St. Lawrence Iroquoians - The Demise of The St. Lawrence Iroquoians

The Demise of The St. Lawrence Iroquoians

The archeologist Anthony Wonderley found 500-year-old ceramic pipes in present-day Jefferson County, New York that were associated with the St. Lawrence Iroquoians and the tribes of the Haudenosaunee. Their use appear to have been related to diplomatic visits among the peoples, and he suggests they indicate a territory of interaction that may have preceded the Iroquois confederacy. Related design elements and long recounting in Iroquois oral histories have been significant.

By the time the explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived and founded Quebec in 1608, he found no trace of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians and settlements visited by Cartier some 75 years earlier. Historians and other scholars have developed several theories about their disappearance: devastating wars with the Iroquois tribes to the South or with the Hurons to the West, the impact of epidemics of Old World diseases, or their migration westward toward the shores of the Great Lakes. Innis guessed that the northern hunting Indians around Tadoussac traded furs for European weapons and used these to push the farming Indians south.

Archeological evidence and the historical context of the time point most strongly to wars with the neighbouring Iroquois tribes, particularly the Mohawk. Located in eastern and central New York, they had the most to gain in war against the St. Lawrence Iroquians, as they had the least advantageous territorial position in the area in relation to hunting and the fur trade along the St. Lawrence River. French trading was then based at Tadoussac, downstream at the mouth of the Saguenay River, within the territory of the Montagnais. The Mohawk wanted to get more control of the St. Lawrence trade routes connecting to the Europeans. During this period, Champlain reported that the Algonquian peoples were fearful of the powerful Iroquois. The historian Bruce G. Trigger believes the political dynamics were such that the Huron were unlikely to enter Iroquois territory to carry out an attack against the St. Lawrence people to the north. In the mid- to late-16th century, the St. Lawrence Valley was likely an area of open conflict among tribes closer to the river. Because nothing remained of their settlements, the St. Lawrence Iroquoians appeared to have been overwhelmed by other groups. Some St. Lawrence Iroquoian survivors may have joined the neighbouring Mohawk and Algonquin tribes, by force or by mutual agreement.

By the time Champlain arrived, the Algonquins and Mohawks were both using the Saint-Lawrence Valley for hunting grounds, as well as a route for war parties and raiding. Neither nation had any permanent settlements upriver above Tadoussac, the trading post in the lower St. Lawrence Valley which had been important for years in the fur trade.