Montour, Isabelle (1667–c. 1750)
Montour, Isabelle (1667–c. 1750)
Canadian-born Indian interpreter. Name variations: Madame Montour; Elisabeth Montour; also called Madame La Chenette or Madame Tichenet. Born Elisabeth Couc, 1667, possibly in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada; died c. 1750, possibly near Harper's Ferry, PA; dau. of Pierre Couc (called Lafleur, soldier and interpreter) and Marie Miteouagamegoukoue; sister of Louis Couc (called Montour, who was stabbed in 1709 by 2 Frenchmen after trying to persuade them not to go to war against the Five Nations); m. Joseph Germaneau (also seen as Germano), 1684; m. Outoutagon; lived with Etienne de Vernard de Bourgmont (ex-commandant at Detroit); m. a Carundawana chief known as Big Tree or Onneiout (who took the name Robert Hunter to honor Governor Robert Hunter), killed in 1729; children: at least 2 sons, 1 or 2 daughters.
Known as a half-breed, followed the Indian way of life; acted as Indian interpreter for English for conference between New York governor Robert Hunter and Iroquois chiefs or Five Nations (1711); traveled with Col. Peter Schuyler to Onondaga (now Syracuse, NY) to dissuade the Five Nations from sending warriors to North Carolina to aid the Tuscarora in their war against the English (1712); settled in Pennsylvania and served as interpreter at conferences in Philadelphia between Iroquois and Pennsylvania governor Patrick Gordon (1727, 1728, 1734).