Midland - Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons

The reconstruction of the mission station of St Mary among the Hurons is about 5km (3mi) east of Midland on the Wye River. Founded by the Jesuits in 1639, for a decade the mission served as the mainstay for Europeans in "Wendat", the land of the Huron - in 1648 about 20 per cent of the Europeans living in New France were probably in Ste-Marie. The fortified mission station, which was organized along the lines of a European monastery, was divided into three parts.

The northern section was where the Europeans and the priests lived. They also had a chapel, the mission kitchen and a few workshops. Next came some more workshops to the south, while the rest of the southern section was where the Indian converts lived. Here there was a longhouse, the Indians' own church, an infirmary and a vegetable garden. In front of a palisade, but still within the confines of the station, Indians who had yet to be fully converted could live in a longhouse or wigwams.

As time went on there was constant conflict with the Indians. The Huron (Wendat) were decimated by diseases imported by the Europeans. Several Indian tribes fought each other and occasionally there were attacks by the Iroquois in which not only Christians and Hurons but even European priests were killed. In 1649 the Jesuits abandoned their settlement and returned to Québec.

Reconstructed between 1964 and 1967, the mission is also the final resting place of Jean de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalement who were tortured to death and are now venerated as martyrs.

Designated a national monument in May 1989, the station also has a museum dealing with its history and showing a documentary film on the subject, as well as putting on occasional "Living History" shows in which amateurs portray life in the mission station as it was in the 17th C.