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They removed the hide, then butchered the animal, slicing
up all of the meat which they dried, some in the sun, some
over the fire. From this meat they had provisions for
themselves and their families for an entire season. As for
the hide, they removed the hair, scraped it and tanned it to
make mocassins and for their wigwams.
j) 4. P.86, Subject: religious beliefs, belief in an
afterlife
Est-il sur la terre une nation sans religion? Des
philosophes, pretendant que la religion est une invention
humaine et non une loi donnée au premier homme par son
Createur, ont allégué pour preuve de leur assertion qu’il y
a des nations qui vivent sans religion aucune. Pour nous, la
premire nation sans religion est encore découvrir et nous
ne sachions pas qu’il ait été prouvé qu’un seul peuple vécut
sans idée religieuse et sans culte quelconque. La croyance
l’existence d’un tre suprme est si profondément gravée
dans l'esprit de l'homme, le Créateur lui-mme l’y conserve
avec tant de soin,qu’elle ne paraît pas jamais devoir en tre
éffacée, mme chez les peuples les plus dépourvus de
civilisation, d’intelligence et d’instruction religieuse.
Ici, nous nous trouvons en face d’une nation qui ne paraît
pas avoir jamais eu d’autres principes que ceux imprimés
dans le coeur de l’homme ds le commencement du monde et
renouvelés aprs le déluge.
Partie du pied de la tour de Babel, la race de Japhete se
répandit par plusieurs chemins sur toute l’Europe. Plusieurs
tribus ou families, continuant leur route par les contrées
du Nord et les mers qui les avoisinent, vinrent
successivement mettre pied en Amérique. Telle est l’origine,
non de toutes les nations Peaux-Rouges, mais de plusieurs
d’entr’elles, et particulirement de la nation algique.
Ces nations ont quitté depuis trop longtemps le Vieux
Monde pour avoir connaissance des lois positives de quelques
sicles posterieures au déluge. Tout chez-elles est
primitif, mais profondément gravé dans l’esprit, j’allais
dire dans la nature du sauvage. On sent quelque chose de
matériel dans ce que nous voyons comme spirituel. Mais pour
moi, la merveille, vraiment un miracle, c’est que des
peuples abandonnés a eux-mmes depuis 3000 ou 4000 ans, ne
contemplant que la matire, ne voyant que la matire
disparaissant tout tour de la terre, comme les animaux
dont ils font leur nourriture, n’aient pas assimilé leur
nature celle des btes qui sont sans intelligence. Non.
Ils ont reconnu en eux-memes l’homme, cet tre d'une nature
supérieure tout ce qui se voit sur la terre, et se
survivant lui-mme, et, au-dessus de lui, des tres
invisibles et spirituels.
j) Translation, religious beliefs, belief in an
afterlife.
Is there on Earth one nation without religion? Some
philosophers, claiming that religion is a human invention
and not a law given to the first man by his Creator, so as
to prove their claim, allege that there are nations who live
without religion at all. As for me, I have yet to discover a
nation without a religion and I have never heard it proved
that there has ever been a people without any religious
ideas or a religious denomination. The belief in a Supreme
Being is so deeply engraved in man’s spirit, the Creator
himself so carefully instilled it in him that it does not
seem to have ever been erased, even within those people who
are the most deprived of the effects of civilization,
lacking in intelligence or of religious instruction.
Here, we have a nation which does not seem to have ever
received other principles than those which were imprinted in
the heart of man at the beginning of the world and which
were renewed after the Deluge. When it left from the base of
the tower of Babel, the race of Japhet dispersed itself by
many roads across Europe. Several tribes or families,
continued on their way across the countries to the North and
the seas which surround them, eventually arrived in America.
Such is the origin, not of all the Nations of Redskins, but
of several of them, notably the Algonquin nation.
These nations have left the Old World too long ago to
know of the positive laws of a few centuries before the
Deluge. Everything about them is primitive, but profoundly
engraved in the spirit, I was going to say, in the nature of
the native. We can sense something material in what we see
as spiritual. But for me, the marvel of it all, a miracle
really, is that these people left to themselves for three to
four thousand years, contemplating only material things and
seeing only these things disappearing one after the other
from the face of the earth, like the animals from which they
make their diet, and yet they have not assimilated their
nature to that of the beasts who are without intelligence.
No. They have recognized themselves as human beings, beings
of a superior nature to everything seen on Earth, and
believe in a afterlife, that all around them and in the
heavens they sense the presence of invisible and spiritual
beings.
i) endnotes
The end notes as outlined by Végreville seem to be
complete and they seem to be properly referenced back to
their page of origin. However, much of what is categorized
as endnotes are passages which had been missed in the first
transcription, the typesetter was to insert them into their
respective places in the final text. As mentioned in the
table of contents section, there is a also a section on the
Dakota-Jesga which was not typed up at all. Typical of the
errata type of endnotes is the passage which I have included
with the translations (see a-2, p. 137a-b, Subject:
geographical specifics of the Cree – Végreville’s thoughts
on this based on the Wisaketsak legend, note 5.
