Catholic Ritual and Hierarchy among the Wabanaki Indians, 1675-1725

Christopher Bilodeau

My study of the Wabanaki Indians of northern New England and southern Québec during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries focuses on the unforeseen and unintended consequences that the entrenchment of Catholicism had among the Indians.  I argue that the Wabanakis embraced Catholic ritual during a moment of social crisis, as those rituals appealed to Indian notions of proper spiritual practice.  However, the Indians did not feel compelled to adopt many of the moral principles that the missionaries believed automatically accompanied that ritual practice.  Thus was created the incongruous situation in which missionaries were often supported, defended, and praised for their work, but were also often ignored, shunned, and threatened when they attempted to reprove the Indians for how they lived their lives.  What neither the Wabanakis nor the Jesuits understood, however, was that the inclusion of Catholic ritual into the Indians’ everyday lives brought religious institutions into Wabanakia, institutions that successfully created and perpetuated religious hierarchies that would permeate Wabanaki social life and have a profound effect on colonial relations between the two groups throughout the colonial period and beyond.

[WP #0620]