OAS ARCH NOTES 84-3:33-35
1984
John Steckley
In the Jesuit Relations there are two references to a group of people heretofore unidentified. Brebeuf in 1635 wrote of his delight in discovering that Huron was understood1 by twelve other “Nations” that were “settled and numerous” (JR8:115). First on the list were the “Conkhandeenrhonons”; following them the Petun, Neutral, Five Nations of the Iroquois, Andaste, the mysterious “Scahentoarrhonons”, Erie and Wenro. In 1640 Vimont, writing in residence in Quebec and taking the names from a map Ragueneau gave him, records in a similar listing the “Konkhandeenhronon” (JR18:237).
William Beauchamp felt that these people were Champlain’s ‘Carantouans’ or perhaps a branch of the Seneca (JR*:302 fn34). Elisabeth Tooker more realistically suggested that they may have been one of the branches of the Neutral (Tooker 1964:16-7 fn17). With the help of linguistic evidence, a different interpretation can be made.
Toponymic Evidence
The verb employed in the name of this people, -nde,en-, occurs elsewhere in the ethnohistorical record in a slightly different form2. And there is no coincidence in this. For, as we will see, they both refer to the same phenomenon. The second form appears in Sagard as follows:
“After we had had two or three days of refreshment with our brethern in our little convent, we went up in the pinnaces by the same river, St. Lawrence as far as Cape Victory, which the Hurons call Onthrandeen, for the trading. For there a great number of savages of different tribes were encamped.” (Sagard 1939:53; see also p231)
This Cape Victory (or Massacre) is on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, near where it meets the Richelieu (Sagard 1939:53 fn2; and JR29:293 fn1). The name Cape Victory or Massacre alludes to the victory by Champlain and the allied forces of the Huron, Algonkin and Montagnais over the Iroquois in 1610 on the Richelieu River.
Second mention of this toponym is in the Jesuits Journal of 1647, an entry for April beginning with:
“About the 18th of the month arrives a man of Kontrande, en from 3 rivers, to convene all the Hurons who were here, and invite them to go to war.” (JR30:165)
A third and somewhat misleading reference appears in Sanson d’Abbeville’s map of 1656 (see Heidenreich 1971 Map 9), where the name “Chonchra deen” (split in the text) appears in the area east of the Trent River.
Meaning of the Name
The verb used in both names means ‘to join, be joined’, as, for example in the name “Tehonressandeen” meaning ‘his hands are joined, or he joins his hands’ (the name of the horned oki that the Huron culture hero Ioskeha became when he wanted to trick his grandmother Aata,entsik; see JR10:135). In Potier’s dictionary we find the followinq form derived from the verb by the addition of a semi-reflexive marker and what may be an ’empty’ noun:
“k8-atrande,en…se mettre, s’asseoir, se placer, l’un pres de l’aut/re/…etre l’un pres de l’autre-etre mari et fem/me/;…/to place oneself, to sit one near another, to be one near another, to be man and wife/.” (Potier 1920:282)
Presenting this in the form recorded in the literature cited above, we have ‘kontrande,en’, meaninq ‘they join or are joined together’. Significantly this solely designates a human meeting or joining, not one of river, peninsula or other geographical entity. In the name of the people, the -ronnon- suffix is added, giving the meaning: ‘the people of those who join or are joined together’ (see Sagard 1939:67 and Potier 1920:66 #7).
The Joining
What does the joining refer to? Two sources are useful in answering this question: Champlain and Sagard. In June of 1610, Champlain was to meet the combined Huron/Algonkin forces at the mouth of the Richelieu River. They were soon to encounter the Iroquois in the battle mentioned above. There is no reference to any “settled and numerous” people being there. It could be that the Huron and their allies arranged to meet there because it was a well-established meeting place.
Sagard, as we have seen above, referred to the place as one where “a great number of savages of different tribes were encamped” in order for an important trade to take place (see Sagard 1939:53, 56, 154 and 231, for reference to that trade). Again, it is suggested that they met at this place as it was a well-established neutral ground for the Huron and various Algonkians to get together, readily accessible to all concerned; the logical place for what might well be termed a ‘trade fair’. That the language spoken was Huron should not be surprising, as it seems to have been the lingua franca of trade whenever the Huron were involved (see Sagard 1939:9 and 86).
The Kontrande,enronnon, then, were probably not a distinct people, but a temporary but significant gathering of different peoples wishing to achieve mutually beneficial ends of trade or warfare. As trade patterns changed through time, reflecting the economic power of the French and the military effectiveness of the Iroquois, the site would have doubtless lost its usefulness.
Footnotes
| 1 – | Probably meaning that Iroquoian as opposed to Algonkian languages were spoken by these people. |
| 2 – | The -kh/thr- difference in the orthography represents a dialect difference with the palatals kY and tY then existing in Huron. This distinction later could be found between Wyandot and Lorette Huron. |
References Cited
Champlain, Samuel de
1925 The Works of Samuel de Champlain vol. 2 H.P. Biggar ed., Toronto, The Champlain Society.
Potier, Pierre
1920 “Radices Huronicae” in The Fifteenth Report of the Bureau of Archives for the Province of Ontario, Toronto, C.W.James, pp l59-455.
Sagard, Gabriel
1939 The Long Journey to the Country of the Hurons, Toronto, The Champlain Society.
Thwaites, Reuben Gold
1896- The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, 73 volumes, Cleveland, The Burrows 1901 Bros. Co.
Tooker, Elisabeth
An Ethnography of the Huron Indians 1615-1649, Washington, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bull. 90.
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