Voyageurs (novel)
Voyageurs is the title of the 2003 novel by Scottish writer Margaret Elphinstone. It sets a young Quaker farmer from rural England in search of his missing missionary sister; he must work as a voyageur to have any hope of finding her.
References
Voyageurs
The voyageurs were French Canadians who engaged in the transporting of furs by canoe during the fur trade years. Voyageur is a French word, meaning "traveler". The emblematic meaning of the term applies to places (Canada and the upper Midwest of the United States) and times (primarily in the 18th and early 19th centuries) where transportation of materials was mainly over much longer distances. This major and challenging task of the fur trading business was done by canoe and largely by French Canadians. The term in its fur trade context also applied, at a lesser extent, to other fur trading activities. Being a voyageur also included being a part of a licensed, organized effort, one of the distinctions that set them apart from the coureurs des bois. Additionally, they were set apart from engagés, who were much smaller merchants and general laborers. Mostly immigrants, engagés were men who were obliged to go anywhere and do anything their masters told them as long as their indentureship was still in place. Until their contract expired, engagés were at the full servitude of their master, which was most often a voyageur. Less than fifty percent of engagés whose contracts ended chose to remain in New France (either because the others returned to France or because they died while working and never had a chance to leave).
Voyageurs (camp)
Voyageurs is a French language and culture program at the Concordia Language Villages based in northern Minnesota. Recreating the life of the voyageurs, French fur traders of the 18th-century, campers cook over an open fire, bathe in the lake, and complete a grande voyage by canoe during the two- or four-week stay.
Location
The Voyageurs base camp is located on Turtle River Lake outside Bemidji, Minnesota in the vicinity of other CLV language camps. In order to best imitate voyageurs life, there is no electricity or running water at the site. Campers sleep in tents organized into brigades and gather at the feu de camp for meals and activities. For a portion of the session, villagers are away from the base camp on the grand voyage canoe trip.
Program Content
Voyageurs tries to teach the French language in a historical and environmentally friendly context. Music, sports and games, clothes, and food are all rooted in Nouvelle France or Ojibwe traditions. French surrounds the villagers all day. Everything from putting on bug spray (antimoustique), singing traditional rowing songs, and learning about beadwork takes place entirely in the French language using techniques from the Full Immersion language acquisition philosophy.
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