Life of Mi’kmaq Before the Eruption of The Europeans Paper I need help with the following assignment I need excellent work.keenly read through and follow t

Life of Mi’kmaq Before the Eruption of The Europeans Paper I need help with the following assignment I need excellent work.keenly read through and follow the instruction on the attachment ANCIENT MI’KMAQ CUSTOMS:
A SHAMAN’S REVELATIONS
Earle Lockerby
8700 Concession Road 4
Sandford, Ontario
Canada, LOC 1EO
Abstract I Resume
The article describes Mi’kmaq life just before European contact, based
on oral history related by a Mi’kmaq shaman to Father Pierre Maillard
about 1740. Included in the narrative are such activities as the procurement and cooking of food, fashioning of cooking vessels and canoes,
creation and preservation of fire, treatment of animal bones, and thwarting attacks by marine animals. Glimpses are also provided of certain
sociological phenomena. The shaman’s account is the only known record
where a specifically named Mi’kmaq person discusses what life was like
before the arrival of Europeans, or where we hear his actual words.
L’article decrit la vie des Mi’kmaq juste avant Ie contact europeen. II est
base sur I’histoire orale d’un chaman mi’kmaq recueillie vers 1740 par
I’abbe Pierre Maillard. Ce recit comprend la description d’activites comme
la cueillette et la cuisson de la nourriture, la fabrication de canots et de
recipients pour la cuisson, la production et la conservation du feu, Ie
traitement des os d’animaux et comment on dejouait les attaques des
animaux marins. L’article fournit aussi un aper9u de certains phenomenes
sociologiques. Ce compte rendu du chaman constitue Ie seul document
ou un Mi’kmaq bien identifie, et de ses propres mots, raconte ce aquoi
ressemblait la vie avant I’arrivee des Europeens.
The Canadian Journal of Native Studies XXIV, 2(2004):403-423.
404
Earle Lockerby
Introduction
Aboriginal people have existed on Prince Edward Island for thousands of years. The first recorded European contact with the Mi’kmaq
people on the Island occurred when the French explorer Jacques Cartier
visited Island shores in 1534.1 This paper deals with Mi’ kmaq customs
and practices about the time of contact, based on oral history related by
a Mi’kmaq in the year 1740 orthereabouts. 2
Historically, the Mi’kmaq inhabited, and continue to inhabit, Prince
Edward Island, Nova Scotia, including Cape Breton, eastern and northern New Brunswick, and parts of the Gaspe peninsula in Quebec. 3 The
Mi’kmaq are the most easterly of the Algonquian peoples who inhabit
the northeastern part of North America. They include, among others, the
Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and Abenaki. Algonkians were in general primarily dependent on hunting and fishing, whereas neighbours of the
Algonkians to the southwest, the Iroquoian, were sem i-agricultural and
more sedentary. 4 Mi’kmaq have traditionally anum ber of districts or territories, one being Epegoitg (which may be recognized phonetically as
Abegweit – Prince Edward Island) together with Pigtogeog, a portion of
northeastern mainland Nova Scotia, from which is derived the Nova
Scotia place name Pictou. 5
From the time that the French began to settle what are now the
Maritime provinces and Maine, they established good relations with the
local Aboriginal people. The latter’s assistance to the newcomers sometimes proved invaluable in surviving the harsh winter and unfamiliar environment. From the outset, the government of France, as a matter of
policy, endeavoured to convert Aboriginal people to Christianity, namely
the Roman Catholic faith. 6 Some priests sent from France ministered to
both the settlers and the local native people. Others were dedicated
almost solely to working among the Indians. From the time that organized settlement of Prince Edward Island-known to the French as lie
Saint-Jean – began in 1720, French priests, sent to the Island to minister to the new colonists, worked among the local Mi’ kmaq as well. The
registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths for the parish at Port Lajoye,
at which Rene-Charles Breslay was the first priest, record a Mi’kmaq
baptism in 1721 , the first year of record-keeping in this parish. 7 The first
entries recorded in the register for the parish of Saint-Pierre-du-Nord
involve Mi’kmaq people in 1724.8 At both parishes baptisms of Mi’kmaq
occurred until the end of the French regime on the Island in 1758.
