shaman named Mestigoit—the model
for the Mestigoit of the movie. ( The
actual Mestigoit was no dwarf.) Le
Jeune described his relationship with
the “Sorcerer” as one of “open warfare”;
he expected Mestigoit to murder him at
any time. But a closer reading of Le
Jeune’s account suggests that
Mestigoit’s purposes were more
comedic than homicidal. For example,
Le Jeune bitterly complained that
Mestigoitsometimes made me write vulgar
things in his language, assuring me
there was nothing bad in them, then
made me pronounce these shameful
words, which I did not understand, in
the presence of Savages.On other occasions, Le Jeune
wrote, Mestigoittried to make me the laughingstock... [His followers]
continually heaped upon me a thousand taunts and
insults. They were saying to me at every turn sasegau,
“He looks like a Dog;”cou mascoua,“He looks like a
Bear;”cou ouabouchou ouichtoui,“He is bearded like a
Hare;”attimonai oukhimau,“He is Captain of the Dogs;”
cou oucousimas ouchtigonan,“He has a head like a
pumpkin;”matchiriniou,“He is deformed, he is ugly;”
khichcouebeon,“He is drunk.”Le Jeune also complained that the Indians sang all night
long. The songs, accompanied by drums, were “heavy, somber
and unpleasant.” Because Mestigoit was among the loudest
singers, Le Jeune assumed their purpose was to deprive him
of sleep.
Le Jeune, alone and alienated, likely projected his own
sentiments onto the Indians. An alternative reading of this
and similar missionary accounts suggests that the Indians
did not regard their world as harsh and difficult, nor their
lives as grim and solitary. While preparing to leave for a diffi-
cult winter hunt, Le Jeune’s Indians offered him encourage-
ment: “Let thy soul be strong to endure suffering and
hardship; keep thyself from being sad, otherwise thou wilt
be sick; see how we do not cease to laugh, although we
have little to eat?” Indeed, nothing surprised the Indians
more than the joylessness of the Jesuits. How, the Indians
asked, could the Black Robes speak of heaven if they had
never slept with a woman?47The director painstakingly reconstructed Indian villages,
used Indians (who spoke Cree) as actors, and clothed them in
seemingly random layers of textiles and animal skills. This,
too, accorded with the accounts of missionaries, one of
whom was surprised that the Indians used the same clothing
for men and women.“They care only to stay warm,” he
sniffed. Doubtless the northern Indians were puzzled that
anyone would dress for any other purpose.
The sharpest criticism of the movie has come from con-
troversialist Ward Churchill. Churchill, who claims to be part-
Indian, asserted that the movie was “a deliberate exercise in
villification” (p. 232,Fantasies of the Master Race); its “subter-
ranean” theme held that Indians were evil, which justified
their extermination. The Jesuits, he alleged, were collabora-
tors in racial genocide.
It is tempting to dismiss Churchill’s argument because
of the reputation of its author, who made provocative
remarks after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in
New York City. Whether the Jesuits undermined Indian
belief systems cannot be determined from the letters of
the missionaries. But there can be little doubt that many
Jesuits were motivated by a desire to do what they
regarded as God’s work. Nothing else explains their willing-
ness to endure the sufferings chronicled in their letters.
What the Indians thought of the Jesuits is much harder
to determine. Neither side—as the movie shows—under-
stood the other. But the movie advances a secondary
hypothesis, conveyed by the haunting musical score and
panoramic shots of endless forests, clad in snow and shad-
owed in a fading winter light. This all suggested that the
Indians, consigned to live in a solitary and harsh environ-
ment, were a grim and stoical people,“noble savages,” who
endured unimaginable privations. This stereotype remains a
staple of popular culture to this day.
But it may be wrong. Consider the account of Le Jeune,
the actual missionary who was tormented by an Indian
Father Paul Le Jeune, the Jesuit missionary on which “Father Laforgue” was largely based,
doubtless visited St. Eustache Cathedral in Paris (above), completed in the 1630s. His letters to
his superiors explain his difficult adjustment to worship in the wilds of North America.
Questions for Discussion
■Whose religious beliefs were more difficult to under-
stand, those of the Algonquins or the Jesuit missionaries?
■Do all human beings share a similar sense of humor?