Samuel de Champlain and the Indiansby Jay Craven
Caro Thomson’s handsome new documentary, “The Lake Between,” will be shown at 8pm, Wednesday, December 3rd on Vermont Public Television. The film shows how, unlike more aggressive Dutch, Spanish, and English explorers, Champlain worked to foster cooperation and forge alliances with various indigenous tribes, especially the Huron, Algonquin, Abenaki, and Montagnais. Historian David Hackett Fischer writes in his book that these humane impulses toward native people were motivated by Champlain’s visits throughout the Spanish Empire from 1599 to 1601. According to Fischer, Champlain was “shocked” by the brutal treatment he saw toward African slaves and Indians. “He made a written report to the king,” writes Fischer in a July 3rd New York Times op-ed, “with his own vivid paintings of Indians burned alive by the Inquisition, beaten by priests for not attending Mass, and exploited as forced laborers.” In New France, Champlain vowed to foster a different model “where people lived at peace with others unlike themselves.”
“The Lake Between” is beautifully filmed and it painstakingly re-creates an authentic panorama of the Champlain Valley during the 17th and 18th centuries. Filmmaker Thompson has assembled a stunning array of costumes and artifacts and she handles her actors with appropriate restraint. I often find re-enactments awkward, an uncomfortable dance between acting and documentary truth. But Thompson’s players nicely illuminate the social, political, military, and agricultural patterns of the times without drawing undue attention to themselves. Thompson also interviews a dozen historians and cultural specialists including Mohawk writer and historian Darren Bonparte who talks about the Iroquois confederation’s matriarchal customs and details living arrangements inside the longhouse. Dartmouth College professor Colin Calloway describes the French/British conflict that spilled into the Champlain region. Calloway and Bonaparte agree that the Indians and Europeans changed each other in profound ways that make North Americans different from Europeans. UVM Canadian studies professor Andre Senacal underlines this historical and cultural legacy of Champlain and the French. Indeed, according to historian Fischer, more than two-thirds of North America’s French inhabitants are “descendants of the 1,100 French women who came to Quebec between 1630 and 1680.” Abenaki scholars Marge Bruchac and Fred Wiseman explain how their fellow “people of the dawn” lived, hunted, and ran their families. Bruchac tells how Champlain’s influence extended all the way to Brattleboro and the Pioneer Valley, as Indians harvested and depleted the region’s entire beaver population for the voracious European trade. In his film, “1609—the Other Side of History,” Fred Wiseman opens with an affecting montage of photos showing Vermont Abenakis over several centuries. And he argues that one possible motivation for Champlain’s lake expedition could have been to oppose Iroquois designs on tribes based east along the Connecticut River. Wiseman also explores the likely role played by local Missisquoi Abenakis during Champlain’s journey—as scouts, guides, and spiritualists. And he adds substantially to Thompson’s impressive array of authentic artifacts and maps, especially as they relate to weapons and the suspenseful confrontation between the Iroquois and Champlain’s party. In his book, “Champlain’s Dream,” David Hackett Fischer writes that during Champlain’s lake journey “tension began to mount as they moved deeper into Mohawk (Iroquois Confederation) territory.” And he details how the tribal leaders looked to medicine men and studied their dreams “which they regarded as an ultimate reality.” The tribal leaders also repeatedly asked Champlain about his dreams. One day, after sleeping on the forest floor, Champlain was approached by Indian leaders “eager for a sign.” Champlain told them he had just dreamed about a lake near a mountain, with “our enemies, the Iroquois, drowning before our eyes.” This image inspired and relieved the natives. “To Champlain’s Indian allies, dreams not only revealed the future. They controlled it. The next night the allies moved forward in a new spirit.” Years later, Champlain observed that the Indian wars were endless and that his assistance to allies as a means for bringing peace had failed. “This war-weary soldier hoped for a new world that would be at peace with itself,” writes Fischer. Fischer extols Champlain’s many skills, as a writer, map-maker, naturalist, soldier, artist, and ethnographer. While writing that Champlain believed natives to be equal to Europeans, Fischer nonetheless notes the explorer’s ethnocentric flaws—assuming, for example, that he could rule indigenous people and colonize them with his superior religion. But this was common practice and Fischer portrays Champlain as an exemplar in his partnership with Indians, belief in justice, opposition to torture (including among Indians), and practice of human rights. For this—and for his singular role as a founding figure in North America, Fischer compares Champlain (in his July op-ed) with no less than America’s own flawed visionary, Thomas Jefferson. Burlington’s Champlain Quadricentennial producer Jay Craven can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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Caro Thompson’s “The Lake Between” illustrates the actual practice of Champlain’s dream, especially through the establishment of a cooperative fur trade and shared security arrangements. Indeed, when Champlain was approached in 1609 by Huron, Algonquin, and Montagnais leaders, he agreed to help the natives in their decades-long conflict with Iroquois warriors who had encroached into their northern territories. Champlain’s trip by canoe into Bitawbagok (Lake Champlain), accompanied by two French soldiers and 60 natives, demonstrated the explorer’s fulfillment of that pledge.