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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION: WHAT MAY (OR MAY NOT) BE BELIEVED
While certainly biased in favor of “believers,” the Jesuit Relations by
themselves indicate neither Seneca conversions en masse, nor an outright rejection of
the missionaries. In the earliest Seneca volumes, the spread of Christianity and the
Jesuits’ successes on Seneca land began in earnest through ministry to existing
Christians, many of whom came from Huronia (JR 54:9). The missions to the Seneca
ultimately tapered off, first due to French politics and then due to the Treaty of Utrecht
with the English (NYCD 9:256). Still, even if the politics had played out differently, it
is unclear whether or not Catholicism would have eventually taken hold among the
Seneca.
Richter has suggested that when Christianity did attract a notable amount of
followers, it created “opposing factions” between the new Christians and the Iroquoian
traditionalists (Richter 1985:10-11). He also suggests that while emigrations and war
may have driven out the Jesuits and given the traditionalists the upper hand in the
1680s, ultimately Christian factions would resurface in Iroquoian politics and remain
influential for a long time (Richter 1985:12). Richter’s ideas on the eventual divisions
in Iroquoian communities through the eighteenth century caused by religious and
political affiliation are certainly compelling, but scholars should beware this
declensionist narrative and not jump to conclusions. Where the Seneca are concerned,
in light of Vandrei’s population data and historical sources, Christians were most
certainly a minority in the late seventeenth century, hardly capable of acting as the
factitious political force that Richter’s article portrays. Similarly, Richter’s claim that
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