Chief Donnacona (died c. 1539 in France) was the Iroquois chief of Stadacona. Events May 30 - In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal to find gold. ... The Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee, also known as the League of Peace and Power) is a group of First Nations/Native Americans. ... Motto: Don de Dieu feray valoir (Gift of God shall make prosper) Area: 547. ...

Donnacona and his people were fishing in the Gaspé when Jacques Cartier arrived in 1534. Cartier seized Donnacona's sons, Domagaya and Taignoagny and took them to France. They returned to Canada with Cartier the following year, showed him the entrance to the St Lawrence River and piloted him up the river to their village of Stadacona. This time, the French spent the winter in Canada. Jacques Cartier (Saint-Malo, France, December 31, 1491 - January 19, 1557) was a French explorer who is popularly thought of one of the major discoverers of Canada, or more specifically, the interior region that would be part of the first area that could become that nation. ... Events May 10 - Jacques Cartier explores Newfoundland while searching for the Northwest Passage. ...

Relations between the Iroquois and the French worsened through the winter. In the spring, Cartier invited Donnacona to a feast and then seized him and nine others, including his two sons. Donnacona was well treated in France and was looked after at the king's expense. He whetted the French's appetite for the New World with tales of a golden kingdom called Saquenay, but he took sick and died. So did all but one of the Iroquois, a little girl whose fate is unknown.

When Cartier returned to Stadacona five years later, he told the people that Donnacona was living like a king and had no wish to come home. The people did not believe him.

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online (http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34299)