In their religious, commercial, social and military relations, the French in their conquest of Canada did not consider the native people their equals. Research indicates that the French were guided by self-interest including gaining riches and fame as well as attempting to Christianize the native peoples of New France. Native cultures were disrupted and changed by their interaction with the French dating back to the early years of the 17th Century when the French became the first European inhabitants of Canada.
The tone was set for French-native people relations with explorer Jacques Cartier, who took possession of the new land for the king of France. Cartier's relations with the native people began with a lie. When he reached Gaspe Bay in 1534 he raised a 30-foot wooden cross on Point Penouille. More than 200 Iroquois from Stadacona (Quebec) were fishing on the peninsula at the time and they were initially trusting and cordial to Cartier and his men. The cross, however, seemed improper to the Native Chief Donnacona, and Cartier, fearful of the outcome of the discontent and suspicion among the Iroquois, lied by saying that the cross was just an insignificant landmark (The Virtual Museum of New France: Jacques Cartier).
French relations with the native people can best be understood in light of all the European explorations to the new lands.
In Native American Testimony: A Chronicle of Indian-White Relations from Prophecy to the Present, 1492 - 1992, editor Peter Nabokov states that "In practically every corner of North America one can find tribal stories anticipating the white man's coming." (Nabokov 5). There are many accounts of native myth, legend, stories and dreams that portend the coming of the white race to North America. Nabokov cites the Aztec myth of the "white god," Quetzalcoatl, who promised to return and reclaim his empire. Two years before the arrival of Hernan Cortez (1519), the Aztec ruler Moctezuma (M...