The Mi’kmaq proved to be valuable military allies of the French in
their recurring struggles with the British. The French government was
careful to cultivate its relationship with the Mi’kmaq by ensuring that
presents were ceremoniously distributed among them. During most of
Ancient Mi’Kmaq Customs
405
the French regime on lie Saint-Jean, the governor at Louisbourg came
to Port La Joye once each summer to hold a feast and to distribute
presents -typically guns, powder, shot, hatchets and other tools or utensils, clothing, blankets and food -to not only Island Mi’kmaq, but also
to Mi’kmaq who had come from such places as Tatamagouche and
Miramichi. 9
Undoubtedly, the most prominent French priest to work among the
Mi’kmaq was Abbe Pierre Maillard. Trained at the Seminaire de SaintEsprit in Paris, he came to Cape Breton in 1735. Here he immediately
began to study the Mi’ kmaq language. Having a remarkable talent for
languages, he quickly mastered Mi’ kmaq and even went on to perfect a
system of “hieroglyphics” which he used to transcribe Mi’kmaq words. 10
He was thus able to produce note-books of prescribed prayers, chants
and catechismal responses in the Mi’kmaq language. 11 Maillard ministered primarily to the Mi’kmaq of Cape Breton, but made occasional
visits to the mainland and to lie Saint-Jean. He died in Halifax in 1762
but his name has continued to be revered among the Mi’kmaq of the
Maritimes, and particularly those of Cape Breton, to this very day.
Records of Ancient Mi’kmaq Customs
Until comparatively recent times the Aboriginal peoples of North
America have not recorded their own history through writing, relying
instead on oral traditions. Over the centuries such knowledge has become blurred, possibly distorted, and even lost. Several accounts of
Mi’kmaq customs written by early French priests have survived. Among
the best known and most comprehensive is that of Father Chrestien
Leclercq who worked among the Mi’kmaq in the Bay of Chaleur and
Gaspe regions. 12 Another is Maillard’s Account of the Customs and Manners of the Mickmakis and Maricheets Savage Nations Now Dependent
on the Government of Cape-Breton, a book published in 1758. Adventurers or entrepreneurs, such as Marc Lescarbot and Nicolas Denys,
have also added greatly to our knowledge through their written accounts. 13 There are several accounts which date back to the nineteenth
century only, and while interesting, they are generally of more lim ited
usefulness. 14
Maillard has left one other account, namely a letter, part of which is
the subject of this paper. In this part Maillard writes of a discussion he
had with a Mi’kmaq shaman in lie Saint-Jean. This individual recounted
for Maillard a number of ancient Mi’kmaq customs. This account is significant and unique in that it is the only existing record of ancient Mi’kmaq
customs which has come from Prince Edward Island. Further, according
to a Nova Scotian specialist in Mi’kmaq ethnology, Dr. Ruth Holmes
406
Earle Lockerby
Whitehead, this description “is the only existing record where a specifically named person discusses what life was like. before the arrival of the
Europeans, or where we hear his actual wordS.”15
It is im portant to note that from pre-contact times up to the nineteenth century the Mi’kmaq were very accustomed to travel – sometimes over great distances. One can thus presume that this resulted in a
certain degree of homogeneity in their customs at any given time period
throughout most of their territory, yet there was no doubt also some
geographical differentiation. The customs of the Mi’kmaq encountered
by Maillard on lie Saint-Jean were probably, therefore, not dissimilar
from those of Mi’kmaq elsewhere. The information provided to Maillard
on lie Saint-Jean is of interest, not only in the context of Prince Edward
Island history, but in regard to anthropological and archaeological studies relating to the Mi’kmaq culture at the time of contact and during the
centuries immediately preceding.
Maillard’s Account
Maillard’s account of the Mi’kmaq takes the form of a very long letter to a Monsieur de Lalane, a senior ecclesiastic in Paris. The date of
the letter is unknown, but almost certainly is not later than 1758 when
Louisbourg was captured by the British, and probably not much earlier
than 1754, the year that Augustin de Boshenry de Drucour became the
governor at Louisbourg. The letter, which describes events which took
place as late as 1750, was sent or presented to Madame Drucour under
cover of another letter, also undated. For a variety of reasons, the letter
to Lalane can be presumed to be circa 1755. 16
In his letter Maillard synthesizes information that he had acquired
over two decades. As for the information acquired on lie Saint-Jean, it is
stated by Maillard to have been gathered 15 years prior to when he wrote
the letter to Lalane, or about 1740. This information was provided by
several Mi’kmaq men, but primarily by a shaman, or spiritual leader,
named Arguimaut, and has been reconstructed by way of a dialogue. 17
Though Maillard utilizes a series of questions and responses in the form
of direct quotations, this is almost certainly a device which he chose to
em ploy to present the essential gist of the information he remem bered
receiving 15 years previously. Also, it is im portant to bear in mind that
the words of Arguimaut and his colleagues are a translation of what he
had been told – Argimaut’s words would likely have been in Mi’kmaq.
