| First
Nations Page 1
2 3
4 5 |
Birchbark basket-making and decorative, porcupine
quill-work (on both leather and birchbark)
were renowned Mi’kmaq skills, and storytelling
– a pastime that could last for days
– was developed to a high art. The creation
story of Glooscap (Klu’skap) figures
prominently in Mi’kmaq legends. The
Mi’kmaq language, part of the Algonkian
language family, is non-gender-specific and
verb-oriented. Early written versions of the
Mi’kmaq language were hieroglyphic.
A new Mi’kmaq linguistic system, developed
in 1974, identifies 11 consonants and 6 vowels,
including “schwa,” written as
a barred letter ‘i.”
Traditional Mi’kmaq society was largely
egalitarian, with a strong emphasis on sharing
of food and other resources. Men hunted, fished
and made tools, traps and household items.
Women prepared and preserved food, set up
wigwams, fetched water, made clothing and
containers, and looked after the children.
While pre-contact Mi’kmaq spiritual
practices were much like those of other Eastern
Woodlands tribes, with the belief that all
things – animate and inanimate –
possessed a spirit, the Mi’kmaq’s
early relationship with the French led many
to embrace the Catholic faith. In 1610, Grand
Chief Membertou (who took the French surname
of Henri) was the first of his people to be
baptized, in a ceremony at Port Royal. During
the British expulsion of the Acadians in the
mid 1700’s, the legendary Abbé
Antoine Simon Maillard led his Mi’kmaq
followers to Chapel Island in the Bras d’Or
Lakes, where he built a church in 1754, and
developed a system of Mi’kmaq hieroglyphics
to aid in the memory of prayers and religious
instruction.
Politically, the Mi’kmaq were a loosely-organized
confederacy, with local chiefs, councils of
elders and district chiefs. The Mi’kmaq
were part of the Wabanaki Confederacy, which
included the Abenaki, Penobscot and Passamaquoddy
(of modern-day American territory) and the
Maliseet (of the St. John River Valley area
of New Brunswick). They were traditional enemies
of the Iroquois, and in the 17th and 18th
centuries were allied with the French against
the British. More than once during the British
campaign against the Acadians, the Mi’kmaq
were the subject of a grisly bounty that offered
premium rewards for the scalps of Mi’kmaq
men, women and children. In the 17th and 18th
centuries, disease devastated the Mi’kmaq,
reducing the population to about one quarter
of its original, pre-contact size. |
|
|
First
Nations Page 1
2 3
4 5
|
