The Mi'kmaq Anthology

by Lesley Choyce

  The Paleo-Indians

  The first faint trail of the people known as the Paleo-Indians dates back 12,500-20,000 years in North America to Folsom, New Mexico, where a college student discovered stone tools.

  One of the oldest accepted prehistoric sites in Nova Scotia was discovered in Debert and dates back 10,600 years. The site was found during the 1940s while the grounds were being used by DND as a training ground during the Second World War. It wasn’t excavated until the mid-1960s when Canadian archeologist George MacDonald determined the age of the camp by carbon dating artifacts found there.

  Seven other prehistoric sites have been identified in the Maritimes: at Dartmouth, Yarmouth and Amherst Shore in Nova Scotia; Quaco Head, Kingsclear and Hogan-Mullin in New Brunswick and at Souris in Prince Edward Island.

  Scientists disagree on who the inhabitants of these early sites were. But some Micmacs believe their ancestors had to have been here at least that early in order to develop the complex system of social rules already in place when the first whites arrived.

  Pre-contact Micmac Life

  Before Europeans arrived the entire Maritime region east of the St. John River and west to the St. Lawrence was known as Megumaage.

  The Micmacs who lived there had rules in place to regulate everything from sports to politics.

  The educational system was the link to survival, through the development of specialized hunting skills, the making of traditional equipment, and the creation of traditional clothing from the skins of animals.

  The social system included the concept of sharing, the practice and respect of ceremonies and the various songs, chants and dances accompanying wedding, funeral and other traditional ceremonies that the Micmac people practised; along with the involvement in competitive traditional sports like canoeing, waltes, a traditional dice game, and archery.

  The economic system was co-operative in everything from the quest and distribution of food and trading goods to the consumption of wealth. The political system was democratic and people-oriented.

  The Micmac system consisted of seven autonomous districts. Each of the districts was made up of several small villages; each village had a chief, who was chosen for his ability and knowledge of the territory. Each district chose a chief for his ability to lead men and inspire confidence, his territorial knowledge, his understanding of the seasonal habits of animals and his skills as a good spokesman.

  There were also regular council meetings held in the Great Lakes region, now known as Ontario. Council discussions were recorded on Wampum Belts kept by each tribe to record its history. Tribe members would attach rows of coloured shells to the belts as a way of recording what went on at the meetings.

  The Micmac wampum belt was last seen at Chapel Island in the 1940s, and is shown in a photograph on display at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History. Where it went after the picture was taken is anybody’s guess.

  The Post-contact Era

  On July 13, 1713, the French and English Crowns signed the Treaty of Utrecht. The King of France gained sovereignty over the Islands of St. Jean (PEI) and Ile Royale (Cape Breton). The remainder of the land was to be taken by the King of England once boundaries in Acadia were decided on.

  Puzzled Micmac chiefs sent messengers to the French lieutenant-governor in Quebec to ask how their land could be divided up without their involvement. They were told that the treaties applied only to the land occupied by fortifications and settlements.

  But the query began a trek toward a long chain of treaties, acts and agreements outlining what rights and land would be left to Maritime Aboriginal Peoples.

  The Chain of Treaties

  On November 12, 1722, chiefs signed terms and conditions of submissions with the lieutenant-governor at Annapolis Royal for the return and release of women and children held hostage.

  By December 15, 1725, articles of peace had been concluded in Boston between the English and Abenakis, Mali-seet and Micmac Nations. Beginning with the Treaty of 1725, signed and ratified at Annapolis in 1726, and also in 1728, with representatives of the Micmac and Maliseet, these were the start of various peacekeeping treaties better known as Articles of Peace and Friendship.

  These treaties were to render the Micmacs neutral in the struggle between French and English for the possession of Acadia.

  In July 1749, an English expedition commanded by Colonel Edward Cornwallis arrived at Chebucto Bay, now known as Halifax. He carried with him instructions from the Lords of Trade and Plantations to develop good relations with the inhabitants and enter into treaties with several Native nations.

