The Plan of Hochelaga (1566): Indigenous Spatial Thinking and the Early Modern Transatlantic Imagination

Based on a research project still in its early stages, this article sketches out potential directions for recovering the agency of Indigenous North American architecture in shaping political imaginaries across the early modern Atlantic world.It focuses on the plan of the Saint Lawrence Iroquois town of Hochelaga (present-day Montreal) published in Ramusio's Navigationi et viaggi (Venice, 1566), and examines what this depiction might reveal about Indigenous architectural practices as opposed to solely Eurocentric perspectives.By situating this image within the broader context of intercolonial diplomatic exchanges that defined the early history of North America, I suggest that the spatial knowledge articulated in Hochelaga's layout may retain traces of Indigenous spatial thinking that have inspired, and continue to inspire, alternative visons of freedom.