionary is raising questions amongst the aboriginal community, however I found the inscription on the commemorative plaque far more offensive towards native people. I will refrain from posting a photo of it.
Champlain himself cannot be viewed from up close, being so high up, but the natives can, and I did enjoy that tremendously. I don’t know what models the sculptor used, but he did a wonderful job. The broad, muscular back of one of the natives is beautifully modelled, and so are the feet. Not even the pitiful graffiti can ruin the awe.
Being so taken by the figures and detail, I neglected taking a picture of the whole monument. Here is a picture from Canuck with a camera:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/canuckwithacamera/1074367734/
And I found this picture at the Orillia Public Library site, taken outside the artist’s studio in England. It gives the viewer a good idea about the scale of the figures. Really impressive.
http://images.ourontario.ca/orillia/details.asp?ID=20404
![20404[1]](http://erikatakacs.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/204041.jpg?w=248&h=400 "20404[1]")
You’re right. The natives are so beautifully rendered. The musculature, faces, and the hair. Wow. I really hate to see the vandalism. Such a shame.
I like the Indian portrait and the other details you show.
I doubt whether there are any Huron Indians left to feel offended. Tocqueville says he saw the last of the Iroquois. (His chapter at the end of his Democracy in America on the American Indians is really worth reading, by the way.) I wonder whether that missionary with the cross in the monument is one of those heroic Jesuits Isaac Jogues, Brebeuf, et al. The way they were tortured and killed by the Indians impressed all of Europe at the time. Goya couldn’t keep from running off a couple of paintings on the subject when he read of it many years later (paintings sometimes seemed a kind of pictorial diary of his).
I have to look up Tocqueville. He says he saw last of the Iroquois? The Iroquios Confederation was made up of six nations, who originally lived mostly in New York State. Because they were bitter enemies of the Hurons, who associated themselves with the French, the Iroquois sided with the British and stuck with them during the American Revolution. As a result they were driven from their land. Finally they were settled by the Canadians in Grand River Ontario and that’s where about half of them live today (more than 4,000), in Six Nations Reserve. I was there myself a couple of times to see their colourful Pow Wow.
I read that actually lingvistically they were related to the Hurons. Both the Hurons and the Iroquis formed their own confederations before European settlers arrived. Not sure of the origins of their rivalry, but the involvement of Champlain in the conflict on the Huron side made things worse.
The missionary depicted on the mounment is Father Le Caron, who was the first or one of the first priests to arrive from France. He worked among the Hurons, the Algonkin and Montagnais, as priest and teacher. He even published dictionaries in the three languages. Initially the French were welcomed by the Hurons, they were curious of their mission built in Midland, they listened to their teachings, but they were slow to convert to Christianity. Then they started to get sick with European illnesses and dying by the thousands. That’s when they started turning to Christianity, thinking that the missionaries will cure them of disease. When it didn’t happen, it caused a backlash. The mission was constantly attacked by the Iroquis, until finally had to be given up. There is a reconstructed version of it in Midland, Ontario, it was called Sainte-Marie-Among-The-Hurons.
Not sure why the Jesuits were killed, I suppose partly because of the above mentioned, I’ll have to look more into it. I’m sure by the time the news reached Europe, the facts were properly inflated and the “savages” demonized.
I thought the Hurons were completely wiped out by disease and war, but turns out some of them ended up in Kansas and that’s where their descendants live today.
Swallows, I know you’re not much into movies, but I saw a good Canadian film called “Black Robe” that tells the story of the Jesuits at the mission in an objective light, showing both sides and not jumping to conclusions on either side. I would highly recommend it if you can find it.
I could have sworn Tocqueville said he saw the last Iroquois but now when I went to check, lo, the text says Choctaws—he saw a destitute family of Choctaws crossing the icy Mississippi. Sorry. The chapter is called “The actual state and probable future of the Indian tribes that inhabit the territory held by the Union”. Tocqueville here as everywhere is full of facts for which there is often no source given, but he always sounds trustworthy and clairvoyant. I suppose his chapters on the Indians and the slaves are no longer read, not because they are “wrong” but because they are so pessimistic.
I see you are really interested in the Indians and know a lot (unlike me). You must have read that very strange book by George Catlin, and seen his paintings of the Indians. At the end of the nineteenth century, convinced that the great Indian tribes would soon be gone, he went around visiting them and painting portraits of their chiefs and warriors, as well as recording their traditions. Unlike Tocqueville he didn’t sound very trustworthy, yet I was fascinated by the book when I saw it years ago at the American Cultural Center library here.
I’m not sure I can get that movie here but I will ask about it.
Thanks for the history of the Hurons and Iroquois. Were those Hurons “we” deported from Ohio in 1830(?) I think they were sent to North Dakota.
I wouldn’t say I know a lot, but yes, I’m interested in the history and culture of native Indians. The history, the facts are so complicated and confusing. Unfortunately I don’t have enough time to gain in-depth knowledge. I’ll have to look up Tocqueville and Catlin sometime when not too busy.