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213 TheStoRy of theBell,1882 Mrs. E. A. Smith T  is an early transcription of an oral tradition still present at Kahnawake (figure 16). With the probable exception of the final paragraph, it is not a word-for-word version of what was said. The transcriber, “Mrs. E. A. Smith,” did some interpolation of her own as she wrote the story up. It is hard to imagine that a Mohawk would have so condescending an attitude toward the spirituality of his or her own ancestors as is evident in the text. Instead, the author’s attitude reflects an elite disdain for popular religious attitudes and practices that seem somewhat naïve or unorthodox to someone more learned in theology. These interpolations may well be the result of conversations between Mrs. Smith and the local priest. The account’s representation of the Mohawks as somewhat childlike as well as its clear admiration for the near saintlike character of “Father Nicolas” can thus be considered a re- flection of the mentality of the priest and writer rather than the Mohawks. The identity of the writer is something of a mystery. Most likely it was Elizabeth Oakes Smith (1806–1893), a writer, speaker, and women’s rights activist born in what is now Maine in 1806. She spent most of her literary career in New York City. Challenging the established social order also led her to question her religious origins. Raised a New England Congregationalist, she turned first to Unitarianism and then to Catholicism later in her life. This religious journey, as well as a lifelong interest in history, seems to have drawn her to the story of the bell. In 1875 she published a dramatic retelling of the story in the widely read Potter’s American Monthly. Perhaps this text represents notes she took on a trip to Canada before she wrote her published version. It resembles the published version, though it differs in the attention that it pays to the Mohawks’ actions. Perhaps 1882 was the date she turned the manuscript in to the Bureau of American Ethnology, which was not established until 1879. Neither the bureau nor any other organization has previously published this manuscript. The text is not an accurate recounting of historical facts. As the historian Geoffrey Buerger has established, there is no evidence to support the basic story of thebell.TherewasinfactnobellinDeerfieldtobetaken.HerteldeRouville’s Mrs. E. A. Smith, “Legend of the Deerfield Massacre and the events leading to it, including the story of the bell in the town of the church at Deerfield, and its transfer to the Mission at Caughnawaga , 1882,” manuscript, Bureau of American Ethnology, copy in curatorial files, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield, Mass. 214              rank is misrepresented, and he did not travel in a carriage. No Jesuit, nor any other Catholic priest, joined the raid on Deerfield. Furthermore, the French soldiers on the raid, as well as the Native warriors, used snowshoes. The anecdote about rushing forward in spurts is an interesting interjection of a piece of local Deerfield lore about the attack that dates to at least the mid 1700s.1 In the end, the blurring of chronology—the quick leap from the time of the mission’s founding in 1669 to the Deerfield raid in 1704—and the ubiquitous presence of Father Louis Nicolas (long after he had died) clearly indicate that this story’s function is more mythical than historical. Buerger makes a compelling case that the story originated with the Reverend Eleazer Williams, Eunice Williams’s great-grandson (1788–1858) and passed from him into the legends of New England , Canada, and eventually the Mohawk community at Kahnawake.2 Buerger suggests that the tale was popular among American writers for its anti-Catholic overtones. But there are also reasons why aspects of it would have made sense to Mohawks. The story clearly resonated at Kahnawake because it recounted an important period of the community’s history in terms that made sense in the nineteenth century. This can be said about both the overall structure of the story and the individual misrepresentations. For example, the anecdote about snowshoes shows Mohawk men to be wiser and more adept at life in the forests than the French. The story helps define Kahnawake’s role in the colonial wars. Important for this effort is the role of “Father Nicholas.” While no Jesuit from Kahnawake accompanied the Deerfield raid, by having him lead a “division...

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