ANTECEDENTS
The Stories of Us!
"Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.”
― Linda Hogan, Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World
The Nicolas Godé Story
Un Engagé, Pionnier, & Premier Colon de la Montréal
Part 3: Death & Legacy
On October 25, 1657 Nicolas Godé with his son-in-law, Jean Saint-Père (m. Mathurine Godé)and Jaques Noël, a servant, were roofing their house when they were killed by the Iroquois. Godé and Noël were shot and scalped; Saint-Père was beheaded. They were buried that same day, according to their death records later housed at Notre Dame Church of Montreal.
Nicolas Godé was 74 years old. He had emigrated when he was 58 and lived in North America for 16 years.
François Dollier de Casson (1636-1701), Sulpician and first Montreal historian, recounts the tragedy, translation follows:
Cet “…homme d’une piété aussi solide, d’un esprit aussi vif et tout ensemble […] d’un jugement aussi excellent qu’on ait vu ici” connu une fin tragique, le 25 octobre 1657. Alors que la paix régnait depuis peu entre les Français et les Iroquois, un groupe d’Onneiouts ; se présenta chez Nicolas Godé, lequel était occupé avec son gendre, Jean de Saint-Père et leur serviteur, Jacques Noël, à bâtir une maison. Les Français reçurent fort civilement les visiteurs, leur donnant même à manger. Venus sous le couvert de la paix et de l’amitié, mais nourrissant de perfides desseins, les Iroquois attendirent que leurs hôtes, remontés sur le toit, fussent à portée de leurs arquebuses pour les faire “tomber comme des moineaux”. Achevant leur oeuvre, les Onneiouts scalpèrent Godé et Noël, mais coupèrent la tête de Saint-Père qu’ils emportèrent “pour avoir sa belle chevelure”.
This “…man of such solid piety, of such lively spirit and altogether […] of such excellent judgment as we have seen here” came to a tragic end on October 25, 1657. While peace recently reigned between the French and the Iroquois, a group of Oneiouts; presented himself to Nicolas Godé, who was busy with his son-in-law, Jean de Saint-Père and their servant, Jacques Noël, building a house. The French received the visitors very civilly, even giving them something to eat. Coming under cover of peace and friendship, but harboring perfidious designs, the Iroquois waited until their hosts, back on the roof, were within range of their arquebuses to make them “fall like sparrows”. Completing their work, the Oneiouts shot and scalped Godé and Noël, but cut off the head of Saint-Père, which they took away “to have his beautiful hair” .
Source: Robert Bérubé: Blogue-Blog
BACK IN TIME
1600-1700
First Pioneers Obelisk
Montreal Settled
French settlers first landed in the Quebec province in 1642-1643, and a year later they moved south to build Fort Ville-Marie, or Montreal as it was later named. Over the next 50 years, hostilities between the Native Peoples and the French settlers erupted as threats to Iroquois land, livelihood, and security increased and the Europeans founded permanent settlements in Nouvelle France. After decades of warfare, peace was tentatively established between the French and Native Peoples in 1701 with the adoption of the Great Peace. However, tensions among the French settlers, British colonists, and Native Peoples soon escalated into a global confrontation for control of the contested frontier, in what is more commonly referred to as the Seven Years War. By the 1760s, the French officially ceded the territory to Great Britain, who were nothing more than perfunctory allies of the Iroquois. Worse was to come for the Iroquois, as the European presence in North American became firmly rooted n Canada. and the French population grew to approximately 70,000 people by the late 1700s.
This First Pioneers' Obelisk in Montreal honors these first French pioneers to New France, including Nicolas Godé and his family.
1700-1800
Historic Contact Period
Legacy of Colonialism
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Information on the "Historic Contact" period about encounters between Native Peoples and European colonists abound in early Jesuit and European histories that have chronicled the missions, life, and experiences of settling Northeast regions of Canada and the US. In contrast, little exists or is known about Haudenosaunee life in their ancestral homeland or their perspective of the Historic Contact, whether in literature, museum collections, architectural records, ethnohistory, or oral and witness histories.
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Over the Historic Contact period, disease, warfare and migration depleted Native populations, and those Natives who lived near colonial expansion were most impacted by the struggle for control over the land. The legacy of colonialism was beginning even as wars became more increasingly lethal, frequent, and bitter and as colonists sought more control over land and Native Peoples. New France may have been at a crossroad during this Historic Contact, but its Native past would shortly be consigned to history.
As later versions of encounters came to light, they told clearly debatable, fantastical, and distorted stories of European histories, expressing colonial sentiments, one-sided perspectives, and outrageous claims. And, indeed, such stories surround the death of Nicolas Godé, Jean Saint-Père, and Jacques Noël. Read the description by Dollier, the first Montreal historian, above and look how his words slant to the European perspective as an example of writing history in one's own image. In fact, shortly after their deaths, stories circulated, without evidence, that characterized lunch with the Natives on that fateful October day in 1657 as a civil, non-provocative encounter and the crazy tale that the severed head of Jean Saint-Père talked to the Native Peoples.
It is only now, centuries later, that the Historic Contact period is viewed in context, bringing into line the diverse cultural, economic, political, religious, and ethnohistoric struggles for survival.
TODAY
Nicolas Godé
Lineage & Legacy
Nicolas Godé was among 327 emigrants from the Perche region of France who moved to Quebec during the 17th and 18th centuries. The timeline below shows the number of Percheron settlers - the first Pioneers of Montreal - who arrived in Quebec between 1621 and 1699. Readers, you can go to www.perche-quebec.com to view all the famous people who descend from Nicolas Godé and read about their genealogical connections. You may also wonder what inspired his decision to emigrate? What motivated him to board a ship, cross the vast Atlantic, and settle in an unfamiliar and hostile land? Sadly, we don't know.
What we do know is that Nicolas Godé was a master carpenter. He was old - 58 years when he emigrated with his wife and 4 children. In Nouvelle France, he would build a home, build a settlement, and build a destiny. And he would lay a path to us. Our family are descendants of Nicolas Godé through his daughter Francoise and her husband, Jean Desroches and their son, Nicolas Desroches. Here in this historical and ancestral landscape, our lives entwine. Destiny indeed.
TIMELINE - Number of Perche Emigrants to Nouvelle France in 1600
Nicolas Godé would die in 1657, killed by a Native war party while roofing his house, along with his son-in-law and servant. This tragedy precipitated the Fourth Iroquois War, but more than anything, highlighted the profound lack of trust, understanding, and regard between the French and Native Peoples.
We can't change the past. But we can move into the future with deeper learning. While there is nothing to celebrate with the death of Nicolas Godé, we recognize the lasting legacy of our antecedent. Given the relations between the French and Native Peoples within this historical landscape, we acknowledge the tragic inheritance of colonization and carry within us the resilience of all these peoples, French and Native, in their struggles for survival.
As for Nicolas Godé, we descendants are testament to his choosing his own path into the future.
Source: www.perche-quebec.com
Fitz Fest 2022
References:
2. Historic Contact: Indian People and Colonists in Today's Northeastern United States in the Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries by Robert S. Grumet
Your Fyre Shall Burn No More: Iroquois Policy towards New France and Its Native Allies to 1701 by José António Brandāo
The Causes of the Fourth Iroquois War by Raoul Naroll. Duke University Press: Ethnohistory. Winter, 1969, Vol 16, No 1 (Winter 1969). pp. 51-81. JSTOR.