MICMAC DOCUMENTED ORAL ACCOUNTS AS HISTORICAL SOURCE MATERIAL
by
SCOTT HECTOR McKEEN
B.A., Dalhousie University, 1986 B.A. (Hons.) Dalhousie University, 1990
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
in
THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
(Department of History)
We accept this thesis-asvconforming
/to \ | i\e requireE^standard
T H E N L J N T V E R S J J Y OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
APRIL 1995
® Scott Hector McKeen, April 1995
In p resen t ing this thesis in partial f u l f i lmen t of t h e r e q u i r e m e n t s f o r an advanced
d e g r e e at t h e Univers i ty o f Brit ish C o l u m b i a , I agree tha t t h e Library shall m a k e it
f reely available f o r re fe rence and s tudy. I fu r ther agree that pe rmiss ion f o r ex tens ive
c o p y i n g of this thesis f o r scholar ly pu rposes may be g r a n t e d by t h e head o f m y
d e p a r t m e n t or by his o r her representat ives. It is u n d e r s t o o d that c o p y i n g o r
p u b l i c a t i o n o f this thesis fo r f inancial gain shall n o t b e a l l o w e d w i t h o u t m y w r i t t e n
pe rmiss ion .
D e p a r t m e n t o f
The Univers i ty o f Brit ish C o l u m b i a Vancouver , Canada
DE-6 (2/88)
ABSTRACT
This is a s tudy o f t he d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts o f t he M i c m a c p e o p l e o f A t l a n t i c
C a n a d a for the i r po ten t ia l as h is tor ica l source mater ia l . W i l l i a m G . D o t y ' s perspect ives
o n m y t h o g r a p h y are adap ted in to an h is to r i ca l - func t iona l a p p r o a c h to stories in the
accoun ts . C o n s i d e r a t i o n is g i v e n to the nature a n d h is tory o f t he ora l accoun ts , h o w t h e y
c a m e to be r e c o r d e d , a n d ro le o f t he recorders in s h a p i n g t h e accoun ts . F ina l ly , a samp le
o f t he d o c u m e n t e d accoun ts are a n a l y z e d for e v i d e n c e o f c h a n g e in M i c m a c sp i r i t ua l i t y
a n d re l ig ious bel iefs f r o m con tac t in t he seventeenth c e n t u r y to t h e m i d - t w e n t i e t h
c e n t u r y .
TABLE O F C O N T E N T S
Page
ABSTRACT ii
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER ONE: THE MANY CONTEXTS OF MICMAC DOCUMENTED ORAL
ACCOUNTS 14 The Micmac People 14 The Social Place of Storytellers, Storytelling and Stories 25 The European Documenters of Micmac Oral Accounts 30 Documented Oral Accounts as Written Texts 35
CHAPTER TWO: AN HISTORICAL-FUNCTIONAL METHODOLOGY FOR USING DOCUMENTED ORAL ACCOUNTS AS HISTORICAL SOURCE MATERIAL 40 The Historical-Functional Approach 41 The Applicability of an Historical-
Functional Approach to Micmac Documented Oral Accounts 48 Developing an Interpretive Methodology 60
CHAPTER THREE: AN EXPLORATION OF CHANGES IN MICMAC RELIGIOUS BELIEFS: A CASE STUDY 66 Micmac Spiritual Beliefs 68
Spiritual Beings: Other-Than-Human Persons 69 Dreams 73 Spiritual Power 76
Changes in Micmac Religious Beliefs 81 The Micmac Creator 82 The Coming of the Cross 88 Trickster Tales and Hero Stories 95
CONCLUSION 101
ENDNOTES 105
BIBLIOGRAPHY 130
iii
INTRODUCTION
1
An intriguing debate currently taking place in the field of Native North American
Indian history concerns the use of documented Native oral accounts, in the form of
myths, legends, traditions, stories and tales, as evidence in historical research. Concern
over the use of oral evidence in historical work is not new, either in the field of Native
history or in historical research in general. Since the emergence of the "New Indian
History" in the late 1960's,1 the need to find sources of evidence that present a Native
"voice" or perspective has provoked questions about the validity and usefulness of
traditional Native accounts of historical events. More widely, these questions raise the
issue of the role that Native North American oral tradition, mythology and other forms
of oral culture should play in historical work. One aspect of the debate emerges from
criticism over the ability of historians, using the historical method of evaluating evidence,
to make proper use of oral accounts that appear in conventional historical sources. This
raises the specific question of how historians may use the documented accounts derived
from a Native people's oral culture and recorded by members of other cultures for
various, disparate reasons, as historical evidence for questions that are framed within the
Western concept of history. My interest is in how historians, using conventional
historical methods for analyzing documents, may discern information from documented
oral accounts without the benefit of living informants and the specialized techniques of
field research. In order to address this question, I will use the transcribed, historic oral
accounts of the Micmac people of Atlantic Canada to explore potential approaches
2
towards this type of evidence and. to illustrate, through examples from Micmac
documented oral accounts, how they might contribute to historical inquiry.
Historic documented oral accounts may be defined as those materials that are
found in the historical record in documentary form, written down by various Europeans
and their North American descendants from the time of contact until the twentieth
century, but derived from oral culture. This type of evidence is found in various
conventional historical documents, such as the writings of explorers, missionaries and
traders, but also appears in folklorists' collections and anthropologists' ethnographies,
including their accompanying fieldnotes. In its original form the material was spoken,
transmitted as part of an oral culture. In this work, oral culture is defined as the entire
body of oral genres taken together, and assumes a central role for oral communication
in disseminating an oral society's store of knowledge to its members. The various oral
genres include mythology, legend, folklore, tradition, and stories, as well any debates,
commentaries, descriptions, or explanations that may be attributed to oral culture. Often
they were communicated through the medium of storytelling and included stories of the
ancient ones or myths, in Micmac, a'tukwaqn. and news, or aknutmaqn.2 The accounts
may include indirect as well as direct statements, second-hand information, and material
presented in a writer's narrative or commentary that could only have been derived from
oral testimony. For my purposes, "documented oral accounts" refers to any documentary
evidence that existed at some time in a purely oral form or was a product of oral culture.
Such a wide definition allows the study to include all types of oral evidence that were
gathered from the Micmac and written down by Europeans.
The growing acceptance of oral history as an historical methodology produced
an interest in spoken, rather than written evidence. Although oral histories differ from
documented oral accounts in that oral history concerns evidence that is collected by the
researcher from living members of a particular study group, recording memories of a past
that is still remembered within a community, oral historians have opened the way for
the use of documented oral accounts for historical evidence. In its practice, oral
historians have shown that certain types of oral testimony are valuable, often unique,
sources of historical evidence, especially for groups that are not well represented in
historical documents. African historian David Henige in Oral Historiography defined oral
history as
the study of the recent past by means of life histories or personal recollections, where informants speak about their own experiences.... Oral history provides an opportunity to explore and record the views of the underprivileged, the dispossessed, and the defeated - those who, by virtue of being historically inarticulate, have been overlooked in most studies of the past. 3
Henige considered documented oral accounts to be only a minor part of oral history.
But recent studies of topics such as resistance to colonial rule [in Africa] have necessarily tended to rely on second-hand oral and written accounts (some of which include early interviews) since few who took part are still alive.... These instances are probably a relatively minor aspect of oral history and the discussion here assumes that oral historians are primarily interested in events personally experienced and attitudes personally acquired. 4
4
The similarity between using documented oral accounts and practising oral history
is the concentration on evidence that is spoken rather than written. Both deal with, in
one fashion or another, people talking about the past. But with documented oral
accounts, the conventional distance between the historian and the sources exists. The
informant cannot be questioned directly nor can the source be expanded through
additional questioning. The historian operates separately from both the recorder and the
informant.
Of all the spoken forms, oral traditions serve as the most important link between
the materials of oral historians and conventional documentary historians, between
recently collected oral testimony and documented oral accounts. And it is the accepted
perceptions of oral traditions as evidence, as much as anything else, that has shaped
attitudes towards all genres of oral culture, whether they are collected in the field or
occur in documentary sources. While any exact definition of oral tradition is open to
debate,5 in this study the term refers to accounts from either the actual or an idealized
past, and their various human and non-human characters. This definition of oral tradition
approximates the Micmac term a'tukwaqn. or '"stories treasured up, indeed, and handed
down from age to age, and often told for diversion, and to keep in memory the habits
and manners, domestic and political, of the 'sahkah-waych-kik, the ancient Indians....'"6
The definition also includes the various animal tales. Generally, they are widely known,
but with many localized variations, and have been passed on over generations. It is
important to this study that a working definition of oral tradition reflect the characteristics
of the specific source material it attempts to describe rather than engage academic
debates stemming from other sources. My broad definition of oral tradition probably
5
disagrees with specialists in specific details, especially those in other fields and from
other disciplines, but it is not the discussion over the definition of oral traditions that is
significant here, but rather the debate over their usefulness as historical evidence,
especially as they appear in documented oral accounts.
The interest in documented oral accounts as historical evidence for Native history
comes from the need to expand both the amount and range of historical materials that
may bear on a Native centred history, a need driven in part by the issue of finding the
Native "voice" in historical documents.7 Because a very fragmented and sparse
documentary record is a recurring characteristic of historical work on Native peoples,
traditions and other oral forms, as they appear in documented oral accounts, may serve
to give voice to otherwise inarticulate participants in history. Until recently historians of
Native peoples generally have ignored, rather than condemned, the use of documented
oral accounts as a type of evidence. To a large degree this has been because the topics
that have concerned historians the most, the fur trade and Native-White relations,
possess a relatively rich supply of records in conventional archival sources, produced by
trading companies, colonial governments and a wide variety of individuals.8 But
historical inquiry that goes beyond these main areas of research, to topics that invoke
a Native perspective on events and circumstances, such as relations between different
Native groups, attitudes towards settlers, and reasons for involvement in the fur trade or
colonial European conflicts, strain conventional approaches towards historical source
materials and offer challenges to some of the orientations and attitudes towards historical
evidence held by both historians and anthropologists.
Throughout the twentieth century various anthropologists have argued against the
use of oral tradition as direct historical evidence. This is not to suggest that
anthropologists have opposed using oral tradition for other types of investigation, such
as ethnography,9 but rather indicates a specific rejection of oral tradition as a source for
history. In the early twentieth century anthropologist Robert H. Lowie sparked a debate
over the use of oral tradition within the folklorist and anthropological communities with
his oft cited dictate, "I cannot attach to oral tradition any historical value whatsoever
under any conditions whatsoever."10 Although other anthropologists of his day
challenged his extreme rejection of oral tradition, his remarks remained as the starting
point for discussions on the topic over forty years later. More recently, individual
examples of oral testimony have complemented, confirmed or refuted written
documents,1 1 but a general bias against these types of sources has continued.
Noted archaeologist and ethnohistorian Bruce Trigger, in his 1976 introduction
to The Children of Aataentsic issued an explicit caution against relying upon oral
traditions for historical evidence.
Among some Indian groups, oral traditions are of considerable value for supplementing written records. The Winnebago tribe of Wisconsin are reported to preserve memories of events that took place soon after their first encounter with a European, which probably occurred in 1634. For the Huron, however, and for the Iroquoians generally, oral traditions appear to be of little historical value. The reason for this probably lies in the Iroquoians' attitude towards history. For the most part, the purpose of their traditions was not to preserve a literal memory of the past, but rather to supply them with a guide to the social, political and moral order in which they lived....
