Moveable kin lodges of the Kaskaskias
Titian Ramsay Peale, Moveable kin lodges of the Kaskaskias, 1822. Wallach Division Picture Collection, The New York Public Library.
Marie Rouensa was born around 1677 into the Kaskaskia community. Historians have not been able to confirm her birth name so she is typically referred to as Marie, the name she adopted at a later age. Her father was named Rouensa. He was the chief of the Kaskaskia.
The Kaskaskia were part of the Illini Confederation, an alliance of Indigenous communities that spoke similar languages. Their traditional lands were in the Great Lakes region. Marie grew up in the Grand Village of the Kaskaskia, which was one of the largest Indigenous settlements in North America. Its population was estimated to be around 20,000 in 1684. Many residents of the village were members of other Indigenous communities, so it was a diverse settlement with many different languages and cultures.
Marie grew up during a time of significant change for the Kaskaskia people. In the 1650s the Haudenosaunee began invading the territory controlled by the Illini Confederation, restricting their ability to hunt and trade freely. In 1680, when Marie was around three years old, Haudenosaunee warriors attacked her village, killing many women and children. Marie survived, perhaps because of extra protection she received as the daughter of the chief.
Other major changes came with the arrival of the French in 1673. The Kaskaskia first established relations with French fur traders. Next, French soldiers built a fort near the village, claiming it was to protect the Kaskaskia from their Indigenous neighbors. Soon after, Catholic priests arrived with the goal of converting the Kaskaskia to Catholicism. The French also brought diseases like smallpox with them. When Marie was a teenager, she survived a deadly outbreak of a disease that killed many in her community.
Marie learned about Catholicism from a French Jesuit priest named Jacques Gravier. Kaskaskia women were intrigued by the new religion, at least in part because of the structure of traditional Kaskaskia society. Kaskaskia society was dominated by men. They practiced polygamy, where one man married multiple women. Women were not allowed to choose their marriage partners. These circumstances left Kaskaskia women and girls with little control over their own lives. Catholicism was also dominated by men, but it offered paths for women to assert autonomy over their own lives.
Like many other Kaskaskia women, Marie enthusiastically converted to Catholicism.
Like many other Kaskaskia women, Marie enthusiastically converted to Catholicism. She adopted the name Marie as a tribute to the Virgin Mary. Jacques recognized Marie’s intelligence and took special care to teach her about religious scripture and practices. Marie translated his teachings into the Illini language to make them accessible for her community. Marie was a talented storyteller who helped spread Catholicism to her people.
In 1694 Marie’s father Rouensa arranged for her to marry a French fur trader named Michel Aco. Like many parents of Indigenous women, Rouensa believed that the marriage would strengthen the relationship between the French and the Kaskaskia and provide him with better access to the lucrative fur trade. But Marie did not want to marry Michel. He was thirty years older than her and had a bad reputation in the community for drinking too much. She told her father that she would not marry Michel because she had already devoted her life to God.
Rouensa was enraged that his daughter used her new religion to disobey him. He punished Marie by making her take off her clothes and expelling her from his home. The extreme humiliation he inflicted on her exemplifies the frustration of powerful Kaskaskia men who saw how the arrival of Catholicism challenged their authority over the women in their lives. Rouensa gathered chiefs from nearby communities who were also angry about the conversion and empowerment of their women. The gathered chiefs prohibited their daughters from attending Catholic services and sent men to damage the church building. They blamed Jacques and the other Jesuits for the women’s disobedience.
Marie realized that her refusal to marry Michel was harming the mission of the Jesuits. She decided to compromise with her father. She agreed to marry Michel if Rouensa and the other chiefs officially took back everything they had said about the Jesuits and the women who converted. She made Rouensa agree to an alliance with Jacques and the other Jesuits. Marie even asked her parents to be baptized as Catholics. Even though Marie decided to marry Michel to appease her father, she made it clear that she did not want to do so. For Marie, the marriage was a political maneuver to establish peace between the Illini Confederation and the Jesuits.
Marie’s plan worked. Between March 30 and November 29, 1693 over 200 Kaskaskia converted to Catholicism, including her parents.
In 1695 Marie gave birth to a son she named Pierre. Six years later she gave birth to a second son she named Michel. Around this time, her husband died. Marie remarried shortly after. Her second husband, Michel Philippe, was also a French fur trader. Marie and Michel Philippe had at least seven children. Over the next few decades, Marie raised her family and devoted much of her free time to supporting the work of the Jesuits.
Marie Rouensa died on June 25, 1725. She was buried under the floor of the church in her community. She was the only Kaskaskia woman to be granted that honor. Marie left a will written in Illini and French. She asked that her sizable estate be equally divided among her children.
Vocabulary
- baptize: To be made a member of a Christian Church.
- Catholicism: A Christian religion that is led by the pope in Rome.
- conversion: Changing religion.
- estate: All of the money and property owned by a person.
- Haudenosaunee: The preferred name of the tribal alliance previously known as the Iroquois Confederacy. Haudenosaunee territory covers much of upstate and western New York. There were five tribes in the original Haudenosaunee alliance: Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca. The Tuscarora joined the alliance in 1722.
- Illini Confederation: An alliance of Indigenous communities in the Mississippi River Valley.
- Jesuit: A Catholic priest who belonged to the Society of Jesus. Jesuits in New France were devoted to the task of converting Indigenous communities to Catholicism.
- Kaskaskia: An Indigenous community that lived in current-day Illinois.
- polygamy: The practice of having more than one wife at the same time.
Discussion Questions
- Why did Marie Rouensa convert to Catholicism? What does this say about the experiences of women in traditional Kaskaskia society?
- How did Marie Rouensa use her religion and social status to establish peace between the Kaskaskia and French Jesuits? What did she sacrifice?
- What does Marie Rouensa’s story reveal about the colonization of New France?
Suggested Activities
- APUSH Connection: 2.5 Interactions Between American Indians and Europeans
- Include this life story in a lesson about the colonization of Indigenous communities. This life story highlights how women in some communities were attracted to colonial religions and traditions because it provided them with more agency and freedom.
- Pair this life story with Life Story: Kateri Tekakwitha, another Indigenous woman who converted to Catholicism. What do their stories have in common? How did they approach conversion differently?
- Pair this life story with Life Story: Tecuichpotzin “Isabel” Moctezuma, another daughter of an Indigenous chief during colonization. How did these women’s families try to use marriage to secure their position? How did these women respond?
- Combine this life story with Education in New France and Life Story: Marie de l’Incarnation for a lesson about the central role that women played in the colonization of New France.
- Indigenous people across the Americas had a variety of responses to the arrival of European colonizers. Combine this life story with any of the following for a broader view of Indigenous women during colonization:
- For a larger lesson on how religion played an important role in women’s lives during the colonial era, teach this life story alongside any of the following:
Themes
POWER AND POLITICS
