A Dissertation entitled The Trickster Archetype: Tracing the Trickster Myths to Their Proto-Trickster Roots by Gregory Keith Robinson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in History ___________________________________ Dr. Alfred Cave, Committee Chair ___________________________________ Dr. Thomas Barden, Committee Member ___________________________________ Dr. Michael Jakobson, Committee Member ___________________________________ Dr. James Seelye, Committee Member ___________________________________ Dr. Patricia R. Komuniecki, Dean College of Graduate Studies The University of Toledo May 2011 Copyright 2011, Gregory K. Robinson This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author. An Abstract of The Trickster Archetype: Tracing the Trickster Myths to Their Proto-Trickster Roots by Gregory Keith Robinson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in History The University of Toledo May 2011 In modern Native American culture, a ―trickster‖ trope often appears in myths, oral traditions, recorded narratives, ceremonies, and historical accounts, although its purpose and role in society is ambiguous. To the First Peoples who owned the myths, these stories had educational, moral, and spiritual purposes that explained the natural phenomena of their environments, their histories and backgrounds, and their cultural lifeways. Anthropologist Paul Radin noted that ―few myths have so wide a distribution as the . The Trickster. they belong to the oldest expression of mankind.‖ Radin suggested that the trickster myth-figure ―is at one and the same time creator and destroyer, giver and negotiator . He possesses no values, moral or social, is at the mercy of his passions and appetites, yet through his actions all values come into being.‖ Despite Radin's assertion that few other myths have continued with their basic content unchanged, this is generally not the case with the recorded trickster myths. In fact, as I will explain, many of the written trickster accounts have changed, changes that can be traced to the early contact accounts and descriptions recorded by the Europeans. In order to make sense of the modern trickster concept, and to determine if the missionaries and colonizers altered these myth-figures (whether inadvertently or not), I have sought iii the earliest forms of trickster, the tribal-specific, proto-trickster, human-animal myth- figures, and personified spirits that were collected by outsiders during early contact periods. Moving away from theories that erroneously categorize these myth-figures and personified spirits into cross-cultural modern trickster, devil, Creator, and Great Spirit classification systems, I will present a clear representation of First Peoples‘ actual beliefs. iv I dedicate this dissertation to Cody, my son and study buddy, who sat across from me at our kitchen table these past years working on his own schoolwork. In that same regard, I also wish to credit my wife, Lisa for cheering me on through to the beginning of my life‘s work. Additional credit belongs to my mother, Norma Robinson, whose love has taught me about people and handling the stresses. I am also indebted to my sister, Patricia Wolff for her unyielding interest in this academic endeavor. It is often joked that when you start a doctoral program, you find out who your friends really are and in this case, it includes my friend and fellow editor of Westron Press, John Roth. In addition, I wish to thank my brother, Steven Robinson; my friends Steve Smith and Jim Lopinksi, Dr Mary Jo Hennig, Dr. Reising along with Dr. Boss for support in my mytho-methodos, classroom approach. As for others, I am grateful to have met and prayed with Tim Daene, along with Dan Dubiel who fostered my interest in North American history en route to the Arctic Circle. In conclusion, I wish to pause, reflect, honor and remember my late father, Louis Keith Robinson, who in his own whimsical humor brought me to understand that in some big and inexplicable way, ―it will all work out‖—and in every way, it somehow did. Acknowledgements This dissertation represents a task completed that would have remained unfulfilled if not for the help of Father God and his only son, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who sought fit to carry me through each success and detour that I encountered during this process. From there I wish to give thanks to my Professor Alfred A. Cave, who immediately understood the value and importance this research. Without his insight and seemingly infinite knowledge, the concepts in this study would have never materialized. I also wish to thank Professor Thomas Barden who represents the iconic image of a teacher-guide, one who