Hence one seems safe in concluding that oral traditions do not provide an independent means for studying
the history of Iroquoian-speaking peoples. It is of interest when oral traditions confirm other sources of information about the past, but, except when they do, they should not be even used to supplement such sources. 1 2
In the case of the Five Nations Iroquois, Trigger cited anthropologist A.C. Parker's idea
that"... the Iroquois conceived of their history in terms of periods of 'cultural revolution'
and that each new revolution systematically blotted out the memory of a former era." 1 3
In a wider context, however, Trigger's attitude toward oral traditions as possible
historical source material reflects his often discussed concerns over 'romantic'
approaches toward history.14 However, subsequent to Leroy V. Eid work on the
eighteenth century Ojibwa-lroquois War, which made extensive use of oral accounts,
Trigger withdrew somewhat from his position against their use and called for more
research and critical analysis of the methodology for using oral accounts.1 5
Anthropologist Julie Cruikshank, in Life Lived Like a Story, her 1989 book about
the storytelling practices of three female Tlingit and Athapaskan Yukon Native elders,
clearly demonstrated that oral traditions are still actively used to interpret life events and
make them meaningful. As a point of departure for her work she distinguished between
using oral testimony for historical evidence and using oral testimony, in the form of
history or mythology, to study how it is used in the present by members of a society to
explain and understand their life experiences. Her perspective concentrates on "how
these women use traditional narrative to explain their life experiences."16 and she
"gradually... came to see oral tradition not as 'evidence' about the past but as a window
on ways the past is culturally constituted and discussed."17 In putting forward this
8
perspective she expressed a concern over the use of oral tradition for historical evidence.
Well-intentioned but uncritical use of oral traditions from one culture as though they are equivalent to historical evidence, as defined by another culture, may lead to misrepresentation of more complex messages in the narrative. Attempts to sift oral accounts for so-called 'facts' may, ironically underestimate the value of spoken testimonies by setting positivistic criteria for assessing truth value or distortions.
To interpret any account, be it written or oral, a student of the past makes some evaluation of the context in which the document was made. Researchers working with archival documents share a general framework for .interpretingthe conditions under which government reports, log books, diaries, personal papers, and newspapers were produced. But these criteria become quite inappropriate when applied to unfamiliar cultural documents where much is implicit, where kinship terms, place names, metaphor, and symbol play a significant role in how the account is presented. Athapaskan storytellers in northern Canada seem well-equipped to correlate seemingly unrelated ideas and show how they are connected: researchers who try to winnow 'facts' from oral accounts and relate them to evidence in written documents may mislead themselves. 1 8
Cruikshank's position explicitly excludes all but the trained anthropologist or oral
historian with fieldwork experience from utilizing documented oral accounts in research.
Although there are examples of where such misrepresentations, underestimations, and
misleadings take place in historical works, such as in historian Calvin Martin's
controversial Keepers of the Game. 1 9 there are more recent examples where historians
have successfully utilized documented oral accounts.
9
In the early 1990's, several historians writing about Northeastern Native peoples
began to integrate oral traditions and legends with other forms of evidence, incorporating
them into larger works. In The Ordeal of the Lonfihouse: The Peoples of The Iroquois
League in the Era of European Colonization. Daniel K. Richter used the Cosmogonic
Myth of the Iroquoians to "illuminate the cultural meaning of the social forms produced
by [long processes of social] evolution and to attempt to recover - however inadequately
- something of the social and mental world of Iroquois people at the turn of the 17th
century." 2 0 Richter further described treaty speeches and oral traditions as "crucial troves
of evidence" for the Iroquois point of view. 2 1 Richard White, in The Middle Ground:
Indians. Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region. 1650-1815. in one case,
drew upon late nineteenth century traditions from the Fox Indians of Wisconsin to
backup his point about the failure of leadership that led to the French-Fox Wars of the
early eighteenth century. The Fox tales of White Robe demonstrated behaviour on the
part of a leader that produced warfare and chaos rather than fulfilling the prescribed role
of mediation and peacemaking.22 By incorporating oral traditions and other forms of
documented oral accounts into their historical work, both Richter and White have
demonstrated the value that these types of sources have for illuminating a Native North
American perspective on historical events.
For my own study on the possibilities of documented oral accounts as historical
evidence and their unique methodological problems I wil l focus on the collected
documented oral accounts of the Micmac people of Atlantic Canada. Located on the east
coast of Canada, the Micmac have one of the longest records of interaction with
Europeans and North American settlers of any North American Native people, which
10
resulted in a relatively wide variety of documented oral accounts. The Micmac accounts
present an extensive and diverse record of oral documents, covering the entire range of
historical periods from settlement at the start of the seventeenth century up to the
twentieth century. They also encompass a variety of oral genres, including myths, oral
traditions, historical legends, and localized folklore. Moreover, many of the various
types of chroniclers of Native oral culture in North America are represented in the
collected works on the Micmac, and this allows for an examination of most of the types
of material that users of documented Native North American oral accounts might
encounter.
Anotherreason for focusing on the Micmac stems from the fact that the Micmac,
unlike most other Northeastern North American Native peoples, continue to occupy their
aboriginal homeland. They were not forcibly removed from the region, did not, like
some more southerly Eastern Algonquians, migrated westward, nor were they driven into
physical or cultural extinction. The Micmac remain close to the lands that they occupied
when they first encountered Europeans, and the geographic stability of the Micmac
preserves the connection between the stories and their physical setting. Stability in
location of the Micmac is a tremendous advantage for researchers, for it also eliminates
the need to account for the impact of dislocation and acculturation with other Native
peoples or changes in Micmac oral culture that resulted from a new geographic
environment and its associated influences. The continuous existence of the Micmac in
both time and place allows the study to examine documented oral accounts in as long
a perspective as possible.
11
Focusing the study on an particular group also, of course, limits the number of
sources available to the study. But while a larger study group, such as all the Eastern
Algonquian peoples, would yield a greater number of stories on a particular topic, the
vast quantity of material would make overall impressions much more difficult. The
smaller case study method also allows for a concentration on the methodological
problems concerning the use of documented oral accounts and for incorporating
documented oral accounts into historical work.Concentrating on a single people also
focuses the study to one people so that the findings may apply to the smallest social unit
usually used in Native American historical research. Thus the generalizations that emerge
from this example may be directed towards larger regional or cultural Native groups with
similar types of documented oral accounts.
I have organized this study into three chapters. Chapter One examines historical
contexts and backgrounds, the second chapter deals with methodology, and the third
and final chapter investigates a particular historical phenomenon from Micmac history
using documented oral accounts. By giving the Micmac people, the art of storytelling,
the recorders of the accounts and the accounts themselves historical and cultural
contexts, I set out the parameters and conditions that inform the evaluation and selection
of methods for analyzing the documented oral accounts. The methodological exploration
in the second chapter concentrates on approaches towards documented oral accounts
that are compatible with the general concerns of historical research and adapting those
analytical approaches to the particular needs of Micmac documented oral accounts. In
the final chapter I wil l examine the incorporation of European Christian and "pagan"
ideas and concepts into Micmac religion. By addressing the issue of religious syncretism
12
amongst the Algonquian Micmac I will explore a concrete example of my basic
assumption - that stories contain a diverse range of information and have the potential
to communicate various ideas over time - and demonstrate the utility of these types of
sources for historical inquiry.
The use of stories, myths, legends and folktales drawn from documented oral
accounts to conduct historical inquiry remains an intuitive process, drawing on a
imperfect record, and this investigation only provides a structure for the processes that
limit and inform the historical imagination. Yet a careful, sensitive, and culturally
informed analysis of documented oral accounts may reveal evidence of historical events,
such as incidents of warfare between Natives groups, and perhaps more significantly,
evidence of processes of historical change, for example, the adoption and adaption of
Christianity by Native people. Furthermore, work using documented oral accounts may
raise new historical questions about Native North Americans, concerning issues such as
how oral culture communicated ideas and information. Through this case study of
Micmac documented oral accounts I intend to demonstrate that techniques already exist
for the analysis of documented oral accounts and that there is a readily available supply
of stories, translated and reprinted, waiting to be incorporated into Native history. By
bringing together various forms of expression, and diverse ways of transmitting
knowledge, from different cultures, that bear on similar subjects, historians may be able
to expand their perspective beyond the limited view of any one set of contemporary
observers. In addressing the methodological concerns for utilizing documented oral
accounts, I hope to demonstrate that they are a valuable, perhaps indispensable, part of
13
e t h n o h i s t o r i c a l research a n d m a y p r o v i d e an i m p o r t a n t a v e n u e i n t o the N a t i v e N o r t h
A m e r i c a n h is tor ica l e x p e r i e n c e .
14
CHAPTER ONE:
THE MANY CONTEXTS OF MICMAC DOCUMENTED ORAL ACCOUNTS
T h e need t o d iscover t he c o n t e x t in w h i c h an a c c o u n t was w r i t t e n is n o less t rue
for h is to r i c d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts t han o ther fo rms o f h is tor ica l e v i d e n c e . For
d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts the process is c o m p l i c a t e d b y the fact tha t t he act o f
t r a n s c r i b i n g the stories o f a f o r e i g n , non- l i te ra te c u l t u r e decon tex tua l i zes those accoun ts .
W h e n European wr i t e rs c o n v e r t e d the spoken stories in to w r i t t e n texts, t hey , c o n s c i o u s l y
o r u n c o n s c i o u s l y , c h a n g e d t h e m b y c o m m u n i c a t i n g t h e m t h r o u g h a d i f fe ren t m e d i u m ,
to a n e w a u d i e n c e a n d for reasons o ther t han o r i g i n a l l y i n t e n d e d . W r i t i n g t h e stories
d o w n r e m o v e d t h e m f r o m the i r o r ig ina l socia l set t ing a n d language, a n d c e m e n t e d the i r
f o r m . T h e task o f n o w p l a c i n g the stories c o n t a i n e d in t h e accoun ts i n t o re levant
con tex ts is c o m p l e x a n d c h a l l e n g i n g , bu t it is necessary to e x p l o r e f u l l y the i r m e a n i n g .
A n h is to r i c d o c u m e n t e d ora l a c c o u n t is t h e p r o d u c t o f t w o w o r l d s : tha t o f t he s tory te l ler
a n d tha t o f t h e recorder . Re -con tex tua l i z i ng the accoun ts requ i res t h e c o n s i d e r a t i o n o f
t h e d iverse c o n d i t i o n s tha t i n f l u e n c e t h e m . By p r o v i d i n g the d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts
w i t h a va r ie ty o f con tex ts a n d sett ings, t he ora l accoun ts b e c o m e c o n n e c t e d t o t h e w i d e r
pat terns o f M i c m a c h is tory a n d c u l t u r e to w h i c h t h e y re late, a n d in tegra ted w i t h the
in te l lec tua l processes that created t h e m in al l the i r f o rms .
The Micmac People
A br ie f d e s c r i p t i o n o f t he e t h n o g r a p h y a n d h is to ry o f t he M i c m a c p e o p l e adds to
t h e h is to r i c d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts a sense o f cu l tu ra l b e l o n g i n g a n d a p lace in t i m e .
15
A n o v e r v i e w o f M i c m a c h is tory a n d c u l t u r e situates t h e accoun ts in t he genera l con tex ts
o f c i r c u m s t a n c e a n d event , be l ie f a n d c u s t o m to w h i c h t h e y refer. T h e genera l patterns
o f M i c m a c h is to ry a n d c u l t u r e p r o v i d e the h is tor ian w i t h a c h r o n o l o g i c a l a n d
e t h n o g r a p h i c f r a m e w o r k tha t connec ts the i n d i v i d u a l w r i t t e n stories w i t h t h e w i d e r
exper iences o f M i c m a c p e o p l e . These exper iences are i m p o r t a n t because t h e y m a y have
a l te red the ro le o f s to ry te l l i ng in M i c m a c sett ings.
