Within the Palisade

We walk single file down the narrow corridor of a palisade. Its walls, composed of tall cedar stakes, let in slivers of sunlight. A sharp turn forces us down a parallel corridor in the opposite direction, and suddenly we find ourselves in a 14th-century Iroquois village. This entrance to the Droulers-Tsiionhiakwatha Archaeological Site in Saint-Anicet, Quebec, represents the fortresses that would have been built around such villages to protect their inhabitants from enemies and predatory animals. As an added defence, entrances, which often included a maze to confuse intruders, had only one way in or out.

We enter the Wolf Clan longhouse. As we sit on furs, we listen to our guide, Bastien, describe what life would have been like here, how tools were made, and how food was dried. He explains that a Snapping Turtle’s shell was sometimes used to keep track of time. This type of shell has thirteen large squares in its centre, just like the number of lunar months, and twenty-eight smaller squares along its periphery, as in the number of days in each lunar month. A stone would be moved around the circumference of the shell to track the days, and another on top to mark the moons. I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if someone had accidentally or purposely displaced either of those stones.

The Bear Clan longhouse is much like the other with one noticeable exception. Upon entering, we are immediately assaulted by the pungent smell of smoke. A row of small fires has been lit along the passageway in the centre of the room. Bastien tells us there would have been one such fire for every two families. The fires would have been continuously lit for heat and cooking. While he speaks, I observe the plumes of smoke rising and escaping through holes in the rounded roof. I can almost picture the children climbing to the loft to retrieve dried vegetables at their parents’ bidding.

In addition to corn, beans, and squash, known as the “three sisters” due to their agricultural interconnection, fish was a big part of the diet. The fish would be boiled into soups for immediate consumption or dried and smoked with different woods, such as maple or cedar, to change the flavor, as spices were not readily available. The preserved fish was then suspended from the rafters in the longhouses or stowed inside clay pots in dugout storage pits lined with bark, as a bear deterrent method.

What strikes me the most on this tour is the resourcefulness of the Iroquois. They were masters of sustainability. An animal’s meat was used for food, its fur for clothing and blankets, its bones for tools and toys, and its sinews for thread and binding. Even the longhouses, constructed in a few days as a community effort, were built using only natural materials, which would eventually decompose and return to the earth. Their deep respect for nature, taking only what they needed to survive, is admirable.

We exit the village back through the twisting, narrow passage to view a representation of an archaeological site. A large tarp laid out in a field represents a dig where a longhouse would have been located. Painted red triangles mark where fires would have been lit. The number of pits would reveal the length of the longhouse and provide an estimate of the number of people who resided there. On the actual site, a shorter distance away near a stand of trees, more than 150,000 artifacts were found, enough to determine that this village would have had fifteen longhouses, roughly translating to a population of 750 people. A collection of these artifacts can be viewed in the museum located in the village.

I glance back at the palisade one last time, trying to imagine a group of fifteen longhouses, the buildings positioned in a circle and surrounded by a triple row of palisades, with a single door. It would be at least five times bigger than this re-creation and quite formidable. Everyone in our group was impressed with our tour. If you have the chance this summer, take the opportunity to explore nearby cultural sites such as this one in St-Anicet, Quebec, or the Native North American Travelling College in Akwesasne.

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