Donnacona (historical figure)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Donnacona († around 1539 in France) was the ruler of Stadacona , a village of the Saint Lawrence Iroquois on the territory of the present-day city of Québec in Canada .

When the French explorer Jacques Cartier first reached the Bay of Gaspé (then called Honguedo) in 1534 , he captured two indigenous people, Domagaya and Taignoagny, and brought them to France . The following year they returned to Canada with Cartier, showed him the way to the Saint Lawrence River and led him upriver to Stadacona, the seat of their father Donnacona, where the French hibernated this time. Cartier cites Donnacona's title as Agohanna , an Iroquois word for ruler.

During the winter, relations between the Saint Lawrence Iroquois and the French deteriorated. In the spring, Cartier invited Donnacona and his entourage to a festival at which he imprisoned them. 25 travelers died of scurvy on the journey to France . Donnacona and nine members of his tribe, including his two sons, reached France. Donnacona was treated well there and lived at the king's expense. He piqued the French's appetite for exploring the New World through tales of a golden kingdom called "Saguenay," but soon fell ill and died. Apart from a little girl, whose further fate is unknown, the other members of the tour group were also killed by European diseases. When Cartier returned to Stadacona five years later with French convict colonists, he said there that Donnacona had died, but that his companions had grown rich and did not want to return to their homeland. But many of the residents did not believe him and relations between the French and Iroquois became even worse.

literature

  • Richter, Daniel K. (2001): Facing east from Indian country. A native history of early America . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00638-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Donnacona ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . March 7, 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Donnacona
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ruler of Stadacona
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century or 16th century
DATE OF DEATH around 1539
Place of death France