T h e M i c m a c are an Eastern A l g o n q u i a n speak ing p e o p l e w h o share m a n y o f the
cu l tu ra l traits o f o the r A l g o n q u i a n s f r o m centra l C a n a d a a n d the nor theas tern U n i t e d
States. T h e y d i f fer in s o m e aspects f r o m b o t h the i r n o r t h w e s t e r n a n d sou the rn n e i g h b o u r s
because o f e i ther eco log i ca l adapta t ions or h is tor ica l c i r cumstances . S imi la r i t ies exist in
areas o f mater ia l c u l t u r e a n d social o r g a n i z a t i o n , b u t aspects o f e c o n o m i c a d a p t a t i o n a n d
be l ie f systems s h o w m o r e va r iance . T h e M i c m a c a l tered the i r e c o n o m i c c y c l e to t he
m a r i t i m e e n v i r o n m e n t a n d e i ther lost, o r never a c q u i r e d , h o r t i c u l t u r e because o f t he
shor t g r o w i n g season a n d p o o r soils in t h e r e g i o n . Cu l tu ra l ideas, expressed t h r o u g h b o t h
re l ig ious r i tual a n d ora l cu l t u re , d i f fe red f r o m the hunters f r o m t h e n o r t h w e s t as w e l l as
t h e hor t i cu l tu r is ts to t he sou th , l e a d i n g to specu la t i on a b o u t t he t i m i n g o f t he ar r iva l o f
t he M i c m a c in t h e reg ion a n d the i r p lace o f o r i g i n . T h e m i x t u r e o f cu l tu ra l aspects f r o m
b o t h the n o r t h a n d sou th ce r ta in l y suggests s o m e u n k n o w n h is tor ica l processes at w o r k ,
a n d is o p e n to s p e c u l a t i o n . 1
F r o m be fo re con tac t w i t h Europeans in t h e s ix teenth c e n t u r y to t h e
la te-seventeenth c e n t u r y , t he M i c m a c o c c u p i e d most o f t he M a r i t i m e r e g i o n , f r o m the
Gaspe Pen insu la in Q u e b e c , d o w n a l o n g t h e n o r t h shore o f N e w B r u n s w i c k , i n c l u d i n g
al l o f Pr ince Edward Is land, Cape Bre ton , a n d m a i n l a n d N o v a Scot ia , a n d e x t e n d i n g
16
a r o u n d t h e shore o f t h e Bay o f F u n d y to the m o u t h o f t he Saint John River in sou the rn
N e w B r u n s w i c k . 2 T h e d o m i n a n t g e o g r a p h i c feature o f t h e reg ion is its ex tens ive ,
i n d e n t e d coas t l ine , w h i c h is m a r k e d b y w i d e bays, lesser in lets, a n d n u m e r o u s she l te r ing
is lands. I n f l u e n c e d b y the p r o x i m i t y o f t he A t l a n t i c o c e a n , t h e c l i m a t e is g e n e r a l l y
t e m p e r a t e w i t h c o l d w i n t e r s , late, c o o l , w e t spr ings, w a r m s u m m e r s a n d l o n g , w a r m
fal ls. T h e w e a t h e r varies cons ide rab ly , f r o m season t o season a n d year to year . 3 T h e
g r o w i n g season is shor t , h a m p e r e d b y the late spr ings, w h i c h p r o b a b l y m a d e the
c u l t i v a t i o n o f c rops , such as m a i z e or t o b a c c o , d i f f i c u l t . 4 T h e reg ion 's landscape is
charac ter is t i ca l l y r o u g h a n d b r o k e n , w i t h several m a j o r up lands , espec ia l l y in t h e Gaspe,
o n C a p e Bre ton Is land, in centra l N o v a Scot ia a n d N e w B r u n s w i c k , a n d a l o n g t h e sou th
shore o f t h e Bay o f Fundy . T h e land i tself is a r o l l i n g a n d rugged l o w p la teau , c o v e r e d
w i t h a dense spruce a n d f i r forest, a n d p o c k - m a r k e d b y s h a l l o w lakes a n d bogs . 5
T h e landscape of t he M a r i t i m e reg ion was a c o m m o n feature in M i c m a c ora l
accoun ts . M a n y accoun ts c o n t a i n e d references to d o m i n a n t loca l l a n d f o r m s , i n c l u d i n g
m o u n t a i n s , capes, is lands a n d caves, w h i c h gave the accoun ts a s t rong sense o f p lace
a n d r e m i n d e d the a u d i e n c e o f events o r i m p o r t a n t characters, such as t h e c u l t u r a l - h e r o
G l u s k a p . In t h e n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y the M i c m a c used t h e m e t a p h o r o f a g ian t t o desc r ibe
the i r en t i re te r r i to ry , i m a g i n i n g that he s tood w i t h his head at C a p e Bre ton , o n e f o o t at
G a s p e a n d the o the r at t he sou thern t i p o f N o v a Sco t ia . 6
W i t h the e x c e p t i o n o f t h e Saint John River o n t h e edge o f M i c m a c s ' te r r i t o ry , t he
reg ion has n o m a j o r r iver system. It is cu t b y m a n y shor t r ivers tha t e m p t y d i r e c t l y i n t o
the sea, a n d w h i c h , a l o n g w i t h the m a n y lakes, f o r m e d an ex tens ive w a t e r n e t w o r k .
These r ivers s u p p l i e d v i ta l necessit ies, i n c l u d i n g f o o d , coastal c a m p i n g areas, a n d
17
t r anspor ta t i on routes. Shel l f ish w e r e f o u n d in t he n e a r b y sa l twater estuaries a n d bays . 7
T h e smal l r i ver va l leys w e r e the focal p o i n t o f seasonal m ig ra t ions . In t h e s p r i n g a n d
s u m m e r e x t e n d e d fami l ies ga thered toge ther near coastal shel l f ish beds a n d f i s h i n g
g r o u n d s . D u r i n g the w i n t e r t h e y d ispersed in to f a m i l y h u n t i n g c a m p s fu r the r u p the
va l leys . But in cont rast to t he ho r t i cu l t u ra l r i ve r i ne o r i e n t a t i o n tha t e m e r g e d a m o n g
A l g o n q u i a n s a l o n g the A t l a n t i c coast to t he s o u t h , t he M i c m a c c o m b i n e d h u n t i n g for
l and m a m m a l s w i t h a s t rong m a r i t i m e e c o n o m i c o r i e n t a t i o n . 8 V a r i o u s types o f salt a n d
a n a d r o m o u s f ish, she l l f i sh , m a r i n e m a m m a l s , i n c l u d i n g seals a n d w h a l e s , as w e l l as
shore a n d m i g r a t o r y b i rds w e r e al l i m p o r t a n t sources o f f o o d a n d mate r ia ls . 9
L o n g after con tac t in t he s ix teenth cen tu ry , t o t h e late n i n e t e e n t h a n d ear ly
t w e n t i e t h cen tu r ies , t he M i c m a c m a i n t a i n e d a soc io -po l i t i ca l o r g a n i z a t i o n tha t was
o r g a n i z e d a r o u n d large e x t e n d e d fami l ies g r o u p e d toge ther i n t o bands . Band
o r g a n i z a t i o n e m p h a s i z e d f l e x i b i l i t y a n d i n d e p e n d e n c e , w h i c h a c c o m m o d a t e d seasonal
m i g r a t i o n a n d per iods o f d ispersa l . Each b a n d had a sagamore w h o p r o v i d e d persuasive
leadersh ip . U s u a l l y t h e p r e - e m i n e n t m a l e f r o m t h e largest f a m i l y in t h e b a n d , t he
sagamore was respons ib le for t he shar ing o f c o m m u n a l resources, p r o t e c t i o n o f b a n d
m e m b e r s , o r g a n i z a t i o n o f w a r part ies a n d t h e c o n d u c t i n g o f ex te rna l re la t ions . W i t h i n
each b a n d , i n d i v i d u a l c o m m u n i t y re la t ions w e r e g u i d e d b y ideals o f c o - o p e r a t i o n ,
shar ing , respect a n d res t ra in t . 1 0 Po l i t ica l o r g a n i z a t i o n b e y o n d the b a n d level was i n f o r m a l
a n d re f lec ted the i n d e p e n d e n c e o f each M i c m a c b a n d . Po l i t ica l c o e r c i o n was u n k n o w n
a n d large scale c o - o p e r a t i o n b e t w e e n the bands o c c u r r e d o n l y w i t h a g r e e m e n t f r o m al l
par t i c ipan ts . Even as se t t lement increased, e c o n o m i c resources w e r e d e p l e t e d a n d n e w
18
economic activities replaced older ones, the Micmac persisted in conducting their
economic activities within the framework of the band socio-political organization.1 1
Aspects of Micmac religious beliefs and oral culture shared characteristics from
both the interior Central Algonquians and coastal Eastern Algonquians, but also differed
from each in important ways. Shamans provided spiritual guidance and medical care,
which, as in much of the northeastern region, reflected the deep relationship assumed
to exist between the spirit world and sickness. Micmac mythology shared its hero cycle
with the coastal Eastern Algonquians but was similar to Central Algonquian Ojibwa
mythology in other regards.12 In the seventeenth century, the Micmac converted to the
Roman Catholicism of the French missionaries and practices of the Acadian settlers. At
least nominally, and by the time the area fell under British authority, in 1713, the
Micmac were firm in their adherence to the Catholic faith. However, the Micmac
retained many of their pre-Christian ideals, which were often expressed through their
oral culture. 1 3
It is beyond the scope of this study to do other than briefly describe the major
eras of Micmac history and the changes that characterized them. The "French era"
extends from the time of sporadic contact along the coasts between the Micmac and
seasonal French and Basque fishermen and fur traders in the sixteenth century, through
the period of Acadian settlement, to the British occupation of mainland Nova Scotia in
1713. The second era covers the period of colonial military conflict, starting in 1713,
including the Anglo-French wars for empire of 1740-1748 and 1754-1760, and extending
to the end of the American Revolution in 1783. The "British colonial era" covers the
consolidation of British power in the region at the end of the eighteenth century, the
19
creation of a British colonial society in the nineteenth century and also includes the first
decades after Confederation, to the late nineteenth century. Finally, the "modern era" is
marked by the industrialization of the Maritimes at the end of the nineteenth century,
and the industrial technological and economic changes of the twentieth century. 1 4
There were four developments during the French period that dramatically affected
the Micmac, their way of life, relations with other groups of people and identity.
Technological and economic change associated with the fur trade, the demographic and
cultural impact of imported foreign diseases, religious conversion and French settlement
all served to distort or disrupt pre-contact social and cultural patterns. Yet, importantly,
most Micmac accommodations to new pressures were made within the confines of
existing ways of thinking and doing things.
From about 1500 until the establishment of Port Royale in 1604, the Micmac
made regular contact with seasonal Basques and French fishermen, with whom they
engaged in sporadic trade with the Europeans and even developed a pidgin trade
language.15 Archaeological evidence from northeastern New Brunswick suggests that
during this period Micmac bands may have changed their seasonal migrations to meet
with the Basque and French traders who frequented their shores, disrupting their
economic cycle. 1 6 By the first decade of the seventeenth century some Micmacs were
using European shallops to sail along the coasts and across the Gulf of Maine to trade
European goods with other Native peoples.1 7 Certainly by 1611, when the Jesuit Father,
Pierre Biard, began his mission and started to write his Relations, the Micmac were
already well acquainted with European technology and had incorporated it into older
trade networks.1 8
20
The Micmacs' desire for European trade goods, whether for utilitarian or spiritual
reasons, caused a shift in their economic production, a change that eventually
re-oriented the goals of their seasonal cycle. The Micmac gradually altered their way of
life to suit the demands of the fur trade, and began to be drawn, like so many other
Native peoples, into an ultimately damaging relationship with French traders, who
introduced to them new foreign infectious diseases and alcohol abuse. The Micmacs'
material culture and economy shifted from hunting, fishing and gathering for nutritional
and material needs, to more specialized hunting and trapping economies geared to
exchange for tools, food stuffs, dry goods and alcohol from Europe. Despite these
changes, certain structural aspects of Micmac economic activity remained stable. These
included the centrality of hunting, whether for food or fur, in their winter camps and the
continuation of a social organization based on extended families and migratory bands.
The migration patterns may have been altered to suit the new demands of trading furs
to European fishermen, but the bands themselves seem to have remained intact.1 9
The introduction of European diseases to the Micmac produced a sharp
population decline in the early seventeenth century. The appearance of the new diseases
and the dreadful losses of life during the epidemics had particular repercussions for
Micmac attitudes towards the French and French priests. Father Biard mentioned in his
first Relation of 1611 the population drops, the serious impart of the declines on
Micmac confidence in their own spiritual power and the Micmac belief that because the
diseases did not affect the Europeans in their midst that the French were favoured by
greater powers.