Further, Maillard’s words have been translated from French to English.
Nuances of meaning can sometimes be difficult to convey in translation,
and this would apply in particular to the translation from the Mi’kmaq.
Ancient Mi’Kmaq Customs
407
A Shaman Speaks
Shamanism has been associated with most band-level societies
throughout the world. Central to North American shamanism is healing.
Shamans, either male or female, used various techniques, including
herbal remedies. They exercised the roles of not only medicine-person,
but also seer, mystic and “priest.” They sought to apply their healing
powers to the sick, provide catharsis through ecstatic rites, prognosticate through their visions, control events, including the weather, and
bend the future through their communication with the supernatural or
spirit world. 18 The powers of Mi’kmaq shamans, claimed to derive from
the spiritual and animal worlds, has been said to include the ability to fly
through the air, go down through the earth, remain under water for a
chosen period of time, and to transform into an animal. 19
Little is known of the shaman Arguimaut, for whom no other distinguishing name is stated. 20 The name (in its many spelling variations) was
not an uncommon one in Acadia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and into the nineteenth century. The Prince Edward Island bornand New Brunswick-raised author, Samuel Dougas Smith Huyghue, writing circa 1840 under the pseudonym, Eugene, chose the title Argimou: A
Lengend of the Micmac for his novel based on the “captivity” genre
popular at the time. In a census of Mi’kmaq in Acadia taken in 1708 by
the French priest LaChasse, four adult males (14 males in total) are listed
as having this surname, mostly in the Chignecto area. 21 Among these
males is probably the man who spoke with Abbe Maillard in lie SaintJean. In 1832 Chief Louis Francis A1guimou, among several other Prince
Edward Island Mi’kmaq, signed a petition “To the Great Councillors of
Prince Edward Island,” requesting that land be set aside for Island
Mi’kmaq, as had been done in Cape Breton, peninsular Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick, and that books be provided for the education of Mi’kmaq
children. 22 Since the names Arguimaut and Alguimou are phonetically
identical in Mi’kmaq, it is quite possible that the latter-day petitioner
was related to the shaman of an earlier era. 23
Maillard briefly sets the stage; Arguimaut, occasionally with input
from his colleagues, then responds to the priest’s questions:
Fifteen years ago I was on the Isle St. Jean, about sixty
leagues from Isle Royale, to instruct the savages who had
gathered there in great numbers. I met a certain Arguimaut,
an old Micmac shaman who was there with his whole family
as well as several other old men who had recently been
baptised but who had not yet made their first communion. I
put to him and to the others this question: “What did you
do, my children, before the arrival of the Europeans in this
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Earle Lockerby
region? How did you occupy yourselves? How did you spend
your time?”
He responded, on behalf of both himself and the others:
“Father, before your arrival in these parts where God decreed we should be born and where we have grown like the
grasses and the trees you see around you, our most constant occupation was to hunt all sorts of animals so as to
eat their flesh and to cover ourselves with their skins. We
hunted both small and large game-birds, and chose the best
and the most beautifully feathered birds to make ornaments
for our heads. We killed only enough animals and birds to
sustain us for one day, and then, the next day, we set out
again. But never think that our hunting was as arduous as it
is today. All we needed to do in those times was to leave our
wigwams, sometimes wtth our arrows and spears, and sometimes without, and at a very short distance from our village
we would find all we needed. If at any time we did not wish
to eat meat we would go to the lakes or rivers nearest our
village, or to the nearest sea-shore, and there we would catch
all sorts of fish to eat. Eel was our favourite catch as it is
even today.
“It mattered not one bit to us whether the meat was
cooked or raw, and, if we found we had only tough meat at
any time, we would cut it and tear it into strips which we
would pound on broad flat stones, and thus we were able to
chew and swallow it easily. We could leave solid-fleshed fish,
like sturgeon and halibut, to rot for a time, after which we
ate it like all other food. At night when we met together, we
would feast on meat roasted on a fire, a fire we lighted by
briskly rubbing sun-dried pine wood in our hands for a long
time. Sometimes, if the fire did not start as soon as we
wished, we would go to the seashore to gather those white
pebbles that are so abundant there. We would each take
two of these and strike one against the other over powdered,
dry-rotted pine wood. We had fire then, without fail.
