And so, in 1608, Samuel de Champlain moved up the Saint Lawrence to establish the first upriver trading post. If the French were to succeed in the fur trade and in their colonial aspirations, they had to form an alliance with the Algonquin tribes to counteract the Dutch influence with the Iroquois to the south.
It was into this climate that twenty-year-old Jean Nicollet, fresh from his studies in Paris, arrived in Québec in 1618. He had been hired to live among the Algonquins, Iroquois and Hurons in order to encourage them to collect furs to trade with the French. The young Parisian had no idea just how much he was to learn in a lifetime of contact with native peoples.
Hardly a month after his arrival, Nicollet was sent off to Allumette Island, a strategic outpost on the Ottawa River. His assignment was to create friendly relations with the Algonquins, but for Nicollet it meant entering a strange and harsh new realm. Father Vimont, a Jesuit priest and friend of Nicollet, wrote about the young man's arduous hunting and trapping expeditions with the Algonquins, of the bitter cold, the glacial nights Nicollet spent wrapped in furs, his diet of raw game, the canoe trips with exhausting portages in bare feet, the carting of heavy pelts through deep snows, and above all, the solitude of the young European among the Algonquins.
Father Vimont describes the natives' distrust which Nicollet had to overcome, their penetrating gazes as they continually measured his physical endurance, his resourcefulness, and his patience. These are the qualities which the Algonquins prized and which the young Parisian struggled to adopt as his own. In the two years he spent among the Algonquins, Nicollet gained his hosts' respect, even helping them negotiate peace with the Iroquois.
Nicollet returned to Québec, but soon set off again, travelling northwest to Allumette Island to meet the Nipissings, with whom he would live for the next nine years. Each year he would do business with the various tribes of the region and, in the spring, send pelts to Québec. He collected precious information about the geography of the interior and about the people who lived there. He journeyed into the Great Lakes region, surveying the area around Georgian Bay and the north shore of Lake Huron. In living among the native people, learning their ways, and becoming a part of their lives, Nicollet foreshadowed the legendary coureurs de bois who were to follow.
By 1633, Nicollet's accomplishments had made him such a respected citizen of New France that Champlain appointed him to the powerful Companie des Cent-Associés. But Champlain had one more peacemaking mission for Nicollet. The Winnebagoes, who lived on the western shore of Lake Michigan, had strained relations with the neighbouring Algonquins, and threatened to ally themselves with the Dutch. Nicollet was sent to secure the peace, but he also took the opportunity to verify native accounts of a great sea, which he presumed led to China and its immense stores of precious metals and rare spices.
Convinced that he was close to the China Sea, Nicollet carried a robe of Chinese damask to wear before the Winnebagoes. They were so taken by the sight of this strange visitor that Nicollet was able to conclude a peace treaty with them. Pursuing the elusive route to China, Nicollet became the first European to explore the region west of Lake Michigan.
The chronicles of New France and the accounts of explorers and missionaries whetted European curiosity about the native people of North America. But few Europeans learned about Canada's First Peoples by living among them and sharing their day-to-day life the way Jean Nicollet did. In exploring the new land, Nicollet discovered new cultural worlds as well.
Historica Minute Cast
| Nicolet | Sebastien Dhavernas | |
| Additional Cast | Sylvain Boudreau | |
| Additional Cast | Griffith Brewer | |
| Additional Cast | John K Gilbert | |
| Additional Cast | Terrence La Brosse Ross | |
| Additional Cast | Denis Lacroix | |
| Additional Cast | Heath Lamberts | |
| Additional Cast | Alexandre Neszvesko | |
| Additional Cast | Roger Wilde |