21
Such are the marks of intelligence in the people of these countries, which are very sparsely populated, especially those of the Soriquois [Micmac] and Etechemins, which are near the sea; although Membertou assures us that in his youth [1560?] he had seen chimonutz, that is to say, Savages, as thickly planted as the hairs upon his head. It is maintained that they have thus diminished since the French have begun to frequent their country;... by pleurisy, quinsy and dysentery which kills them off. During this year alone [1610] sixty have died at Cape de la Heve, which is the greater part of those who lived there; yet not one of all M. de Potrincourt's little colony has even been sick, ... which has caused the Savages to apprehend that God protects and defends us as his favourite and well-beloved people. 2 0
The missionaries advanced the argument that Micmac spiritual beliefs were
ineffective, and confronted the shamans with their inability to control the diseases. The
Roman Catholic priests, as was their custom at the time, attempted to bring about
miraculous cures of sick individuals, calling for divine intervention through the use of
religious relics. The occasional success of the priests were seen by the Micmac as
evidence of their ability as shamans, which in turn opened the way for their missionary
message.21 The most notable early missionary success was the baptism and conversion
to Roman Catholicism in 1610 of Membertou, the sagamore of the band near Port
Royale, and his extended family. 2 2 Through debate and toil, the missionaries were slowly
able to introduce Christian ideas into Micmac spiritual beliefs, and a common ground
was established on which they could at least disagree.23
Relations with the French settlers, known as the Acadians, were marked by joint
participation in the fur trade, the exchange of food stuffs, intermarriage, and military
co-operation. From 1604 to 1713, the Micmac adjusted to their new neighbours and had
peaceful relations with them. The small number of Acadians dyked coastal marshlands
22
and tidal flats for agriculture and worked only a tiny portion of the land. This did not
disrupt the Micmac's seasonal migrations nor did it compete with the Micmac for
possession of the land. Inter-marriage created bonds on the individual and family level,
which were important to both the Micmac and the Acadians. The Micmac also
established relatively good relations with French imperial authorities. The local
missionaries distributed material goods as gifts from the French to the area sagamores.
In many circumstances diplomacy replaced trade as the main source of European goods.
As is commonly known, the Micmac, through kinship ties with the Acadians, and
dependence on the material goods of gift diplomacy, began to identify themselves as
allies of the French. With the influence of the missionary priests and adherence to their
new faith, they began to see themselves as Roman Catholics, which would have
important consequences for them once Nova Scotia was settled by British Protestants
from New England.24
An era of colonial conflict started with the rivalry between France and the
colonies in New England and ran through to the War of American Independence. The
Micmac participated fully in the inter-colonial conflicts between France and England that
spanned the first half of the eighteenth century. Although the local French Catholic
missionaries encouraged them in their resistance, and although colonial officials in New
France exploited Micmac hostility towards the English for their own strategic objectives
by supplying arms, the decisions by the Micmac to wage war against the English in Nova
Scotia were their own. 2 5 In 1713 the English gained control of mainland Nova Scotia,
effectively dividing the Micmac's territory between the two colonial powers. This
precipitated an intermittent armed struggle between the Micmac and the British that
23
lasted until after the fall of New France in 1760. 2 6 The elimination of French power in
North America at the end of the Seven Years' War, 1754-1760, (1756-1763 in Europe)
forced the Micmac eventually to come to terms with the British; they signed a peace
treaty in 1761. The disappearance of French power in the region eliminated the
Micmac's ability to promote their own interests through alliance and, because the British
felt no need to continue the French practice of giving presents to the Micmac for military
support, prevented them from acquiring European goods through diplomacy. 2 7
If France's defeat in the Seven Years' War harmed Micmac fortunes, having Britain
lose the American Revolution brought disaster. While the Micmac lost status as military
allies and the material benefits of gift diplomacy with the departure of the French, 20
years later they suffered extensive territorial dislocation when British United Empire
Loyalist refugees from America settled the river valleys of the region. In the year 1782
the British population in Nova Scotia tripled to 52 000 with this influx. 2 8 The relatively
small size of the province made it impossible for the Micmac to avoid contact with the
settlers and the Micmac were no longer in a position to offer armed resistance. Loyalist
settlement restricted or prevented access to their usual summer gathering and fishing
places at the mouths of rivers, and the new settler population quickly killed off the local
game for food. The Micmac rapidly lost their main traditional sources of food and supply
of exchange commodities.2 9 Like those Acadians who managed to avoid expulsion by
the British in 1755, the Micmac were pushed to the geographic, economic and political
margins of their homeland by century's end.
In the nineteenth century, the period of British colonial rule and the early decades
of Confederation, the Micmac struggled to maintain both their physical and cultural
24 survival against the pressures of a dominant and generally hostile, industrializing society.
They continued to be pushed to the geographic, economic, and political margins. As
early as 1800, petitions on behalf of the Micmac were presented in the Nova Scotia
Legislature. The colonial society, when it was concerned with the welfare of the Micmac
at all, encouraged them to establish farms and adopt a settled way of life. At the same
time, however, the colonial legislative assemblies were usually more concerned with
reducing the expenditures on relief for destitute Micmacs. 3 0 Protestant missionaries and
philanthropic groups made efforts to aid the Micmac, but both met with failure. The
Micmac resented the intrusion of Protestant preachers, preferring their own brand of
Catholicism, which they had practised without priests since the fall of New France.31
Attempts were made to settle the Micmac on reserves, but this effort was hampered by
the failure on the part of colonial authorities to properly survey the reserves, and the
persistence of seasonal migration in Micmac life. The Micmac combined wage work,
handicrafts sales, and the occasional attempt at farming with hunting, fishing and
trapping although these latter activities became less and less viable for either income or
subsistence.32
During the latest era, the Micmac participated in the industrial economy, albeit
usually at the lowest levels. The conditions of poverty and marginality that marked
Micmac life throughout the nineteenth century continued well into the twentieth. 3 3
During the economic boom that came with industrialization at the turn of the century,
the Micmac became increasingly involved in casual labour activities. They also sold the
products of cottage industry, such as baskets, pick handles and hockey sticks.34 Within
the confines of their position on the margins of early industrial society and special legal
25
status as Native people, the Micmac fared as did other rural Maritimers, prospering
during the booms and facing starvation during the long economic depressions. During
the 20th century, as a result of being unable to maintain employment, many young men
migrated to New England, especially Boston, in search of jobs, often remaining there for
their working lives.3 5 Efforts by colonial and early provincial governments to aid the
Micmac, who were a federal responsibility, were largely inadequate, inefficient, and
misguided 3 6 and many Micmac groups struggled to preserve their cultural identity.
The Social Place of Storytellers,
Storytelling and Stories
The writings of the earliest European observers of Micmac society reveal that the
art of oral communication, in all its forms, was central to Micmac social life. The early
French sources from the seventeenth century are laced with references, usually casual,
to the tremendous speaking ability of the local people, and the frequent occasions for
orations. Father Biard, in 1612, remarked in a letter that, "these people are the greatest
speech-makers in the world; nothing can be done without speeches."37 Orations, recitals,
and the telling of stories marked every social event in the life of the community and its
individuals. War and peace ceremonies brought forth the best in speeches and orations.
Wedding ceremonies involved the listing of genealogies, lineages and ancestral
achievements, while the funeral oration for a hunter included the feats and prowess of
the deceased and his ancestors. If he was prominent, the orations could take three or
four days to complete. Funerals for women and children followed the same pattern, but
were of shorter duration. During such solemn events each member of the group was
26
given the floor in turn, permitted to speak as long as need be, without hindrance.
Interruptions were unheard of, except for their hau. hau. hau's of approval, outbursts of
laughter, and groans of derision. While Biard and his compatriots directed most of their
comments towards orations and the speeches that accompanied special social events,
they also made a few specific references to everyday storytelling. From these comments
it can be assumed that the general respect shown for speakers and the spoken word
applied to all oral forms of expression. This degree of respect for speakers attests to the
importance of the spoken word in Micmac society. It was in this cultural environment
that storytellers told their stories and informed their audiences.38
From the time of the French writers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
until the early twentieth century, the Micmac were able to keep oral culture alive in their
communities and maintain a strong respect for storytellers. When anthropologist Wilson
Wallis began his fieldwork on the Micmac Reserves in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
in 1911, he found storytelling to have about the same high degree of status and respect
as that recorded by the French over 200 years earlier. "During the telling of a story,
auditors did not interrupt with a question or remark, except to grunt, now and then,...
or otherwise indicate interest or emotion." 3 9 In spite of, and perhaps because of, settler
efforts to assimilate or relegate the Micmac, nineteenth century folklorists and twentieth
century anthropologists found Micmac oral culture intact and operational.
Traditional Micmac storytelling only began to fade into the background in the
twentieth century, after the Micmac became integrated into modern industrial society by
economic necessity, and then only with a sense of sadness and remorse.40 When Wilson
and Ruth Wallis returned to the Maritimes in 1950 and 1953, they concluded that
27
knowledge of the old stories had diminished and was retained only by elders. Those
elders who continued to tell stories remembered their own story learning experiences
as children, but lamented the lost interest on the part of the youth in the community.
Wallis claimed that between his first and second trips to the Micmac that a new attitude
towards life emerged that was "progressive" rather than "nostalgic". He also noted that
young working men had replaced elders as Band council leaders. Wallis argued that this
shift on the part of the Micmac, from a romantic view of an idyllic hunting past held by
the elders to a greater participation in the modern world changed, the audiences'
receptiveness to the old stories and their messages.41 Even at the major Eskasoni Reserve
in Cape Breton, which was regarded as being more tradition-oriented than mainland
reserves, one observer noted that there were no longer any recognized storytellers.42 In
1984, informant Max Basque, a Micmac himself, after describing hearing stories as a
child from his grandfather and regretting his own poverty of folklore material, remarked,
"no wonder they could tell stories, because there was no radio, no gramophone, or no
nothing in the evenings, when it got dark." 4 3 However, it should be noted that declines
in both knowledge about the old Micmac stories and the position of elders as storytellers
did not necessarily mean storytelling itself, as a form of expression, had diminished in
the same way. Max Basque himself, as Ruth Holmes Whitehead makes clear in The Old
Man Told Us. remained quite a storyteller.44
A reading of the many Micmac folklore and legends collected between 1869 and
1925 reveals that Micmac stories were flexible, varying, and diverse in contents. They
had two terms for their stories: aknutmaqn. which meant "news", and a'tukwaqn.
meaning stories of the sahk-ah-waych-kik or "ancient ones". A'tukwaqn were set in a
28
time "long ago" and began with traditional openings such as "The old people are
encamped or, "There, at the home place, among the old people, placing it in
an ancient setting.4 5 Micmac stories were free-form; the documented accounts are
examples of a type with no "correct" version. They usually centred around a particular
character, with various short story elements loosely connected together to form a longer
story. These short elements were not necessarily associated with any particular character.
Different accounts may tell the same story about different characters. These characters
were often anthropomorphic animals, possessing both human and animal form, and
pursuing human activities. The stories may possess allegorical, metaphysical, etiological
or historical elements, but not necessarily.46 The flexiblity of the stories, in both content
and narrative form is an important feature, because it allows storytellers to alter the
stories to suit the demands of the audience, or incorporate new material into existing
formats. It also allows for the dressing of European folktales in Micmac guise.4 7
One aspect of oral culture that influences its reception as a source of historical
information concerns the rate of the transmission of stories from one generation to the
next and the degree of alteration that takes place in the process. Many scholars have
dismissed oral source material in the belief that the frequent handing down of the
accounts made them unreliable. This may be true over long periods of time, but there
is evidence to suggest that the rate of transmission in Northeastern Algonquian societies,
at least, was slower than the sceptics assume.48 The general assumption had stories being
learned by new tellers every generation, about once every twenty years. However, as
mentioned earlier, Gordon M. Day's article, "Oral Tradition as Complement", suggests
that this was not the case.49 Many of the informants who contributed to the nineteenth
29
and twentieth century collections recalled learning their stories as children from
grandparents or other elders.5 0
Over the five centuries, between contact and the twentieth century, the role of
both storytelling and storytellers in Micmac society seems to have remained stable, but
the content of the stories likely changed considerably. From the perspective of using
stories for historical research, the perseverance and longevity of storytelling as an
activity is of some importance. In the case of the Micmac, storytelling has remained an
important form of communication throughout the historic period. Placing the
documented oral accounts into the context of this remarkably stable historical and
cultural structure allows the stories to become meaningful active agents in Micmac
intellectual and social life, capable of conveying ideas and changing thought.
