Article content On June 14 1671, 350 years ago, Simon-François Daumont De Saint-Lusson, with a ragged band of French canoemen and Jesuit missionaries, laid claim to the interior of North America in a staged spectacle at Sault Ste. Marie. In the King of France’s name, Saint-Lusson claimed an immense territory that was ‘discovered or yet to be discovered’ that was bounded by the seas to the North, West, and South. Likewise, he claimed that “all the people inhabiting this wide country now become my vassals, and must obey my laws and customs.” The speech was then translated into an ‘Indian language’ by a trusted interpreter, a legal and illegal fur trader, adventurer, and general self-promoter Nicolas Perrot to about 2,000 First Nations people. The French raised a cross and planted a cedar post with the plate bearing the French coat of arms nailed to it next to the Jesuit mission. Following these erections Father Claude Allouez extolled the power of the French King, claiming he was “the captain of the greatest captains” whose word and glance made other nations tremble. That evening the Saint-Lusson spoke again to the Indians, passed around presents, and together the French sang a Te Deum. From this moment forward the French claimed sovereignty over the interior of North America as well as its Indigenous inhabitants.