The history of the moccasin

The establishment of the Huron-Wendat community at Jeune-Lorette, near Québec City, around 1697 greatly facilitated this trade, with Indigenous peoples engaging in leather work in addition to their hunting and fishing activities. Through contact with Indigenous culture and exchanges with them, Canadians quickly learned the techniques for making moccasins and, from then on, used almost no other types of footwear₆. Renamed soulier du pays (country shoe), pichou, soulier ou botte du pays (country shoe or boot) or simply chaussure de bœuf (cowhide shoe), the French adapted them to their everyday life by replacing moose, caribou, deer or seal leather with the leather of cow, sheep or calf₇.

Industrialization and massive immigration in the 19th century created a surge in demand for Indigenous-made products in Canada, so that Huron entrepreneurs chose to hire an ever-increasing number of non-Indigenous people and train them in leather work. Many of these non-Indigenous people would later open their own factories₈.

At the turn of the 20th century, production peaked: more than 7,000 pairs of snowshoes and 140,000 pairs of moccasins were produced annually by a population of no more than 400 souls. The Industrial Revolution transformed manufacturing methods, introducing so-called "piecework": starting in 1960, the pieces of leather that used to be cut with a knife were now cut in the factory by experienced cutters and then distributed to craftsmen for assemble, beading and lacing operations remunerated with a fixed fee for each dozen moccasins.

Beading consists of decorating the moccasin with numerous small beads of various colours. The more complex the pattern, the longer it takes to complete. Since this work is done at home in the communities of Loretteville, Saint-Émile and Lac-Saint-Charles, it is not uncommon to see all the members of a family participate from a very young age, in order to increase the family income₉. As they are learning, the children are given more demanding tasks, so that sometimes several generations of beading artists are found within a same family.

Now in fierce competition with imported products, Québec moccasin production continues to rely on the expertise of a local workforce that continues to preserve a typically Canadian tradition and a know-how that dates back to the origins of mankind.

Samuel de Champlain recounts in his travelogues that on May 27, 1603, a coalition of about 1,000 Innu, Algonquins and Etchemins celebrated their victory over the Iroquois at the mouth of the Saguenay River. Upon the arrival of the French, the host of the event, the Innu chief Anadabijou ("grand sagamo"), received them according to the custom of the country. At the end of the meeting, he declared that they are welcome and that they will be able to populate these lands on the condition that they help them fight their enemies₁₀, a promise that Champlain honoured six years later at the lake that now bears his name.

"This first Franco-Aboriginal alliance not only paved the way for the French colonization of the continent, but also for the blending of the cultures and knowledge of two worlds no longer separated by an ocean."