From the early seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries, the contents of
Micmac oral culture ebbed and flowed, grew and faded. Oral culture, like any other
form of culture, is as lively and vigorous as its practitioners and as relevant as its
receivers deem it to be. Storytelling is an art, as creative and individualistic as any other.
The body of stories that existed at any given time in Micmac society included old
standards, fragments of older stories grafted on to newer inventions, news events, and
stories that were heard elsewhere and adapted to suit the contemporary audience. Just
as stage directors will change Shakespearean dialogue to make it relevant in different
times and settings, so too did Micmac storytellers give European folktales a Native gloss.
The oral culture recorded at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth
centuries was without doubt different in content from the one that existed when Port
Royale was founded. Nevertheless, many of the key elements of Micmac ways of
30
thought remained enshrined in that oral culture, even if the individual tales had changed.
The European Documenters of Micmac Oral Accounts
Throughout the recorded history of the Micmac, various European individuals
wrote down certain of the Micmac oral accounts. They did so for a variety of reasons,
with a greater or lesser self consciousness about the type of record they were producing.
Historians attempting to use documented oral accounts must interpret the stories through
both the intellectual assumptions of the authors and their cultural milieu, as well as the
perspective developed from Micmac history and culture. Historically, there are two
groups of writers: the French missionaries and traders from the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries and the various types of folklorists and anthropoligists from the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The French recorded stories, speeches and
evidence about oral culture as part of their efforts to describe and explain the Micmac
way of life to a contemporary French audience, in hopes of encouraging investment and
support for missionary work, trade and settlement. In the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, folklorists and anthropologists transcribed Micmac stories either in
a conscious effort to preserve what they thought to be a disappearing culture, or to
gather evidence for scholarly study. More directly concerned with the recording of oral
culture of the Micmac than the French writers, both amateur and professional folklorists
made the Micmac the subject of the scholarly pursuits. Short profiles of several of the
more significant collectors of documented oral accounts demonstrate some of the
characteristics, differences and limitations of each group. Chrestien Le Clercq represents
31
the writers from the French era, while Silas T. Rand, Elsie Clews Parsons and Wilson
Wallis represent the diverse group of the latter period. 5 1
Amongst the French writers from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the
Recollet Father Chrestien Le Clercq stands out as one of the most experienced and
insightful observers of Micmac life. From 1674 to 1686, Le Clercq lived and worked
with the most northwesterly branch of the Micmac, whom he referred to as the
Gaspesians. He differed greatly in his opinion of the Micmac from the contempt and pity
shown by the Jesuit Father Pierre Biard.5 2 Le Clercq's attitude remained paternalistic and
condescending, but in his writings he defended the Micmac way of life against its
detractors. He refuted the prevalent idea that the native inhabitants of North America
were no better than animals, even to the point of declaring it a preferable way of life,
were it not for their lack of Christian knowledge.5 3 By way of expressing himself and
relating his observation to his readers, Le Clercq relied upon the religious symbols of
early modern Christianity to make sense of the New World and its inhabitants.
Importantly, Le Clercq's writing also contains the voice of experience, reflecting his
many years of travel ling and living with Micmacs, sharing the hardships of life. 5 4 In terms
of recording oral culture, Le Clercq documented several Micmac stories including a myth
about the afterlife, the story of Papkootparout, Guardian of the Land of the Dead, and
an historical legend, the story of the coming of the Cross to the Gaspesians. Alongside
these examples of storytelling, Le Clercq recorded several speeches and paraphrased
dialogues between himself and particular Micmacs.5 5 The greatest limitations in using Le
Clercq as a historical source are that he wrote much of the book after he returned to
France from Acadia, and that, in keeping with the custom of the times, plagiarized parts
32
of it from other works on North American Native people. 5 6 Nevertheless, a careful and
cautious reading of Le Clercq reveals a man who had an intimate knowledge of Micmac
social and cultural life.
Silas T. Rand was a Nova Scotian Baptist minister and missionary to the Micmac
in the latter half of the nineteenth century. He was informally, but well educated and a
talented linguist, learning Micmac, Maliseet, and Mohawk, along with classical Greek,
Latin and several European languages.57 Rand became interested in the Micmac while
he worked as a missionary to the settler community in Charlottetown, Prince Edward
Island. He worked diligently to publicize the plight and condition of the local Micmac
population. However, he was a failure as a missionary. The Roman Catholic Micmacs
resented his efforts to convert them into Baptists, and he also had a very public falling
out with his own church. Nevertheless, he seems sincere in his efforts to improve the
lives and condition of the Micmac, regardless of how those efforts were received.5 8
Rand's difficulties in the missionary field were off-set to a degree by his success as a
folklorist and linguist. Sharing the common nineteenth century view that the permanent
extinction of North America's original inhabitants was imminent, he recorded as much
of the oral culture of the Micmac as he could, while it was still possible.59 The result of
Rand's efforts is a collection of eighty-five Micmac myths, legends, and stories, the most
complete ever made and his greatest legacy. Rand also published a Micmac dictionary,
extensive Micmac translations of the Bible, several articles concerning their manners and
customs, and some promotional material for his mission.6 0 Although they are only lightly
annotated and deviate from the style of Micmac storytelling, their range of topic and
33
depth of detail provide a remarkable and unequalled glimpse into Micmac oral culture
and thought.
Elsie Clews Parsons was one of the most distinguished of the professional
anthropologists to study the Micmac in the early twentieth century. Her successful career
as both an anthropologist and folklorist, which produced a large number of books,
essays, treatises and folklore collections, has been the subject of two biographies.61 She
was a unique individual, a member of the established American social elite, wealthy and
well connected, but also a strong feminist and rebel against social convention. 6 2
Following the leadership of Franz Boas, Parsons was part of the movement towards
cultural anthropology. These scholars observed, recorded and studied existing Indian
communities in an effort to discover their pre-contact contents.63 Although Parsons is
better known in folklore circles for her work in the American Southwest and in the field
of African-American folklore, she did spend a short period of time in 1923, studying
Micmac and Black Nova Scotian folklore. The results of her Nova Scotia fieldwork, a
collection of stories and accompanying fieldnotes, appeared in The lournal of American
Folklore in 1925 and 1926. M While her collection of Micmac tales is only a minor aside
in a much greater body of work, it is an important source of documented Micmac oral
culture. Parsons' Micmac work provides a few variants to the stories collected by Rand,
and a more formal academic approach to the subject. She was also interested in family
history through female informants and a female point of view on family structure as
revealed through folklore. 6 5 This approach lead her to interview female storytellers, thus
adding balance to the pre-dominantly male informants used by Rand and Wallis.
34
Wilson Wallis was also an anthropologist from the Boasian era, but unlike
Parsons, Wallis made the Micmac the focus of extensive ethnographic research. Part of
his research included the collection of oral material, which he used as a source of
ethnographic information. Added to the collection of stories were short biographic
sketches of the key informants.6 6 Wallis conducted his initial fieldwork during 1911 and
1912, and returned to the Maritimes in 1950 and 1953, with his wife, a sociologist
named Ruth Sawtell Wallis, to note what changes had occurred in Micmac society and
culture during the intervening decades. After the second visit, the Wallises published the
most complete ethnography of the Micmac to date.
Wilson Wallis brought to his work a life-long interest in the cultural expression
of religion, and a keen appreciation for the ethnographic content of stories.67 The greatest
weaknesses of the work is Wallis's tendency to present his interpretations in the
"ethnographic present" without reference the various periods of Micmac history,6 8 and
the general trend among anthropologists in the 1950's to urge assimilation. However,
from the point of view of using his collected oral accounts, this is mitigated by his
inclusion of about two-thirds of his research material in a separate and independent part
of the book.
Individually, each of the recorders of Micmac oral accounts brought to their work
on the Micmac their own idiosyncrasies, training and point of view. They were also
influenced, to a greater or lesser degree, by the general contemporary attitudes held
towards Native peoples by their own society. Among the French clergy and traders who
wrote about the Micmac there were both supporters and detractors of the Micmac way
of life. In the more recent era, important differences occurred between those writers who
35
were academic scholars and those who produced documented oral accounts as a
by-product of a broad interest in the Micmac. There also existed distinctions between
folklorists and anthropologists, and between those who concentrated on the Micmac and
those for whom Micmac material was only part of a wider research agenda. Regardless
of their own perspective on the material they collected, as a group, these individuals
succeeded in producing a valuable and extensive corpus of documented oral accounts,
which historians will want to explore.
Documented O r a l Accounts as Wr i t t en Texts
In their documented form, the stories which have survived in various writings are
only fragments of a larger Micmac oral culture. As individual texts, they are, in the
words of Micmac scholar Ruth Holmes Whitehead, "potsherds of literature",6 9
incomplete in themselves, yet part of an overall, discernable pattern. Unlike broken
pieces of pottery, however, the degree to which the stories are incomplete is not entirely
noticeable at first. Obviously, many of the stories are incomplete as narratives, but they
also have been altered in other ways. Historical evidence strongly suggests that a poetic
form was more normal than their published prose narrative form. Folklorist Charles
Leland was told by one of his informants that she remembered when the story she gave
him was sung rather than told. 7 0 The process of writing a story down fixes it into a
particular form and style, removing its ability to change with the mood of the audience
or the whims of its purveyor. As texts, the stories of the Micmac become still and
lifeless, and lose much of their informative power. However, this loss may be
compensated for in some ways by using evidence about Micmac oral culture in general
36
to recreate the setting in which the stories were told and to restore some of the missing
atmosphere.
Some of the seventeenth century French commentators directly addressed the
subject of stories and storytelling, recording some details about the physical acts of both
storytelling and listening. In 1672, Nicholas Denys, explorer, trader, and settler, wrote
that,
There were some old men who composed them [stories], as one would tell children of the times of the fairies, of the Asses' skin, and the like. But they compose them about the Moose, the Foxes, and other animals, telling that they had seen some powerful enough to have taught others to work, like the Beavers, and had heard of others which could speak. They composed stories which were pleasing and spirited. When they told one of them, it was always as heard from their grandfather. These made it appear that they had knowledge of the Deluge, and of matters of the ancient Law. When they made their holiday feasts, after being well filled, there was always somebody who told one so long that it required all the day and the evening with intervals for laughing. They were great laughers. If one was telling a story, all listened with deep silence; and if they began to laugh, the laugh became general. During such times they never failed to smoke. The smoke was not strong, the tobacco good and very mild. Those story-tellers who seemed more than clever than the others, even though their cleverness was nothing more than sportiveness, did not fail
make fun of those who took pleasure in listening to them.
Ethnographic information in Denys' book also contains some indirect evidence
about storytelling. There is a strong sense that the accounts he listed of ancient Micmac
practices came to him, not through first-hand observation, nor by the observances of
fellow Europeans, but from the recollections of the Micmac themselves. Certainly Denys
version of the hunting technique of the Quincajou, or wolverine, and the Foxes, has the
37
same narrative tone as later Quincajou stories recorded in the nineteenth century.7 2
William Ganong, who translated and edited Denys work in 1908, asserted that,
"probably there is some truth mixed with much folk-error in this account."7 3 In several
places Denys noted that the customs he described were not those of the current Micmac,
but of olden times and he concluded his book by recounting the impact that Europeans,
and especially alcohol, had on the Micmac. 7 4 This reinforces the idea that he did not
observe the old customs first-hand, but heard their lament from disillusioned Micmacs.
It is certain that the stories that appear in the various historical writings were
altered to suit different audiences. Conventions of English or French prose have replaced
the Micmac verbal forms of expression, or else those forms may not have translated well
into English. Nova Scotia Museum assistant curator, Ruth Holmes Whitehead, who has
published her own re-writings of some Micmac stories, points out that Silas Rand often
converted the Micmac way of expression into nineteenth century Romantic forms. In
Stories from the Six Worlds. Whitehead herself rewrote some of the stories from Rand's
collection and created composites out of several stories from different sources, giving
them a style more in keeping with what she thought to be Micmac storytelling. By
modelling her reworkings after the expressive techniques of modern Micmac storytellers,
Whitehead attempted to return to the stories some of their native forms of expression.75
From an historian's point of view, of course, the reworkings provided by Whitehead
need to be treated as new literary creations, not historical material. Nevertheless,
Whitehead's work will help historians to develop an appreciation for the atmosphere and
style of Micmac storytelling that was lost through translations.
