an invading force from the United States to overthrow British power in the Canadas (Senior 1985: 155). With the help of secret ceremonies similar to those of masonic societies, the Chasseurs recruited 10 000 members in thirty-five communities (Ouellet 1983: 211). However, when the uprising began in November, 4000 soldiers and volunteers quickly dispersed the Patriotes. By 16 November 1838, the second rebellion had been entirely repressed (map 5). Officials enforced martial law and many arrests were carried out. In the end, twelve people were executed and fifty-eight others were deported (Greer 1993: 344-51; Leclerc 1983: 124-130; Senior 1980: 175-92).

When it touches upon Kahnawake at the time, the existing literature essentially maintains that in 1837-38, the Kahnawake Iroquois expressed a monolithic and gratuitous loyalty to the Crown. By contrast, the archival sources cited below reveal that the intervention of the Iroquois was conducted in a context of conflicting interests, competing claims, and tense relationships which were specific to Kahnawake's internal and external dynamics in the 1830s. In fact, the following linear and detailed narrative of the Rebellions as experienced by the Iroquois reveals a central, fundamental issue: the apparent Patriote threat to Kahnawake's livelihood, territory, and autonomy is the main prism through which the Kahnawakehro:non became increasingly aware of the Lower-Canadian Rebellions.

Kahnawake and the Patriotes in 1837

In the fall of 1837, the people of Kahnawake seemed to be concerned hardly with the start of the Troubles : sources seem to indicate that they were mostly interested in their harvests as well as their upcoming winter hunting trips. Father Marcoux insists that by mid-November, many men had already left for their winter hunting grounds: plusieurs sont déjà partis pour aller hyverner dans les bois; un grand nombre s'apprête à les suivre aux premières neiges, de manière qu'il ne restera que peu d'hommes au village cet hyver (Marcoux to Napier, 17 November 1837, NAC RG10 vol. 94: 38755). Many Iroquois had already departed on such hunting trips because la récolte de blé d'Inde ayant encore manqué cette automne, il faut qu'ils marchent pour vivre; autrement ils seraient hors d'état de pouvoir semer ce printems (ibid.). The corn crops had failed again and the Kahnawake people feared that if the men of the community did not go hunting, there would barely be any food at all. As in the case of other regions of Lower Canada which experienced failed harvests during the 1830s (Ouellet 1972), Kahnawake had been in need of grain and potatoes since spring. In May 1837, in response to many requests, officials supplied the community with 500 bushels of wheat, thirty bushels of Indian corn and fifteen bushels of beans and peas (Napier to Hughes, 30 May 1837, NAC RG10 vol. 93: 38424).

In October, when Bishop Lartigue issued his mandement reminding people that Catholic subjects must not revolt against established authorities, Marcoux initially refused to abide by the Bishop's orders and read it to the Kahnawakehro:non. As the curé states,

j'ai hésité de commencer à le traduire pour nos missions [...] avant d'avoir consulté l'autorité. Les sauvages sont très tranquilles, et ignorent absolument les divisions qui nous affligent, de patriotisme et de bureaucratisme. Ce mandement ne pourra leur être expliqué sans les mettre au fait de l'état de la province, et il est à craindre qu'alors, pour faire comme les autres, il ne se forme parmi eux deux partis, comme dans les paroisses. Mon avis à moi, après en avoir pesé les conséquences, serait de les laisser dans leur heureuse ignorance jusqu'à nouvel ordre. (Marcoux to Lartigue, 29 October 1837, ADSJQL 3A-186, my emphasis)

Although the actual extent of Kahnawake's happy ignorance is hard to gauge, Marcoux overestimated the community's isolation. As Allan Greer (1993) comments, in the early days of the Rebellions, widespread anxiety spread to all regions. In this context, no village was isolated from its county, and no county from its district. Nor, for that matter, was Lower Canada as a whole isolated from Upper Canada. Greer suggests that at the time, many choices were made and actions undertaken in response to rapidly changing circumstances (Greer 1995: 6). In Kahnawake's case, less than two weeks after refusing to read Bishop Lartigue's mandement, Marcoux decided to inform the Iroquois about it because, in his own words, les circonstances ont beaucoup changé depuis l'époque de sa sortie (Marcoux to Lartigue, 13 November 1837, ADSJQL 3A-187).

Essentially, Marcoux opted to read the mandement on 13 November because, on that day, the first of many wild rumors spread that Patriotes were invading Kahnawake:

Nous sommes ici dans les transes. Ce matin [13 Novembre 1837], il s'est répandu un bruit que les Canadiens de St. Constant, de la Prairie, et de Chateauguay devaient se rassembler au nombre de mille hommes, et venir détruire le village et tuer tous les sauvages. Cette nuit...