  Only the Maliseet entered into a treaty with Cornwallis. The Micmacs refused to sign, and in September 1749 declared war on the English. The chiefs re-stated their by now familiar position that the land belonged to the Micmac and they would not abandon it without a fight.

  In retaliation, Cornwallis issued a proclamation on October 2, 1749, ordering that all Micmacs be treated as rogues and ruffians.

  The Micmac war of resistance raged on without a break until September 14, 1752, when District Chief Jean Baptiste Cope proposed to the governor and council of Halifax that compensation be paid for any more Micmac lands taken by the English. The governor refused the proposal, but made a counter offer.

  As a result, on November 22, 1752, District Chief Jean Baptiste Cope returned with several members of his tribe to sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship. The Treaty promised the right to hunt and fish as usual, and trade, and ratification of the treaty each October 1. The treaties of 1725, 1726 and 1728 were renewed.

  On July 9, 1776, the Watertown Treaty was signed by a delegation of ten Micmac and Maliseet Chiefs. Micmacs at large did not support the Watertown Treaty.

  Several years later on December 17 and 18, 1783, the government set aside nine licences of occupations: Stewiacke, Remsheg, Antigonish, River Philip, Merigomish, Maccan, and Shubenacadie Rivers and at St. David’s Bay.

  The 1800s

  In 1801, the Nova Scotia colonial government set aside additional parcels of land consisting of about 9,960 acres in various counties.

  By March 15, 1842, the legislature had passed an Act to Provide for Instruction and Permanent Settlement of Indians, to prevent further encroachment of non-Natives on Indian reserves and to solicit public support for the idea that Micmacs should submit to civilization and to live on-reserve.

  On April 13, 1852, the lieutenant-governor vested the title of all Indian reserve lands with the Commissioner of Crown Lands for Nova Scotia.

  However, little action was taken to prevent further encroachments upon Indian reserves, despite the authority given under the 1842 act.

  Then in March 1859, the Nova Scotia government passed The Act Concerning Indian Reserves. The act continued the powers of supervision and management of reserve lands by local commissioners.

  Nova Scotia transferred its responsibility for Indians to the Dominion of Canada in 1867, under the British North America Act. The Micmac people were now wards of the federal government.

  In the report of Indian Affairs Branch of June 30, 1870, Secretary of State Joseph Howe wrote that three schools had been established in Nova Scotia for Micmac students, and that they were still attempting to encourage Micmac people to live on reserves and give up their migratory habits.

  Post-Confederation

  Most changes to the Indian Act after Confederation were based on the belief Indians could be integrated with white communities.

  Within two years, Micmacs and other tribes were faced with the Enfranchisement Act of 1869, which was intended to free the Indians from wardship under the federal government. However, it was also designed to effect gradual assimilation only after the Indians could manage the ordinary affairs of the white man. The 1869 act also stipulated that Indian women who married non-Indian men and their children lost their right to be status Indians.

  In 1876, the Indian Act consolidated several laws already on the books of the Dominion of Canada and the old provinc
es of Upper and Lower Canada. Unfortunately, that Act created a framework for Indian legislation which remains fundamentally intact in today’s Indian Act.

  The 1900s

  An amendment to the 1911 Indian Act gave expropriation powers to all companies, municipalities and authorities with necessary statutory powers to expropriate as much reserve land as necessary for public works.

  The same Indian Act dealt with expropriation of reserves that were near or within towns or cities of more than 8,000 white people. Further amendments to the Indian Act also provided for forced removal of Indians from reserve lands and the sale of these reserves.

  Between 1919 and 1933 approximately 3,500 acres were surrendered here in Nova Scotia. At the same time the Department of Indian Affairs was increasing the size of several reserves in Nova Scotia.

