Historians have long pondered the disappearance of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians after their last documented encounter nearly 500 years ago. In 1535, French explorer Jacques Cartier encountered the Iroquoians in Hochelaga, now present-day Montreal. Within the following decades, this community of over 1,000 people seemingly vanished. Dr. Jennifer Birch is the Principal Investigator of the Dating Iroquoia project, which orchestrates efforts to bridge this historical gap through cutting-edge technology and collaboration with Indigenous communities. The project employs radiocarbon dating and Bayesian statistical methods to establish more precise timelines of site samples, integrating previous data for a comprehensive analysis. As the project progresses, its groundbreaking discoveries have garnered national attention, shedding new light on the fate of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians and contributing significantly to our understanding of Indigenous history in North America. Photo: Dr. Sturt Manning and Dr. Brita Lorentzen selecting samples from collections found in archeological sites in the St. Lawrence Valley. Photo from Dr. Jen Birch.
