SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN; HIS WISDOM ENDURES
Lessons from history
By Robert Lawrence
This brief essay about Champlain is circa 1600s, however, it is really about his history and influence on Indigenous communities in these early years and how they should be a model for today.
Students of that period will know Champlain favored and promoted the idea of integration between the French explorers and traders and the various Indian tribes that he encountered in their travels in the St. Lawrence Valley and Acadia and the Hudson River and the Ottawa River regions.
He was respected and trusted by most of the chiefs (maybe all of them) because he encouraged them to adopt many of the social and religious values he brought with him from France. The Indians gradually saw the advantages of the elementary rule of law within their own tribe and in dealings with competing tribes. It wasn't long before Champlain and the chiefs were exchanging young people who would learn the languages and values of each other's ways. It was never Champlain's intention to operate independently with the various Indian Bands he dealt with. A 'two-nation' concept was the last thing he wanted.
As communities developed in Acadia and around Quebec and Three Rivers and as trading expanded up the Ottawa River through Nipissing and even to the Sault and as agriculture started to expand in what became Southern Ontario, integration and some forms of standardization gradually started to form. Champlain's constant formula was that of integration (not assimilation) based on a respect for many of the native abilities that the Indians possessed.
Amidst all of the progress that was made by Champlain there was rather steady conflict and war occurring in Europe between the French and the English which spilled over into what became North America. Charles I and Louis XIII were constantly at odds over a whole range of issues that never seemed to get resolved . Charles I had married Louis XIII sister and was promised a dowry of 2,400,000 livres (each worth one pound of silver) which hadn't been fully paid and they were fighting over this for a long time and all this slowed down Champlain's plans for the integration that he had begun with the Indians.
Champlain kept striving for his dream for New France and promoted marriage liaisons between the young French settlers and young Indian girls they met in their trading contacts with the various tribes. These unions were creating a Metis culture which was in fact the first group of independent peoples who were not transplants from other parts of the world. This period of growth in New France under Champlain's guidance was creating a growing sense of interdependence between the French and the Indians without any notion of a 'two nation' structure in this part of North America.
Two things happened to change this. The French- English wars intensified and Cardinal Richelieu withdrew his support for Champlain which was always tentative to begin with. Champlain wasn't born into 'nobleman circles' which were paramount to Richelieu and then unfortunately, Champlain had a stroke in mid October of 1635.
Richelieu appointed Charles Montmagny as Champlain's replacement. He governed New France for twelve years from a stone fortress in Quebec City. On Richelieu's orders he ignored Champlain's Indian policy and the country again became involved in bloody, savage Indian wars.
Today we need to take some lessons from this brief history. Canada has a few million Indians distributed on Reserves all across the country. Many of these Reserves border both urban and rural Canadian communities and are progressive and self-sustaining. Many other Reserves are in remote, isolated areas that are beyond the reach of services and opportunities for those who live there. It is heartbreaking to see how these young people are left out of the mainstream of modern life.
If Champlain could come back today he would be appalled at how his formula for the integration of all peoples in the country has been largely abandoned. Instead we have set in place structures of isolation and separation; things like the Indian Act and the Reserve System. We have created a 'Two Nation' system in Canada that has served neither 'nation' well. Making matters worse, government policy since the Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples, has evolved to where the over 600 reserve communities are now considered to be separate nations existing in parallel with Canada.
All the evidence points to the need for a return to Champlain's insightful formula for the integration of our two cultures. To ignore the obvious is to invite a drift toward anarchy and chaos. People who are currently in power, like Justin Trudeau and Marc Miller and many others like them, foolishly think they can buy peace with our Indigenous friends with whom we share this land.
We should be building more statues honoring people like Champlain…not tearing them down. Brave and intelligent individuals from our past had wisdom we would do well to copy. Canada is too precious to be divided both physically and racially….we must never let it happen.
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Thanks for reading. For more history of the Metis people, read Michelle Stirling’s Canoe Sheds, Truth, and Reconciliation
BREAKING NEWS: James Pew has contributed a chapter to the new book Grave Error: How The Media Misled us (And the Truth about Residential Schools). You can read about it here - The Rise of Independent Canadian Researchers
Also, for more evidence of the ideological indoctrination in Canadian education, read Yes, schools are indoctrinating kids! And also, Yes, The University is an Indoctrination Camp!
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In my lifetime Canada has transformed from a predominately white anglo-saxon community to a successful cross section of the united nations. One need only visit the local mall to see the multitude of ethnicities that have integrated favorably into Canadian society. The exception to this transition is the self imposed exile of our indigenous communities who prefer, to their detriment, isolation over integration. Certainly there has been opportunities for change which they have consistently rejected giving credence to the axiom, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink".
"When you are equal with another person, the problem of integration doesn't even arise." ~ Malcolm X
I agree fully: “Instead we have set in place structures of isolation and separation; things like the Indian Act and the Reserve System. We have created a 'Two Nation' system in Canada that has served neither 'nation' well. Making matters worse, government policy since the Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples, has evolved to where the over 600 reserve communities are now considered to be separate nations existing in parallel with Canada.”