38
Historian Robert Darnton, in his work on eighteenth century French peasant
folktales, suggests that the art of performance is lost by the very act of writ ing. 7 6 This
certainly applies to Micmac stories. Descriptive evidence indicates that many of the
stories were quite humorous, frequently provoking laughter and amusement.77 The
humorous nature of Micmac storytelling was lost primarily through translation and by
selective omissions by either the informant or the recorder. Also, translating the Micmac
version into either English or French would have greatly disrupted its natural rhythm and
rhyme. Forms of humour that specifically depend on language, such as puns, innuendos,
double entendres. and plays on words, could disappear in translation. Certainly, in a
langauge as given to rhyme as Micmac, the occasional pun was probably a natural part
of any storyteller's performance.78 Some of the stories collected by Elsie Parsons were
edited by the teller to exclude particularly crude reference. Bodily functions, when
referred to at all by the informant, were done so euphemistically. In part of one story
told to Parsons by 76 year old Mary Madeline Newell Poulet, the storyteller stated:
"They came to a wigwam. In it younger sister saw the neck bone of a moose. She sat on
i t " , only to be corrected by her daughter to say, "She pissed on it." 7 9 Poulet remarked,
"Nicer to say 'sit'." While this change clarifies the action, it also indicates the effort to
"clean-up" the stories for outsiders.
These examples indicate some of the changes that affected Micmac stories when
they were transformed from a spoken, Micmac language to a written form of
communication in other languages. Historians should be aware of the nature and degree
of these changes, and should be familiar with ethnographic and historical information
about storytelling in Micmac society when studying the stories. By accepting that each
39
story is only a particular variant on a theme, and that the stories existed in complex
social and historical circumstances, it may be possible to discern significant patterns in
the ideas expressed in the stories, patterns that reflect ongoing changes in Micmac
society and culture. Considered within these varying contexts, the qualities and
characteristics of Micmac storytelling emerge. Despite the biases and particular
experiences of the Europeans who recorded the oral accounts, it is fairly certain that the
Micmac "voice" did creep into the written record.
40
CHAPTER TWO:
AN HISTORICAL-FUNCTIONAL METHODOLOGY FOR USING
DOCUMENTED ORAL ACCOUNTS AS HISTORICAL SOURCE MATERIAL
A t best, d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts o n the i r o w n p r o v i d e an i m p e r f e c t a n d
i n c o m p l e t e r e c o r d . O v e r c o m i n g the i n h e r e n t source p r o b l e m s requ i res that t h e m e t h o d
fo r assessing t h e accoun ts has a s t rong theore t i ca l u n d e r p i n n i n g i n o r d e r t o p r o v i d e
i n te rp re t i ve g u i d e l i n e s , he lp b r i d g e the gaps in t he sources, a n d a c c o m m o d a t e the
par t i cu la r character is t ics o f each c o l l e c t i o n o f d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts . Th is chapter
deals w i t h the spec i f i c p r o b l e m o f es tab l i sh ing a w o r k a b l e m e t h o d fo r us ing M i c m a c
d o c u m e n t e d o ra l accoun ts i n h is to r ica l research a n d d e v e l o p i n g a n i n te rp re t i ve
f r a m e w o r k . It is i m p o r t a n t that the theore t i ca l perspect ives used are c o m p a t i b l e w i t h the
spec i f i c character is t ics o f t he ava i l ab le M i c m a c e v i d e n c e . B a l a n c i n g the re la t i onsh ip
b e t w e e n t h e o r y a n d e v i d e n c e depends u p o n se lec t ing perspect ives tha t respect b o t h the
d e m a n d s o f h is to r ica l i n q u i r y a n d t h e const ra in ts o f t h e d o c u m e n t e d o ra l a c c o u n t s as
w e l l as the spec i f i c social a n d cu l tu ra l contex ts a n d roles o f stories a n d s to ry te l l i ng in
M i c m a c soc ie ty . T h e o b j e c t i v e is to create an in te rp re t i ve f r a m e w o r k tha t a l l o w s for t he
use o f s ign i f i can t o v e r a r c h i n g M i c m a c symbo ls , me taphors , bel iefs a n d ideals to in te rp re t
t h e stor ies. T h e i n te rp re t i ve f r a m e w o r k w i l l h o p e f u l l y h e l p t o p r o v i d e d a r e a d i n g o f t h e
mater ia l tha t a p p r o x i m a t e s the o r ig ina l u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f t he s toryte l lers a n d the i r
a u d i e n c e .
41 The Historical-Functional Approach
W h e n a p p r o a c h i n g the t o p i c o f ora l c u l t u r e a n d d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts ,
h is tor ians m a y l o o k to the w o r k o f scholars in o ther d i sc ip l i nes fo r app roaches a n d
ana ly t i ca l t e c h n i q u e s o n b o t h subjects. Scho la rsh ip in terested in my ths a n d m y t h o l o g y
p r o v i d e s m u c h o f t he p o t e n t i a l l y useful d e v e l o p m e n t s rega rd ing d o c u m e n t e d ora l
a c c o u n t s , s to ry te l l i ng a n d stor ies. By r e v i e w i n g t h e w a y s tha t o t h e r d i sc ip l i nes h a v e used
my ths as research mater ia ls , h is tor ians m a y d iscover n e w w a y s to p r o b e m y t h i c a n d
legendary e v i d e n c e to f i n d o u t w h a t it reveals a b o u t t he cu l tu res a n d i n d i v i d u a l s w h o
created it. H o w e v e r , n o t al l me thods o f m y t h analysis are su i tab le fo r h is tor ica l research.
For e x a m p l e , s o m e o f the m o r e p o p u l a r a n d w e l l k n o w n app roaches t o w a r d s my ths a n d
r i tuals , such as Levi-Strauss's s t ruc tu ra l i sm or N o r t h r u p Frye's l i te rary a rche typa l
a p p r o a c h , p r o v e to be s y n c h r o n i c a n d ah is to r i ca l . 1 A p p l i e d to M i c m a c d o c u m e n t e d ora l
accoun ts , t h e y w o u l d compress the mater ia l i n t o a s ing le en t i t y , d e v o i d o f b o t h
c h r o n o l o g y a n d change . A n o t h e r a p p r o a c h , p o p u l a r a m o n g French cu l tu ra l h is tor ians
a n d o thers , is the process o f " t h i ck d e s c r i p t i o n " d e v e l o p e d b y a n t h r o p o l o g i s t C l i f f o rd
G e e r t z . G e e r t z reads events as texts, m a k i n g r i tuals a n d my ths i n t o s y m b o l s tha t
represent socia l s t ructures. H o w e v e r , f r o m the p o i n t o f v i e w o f u s i n g M i c m a c
d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts , t he re is a p r o b l e m w i t h his m e t h o d : i t is m u c h m o r e d i f f i c u l t
t o a p p l y i t t o d o c u m e n t e d stories than observed or r e c o r d e d r i tua ls . 2 A n a t t i t ude tha t n o t
o n l y recogn izes b o t h the w i d e range o f scho la rsh ip that has e x p l o r e d my ths a n d the
spec i f i c r e q u i r e m e n t s o f t h e h is to r ian , b u t a lso respects t h e c o m p l e x i t y o f t h e stories
themse lves a n d the i r m u l t i p l e roles w i t h i n a soc ie ty he lps to sor t t h r o u g h the d ive rs i t y
o f ana ly t i ca l m e t h o d s a n d approaches .
42
To this end, the perspective of mythography, which is the critical study of myths
and the methods used for myth analysis,3 provides an invaluable overview of possible
approaches towards using documented oral accounts as historical source material. Such
an overview allows historians to consider only those aspects of mythography that bear
on the problems of using mythic evidence found in documented oral accounts for
historical research. In Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals, scholar of religion
and mythographer William G. Doty provides an extensive and thorough examination of
the critical use of myth and myth analysis in modern scholarly research.4 He traces the
development of important approaches and schools of thought from a mode of
mythography "that depends upon a constant overlayering and comparison of
approaches."5
A definition of myth is needed that includes the various types of material found
in documented oral accounts and also permits a high degree of analytical flexibility.
Simple, rigid definitions of myth and mythology that express a single point of view
regarding the subject or promote a particular school of thought, often exclude important
aspects of mythic expression or roles that myths play in society and culture. Restrictive
definitions may also draw historians into debates that are of little consequence to their
study or needlessly complicate their work.6 From a utilitarian point of view, it is more
beneficial to resolve these problems in a well developed, general definition of myth, that
may appear overly detailed, than to allow a simpler, exclusive definition to hamper
historical analysis. Doty defines myth in a way that is broad, flexible and complex,
facilitating the diverse and sometimes conflicting theories that have been developed
concerning the use of mythology. He argues that the definition of myth needs to convey
that myths are themselves complex and multifaceted; that bodies of mythology are often
incomplete and fragmented; and that mythic expression and function are also varied,
both within a culture and universally. Such a definition is in keeping with the demands
of historical evidence.
A mythological corpus consists of a usually complex network of myths that are culturally important imaginal stories, conveying by means of metaphoric and symbolic diction, graphic imagery, and emotional conviction and participation, the primal foundational accounts of aspects of the real, experienced world and humankind's roles and relative statuses within it.
Mythologies may convey the political and moral values of a culture and provide systems of interpreting individual experience within a universal perspective, which may include the intervention of suprahuman entities as well as aspects of the natural and cultural orders. Myths may be enacted or reflected in rituals, ceremonies, dramas and they may provide materials for secondary elaboration, the constituent mythemes having become merely images or reference points for a subsequent story, such as a folktale, historical legend, novella, or prophecy.7
Doty further elaborates that myths, or "culturally important imaginal stories", are
shared by a society, address 'big' questions, "reappear repeatedly within the various
frameworks of the society's oral and written literature....",8 have a "role . . . i n
providing the frameworks for human consciousness, the necessary linkages between the
generations, even the sequences and measures of the human life span ... [and] are told
most often at our most impressionable age, that of childhood."9 Regardless of their form
of expression, the underlying mode of these stories is the narrative. Mythic stories use
narrative to deliver an "ordering of significant events, ... a plot of experienced or ideal
44
existence."10 In addition, to the cultural outsider, mythical stories are generally regarded
to be fictions. However, from a culturally internal point of view, myths are believed to
be true, or else to hold a certain truth value.
The participant in the mythical cosmos ingredient to the network of myths does not perceive the represented events, persons, times, and so on, as primarily unreal or imaginary but sees them as reflections of what actually transpires on some level. In general mythical personages are believed really to have existed, or really to exist, at particular times in the mythic chronology. 1 1
Mythic stories communicate the "frameworks for human consciousness": values, systems
of interpretation, and beliefs, through the use of culturally recognized imagery. Imagery
gives meaning, and "mythical metaphors, symbols and allegories provide concrete
conveyances for (abstract) thought."12 Furthermore,
In supplying the root metaphors, the ruling images, of a society, mythological language provides a coding mechanism by means of which the apparent randomness of the cosmos is stabilized. Myths structure the overarching conceptualities of a society: protomythical accounts may recall the first namings of the features of the landscape or of cultural activities; children are taught mythological stories as a means (albeit often only tacitly recognized) of socializing them into a worldview and an ethnic pattern of ethical behaviour. 1 3
Doty's definition of myth attempts to represent the various approaches to
mythology and also the wide ranging forms of mythic expression that occur in various
societies. This allows for both the consideration of the specific needs of historians and
the dispersed nature of the documented sources of mythic material at their disposal.
45
There are two underlying aspects of Doty's perspective on mythography that inform his
definition and are important for the use of documented oral accounts for historical
research. The first point is that Doty's definition is based on a functional idea of myths:
myths do things; they serve a role in social life. The second point is that Doty maintains
a high regard for the socio-cultural and temporal contexts of both individual myths and
collective mythologies.
