Hochelagans and Mohawks - A Link in Iroquois History by W. D. (William Douw) Lighthall
page 18 of 22 (81%)
page 18 of 22 (81%)
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them a sort of alliance very useful to both." They gave grain for
game and armed aid, and thus both lived long on good terms. At last a disagreement rose in a joint party of 12 young hunters, on account of the Iroquois succeeding while the Algonquins failed in the chase. The Algonquins, therefore, maliciously tomahawked the Iroquois in their sleep. Thence arose the war. In 1608, according to Ferland[12] based evidently upon the statement of Champlain, the remnant of the Hochelagans left in Canada occupied the triangle above Montreal now bounded by Vandreuil, Kingston and Ottawa. This perhaps indicates it as the upper part of their former territory. Sanson's map places them at about the same part of the Ottawa in the middle of the seventeenth century and identifies them with La Petite Nation, giving them as "Onontcharonons ou La Petite Nation". That remnant accompanied Champlain against the Iroquois, being of course under the influence of their masters the Hurons and Algonquins. Doubtless their blood is presently represented among the Huron and Algonquin mission Indians of Oka, Lorette, Petite Nation, etc., and perhaps among those of Caughnawaga and to some extent, greater or less, among the Six Nations proper. From the foregoing outline of their history, it does not appear as if the Hochelagans were exactly the Mohawks proper. It seems more likely that by 1560, settlements, at first mere fishing-parties, then fishing-villages, and later more developed strongholds with agriculture, had already been made on Lake Champlain by independent offshoots of the Hochelagan communities, of perhaps some generations standing, and not unlikely by arrangement with the Algonquins of the Lake similar to the understanding on the river St. Lawrence, as peace and travel appear to have existed there. The bonds of confederacy between village and village |
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