Nation Iroquoise: A Seventeenth-Century Ethnography of the Iroquois (review)

Although the Five Nations Iroquois were a powerful force in North American history, written sources on the Iroquois, and the Oneida specifically, are finite. The pivotal and most commonly used sources are those created by the Jesuits. As such, a previously little-known and rarely cited document has great potential to add to our understanding of Iroquoian culture and history as well as offer a non-Jesuit perspective. Thus Nation Iroquoise, despite its anonymous authorship and date, has promise.

The Nation Iroquoise, edited and translated by José António Brandão with the assistance of K. Janet Rich, provides readers with a readily accessible document that details aspects of Oneida life and culture. As a professor in the Department of History at Western Michigan University and a seventeenth-century Iroquoian specialist, Brandão is well qualified to bring the neglected Nation Iroquoise document to light. Brandão initially found a 1931 transcription of the document while researching his dissertation in the National Archives of Canada. He later discovered the original, deposited in 1789, at the Bibliothèque Mazarine in Paris. It is this 'original' scribal copy that Brandão draws upon for his published edition.

While Brandão admits it is impossible to confirm the date or authorship of the manuscript, he offers a compelling argument that René Cuillerier, a former Oneida captive, created the document sometime in 1664 at the behest of the Sulpicians. If he is correct, scholars will want to judge for themselves this compelling record of the mid-seventeenth-century Oneida.

Despite its promise, a more detailed contextualization of the document, its authorship, and Iroquoian society is necessary. Brandão's concise discussion of the document's original author and date leads to a certain amount of skepticism. Similarly, his discussion of Iroquoian culture and warfare needs further development to adequately prepare a non-specialist for the document.

Nation Iroquoise is organized into ten categories. The majority of the sections are the standard seventeenth-century fare that, while interesting, merely complements more extant sources. Beginning with a discussion of village location and regional resources, the author then provides ethnographic detail of Iroquois religion, government, intelligence, superstitions, and mourning practices. By far the most interesting and thoughtful description of the Iroquois focuses on their governing practices. Different types of councils are detailed, as well as who can call them, when they can be called, who is or is not invited, and their internal dynamics. In effect, as Brandão notes, the Nation Iroquoise reads like a how-to manual for Iroquoian politics. This section nicely contributes to written and oral accounts of a contemporary and historic nature dealing with council procedures. Also of great interest are the mental and verbal lapses by the original author's rendering of specific Iroquoian terms into French. One example which relates to the welcoming of prisoners by a village is found on pages 80-1: 'they give the greeting (that is their term)' or 'ils donñet la salüade (c'est leur terme).' The awkwardness found in the French text is often transposed into English, purposefully by Brandão, to maintain textual integrity and to permit consideration of whether or not it is the result of poor linguistic skills or examples of Iroquoian turn of phrase internalized by the author (44).

Brandão's editorial hand is welcome in the endnotes, where more precise interpretation, explanation, or clarification is needed, although the notes would have been more readily accessible as footnotes. This criticism however relates to the publishing world rather than Brandão's work. An unusual but useful feature of the book is the appearance of the original text immediately opposite the translation. By placing the French and English texts opposite each other, Brandão and University of Nebraska Press are emulating Reuben Gold Thwaites's Jesuit Relations, which allows both non-French and French...