When we research the founding myths of today’s Quebec, it is certain, as historian Gérard Bouchard writes, that the patriots represent such a moment. However, it would be amputating at least two centuries of our existence on American soil to start this historical research into the founding myths from the first half of the 19th century.and century.
It is important to remember, among other things, that the establishment of the French on American soil was carried out in a spirit of alliance with the Amerindian peoples. An expedition commanded by the navigator François Gravé du Pont, in which the cartographer Samuel de Champlain took part, arrived in Tadoussac at the end of May 1603 at the time when a great tabagie (festivities) was being held there bringing together Algonquian peoples: Montagnais- Innu and Chief Anadabijou, Algonquins of Outaouais and Chief Tessouat, as well as Etchemins. This expedition carried a royal proposal for an alliance with France. This proposal was ratified, and the great chief Anadabijou invited the French to come and populate their lands and help them fight their traditional Iroquois enemies.
This pact of diplomatic alliance, held according to Amerindian customs in May 1603 in Tadoussac, must be considered and celebrated as a founding myth of New France, as a moment, as an achievement of great importance in the complex history that led to the birth of today’s Quebec.
Without this founding event, permanent French colonization might not have been possible later. This is how today’s Quebecers are settled on a territory that they were invited to share as early as 1603. It is not a territory originally conquered by arms or a territory that Native Americans were forced to cede and leave in the 17thand century.
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