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The Nicolet Corrigenda

New France Revisited

Nancy Oestreich Lurie and Patrick J. Jung

Corrigenda: A list of errors with corrections. Jean Nicolet, emissary of Samuel de Champlain, Commandant of New France, is memorialized in a huge bronze statue overlooking Green Bay, in half a dozen murals in public buildings in Wisconsin, and on a U.S. postage stamp. In search of the Northwest Passage and the riches of the Orient, he was the first European to reach Wisconsin in 1634. He is always depicted in a Chinese robe as he addresses an assembly of Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) Indians because he thought they might be Chinese. Or so it is commonly believed.

Employing anthropological and historical methods, Lurie and Jung demonstrate how errors build on errors and become credible through repetition. The myth of the Chinese robe is just the beginning of the list of folktales dignified as history, from the reason for his journey to his return to Quebec and even the circumstances of his death by drowning in 1641.

$15.95 list, 168 pages

10-digit ISBN: 1-57766-606-2

13-digit ISBN: 978-1-57766-606-6

© 2009

“This book would be extremely valuable in research methods courses and in general education courses focused on critical thinking and critical analysis. The window on this particular slice of Wisconsin history is fascinating, but to my mind the primary value of this book is its importance as a case study of knowledge production and what we think we know. Lurie and Jung untangled the political and social factors that played a role in legitimating particular versions of the Nicolet story as ‘factual,’ and they demonstrate how careful research can lead to the discovery of new knowledge that can better approximate both historical and contemporary reality.”  — Joanne Passaro, Carroll University

“Dominos of false fact fall in every chapter, and, although the book is rigid scholarship, it is as fun as a detective story.”  — Wisconsin People & Ideas

“The way Lurie and Jung deconstruct the legend and rebuild the history will serve as an excellent example for my students of how to do careful history and how to take a fresh look at an old topic. Providing the documents in Appendix A was a brilliant stroke.”  — Theresa Davis, Mount Union College

“I am using this book in a Michigan history class. I find it an excellent means of presenting a historiographical problem to students. The narrative and documents are outstanding. Professors Lurie and Jung are to be commended for their fine scholarship.”  — Russell Magnaghi, Northern Michigan University

Table of Contents

1. The Fabricated Fame of Jean Nicolet

2. Nicolet's Robe

3. Samuel de Champlain and the Mission of Jean Nicolet

4. The Various Purported Landfalls

5. Red Banks Reconsidered

6. Precontact Ho-Chunk Culture

7. The Case for a Menominee Country Landfall

Appendix A: Documents Relating to the Puan/Winnebago

Appendix B: Documents Relating to Samuel de Champlain

Appendix C: Recollections of Paul Radin, by Nancy Oestreich Lurie