The functional approach that Doty brings to his work may be particularly useful
to historians because any effort to make use of the recorded products of oral culture as
historical sources is predicated upon an assumption that storytelling acted as an effective
form of communication. A functional approach towards understanding social life and
cultural forms has been around since the early twentieth century work of sociologist
Emile Durkhiem. In anthropology, functionalism examined myths and mythic systems
for their utility and pragmatic value, working on the assumption that cultural patterns
served particular needs within the society. As an explanatory theory within the
discipline, functionalism is considered to be dated and limited, most notable because of
its inability to explain diversity among cultures or cultural change.14 Yet
methodologically, functional analysis remains important. The appeal of functionalism lies
in its practicality, utilitarianism, and its sympathy for contextual constraints.
In summarizing the lasting values of a functional approach towards myths, Doty
suggests five ways in which "myths serve society", providing historians with a functional
framework in which to consider mythic research material. His main points are that myths
help to clarify symbols derived from social life itself, justify society by connecting the
needs of social life to mythic examples and standards, build social integration through
46
t h e p e r f o r m a n c e o f r i tuals , a n d act as a m e d i u m o f e d u c a t i o n a n d a s to rehouse o f
k n o w l e d g e . F ina l ly , my ths p r o v i d e gu ide l i nes for t he reso lu t i on o f personal a n d socia l
c o n f l i c t a n d , t h r o u g h r i tuals, act as a m e d i a t i n g fo rce in a l l e v i a t i n g socia l t e n s i o n s . 1 5 D o t y
p r o c l a i m s his respect for t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f t he socia l f u n c t i o n o f my ths w h e n he wr i t es ,
M y t h s a n d r i tuals have i m p o r t a n c e in large measure because
t h e y represent c o r p o r a t e s ign i f i cance , mean ings tha t
t ranscend i n d i v i d u a l needs, desires, a n d va lues . T h e y
p r o v i d e a m e c h a n i s m for e n a b l i n g ho l i s t i c i n te rac t i on
b e t w e e n i n d i v i d u a l s w h o o t h e r w i s e m i g h t r e m a i n
i n d e p e n d e n t a n d d isengaged . H e n c e my ths a n d r i tuals m e a n
c u l t u r e , m e a n socia l s t ruc ture a n d i n t e r a c t i o n , a n d a
soc io func t i ona l i s t v i e w remains c ruc ia l t o apprec ia te t h e
w a y s t h e y b r i n g a b o u t a n d sustain the socia l w o r l d s o f the i r
pe r fo rmers . 1 6
A p r o d u c t o f D o t y ' s f u n c t i o n a l perspect ive , a n d t h e o ther i m p o r t a n t p o i n t for
a d a p t i n g his perspec t ive to h is tor ica l w o r k , is his c o n c e r n for socia l a n d cu l tu ra l
con tex ts , a n d t h e s ign i f i cance o f c h a n g e over t i m e . Th is respect emerges in his a r g u m e n t
tha t i n d i v i d u a l my ths a n d r i tuals have v a r y i n g " levels o f o p e r a t i o n a l v i ta l i t y " - A c c o r d i n g
to his a r g u m e n t , i n d i v i d u a l m e m b e r s o f a g i v e n soc ie ty d e r i v e d i f fe ren t m e a n i n g a n d
i m p o r t a n c e f r o m my ths a n d those mean ings c h a n g e o v e r t i m e . H e suggests tha t my ths
g o t h r o u g h t h r e e phases o f v i ta l i t y , " m o v i n g f r o m t h e o r i g i n a l , mos t p o w e r f u l a n d
d y n a m i c c o n t e x t to t h e most ra t i ona l i zed f o r m . " 1 7 P r imary my ths are n e w l y d e v e l o p e d
fo rms o f m y t h i c express ion , f u l l y f u n c t i o n a l w i t h i n the i r c u r r e n t soc ia l con tex t , b u t also
r o u g h a n d incons is tent . T h e y are b e l i e v e d , b u t no t necessar i ly f u l l y u n d e r s t o o d . I m p l i c i t
my ths a re in tegra ted i n t o t h e sub tex t o f t h e c u l t u r e , express ing t h e w o r l d v i e w in te rms
that are accep ted b y the m e m b e r s o f the soc ie ty as un iversa l t ru ths a n d the natura l o rde r
47
o f th ings . T h e y also b e c o m e s tandard ized a n d w i d e s p r e a d . In t h e f ina l phase,
r a t i o n a l i z e d my ths are those myths tha t are re in te rp re ted b y t h e soc ie ty to c o n f o r m to
n e w unders tand ings a n d bel ie fs . In te rp re ta t ion o f the i r m e a n i n g var ies c o n s i d e r a b l y a n d
t h e y lose the i r status as e x p l i c i t t r u t h s . 1 8
D o t y a lso makes the p o i n t that my ths a n d the i r a c c o m p a n y i n g r i tuals are b o t h
soc ia l l y s ign i f i can t a n d l oca l i zed in spec i f i c societ ies a n d cu l tu res a n d o n l y abst ract ly
f o r m pa t te rns . 1 9 H o w e v e r , f r o m an h is tor ian 's perspec t i ve he understates the case. T h e
e v i d e n c e r e q u i r e d for s t u d y i n g my ths a n d r i tuals o n l y appears in h i g h l y l o c a l i z e d a n d
i n d i v i d u a l i z e d records . T h e usual w a y that e v i d e n c e appears is in t he w o r k o f i n d i v i d u a l
observers , each o f w h o m car r ied the i r o w n persona l , cu l tu ra l a n d h is tor ica l biases.
W i t h i n each c o l l e c t i o n , t h e observa t ions are u n i q u e a n d u n i q u e l y r e c o r d e d . D o t y ' s
" l o c a l i z e d o c c u r r e n c e s " are the e v i d e n c e for t h e genera l i za t ions that are p r o d u c e d by
m y t h o g r a p h e r s . T h e mater ia l speaks f irst o f t he soc ia l , cu l tu ra l a n d h is tor ica l c o n t e x t tha t
p r o d u c e d it a n d o n l y t h e n to genera l patterns that academics r e c o g n i z e or assign to
t h e m . M i c m a c d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts m a y i n d e e d c o n t a i n e v i d e n c e o f genera l
pat terns in h u m a n soc ie ty a n d c u l t u r e , b u t h is tor ica l inves t iga t ions must u t i l i z e those
pat terns in such a w a y as to relate t h e m to event , e x p e r i e n c e , a n d processes o f c h a n g e .
T h e f u n c t i o n a l a n d con tex tua l cons idera t ions g i v e n b y D o t y to t h e s tudy o f my ths
a n d m y t h analysis p r o v i d e a f o u n d a t i o n for rega rd ing the p roduc ts o f ora l c u l t u r e as
po ten t ia l sources o f h is tor ica l i n f o r m a t i o n . W h e n D o t y c o n d i t i o n s his f u n c t i o n a l
a p p r o a c h t o w a r d s my ths w i t h a respect for t he i n f l u e n c e o f t he passage o f t i m e , he
p r o d u c e s w h a t m a y be t e r m e d an h is to r i ca l - func t iona l perspec t i ve tha t m a y be u t i l i z e d
e f fec t i ve ly b y h is tor ians. W h a t makes D o t y ' s par t icu lar a p p r o a c h t o w a r d s m y t h v a l u a b l e
48
to the historian is the combination of the specific social and cultural contexts of the
myths, the importance of the practical purposes that mythic expression had in its own
society, and, finally, the impact of the passage on time on both. His stressing of the
practical utility of mythology in society and accommodation of changes in the social
function of particular myths over time, allows for variety in source material and
flexiblity in interpretation. With regards to using this perspective for working with
Micmac documented oral accounts, Doty's approach suits the free-form nature of
Micmac storytelling and the idiosyncratic quality of the sources in which examples of
storytelling are found. The functional consideration that is central to the use of
documented oral accounts is its ability to record and transmit a wide variety of concepts,
ideas, and beliefs over successive generations and long periods of time. The historical
component reflects the need to bear in mind that Micmac society and storytelling existed
in a concrete historical environment that was subjected to internal and external forces
that could either produce change or support stability. By having a functional approach
conditioned by historical considerations, the result is an approach towards Micmac
stories that is sensitive to pragmatic concerns of time, place, use and circumstance.
The Applicability of an Historical-
Functional Approach to Micmac Documented Ora l Accounts
I believe Doty's historical-functional approach to myths and myth analysis
provides a plausible theoretical outline for studying Micmac documented oral accounts.
Key aspects of his definition of myth, his position concerning the functional role of
myths in society, and his arguments on the changing vitality of individual myths within
4 9
a c u l t u r e ove r t i m e , a p p l y d i r e c t l y to t he stories f o u n d in M i c m a c d o c u m e n t e d ora l
a c c o u n t s . T h e h is tor ica l sources tha t per ta in to t h e M i c m a c c o n t a i n substant ia l e v i d e n c e
to s u p p o r t t h e i n c l u s i o n o f t he p roduc ts o f M i c m a c s to ry te l l i ng w i t h i n the parameters o f
m y t h o g r a p h y establ ished b y D o t y ' s genera l i za t ions . T h e most s ign i f i can t po in ts raised
b y D o t y , w h i c h m a y be seen in M i c m a c d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts , i n c l u d e stories o f
a m e t a p h o r i c a n d s y m b o l i c na tu re that m a k e u p a c o m p l e x n e t w o r k , tha t appear in t he
b a c k g r o u n d o f o the r types o f ora l express ion , that have an i m p o r t a n t c o m m u n i c a t i v e
f u n c t i o n in soc ie ty , a n d that t ransmi t i n f o r m a t i o n t h r o u g h t i m e . O t h e r aspects o f his
d e f i n i t i o n , a n d po in ts he raises w h i l e e l u c i d a t i n g it, fu r ther i nd i ca te t h e poss ib i l i t ies o f
M i c m a c stories as s ign i f i can t sources o f h is tor ica l i n f o r m a t i o n , a n d also suggest i m p o r t a n t
rest r ic t ions a n d cau t ions for th is t y p e o f source mater ia l .
T h e a b i l i t y to demons t ra te that these i m p o r t a n t aspects o f D o t y ' s un iversa l
genera l i za t i ons a b o u t m y t h o c c u r r e d in M i c m a c s to ry te l l i ng a n d exist in b o t h the
h is tor ica l reco rd a n d M i c m a c d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts establ ishes a s t rong theore t i ca l
f o u n d a t i o n u p o n w h i c h to b u i l d an in te rp re t i ve f r a m e w o r k . T h e r e is e v i d e n c e f r o m
across t h e w h o l e b o d y o f M i c m a c d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts tha t suppor ts t he
a p p l i c a t i o n o f D o t y ' s h i s to r i ca l - func t iona l a p p r o a c h . H o w e v e r , i t is d i f f i c u l t t o ex t rac t a
par t i cu la r p iece o f e v i d e n c e f r o m an a c c o u n t to s u p p o r t a theore t i ca l p o i n t w i t h o u t e i ther
d e s t r o y i n g t h e s tory e l e m e n t o r d i s to r t i ng its m e a n i n g . Part o f t he na tu re o f m y t h a n d t h e
w a y it i n f o r m s is that it rel ies o n c o n t e x t t o be m e a n i n g f u l . Be ing t r u e to the stor ies, the i r
te l lers a n d the i r a u d i e n c e requi res p resen t ing the stories in as w h o l e a f o r m as poss ib le ,
rather t han d issec t ing t h e m for reasons o f a r g u m e n t . Because e v i d e n c e for t h e po in ts
m a d e b y D o t y o f ten appear o b l i q u e l y in t he stor ies; because i n d i v i d u a l accoun ts c o n t a i n
50
evidence that relate to several different theoretical points at the same time, and because,
in much the same way that myths build upon each other to create a world view, the
evidence within the accounts builds upon itself to form a complete argument, I wil l draw
examples that support Doty's theoretical writings from a few selected accounts that are
representative of Micmac storytelling rather than attempt to include all of the different
varieties.
