The National Battlefields Commission (NBCC) discreetly removed a commemorative plaque evoking the torture of Iroquois warriors by Hurons on the Plains of Abraham, in the 17the century.
“We suggest unbolting the plate as soon as possible before having a complaint,” we read in one of the internal exchanges of the NBC obtained by The duty under the Access to Information Act. “The plaque is problematic and refers to racist prejudices,” specifies a statement of the situation appended to the email.
The granite stele on which the plaque rested was located on one of the highest points in Quebec, between the citadel and the National Assembly. “On this historic site of Cape Diamant, the Hurons, rightly using reprisals, burned the captured Iroquois alive, indicated the inscription until its removal in April 2022. All, without fail until the last breath, and by way of defiance, sang their song of death. »
The Huron-Wendats were unaware of the existence of this plaque, which is now stored among the NBC artifacts. “We are not at all inconvenienced to learn that it has been withdrawn,” comments the political attaché in the office of the Grand Chief of the Huron-Wendat nation, Rose-Marie Ayotte.
The anthropologist Roland Viau also approves of the dismantling of this monument, which he had noticed during his studies at Laval University in the mid-1970s. The plaque had then just been redone, the previous one having been taken away by metal thieves.
“I agree to remove it,” explains Mr. Viau, “but the plaque still evoked a historical fact. » However, this episode of the Franco-Iroquois wars of the 17the century did not quite unfold as the text indicated, observes the specialist, “the Iroquois” being reduced in fact to a single man, who was finally finished off by another Iroquois, at the request of the woman of the intendant of New France…
Enigma
The duty toured 17th century specialistse Canadian century to determine what is the obscure event that was believed to be essential to the point of dedicating a monument to it in 1940. It is generally agreed that the text of the plaque refers to an episode mentioned by Baron de Lahontan in his New trips to North America.
The year is 1692. A Franco-Huron detachment routes a party of 60 Iroquois on the Haut-Saint-Laurent, upstream of Montreal. The 12 survivors were brought back to Quebec, where their fate was decided by the governor of New France. “Mr. de Frontenac very judiciously condemned the two most wicked of the gang to be burned alive and slowly,” writes Lahontan. The governor’s decision scandalized the wife of the intendant Jean Bochart de Champigny, Marie-Madeleine. “There was no supplication that this lady did not make to try to have this terrible sentence moderated. »
The condemned are preparing to make “the journey to the other world” when a passerby, moved by their fate, throws a knife through the bars of their cell. “The less courageous of the two plunged it into his breast, from which he died immediately,” reports Lahontan. His fellow prisoner rejects this shortcut to death with disdain.
“Some young Hurons from Lorette, aged 14 to 15, came to take the other, and brought it to Cap au Diamant, where they had taken the precaution of making a large pile of wood. » At the forefront of the tragedy, Lahontan sees the unfortunate man pass by. “He rushed to his death with more indifference than Socrates would have done, had he found himself in such a situation. »
Martyr
The torture matches the desire for revenge of the Hurons who found refuge in Quebec in the middle of the 17th century.e century to escape attacks from their Iroquois neighbors on the Great Lakes. “The Hurons remember it,” explains Mr. Viau, “it’s only been a generation. »
For almost three hours, the condemned man will sing to mask his moans. “I can swear to you with all truth that he shed neither tears nor sighs, on the contrary, while he suffered the most horrible torments that one could invent,” writes Lahontan.
The martyr takes advantage of a break to denounce his former cellmate, whom he calls a “coward” for “having killed himself through fear of torment”. The warrior thus seeks to prove his worth. “It is not true that you are going to overcome my psychological resistance,” explains Mr. Viau, putting himself in the shoes of the victim who is scalped.
The executioners were about to pour burning sand on the living flesh of his skull when a “huron slave” finished him off with a club. “He unloaded on his head by order of Mr.me the steward to put an end to her martyrdom,” relates the baron.
The aristocrat did not understand the status of the man who held the mace. “Lahontan does not distinguish between adopted captives and enslaved captives,” emphasizes Viau. The Huron-Wendats would never have authorized a slave to put an end to the torture, especially since his tormentors had not managed to overcome his psychological resistance. »
Lahontan has already left the scene at the moment when the tortured Iroquois is shot: “As for me, I swear to you that the prelude to this tragedy filled me with so much horror that I did not have the curiosity to see the end of it. »
The captive’s torture shakes the baron’s French compatriots. “They were shocked because we did not torture for the same reasons in Europe,” explains Roland Viau. Corporal abuse was practiced there, as much as among the Aboriginal people, but for the Europeans, it was rational because it was linked to political crimes… or witchcraft. »