V Critical overview and suggestions for publication
There are many onerous passages in this text and I have
attempted to include a few of them in the translations.
However I believe that the numerous unique observations more
than redeem the text. If taken at face value, it is certain
that many of Végreville’s perspectives are passé, sometimes
even ridiculous, given our present-day scientific approach.
So it is that his theory of skin colour being affected
during pregnancy has long been rejected, but his
observations concerning how the Cree refuse to give their
name when asked is very well explained and remains
important41.
As for the message of the manuscript, it is two fold.
There are numerous references to Christianity and of its
positive effects on the aboriginal population, and this is
something to be expected from a missionary like Végreville
who believed wholeheartedly in his cause. Many of his
observations on the culture of the Cree, however, are first
hand accounts, and publishing from this collection would
bring out previously unnoticed details to a general public.
I believe that the best way to present these texts would
be to support it with a detailed biography of the author
which should be further enhanced with excerpts from his
letter books. Given the forty odd years of letters filed
away in the Oblate collection, there are some which are
describe his mission visits, as I have read some of them.
For instance, while I has preparing the interpretative
matrix on the Mission on Lac-la-Biche Mission, I read
through letters pertaining to the years he spent there as
director. I was amused by his frustrated description of
getting lost and wandering around with his young Métis guide
for three or four days in the Moose Hills area northwest of
Fort Pitt. During the same period, he angrily recalled in a
letter to Taché how some Métis, who were travelling in the
same direction as him earlier on, had laughed at him and his
little crew for their ineptitude in properly organising
their expedition, as they had forgotten to bring an axe – a
most essential tool at the time – and were obliged to
swallow their pride and borrow one from the nearby Métis
caravan. And to add insult to injury, the Métis voyageurs
had mocked the lay-brothers who worked with the missionary,
calling them "Bishop Taché’s slaves". In the recent month, I
happened again across a well-known descriptive letter of his
relating at length of Végreville’s visit to Cold Lake and
Lac la Biche from Île--la-Crosse, via the Waterhen river
and the Cold river, where his guides had inadvertently
broken his empty canoe while towing it up the rapids from
the bank.
Such a work, be it for a traditional publication or an
on-line one, could be divided into three main parts,
beginning with an introduction-biography which would put
Végreville in context, pertinent passages from his letters
would make up the second part and the monograph would
comprise the third and final part. All of these could be
supported with maps, illustrations and photos, which would
further enhance the text. This would entail an editorial
hand as concerns the monograph and, of course, additional
research to seek out relevant material in the letter books.
But all in all, presenting the monograph in this way,
particularly with the use of the letter books, would
consolidate it substantially by giving it much more depth. A
good index would make it easy to seek out particular
passages, an essential tool which does not even accompany
the Savoie edition of Petitot’s writings42. I must again
stress that Végreville’s writings greatly resemble those of
his colleague, particularly in the anthropological style
which they both adopted.
For many reasons, which can be essentially reduced to
maintaining face, these particular papers have been passed
by Oblate historians because of Végreville’s sometimes
controversial nature, as seen in a few letters of reprimand
from his superiors. These works have never been used because
of they are difficult to read and few scholars have had the
necessary skills to decipher them and interpret them in a
meaningful way. In a sense, Végreville is no more
controversial than Petitot, in fact, far less: he remained
with the Oblate order and served his cause until the end of
his days. Far from being a saint, it can be seen that
Végreville was a man of his time with all the accompanying
faults and foibles which can be expected of a person of his
generation and background. Putting that in context and
letting his writings speak of his experiences and
observations would certainly add to the knowledge of the
culture of the aboriginal peoples of the Canadian plains and
of the boreal forest. Just because no one has ever dared to
analyse this collection is certainly no reason to ignore
this important contribution to the history of the Canadian
native peoples.
As I mentioned in the initial proposal for this project,
a critical edition of Végreville’s letters and writings
could be a best seller, as well as being an incredibly
successful website which could provide readers of French or
English all over the world with the descriptions of the
culture which this missionary so intensely desired to bring
to public attention over a hundred years ago. And as for my
involvement in the project, I would embrace it
wholeheartedly. I am delighted at my discovery of the
existence of a far greater and pertinent body of
documentation and sincerely believe that it would be an
important contribution to the existing scholarly
publications, but if it could be made available to an even
larger market, this would be even more wonderful.
As for time and costs, I have not included this with this
report, but I suspect it would probably take at least a year
to do justice to this work. I would be happy to present a
more detailed estimate at your request.
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