Ahuntsic (missionary)
| Ahuntsic | |
|---|---|
 Ahuntsic and Visitation Church in background | |
| Born | unknown |
| Died |
June 25, 1625 Sault-au-Récollet |
| Cause of death | drowning, possibly assassination |
| Ethnicity | Huron or French |
| Occupation | Missionary |
| Known for | His death |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
- For other usages of the name, please refer to Ahuntsic (disambiguation).
Ahuntsic (died June 25, 1625) was a Huron, converted by the French Recollet missionary to the Hurons, Nicolas Viel in the 1620s.
Biography
After almost two years spent in the Huron territory, Nicolas Viel decided to return to Quebec City in May 1625. Ahuntsic accompanied him during this trip. After a long period of travel, they were intentionally drowned by Native companions on June 25, 1625 near present-day Sault-au-Récollet.
Contested history
Almost nothing is known about the life of Ahunsic before his death. In his definitive history of the Huron people, Canadian ethnohistorian Bruce Graham Trigger wrote "Auhaitsique [Ahunsic] was not a Huron, but the nickname the Huron had given to a young Frenchman who was probably a servant of the Recollets." That Viel and Ahunsic might have drowned when their canoe accidentally flipped in a rapid is not at all unlikely according to Trigger, and the myth of martyrdom was likely a "tendentious fabrication" to leverage Indian alliances.[1]
References
- ↑ See Bruce G. Trigger, The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1987): 396.