Aramepinchieue
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Aramepinchieue Rouensa (c. 1677 – 1725), also called Marie Rouensa, Marie Philippe, Marie Accault, Mary Aco, and Aramepinchone, was the daughter of a prominent
Kaskaskia The Kaskaskia were a historical Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. They were one of about a dozen cognate tribes that made up the Illiniwek Confederation, also called the Illinois Confederation. Their longstanding homeland was in ...
chief. She helped spread
Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
and French-Indian cooperation in
New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...
along the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
. She was particularly influential in the area near the former Fort St. Louis. She married a French trader; the children they had were among the earliest examples of the emerging
Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...
in New France.


Life

Aramepinchieue was born in 1677 to a Kaskaskia chief called Mamenthouensa. At a young age, she and other Kaskaskia women in her village felt drawn to Christianity, as preached by the
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
missionary Jacques Gravier. Jesuit missionaries often stressed the
Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
, while also emphasizing chastity and virginity. Conversion and intermarriage varied greatly by community, but many young women like Aramepinchieue converted to Catholicism before marriage. Aramepinchieue was the first indigenous woman to receive a sacramental marriage within the Roman Catholic Church for her marriage with a Frenchman in the Illinois Country. She took her
First Communion First Communion is a ceremony in some Christian traditions during which a person of the church first receives the Eucharist. It is most common in many parts of the Latin tradition of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church and Anglican Communion (ot ...
on the Feast of the Assumption. Aramepinchieue's father hoped she would marry in a way that would bring their family economic opportunities. He wanted Michel Aco, a French fur trader, to be Aramepinchieue's husband, but refused, as she wished to have a husband who shared her same piety. She said she had given "all her heart to God and did not wish to share it." Furthermore, Aco had the reputation of being an "
apostate Apostasy (; ) is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous religious beliefs. One who ...
Catholic known for his mockery of the Jesuits." Her father, furious with his daughter's loyalty to Christianity over her family, threw her out of his home. Aramepinchieue sought refuge with Father Gravier and another indigenous Christian family. In this way, her Catholic identity allowed her to challenge her father's authority over her. Eventually, at seventeen years old, Aramepinchieue reached a compromise with her parents: she would marry Aco if he would convert to Catholicism. Aco and the chief agreed to this. Aco converted to Catholicism, which a contemporary observer described as an impressive change to the rough trader from the frontier: "The first conquest ramepinchieuemade for God was to win her husband, who was famous in this ''Ilinois'' country for all his debaucheries. He is now quite changed..." Aramepinchieue's marriage helped build an alliance among the French traders, the Jesuit missionaries, and the Kaskaskias. The children of Frenchmen and Kaskaskia women were among the first
Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...
people in the Americas. By this time in her life, Aramepinchieue primarily went by the name of Marie Rouensa. As a married and devoted Catholic woman, Aramepinchieue took as "special patronesses… the Christian Ladies who have sanctified themselves in the state of matrimony, — namely, St. Paula, St. Frances, St. Margaret, St. Elizabeth, and St. Bridget." Later on in her life, Aramepinchieue later moved from Fort St. Louis to
Cahokia Cahokia Mounds ( 11 MS 2) is the site of a Native American city (which existed 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from present-day St. Louis. The state archaeology park lies in south-western Illinois between East St. L ...
, then closer to the present day town of
Kaskaskia The Kaskaskia were a historical Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. They were one of about a dozen cognate tribes that made up the Illiniwek Confederation, also called the Illinois Confederation. Their longstanding homeland was in ...
. After her husband died, she remarried a French trader named Michel Philippe. In total she had eight children: two with Aco (sometimes spelled Accault) and six with Philippe. She came to have great influence over the men in her household and over her entire community. She amassed a considerable estate, showing continuities with her indigenous heritage as well as French acculturation. Rouensa's property included several tracts of land along with "Two houses, 36 by 20 feet, with stone fireplaces that were located within the Kaskaskia village. Two barns, filled with hay, fed the livestock: oxen, thirteen cows, three horses, thirty one pigs, and forty-eight chickens...oxcarts and horse carts, and iron plows." She was also the legal owner of two African-American married couples, as well as an Indian woman slave. The three women probably planted and harvested oats, wheat, and maize, while the male slaves were more likely to work in the fur trade. They were also woodcutters, for there were nine tons of wood, cut and debarked, in the estate. In her barns was a large stock of wheat and oats, and the wheat was valued at 3,300 livres. Aramepinchieueu died in 1725, at the age of about forty to forty-five years old. She was buried under the floor of the Immaculate Conception parish church in Kaskaskia, the only woman, French or indigenous, given that honor. After her death, Rouensa's will dictated that her considerable estate, created over many years of hard labor, be shared equally among her children.


References

{{Use dmy dates, date=August 2016 1677 births 1725 deaths Native American history of Illinois New France Converts to Roman Catholicism from pagan religions Native American Roman Catholics