“To preserve fire, especially in winter, we would entrust
it to the care of our war-chief’s women, who took turns to
preserve the spark, using half-rotten pine wood covered with
ash. Sometimes this fire lasted up to three moons. When it
lasted the span of three moons, the fire became sacred and
magical to us, and we showered with a thousand praises
the chief’s woman who had been the fire’s guardian during
Ancient Mi’Kmaq Customs
409
the last days of the third moon. We would all gather together
and, so that no member of the families which had camped
there since the autumn should be absent, we sent out young
men to fetch those who were missing. Then, when our numbers were complete, we would gather round and, without
regard to rank or age, light our pipes at the fire. We would
suck in the smoke and keep it in our mouths, and one by
one would puff it out into the face of the woman who had
last preserved the spark, telling her that she was worthy
above all to share in the benign influence of the Father of
Light, the Sun, because she had so skilfully preserved His
emanations.
“Then we would dance around the fire, and this is what
we would sing: ‘Oh Fire, light our pipes and grant that, by
sucking in Thy goodness, under cover of the smoke that
hides Thee from our eyes, we may become strong and vigorous and always able to know our slave-women and wives
of our bed. May you stay forever in our hearts so that we
may never know what it is to flinch when we are face to face
with those who wish to end our days. Grant that we may
laugh and sing and dance when alien executioners wish to
dismember us alive. Grant that hunger, thirst and illness may
never overwhelm us to the point where we are no longer as
indifferent to those ills as we should be. Thou, woman, by
thy care, by thy vigilance, by the great attention thou hast
paid to the preservation of this spark of fire, have thereby
become the principal wife of our chief, if thou art not so already. And we now summon this chief, who has broken so
many heads, both human and animal, to come forward, and
here in our presence he will stretch out his great fur, and
thou, woman, will lie under it first and he shall follow thee.
But if thou art but a concubine, leave thy master now and
seek among those gathered here which young man thou
wishest for a husband. This shall be thy honour and reward.’
“If the woman was the chiefs’s principal wife, the assembly would bestow on her the honour of making a feast
for the men, of being present at the feast with as many
women as she should choose to bear her company, of being
the first to speak after the feast was done, of presenting his
pipe to her husband, lord and master, of being the first to
get up both to dance and to sing as she wished while she
danced. And all these things were done just as I have told
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Earle Lockerby
you, Father.
“We used the fire-spark which had been nursed [through
the three moons of winter] to light a big pile of wood which
had been gathered and piled up for the purpose, and then
pulled from it the fieriest-burning pieces on which we would
lay all sorts of meats. Dried meats were sprinkled with seal
oil, or sea-cow oil, or with pieces of whale blubber held in
sticks split in two. Game birds were thrown whole, unplucked
and ungutted, on the glowing embers. As soon as the feathers had been consumed by the fire – or rather when the feathers had melted to form a thin sort of crust – everyone would
take whichever piece he liked, rub it quickly in his hands,
blow on it, break off pieces and so eat it. Large game birds,
like Canada geese, mergansers, oldsquaws, eiders, other
kinds of ducks, brant-geese, cormorants, eagles, gullS, etc.,
were only plucked of their long feathers and had their tripes
removed. Then we would throw them on the burning embers from which we snatched them very soon after, cooked
or not, and ate them hungrily. I must point out that, both at
these im provised feasts and at all other times, we never left
our food bones on the ground, nor did we give them to the
dogs.
“It was a religious act among our people to gather up all
bones very carefully, and either to throw them in the fire (when
we had one), or into a river where beaver lived. I cannot tell
you the reason for this, Father, for I do not know it. I only
know that our ancestors used to tell us that we must throw
all the bones of the beaver we ate into rivers where we could
see beaver lodges, so that the lodges would always be there.
All the bones of game we got from the sea had to be thrown
in the sea, so that the species would always exist. They also
told us that our domestic animals must never gnaw the bones
because this would not fail to diminish the species of the
animal which had fed us. None of the shamans, not even I,
the foremost one (since I held the office before I was bathed
in holy water) could give any reasons for these practices to
our young people, who sometimes asked us questions on
this subject.”
“But did you,” I said in interrupting him, “cook your food
in containers of any kind [before the arrival of Europeans]?
Did you have appropriate cutting tools? Who taught you to
make your canoes in the fashion you do?”
Ancient Mi’Kmaq Customs
411
“We did have some sorts of pots, or cauldrons, made of
very soft sandstone which we hollowed out with moose or
beaver bones of various sizes. The best kind [of tool] was
beaver bone, one end of which we made al…
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