This thread will contain my new TL: Donnacona's Dream. This timeline is an attempt to wank the St. Lawrence Iroquoians: the people who Jacques Cartier encountered in the St. Lawrence Valley in the 16th century. IOTL, these people had disappeared by the time of Champlain 70 years later, and those 70 years will be crucial in the development of this TL.
My goal here is to make the town of Hochelaga (which is, as far as we can tell the biggest St. Lawrence Iroquoain settlement) which was located on the Island of Montreal into a trade center and capital controlling a hinterland covering much of the Great Lakes region by around 1700. What's going to happen after 1700 is a little up in the air, as that is the point at which the colonial population in New France and New England would become a real threat to the Hochelagans (as it was to the OTL Haudenosaunee Iroquois at about the same time). Colonization will happen: I don't think that's avoidable, but I'm hoping to give the Hochelagans a lasting cultural and demographic influence into the post-colonial period...
Anyways, I would love any comments and feedback on what I'm posting here. My goal is to make one post every week. Each post will tell the story from the point of view of a different character, and, at least for the first little bit, there will be approximately one post per decade of history. Once we get past 1600, that might change....
So, the story opens after Jacques Cartier's second voyage. He has discovered the towns of Stadacona and Hochelaga and has brought Donnacona, the chief of Stadacona, his two sons and a number of other natives back with him to France...