Critical_Analysis_of_Bruce_Trigger

The 1st part of Bruce Triggers' article is spent describing the Huron tribe, their lifestyle, customs, family, tribal and inter-tribal structure. Triggers' in-depth description is followed by the analysis of the initial French / Huron relationship and the events that occur between the natives and the European explorers, including the importance of European assimilation into native tribes via the coureurs des bois and how that helped shape the fur trade. Next the Jesuits, through the founding of The Compagnie des Cents Associés, attempt to evangelize the Huron. The priests were undermined by the formerly mentioned, coureur des bois and the occurrence of a disease that killed half the Huron population and planted the seed of doubt in the natives mind about the Jesuits. The Huron mistrust of the Jesuit priest peaked when they offered presents to the nearby Neutral tribe to kill the missionaries, hoping this action wouldn't be linked to them and threaten the Franco-Huron alliance. Not long after beaver became rare and it sparked a crisis in 1640. Trigger states: "The Iroquois were preoccupied with securing new sources of pelts" which, over 50 years later, led to the destruction of Huron. The article then describes the Pagan - Christian friction which helped foster the anti-French party, who believed in inter-tribal over French trade, and a fraction in the belief in the Franco-Huron alliance. After the dispersement of the Huron tribes, the French continued their trade with tribes north of the Great Lakes. As the population increased in New France, the young men of the colony joined this trade. Trigger concludes his article by mentioning his belief that if the Huron and Iroquois had allied, it "would have resulted in the destruction of new France and the end of the French presence in North America.