Paul Le Jeune - Teaching Among Native Americans

Teaching Among Native Americans

The Jesuits not only sought to convert others to Roman Catholicism, they believed that the role of the intellect could hardly be over-stated. For this reason, they sought to learn languages of native peoples and to teach them both vernacular European languages and the Latin of the Catholic Church. Le Jeune was no exception to this; he spent many years traveling and teaching throughout New France.

Perhaps best known for his work with the Native American population, Le Jeune displayed an eagerness for learning various Native American languages. Among his most well-documented experiences are his travels during the winter of 1633-1634 among the Montagnais. While his work during those six months did not result in mass conversions as he had hoped, his ethnographic account of the Montagnais and his personal anecdotes about the cold, hunger, and conflicts he encountered are recorded in Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France of 1634. This is perhaps the most famous of what are commonly known as the Jesuit Relations, which were published in Paris throughout most of the seventeenth century.

Le Jeune, along with other members of the Jesuit order, was crucial to the colonization of the St. Lawrence Valley. These highly educated Europeans were initially shocked by the egalitarianism and openness of the Hurons and Montagnais they encountered; to the Jesuits, this lack of evident hierarchy seemed chaotic at best. In order to spread cultural and religious values, the Jesuits adopted a militaristic pedagogy which sought to: discredit the traditional shamans, who were generally viewed as the teachers and priests within the Native American communities; to end the nomadic way of life in order to found European institutions such as schools, seminaries, and churches; to establish the supremacy of the written word over oral history.

Several factors contributed to the eventual dominance of the Jesuit philosophy in the region. Shamans were viewed with disdain and distrust when they could not treat or prevent the spread of disease or successfully predict eclipses as their Jesuit opponents could. Since the Native Americans had no knowledge of the various disputes over theology that were so divisive throughout Europe, within only a few decades the Jesuits were able to portray the written word as unchanging and solid, unlike the fluidity of oral discourse. Le Jeune felt, though, that the key to success was in establishing permanent settlements with fixed, Church-dominated institutions. While priests did attempt to teach children initially, Le Jeune recognized that without the cooperation of the adult community, any efforts to reach children would be doomed to failure. For this reason, Le Jeune and his comrades engaged in debates with shamans, staged public plays in order to impart Catholic teachings, and sought to spread their cultural, intellectual, and religious beliefs throughout the entire community.