  As early as 1918, the Department of Indian Affairs began to discuss what later became known as centralization policy — a concept which would attempt to relocate Micmacs to two large areas — Eskasoni and Shubenacadie. Implementation began in 1941.

  Centralization was meant to allow greater efficiency to government employees, more control over the Native population, an opportunity for education (as in the case of the Catholic Residential School in Shubenacadie) and two central land bases which would allow many smaller parcels to be absorbed into the public land base.

  Because many Micmacs did not want to uproot their families, lose their land and their way of life to share communities and services with other tribes, centralization attempts did not go smoothly.

  While some Micmacs moved, centralization was finally abandoned in 1949, resulting in the various settlements we see today throughout Nova Scotia.

  Discussion began in 1956-58 of dividing Nova Scotia Micmacs into individual bands, and allowing them to administer unoccupied reserves within their regions. In 1960, the provincial government created eleven bands with assigned land holdings. Later two others were recognized — Acadia, near Yarmouth, in 1965 and Horton in the Annapolis Valley, in 1984.

  Aboriginal peoples were granted the right to vote in federal elections for the first time in 1960.

  Later in the decade, Indian Affairs Minister Jean Chrétien began talks to further revise the Indian Act. As a result, in 1969, Ottawa introduced a white paper on Indian policy designed to eliminate the Indian Act, end federal responsibility for Indians, and terminate special status for Native peoples. The new policy would also cancel previous treaties and wipe out related land claims.

  The paper was seen as a betrayal of the entire consultation process of the ’60s and was scrapped by Pierre Trudeau in 1970. However, a new era of Indian-government relations had been ushered in, clouded from the Indian perspective by the fear the 1969 policy proposals would gradually be implemented through the back door.

  In 1969, the Union of Nova Scotia Indians was founded. Composed of all chiefs, this organization became the Native political body for the province and in 1970 began delivering programs of concern to the Micmac community.

  The repatriation of the Canadian Constitution in 1982 affirmed aboriginal and treaty rights, encouraging the many developments we see today regarding self-government and land claims settlement.

  In 1986, the Confederacy of Mainland Micmacs became the first tribal council in Nova Scotia. It provides advice and delivers programs to its members.

  In 1993, a forum was established among the federal, provincial and First Nations leadership.

  Traditional Stories

  (as recorded by Ruth Holmes Whitehead)

  Kluskap

  Kluskap is a great mn’tu. He has Power. But there is a greater mn’tu. And That One is Kji-kinap, the greatest of the mn’tu’k. Kji-kinap made Kluskap. Kji-kinap made the world.

  Kji-kinap is making the world. He makes the world and then he takes a rest, lying on the ground, looking around to see what he has done. And there on the ground is a stone image. It looks like a man. Kji-kinap speaks to it.

  “What are you doing here?” he asks it, but there is no reply.

  A second time he speaks to it: “What are you doing here?” But the image says nothing

  “What are you doing here?” says Kji-kinap for the third time, but that stone which looks like a man makes no sound.

  So Kji-kinap does a thing. He breathes into the image; he blows his breath into the image’s mouth, and the stone man becomes alive.

  Kji-kinap says to the man, “Sit up,” and this man sits up.

  Kji-kinap says to the man, “Stand up,” and this man stands up.

  Kji-kinap says to the man, “Walk,” and he walks; “Stop,” says Kji-kinap, and this man stops.

  Kji-kinap names this man Kluskap, Liar, The Cunning One, and gives him work to do. He tells him to take his bow, and with it to clean out all the muddy-running waters. He tells him to take his bow, and with it to clear a passage so that all those waters may run down to the sea.

  Now after Kluskap has worked for one day, he returns to his wigwam to rest. And right before sundown, he sees a thing. He sees a young woman walking toward him, coming along the same path which he himself had travelled. She comes right up to the door of the wigwam and stands there.

  “What are you doing here?” asks Kluskap.

  “I am come to help you,” says the woman. “I am clever. I am young.”

