Enlightened Savages: An Analysis of the Influence of Wendat Politics and Social Structure on European Enlightenment Thinkers

This paper examines the relationship between the society of the Wendat and its influence on the ideas of notable enlightenment thinkers: John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Much is known about the atrocities committed by imperial administrations during the colonial period, but the epistemological violence carried out is often neglected. As normative western perceptions of the Wendat devalue their political apparatus and society, I pursue evidence to support the idea that certain Enlightenment thinkers were aware of the Wendat and used them as inspiration for the works they would produce that would become so revered within the scope of Western thought. In this context, the work of Gabriel Sagard becomes essential in my research and the products of my paper. Sagard was one of many missionaries sent to New France who published accounts of his experiences in Canada for popular consumption back in France. Sagard’s accounts are significant in their depictions of the Wendat and there are frequent mentions in the notebooks of John Locke to the work of Sagard and his analyses of the Wendat society that was depicted. Within this, connections can be made between the worlds of the Wendat and the Enlightenment that build the basis for my examination and work. With this research, what I seek to convey is not only some aspect of the untold history of the Wendat, repressed by colonial epistemological violence, but also the introduction of a new, globalist, perspective to the Enlightenment paradigm that allows for broader understandings of the period at large. So much more can be gained from understandings of Locke or Rousseau if there is knowledge of where their ideas drew from, and equally, novel perspectives and treatments of what Enlightenment thought can be produced and evaluated. As the globalist history initiative has cemented itself within the academic fabric of Queens, this work follows that thinking and reintroduces the Wendat as Enlightenment figures.