appeared to me at the most opportune times in my journey. On a similar note, Professor Michael Jakobson recognized the personal discipline in me through our shared interests in the iron sports and in folklore. Professor James Seelye, a colleague of distinction who for many years U.T. sat in most of my seminar classes. I want to express a special thanks to a dedicated scholar and friend, Professor John T. Nelson, whose enthusiasm inspired me to achieve this pinnacle of my academic journey. As to the others whose influences and help further strengthened my resolve, I wish to thank Dr. O‘Neal, Dr. Mary Jo Henning, Dr. Charles Beatty-Medina, Dr. Glen Ames, Dr. Glaab, Dr. Wilcox, and Dr. Lora. Finally, I also want to convey a great thanks and a great hug to Debbie Macdonald who always conveyed a positive, understanding, and joyful presence during these years. vi Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements vi Table of Contents vii 1 First Peoples Proto-Trickster Myths Human-animal Myth-figures, and Personified- spirits, 1610-1854 1 1.1 Pre-Columbian Myths 4 1.2 Timelines and Texts 6 1.3 Historical Considerations: the Jesuits of New France 10 1.4 Who were the Jesuits? 11 1.5 Historical Considerations: non-Jesuit Writers of New France 14 1.6 Historical Considerations: the Puritans of New England 15 1.7 Historical considerations: the ―Praying Indians‖ and John Eliot 17 1.8 Historical Considerations: the Moravians 18 1.9 Kohl and Early Ethnological Understandings of Native American Spirituality 20 2 The Jesuits, The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents as presented by the Jesuits of New France during Their Missionary Assignments, 1610-1791 23 2.1 What Were The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents 25 2.2 The Histories Concerning How Were the Relations Published 26 2.3 First Peoples, Their Myths, and the Jesuits of New France, 1610-1792 27 vii 2.4 What the Huron Think of Their Origin 29 2.5 What is the Earliest Trickster Myth Concept 33 2.6 Brébeuf‘s Collected Narrative: Judeo-Christian Perspectives 35 2.7 Among the Huron and Biographical Histories of Jesuits, Jean de Brébeuf, Gabriel L‘allemant, and Paul Biard 38 2.8 Language Difficulties 39 2.9 Jesuit Father Albert Lacombe and the trickster Archetype 43 2.10 The Jesuit Lacombe, Scholars Brinton, the Early Trickster Archetype, and Methodist Minister, Peter Jones 44 2.11 Devil Figure Assumptions 49 2.12 The False Trickster Concept Rooted in the First Peoples‘ Proto-trickster 52 2.13 European and Christian Dualism and Thought in First Peoples‘ Myth-Stories, the Great Spirit 54 2.14 Reconsiderations: the Cultural-transformers Recast as Tricksters or Devil Figures 57 2.15 Dualism, First Peoples‘ Creator-transformer Myths and Twins 59 2.16 Iroquois Spirituality and Proto-trickster 62 2.17 Biographies and Historical Perspectives, Father Paul Le Jeune‘s Direct Method, and the Perceived Authority by the First Students of Native American Spirituality 65 2.18 Jesuit, Marc L‘Escarbot 68 2.19 Historical perspectives, Jesuit Le Jeune, Conversion Difficulties Revisited, and the Shamans 69 2.20 The Shamans 71 2.21 The Outaouacs and Jesuit, Claude Jean Alloüez 74 2.22 Alloüez, Dualism, and Customs of the Outaouacs 76 2.23 The Relations, Dualism, and Conversions Revisited 80 2.24 First Peoples‘ Spirituality as Expressed Through Myths and Other Oral Traditions; Le Jeune and the Montagnais 82 2.25 Le Jeune early encounters with Montagnais Myth-Stories and Rituals 86 2.26 Le Jeune, trickster, and Shamanism 88 2.27 Le Jeune, Additional Eurocentric Constructs, and Husbandry 90 2.28 Skepticism of the Interpretations of First Peoples‘ Belief Systems and the Descriptions Falsely Described by Joseph Jouvency as Found at the Beginning of the Jesuit Relations. 94 2.29 Jouvency‘s Eurocentric Affect Revisited 97 2.30 A pre-Columbian Captive‘s Tale: Father Isaac Jogues 98 2.31 Dictionaries and Additional Language Difficulties 101 2.32 Cultural Genocide, Conversion, and Historical Perspectives 103 2.33 Conclusion 105 3 The Writers of New France, The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Region of the Great Lakes, 1616-1820 108 3.1 Nicholas Perrot and the Historical Context 109 3.2 Introduction: New World and Old World Religions as Understood by the Jesuits and Other Writers of New France, Christian Heritage versus Iouskeha Slew Tawiscaron Creation Myths 110 3.3 Methodology and Scope 111 3.4 Creator and Cultural-hero-trickster-transformer Myth-figures 112 3.5 Historical Perspectives: European Dominion and Religious Expansion 115 3.6 The Spanish in Decline, French Religion, Royal Ascension and Presence in the New World Historical Perspectives: European Dominion and Religious