  Now it is morning, and the sun has come from beneath the earth. Kluskap and this young woman are working hard all day, cleaning out the riverbeds so that all that muddy water can run down to the sea. And when they return to the wigwam in the evening, they can see a thing. It is a young man, walking toward them over that path they have both travelled.

  Kluskap speaks to him. “Come in. What are you doing here?”

  “I have come to help you,” says the young man. “I am young. I am clever.”

  Kluskap then says, “Where have you come from?”

  “I have come from the Sky World,” says this young man.

  The next day all three of them work together, and they clean out the riverbeds and all that muddy water runs away into the sea.

  “Now,” says Kluskap to the woman, “here we have trees, but no buds and no leaves and no flowers. I want you to put leaves on all these trees. On the hackmatack, fir, spruce and pine, I want you to put needles. On the other trees, I want leaves. Put burrs on the trees as well. These burrs are filled with seeds, and so there will be young trees. And in all these trees there should be birds, who will sing for you.”

  “I have left all my pets, my birds, behind in the Sky World,” says the woman.” I would be glad if there were some way we could get them.”

  So Kluskap calls Kulu, the Great Bird. He sends him up to the Sky World to fetch the little birds down, all the birds. And each bird brought its songs with it from the Sky World. These songs filled up the forest with music. And each bird had his own song, from the littlest bird to the biggest bird.

  Now Kluskap speaks to the young man. “We need animals here,” he says.

  “I will call Kulu,” says the man. “I will send him up to the Sky World to fetch animals.”

  Now all of the People know that the stars have names. And when that young man sends Kulu up into the Sky World, he tells him the names of the Star Persons that he wants brought back down to the Earth World. Kulu fetches all those stars, and they become animals on the Earth World. But animals were first stars, living up in the sky.

  The work that this man and this woman had done suited Kluskap. He thinks that they have done well. “I am going to marry you together,” he tells them. “You will live together and have children, and they will have children. Go and make yourselves a wigwam. The man can go out into the forest and hunt animals. The woman can cook them.”

  This is what he told them. And that is how the People know that their grandparents came from the Sky World, to help Kluskap when the Earth World was new.

  The Thunders and Mosquito

  The Thunders are talking to Klmuej, talking to Mosquito. The Kaqtukwaq are say
ing, “Where do you get all this blood that tastes so good? We are good hunters, but we can never find any.”

  Klmuej, Mosquito Person, he is clever. He thinks, “If I tell them about the People, they will kill them all. There will be nothing left for me to eat.” So he says to them, “Do you see that forest down below us? That big forest? I peck there, at the trees. That is where I get this blood.”

  Kaqtukwaq, the Thunders, they say, “We will have some of it, then.” And they bring up the clouds, boil up the clouds. They bring up the lightning, wasoqotesk. They say, “Let’s do it. Clap your wings and shoot.”

  The first thing those Thunders hit is a big rock, a granite rock. “That’s not right,” say those Thunders to each other. “There is no blood in granite. Do it again. Hit that kuow. Hit that big pine tree.”

  The Thunders clap their wings and boom out over the forest. They hit the pine tree, and tear it up from top to bottom. “But where is the blood, the blood Klmuej eats, the blood that tastes so good?”

  The Thunders go looking for Mosquito. “You lied to us,” they say. “There is no blood in trees.”

  “Try that little tree over there,” says Klmuej. “You are being too hasty.”

  A little animal was sitting under that tree, a porcupine. The Thunders clap their wings and strike down the little tree and that porcupine sitting under it. “Here is some blood,” they say, drinking it up. “But it does not taste the same. It isn’t good, like that blood Mosquito drinks.”

  Once more they go looking for Klmuej. “That blood is not the same,” the Thunders say to him. “We still think that you are lying.”

  “If I tell them the truth,” thinks Mosquito, “they will surely kill all the People, the way they’re feeling right now.”