New France: The Huron Confederacy and The Jesuits (1634-1650)

In the 17th Century, the mighty Huron Confederacy, or Wendat Confederacy consisted of several Iroquoian speaking nations who held a monopoly on the fur trade from all points North and West headed to New France. Both the French and the Wendat became economically dependent on one another and the acceptance of Jesuit missionaries into the lands of the Confederacy in the 1630’s a French precondition to keep the Fur flowing. Despite their best intentions the Jesuits cause a rift among the Wendat and and the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) seeks to assimilate the Wendat, take over their territory and monopolize the trade for themselves. The ensuing war has left us with perhaps the most graphically depicted acts of torture from the Colonial Period, not for the faint of heart.