Words of the Huron is an investigation into seventeenth-century Huron culture through a kind of linguistic archaeology of a language that died midway through the twentieth century. John L. Steckley explores a range of topics, including: the construction of longhouses and wooden armour; the use of words for trees in village names; the social anthropological standards of kinship terms and clans; Huron conceptualizing of European-borne disease; the spirit realm of orenda; Huron nations and kinship groups; relationship to the environment; material culture; and the relationship between the French missionaries and settlers and the Huron people. Steckley’s source material includes the first dictionary of any Aboriginal language, Recollect Brother Gabriel Sagard’s Huron phrasebook, published in 1632, and the sophisticated Jesuit missionary study of the language from the 1620s to the 1740s, beginning with the work of Father Jean de Brébeuf. The only book of its kind, Words of the Huron will spark discussion among scholars, students, and anyone interested in North American archaeology, Native studies, cultural anthropology, and seventeenth-century North American history.

"Native American Language, Iroquoian language, linguistics, language dictionary. Here are collected various short but important works on the Huron language, including Brebeuf's grammatical remarks in the Jesuit Relation of 1636, Lahontan's 50-word vocabulary of 1704, two Huron prayers with interlinear translations, and assorted Huron words and translations collected from the text of the Jesuit Relations. The volume also includes three words of Neutral-the only actual fragments of the language of this important tribe that was wiped out by Iroquois attacks in the early 1650s."

Investigation into 17th century Huron culture through a kind of linguistic archaeology applied to a language that died midway through the 20th century. Explores construction of longhouses, wooden armor, the use of words for trees in village names, the social-anthropological standards of kinship terms and clans, the Huron conceptualization of European-borne disease, the spirit realm of orenda, Huron nations and kinship groups, relationship with the environment and to material culture, relationship between the French missionaries and settlers and the Huron.

This book relates the story of Father Jean de Brbeuf (1593-1649), a Jesuit missionary who lived and worked among the Huron Indians and composed Canada's most beautiful Christmas carol. Full color.

Recollect Brother Gabriel Sagard's 144-page French-Huron dictionary, first published in 1632, is one of the earliest dictionaries of any Native American language and is the foundation of French missionary studies in Iroquoian. This exhaustive new edition by renowned Huron scholar John Steckley is a complete translation of this historic dictionary. It begins with a thorough introduction, including extensive notes on Huron linguistic variation and dialect differences, featuring comparisons with other Iroquoian languages. This introduction also breaks new ground in offering evidence of a trade language or pidgin with a St. Lawrence Iroquoian component-the first definitive evidence of the survival of that language since it was first encountered by Cartier in the 1530s. The dictionary section is a direct translation from Sagard's original text, featuring the original French entry, a newly-added English translation, and then the corresponding Huron phrase with added etymological and comparative analyses. Steckley also complements Sagard's phrase-based arrangement with a complete index to the over 230 Huron noun stems and 360 verb stems featured in the dictionary-the first such indexing since the work's original publication and an invaluable asset for detailed linguistic study of early Huron.

'Appreciating each other's funerary practices allowed the Wendats and French colonists to find common ground where there seemingly would be none. This title analyzes these encounters, using the Feast of the Dead as a metaphor for broader Indian-European relations in North America." -- WorldCat.