Etienne brule biography sample

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In fact Sagard recounts that “at about 80 or 100 leagues from the Hurons, there is a copper mine, from which the Interpreter Brûlé showed me an ingot when he returned from a voyage that he made to the neighbouring Nation with a certain Grenolle.” The two companions may then have gone via the St. Marys River as far as Lake Superior. It would have been difficult to bring such a body onto holy ground, particularly one that led such a scandalous life and gave the Savages such a bad impression of the customs of the French ^{(NOTE 2)}".

A Matter of Interpretation

Brûlé played both a marginal and a central role in the history of New France.

Pursued by epidemics, they might have attributed the cause of these misfortunes to a curse put on them by the avenging spirit of the dead man’s sister or brother. "The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815." Cambridge University Press, 1991.

This version was used until the 1950s when it even appeared in the biography of Samuel de Champlain written by Narcisse-Eutrope Dionne. However, considering the same facts today, Brûlé is now considered as being adventurous, courageous and audacious if not even "noble".

Stéphanie St-Pierre

Doctoral Student (Université de Montréal) and university Instructor (Université Laurentienne)

NOTES

Note 1: Their traditional territory covered what is now the states of Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia.

One day, recounts Sagard, when Brûlé was in danger of death, the only prayer he was able to recite was the Benedicite.

Étienne Brûlé: The Remarkable Life and Mysterious Death of the First European to Explore the Great Lakes

In the early 1600s, as the great powers of Europe raced to explore and claim the New World, a young Frenchman named Étienne Brûlé became one of the most important yet enigmatic figures in the early history of North America.

However, beyond formal history, he has developed a following that considers him as a hero from New France. Brûlé continued his work as an intermediary, working with various Native groups. The Huron's role as intermediary with respect to the French was very lucrative in the fur trade. You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work Under the following conditions: attribution – You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

That year, the Algonquins were spending the winter in Huronia (or land of the Hurons). The historian A.G. Zeller, however, questions the truth of the part of Brûlé’s account relating to the miracle. The presence of copper mines in this region, which Indigenous peoples had long worked, provides further circumstantial evidence that Brûlé had ventured into or along the shores of what is now the Upper Peninsula.

There is no indication that he had. But Brûlé's wanderlust did not end there. Others propose that he may have been caught up in a broader backlash against the increasing French presence in the region, as the Huron began to resent the growing influence of European traders and missionaries.

Still others have speculated that Brûlé may have been a victim of foul play by rival French traders, or even that he faked his own death and lived out his days among the tribes of the Upper Great Lakes.

According to historian Eric Jay Dolin in his book "Fur, Fortune, and Empire":

In the 1620s, the French were shipping out an average of 15,000 to 20,000 beaver pelts annually. He learned the Algonquin language "very well," according to Champlain, and quickly became an indispensable intermediary and interpreter between the French and various Indigenous nations.