The False Faces

Library and Archives Canada

"At a strange ceremony in Auguest 1961 at the Huron village of Ancienne Lorette near Quebec City, Iroquois and Huron Indians met for the first time since 1649, when the Iroquois virtually destroyed the Hurons in war. They met at the instigation of a white men, to join in ceremonial dancing and smoke the peace pipe. The ceremony was a culmination of a process which began in the 17th century and from the involved four cultural groups - the Iroquois and their British allies, the Hurons and their French allies. The film is an interesting social study of the European influences over 300 years on the Indian participants in the ceremony, also the French and English speaking Canadian organizers and spectators. The False Faces are masks worn by the Iroquois in their ceremonial dancing, but the film suggests perhaps others wear "false faces" too. An enquiry into the full significance of what happened at Lorette has resulted in a cinematic dialogue between the two men largely reponsible for the making of peace, i.e. Dr. Marius Barbeau, formerly senior ethnologist at the National Museum, known throughout the world as one of the leading students of Canadian Indian tradtions, and Dr. Marcel Rioux, a professor in the faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Montreal. as well as the sequences of the colourful event in Ancienne Lorette, and the perceptive persnal observations of these two men, the film illustrates the unfolding of history by the use of actual sketches and annals dating back to Champlain."

Library of Congress

"Discusses a social study made by Dr. Marius Barbeau and Dr. Marcel Rioux which is based on a strange ceremony held In August 1961 at the Huron village of Ancienne Lorette near Quebec City when the Iroquois and Huron Indians met for the first time since 1649 and joined In ceremonial dancing and smoked the peace pipe. Discusses the European influences for over 300 years of the Indian participants in the ceremony."