Settlements on the Susquehanna River in 1775.
Settlements on the Susquehanna River in 1775. Fort Wyoming, 1775.
Madame Montour’s early life is a mystery. Some historians believe she was born in 1667 near Trois-Rivières in the colony of New France. In this version of events, Madame Montour’s father was a French fur trader named Pierre Couc and her mother was an Algonquin woman named Marie Miteoamegoukoué. It was common for French fur traders to marry Indigenous women in the 1600s because it strengthened their trade partnerships with Indigenous communities. Madame Montour was one of Pierre and Marie’s five children. Her parents named her Isabelle. She grew up moving between Fort Mackinac and Fort Detroit in what is today called Michigan, where her parents participated in the thriving fur trade.
But some historians think Madame Montour was born around the year 1685 in an Indigenous village located near the modern-day city of Sorel, Quebec. In this version of events, Madame Montour was the niece of Isabelle Couc, born in 1667. She was the daughter of Isabelle’s brother Louis Couc Montour and a Sokoki woman named Madeline. In 1695 she was kidnapped by Haudenosaunee warriors and spent the rest of her youth living with an unidentified Haudenosaunee community. This version of her story lines up with what Madame Montour told an English official in 1744, but there are no birth records or other historical evidence to prove it. In this version of Madame Montour’s early life, her first name is unknown.
Regardless of her origins, all historians agree that Madame Montour married an Oneida warrior named Carondawana around 1708. By this time she was fluent in English, French, and a variety of Haudenosaunee and Algonquian languages. Her network of family and trade contacts extended throughout the Great Lakes region. When Louis Couc Montour was assassinated in 1709 Madame Montour took his place as an important interpreter in the western New York and Great Lakes regions.
In 1710 the newly appointed governor of the colony of New York hired Madame Montour as an interpreter. Her vast knowledge of the region’s cultures made her invaluable. She became a trusted advisor and consulted on challenging diplomatic negotiations.
Madame Montour gave birth to a son, Andrew Montour, in 1720. It is unclear whether she had any other children because of the continuing debate over her early life.
Madame Montour and her family moved to the town of Ostonwakin in the colony of Pennsylvania in the late 1720s. They may have moved to be closer to the Shawnee, because Carondawana had been serving as a spokesperson for the Shawnee since 1714. Madame Montour soon established herself as an important interpreter in her new home. She first appears in the official records in 1727 serving as the interpreter for a meeting between the governor of the colony and a Haudenosaunee delegation. She was also hired as an interpreter and cultural advisor by colonial government representatives and independent traders.
By 1708 Madame Montour was fluent in English, French, and a variety of Haudenosaunee and Algonquian languages.
During this time, Madame Montour and her husband supported the work of an Oneida diplomat named Shikellamy. Shikellamy was an emerging representative of the Oneida community of western Pennsylvania, and he relied on Madame Montour’s connections and knowledge of colonial affairs to make connections with important colonial figures. But when Carandowana died in 1729 Shikellamy started to cut Madame Montour out of his negotiations. She stopped serving as an interpreter and diplomat in an official capacity in 1734.
After Madame Montour withdrew from public service, she ran a trading post in Ostonwakin to support herself and her son. She also trained Andrew to continue the family business of interpretation and diplomacy. Madame Montour was no longer a key player in the diplomatic relationships of Pennsylvania, but she was still a well-respected figure in the colony. In 1744 she attended the signing of the Treaty of Lancaster, where she told an English official the story about being kidnapped and adopted by the Haudenosaunee in 1695. Some historians think she made this story up to legitimize her ties to the area, but until further records are found we’ll never know the truth.
By 1744 Andrew was building his own career as a respected interpreter and diplomat. In 1745 he moved with his mother to an island in the Susquehanna River, and in 1746 they continued further west to a settlement called Logstown, near what is today called Pittsburgh. The final known record of Madame Montour comes from a local trader’s report she had died in January 1753, although the exact date and cause of her death are still unknown.
Vocabulary
- Algonquin: The name of an Indigenous community who originally lived in northern Michigan, southern Quebec, and eastern Ontario. Today, there are Algonquin communities in Ontario and Quebec, Canada.
- Algonquian: A family of Indigenous languages spoken in the Great Lakes region of North America.
- Haudenosaunee: Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy or Six Nations, refers to an alliance of Indigenous communities traditionally located in the northeastern region of North America, primarily in present-day New York State. There were five communities in the original Haudenosaunee alliance: Mohawk, Onondauga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca. The Tuscarora joined the alliance in 1722.
- Oneida: One of the six founding nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. They are known as “People of the Standing Stone” and historically lived in what is today known as upstate New York, in the areas called Oneida Lake and Oneida County. Today, there are large Oneida communities in New York State, Wisconsin, and Canada.
- Shawnee: An Indigenous community that once lived in an area that spanned what is now called Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Maryland, and Delaware. Today there are three Shawnee communities headquartered in Oklahoma.
- Sokoki: A band of the Western Abenaki who originally inhabited lands in what is known today as the border between Quebec and Vermont. Today descendants of this band are part of the Conseil des Abénakis d’Odanak First Nation in Quebec.
- Treaty of Lancaster: An agreement made between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and Virginia and Maryland colonial governments.
Discussion Questions
- Why did Madame Montour become an important figure in her community? Why did she lose power later in life? What does this reveal about colonial society in the early 1700s?
- How does the story of Madame Montour challenge our assumptions about the role of women in colonial diplomacy?
- What does Madame Montour’s life story reveal about the relationship between English settlers, French settlers, and Indigenous communities in the early 1700s?
Suggested Activities
- Pair this Life Story with Life Story: Marguerite Faffart to get a better understanding of the role women played in the French/Indigenous fur trade in the 1700s.
- Compare and contrast this life story with that of Toypurina to discuss how different women responded to the crisis of colonization in this period. What circumstances may have influenced their responses? What were the outcomes of their actions? Why is it important to read multiple accounts of Indigenous responses to the crisis of colonization?
- For a more comprehensive study of the role of women interpreters in colonial history, pair this Life Story with any or all of the following resources:
Themes
POWER AND POLITICS