In Micmac documented oral accounts the functional relationship between oral
culture and behaviour is most evident in the relationship between stories and religious
practices. In oral societies such as the Micmac's, religion and oral culture were tightly
integrated and mutually reinforcing. Myths, in the form of stories and secondary
elaborations, expressed both spiritual beliefs and ideas concerning the nature of the
universe and the role humans played within it. At the same time, the ideas about the
world in any particular story were connected to the greater body of oral culture. Myth's
function of providing the roots of cultural beliefs and spiritual ideas, especially as
sub-text, informed both religious beliefs and rituals.2 0 In turn, religious rituals and
practices were the embodiment and expression of mythic ideals and cosmological
perspectives.21 Evidence from historical sources about Micmac religion supports the type
of functional approach advocated by Doty towards myths. It also demonstrates the ability
of oral culture in general, and stories in particular, to convey ideas and beliefs from
generation to generation.
Several snippets of documentary evidence from seventeenth and eighteenth
century French historical sources on the Micmac point to a strong functional relationship
between Micmac a'tukwaqn. or myths, and Micmac religious behaviour, in the form of
51
expressed beliefs and performed rituals. The first evidence of a relationship between
Micmac oral culture and religious ritual appears in one of the earliest writings about the
Micmac, penned by the Jesuit Father Pierre Biard during his mission to Port Royal. In his
1616 Relation. Biard indicated the importance of oral culture and stories in
communicating religious ideas when he commented on Micmac religion, stating that,
"They have no... religious teachings... save certain customs and traditions of which they
are very tenacious."2 2 A second example may be found in the writings of Father
Chrestien Le Clercq, the late seventeenth century Recollet missionary to the Gaspesian
branch of the Micmac. When Le Clercq recorded the Micmac story about Papkootparout,
Guardian of the Land of Souls, in his 1691 New Relation of Gaspesia. he considered
their beliefs concerning the afterlife to be, "no less ridiculous than the reason itself which
has convinced them that our souls are immortairj ... which is based on the tradition of
their ancestors."23 A more revealing documented connection between storytelling and
religious behaviour comes from Cape Breton Island around 1740, when a Micmac
informant told the local missionary, Abbe" Mai I lard, their reasons for the religious
ceremony surrounding the treatment of animal remains.
De te dire la raison de cecy, mon Pere, je ne la scais pas, je sgais seulement que nos grand peres nous disoient qu'il falloit jetter tous les os des castor que nous mangions, dans des rivieres ou on y en voyoit des cabannes, ... Les seigneurs jongleurs et moy le premier, ... n'avions pas d'autres raison a rendre de ces pratiques a notre jeunesse qui quelquefois nous faisoit la dessus des questions. 2 4
The fact that these examples come from different observers, who covered the whole
territorial range of the Micmac and the entire time span of the French era, indicates that
52
stories and oral traditions gave sanction to at least some religious rituals and that the
importance of oral culture in informing religious belief was widespread and held sway
throughout the French period.
Several of the characteristics and functions of myth discussed by Doty may be
found in Le Clercq's version of the Micmac story of Papkootparout.25 It demonstrates the
strong intellectual relationship between myth and religious belief, including the reliance
on storytelling to give meaning to certain rituals, the role of a story in providing a
conceptualization of an abstract idea, which in this story is the afterlife, and the
inclusion of significant peripheral information in a story. According to Le Clercq's
Micmac storyteller, when one of the most respected and esteemed elders fell seriously
ill, he lasped into a state of unconsciousness that lasted for several days. When he
revived, the people of the village asked him where he had been. He replied that he had
been to the Land of Souls, and that he was given permission by "Papkootparout,
Governor and ruler of this country,"26 to return to the living to tell the Gaspesians about
that place. After telling the story, he died. Sometime later, in order to aid a father who
was unable to recover from the grief of the death of his only son, a band of men
resolved to make the 40 to 50 league journey across a fordable pond to the Land of
Souls. During the journey, many men died from fatigue, but five or six reached their
destination, where they arrived they were pleased to find "an infinity of spirits of moose,
beavers, dogs, canoes, and snowshoes,".27 But they also encountered an enraged giant
with a club, named Papkootparout, who was ready to kill them for coming to the Land
of the Dead while still living. After a respectful and submissive appeal by the bereft
father, Papkootparout excused the Gaspesians their trespass and allowed them to return
53
t o the i r h o m e s . H e was so m o v e d b y the father 's gr ie f tha t he even a l l o w e d t h e m to take
t h e soul o f t he son , b u t n o t be fo re s o m e g a m b l i n g . D u r i n g the g a m e t h e y w o n f r o m
P a p k o o t p a r o u t t he gifts o f c o r n a n d t o b a c c o , w h i c h e x p l a i n e d h o w these ob jec ts c a m e
to Gaspes ia . U p o n the i r re tu rn the adven tu re rs p lan ted these i tems w i t h success. " B u t
t he n e g l i g e n c e o f the i r ancestors, say they , depr i ves t h e m to -day o f a l l those
c o n v e n i e n c e s so useful a n d so essential t o t he n a t i o n as a w h o l e . " 2 8 T h e sou l o f t h e son ,
i nv i s ib le a n d r e d u c e d to the size o f a nu t , was w r a p p e d in a c l o t h bag b y P a p k o o t p a r o u t ,
a n d g i v e n to t h e father. H e was ins t ruc ted to p lace the soul back i n t o t h e b o d y , bu t
u n d e r n o c i rcumstances was he t o o p e n the bag b e f o r e h a n d , o r else, because i t was
l eav ing w i t h " e x t r e m e r e p u g n a n c e " , 2 9 t he soul w o u l d re tu rn . U n f o r t u n a t e l y , a w o m a n
o p e n e d t h e bag w h i l e t he father h e l p e d to b u i l d t h e specia l c e r e m o n i a l w i g w a m needed
for p l a c i n g t h e soul back in to the b o d y . T h e son's soul escaped a n d re tu rned to t h e Land
o f t he D e a d . T h e father, u p o n hea r ing the n e w s , d i e d o f gr ief .
Le C l e r c q , in c o n s i d e r i n g th is s tory, c o n c l u d e d that , "This it is, a n d th is o n l y ,
w h i c h makes o u r Ind ians be l ieve in t he i m m o r t a l i t y o f s o u l s . " , 3 0
From these false premises, based u p o n a t r a d i t i o n so
f a b u l o u s , t h e y have d r a w n these ex t ravagant c o n c l u s i o n s , -
tha t e v e r y t h i n g is a n i m a t e d a n d that souls are n o t h i n g o the r
t han the ghos t o f tha t w h i c h had been a n i m a t e d : tha t t h e
ra t iona l soul is a s o m b r e a n d b lack i m a g e o f t h e m a n
h i m s e l f : tha t it had feet, hands, a m o u t h , a head , a n d al l
o the r parts o f t h e h u m a n b o d y : tha t i t had st i l l t h e same
needs for d r i n k i n g , for ea t ing , for c l o t h i n g , for h u n t i n g a n d
f i sh ing , as w h e n it was in t h e b o d y , w h e n c e i t c o m e s tha t
in the i r revels a n d feasts t h e y a l w a y s serve a p o r t i o n to
these souls w h i c h are w a l k i n g , say they , in t he v i c i n i t y o f
t h e w i g w a m s o f the i r relat ives a n d o f the i r f r iends : tha t t h e y
w e n t h u n t i n g the souls o f beavers a n d o f m o o s e w i t h t h e
souls o f the i r snowshoes , b o w s a n d a r r o w s : tha t t h e
54
wicked, on their arrival at the Land of Souls, danced and leaped with great violence, eating only the bark of rotten trees, in punishment for their crimes, for a certain number of years indicated by Papkootparou (sic): that the good, on the contrary, lived in great repose at a place removed from the noise of the wicked, eating when it pleased them and amusing themselves with the hunting of beavers and of moose, whose spirits allowed themselves to be taken with ease. Such is the reason why our Gaspesians have always observed inviolably the custom of burying with the deceased everything which was in their use during l i fe . " 3 1
The story of Papkootparout conveys information on several levels. It gave the
Micmac an understanding of the soul and afterlife, one that agreed with other ideas
about spirituality and the cosmos. Through the story the Micmac audience learned about
the Land of the Dead, a place of abundance and ease, where they were to be joined by
the spirits of the goods that were buried with them, so that they could continue to
pursue their hunting activities. It mirrored the world of the living, and even though a few
Christian ideas about reward and punishment appear in the story, the afterlife of the
Micmac epitomized an ideal way of life. Furthermore, the story provided an explanation
for the use of grave goods while reinforcing the idea of an animate material world. 3 2
Thus, the ritual use of grave goods was justified in myth, and, in turn, the use of grave
goods reinforced, through action and ceremony, those ideas that the myth
communicated about how the cosmos was structured. In this way, myths gave sanction
to rituals and ceremonies, informed the listeners about the greater universe, and
established perspectives on the relationship between the mundane world and spiritual
experiences. Le Clercq's own analysis recognized the importance of stories and traditions
in educating the Micmac about religious ideas and informing their view of the world. 3 3
55
The evidence from the French sources indicates that a functional relationship did
exist between storytelling and religious behaviour. Unfortunately, these sources are also
limited in both the number and types recorded. Because priests and missionaries
produced most of the documented oral accounts and secondary evidence about oral
culture, religion is a central focus. The primary interest of these writers was in converting
the Micmac to Christianity; the recording of oral culture was a by-product of that effort.
They were not folklorists, nor did they attempt to preserve any quantity of Micmac oral
culture for its own sake. When they did so, it was almost always in connection with the
task at hand, either as evidence about the difficulty of the mission or the nature of the
people to be converted. In terms of historical evidence about Micmac storytelling, the
French sources present a deep yet narrow slice, connecting storytelling to social life like
no other sources, but severely limited in scope. A more diverse range of material is
contained in the nineteenth and twentieth century collections of oral accounts and needs
to be referred to in order to further demonstrate that the properties attributed to myth by
Doty appear in Micmac documented oral accounts.
A common genre in the Micmac documented oral accounts recorded in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which may be used to illustrate some of Doty's
points, is the war story. Silas Rand, Truman Michelson, Arthur Huff Fauset, and Wilson
Wallis all recorded stories that were concerned with warfare in one form or another.34
Rand collected the largest body of war stories from the 1840's through to the 1870's,
most of which were old tales of conflict between the Micmac and the Kwedech,
generally identified as the Mohawk Iroquois.35 He also gathered tales of conflict between
the Micmac and the Kennebecs, as well as some generalized accounts concerning
56
warfare.36 Anthropologists and folklorists working amongst the Micmac around the turn
of the century included in their collections several war stories, usually concerning wars
with their traditional enemy, the Mohawk, including a few variants of Rand's stories.37
Micmac war stories provide an example of how stories were part of an interrelated
network, made use of culturally significant symbols, metaphors and references, contained
mythic elements in their setting, background, and underlying assumptions, and acted as
agents of socialization.
In general terms, Micmac war stories have a narrative plot which recounts the
martial exploits of a particular Micmac warrior or hero. In the course of the story's
events the hero encounters and usually defeats an enemy force, often through the use
of extraordinary abilities. More implicitly, the material expressed in the war stories
conveyed Micmac beliefs and ideals. References to social life, history and geographic
environment filled the stories with culturally significant images. Well-known metaphors
and symbols informed the recorded story material and through the repeated use of
common plots, images, beliefs, and mythic ideals, often as secondary elaborations,
Micmac war stories were part of the greater network of Micmac mythology. The
secondary elaborations of mythic ideals and elements found in Micmac documented oral
accounts correspond to Doty's implicit stage of operational vitality. This stage of vitality
refers to myths when they were powerful cultural truths incorporated into the sub-text
of stories. However, any reading of Micmac war stories must bear in mind that they refer
to a period from the Micmac past, and that the images and mythic ideals portrayed to
be true in the story may be archaic in the contemporary society. Therefore Micmac
ideals and beliefs that were once powerful cultural images continued to be present in
57
the war stories after they had lost their initial meaning, were fused with other ideas or
else reduced in their contemporary cultural significance.
One example of a mythic ideal that is present in the Micmac war stories is the
repeated use of the distinctly Native North American concept of "power".38 The idea of
power as a religious concept is fully discussed in the next chapter. It is used here only
to illustrate a point. In various stories about the Kwedech wars Micmac buoin, or
shaman, and warriors relied on their power to learn of advancing enemies, to protect
themselves from bullets and blows, to hide undetected, and to commit a variety of
extraordinary feats. In one story, when a party of Micmac were ambushed, a powerful
powwow (a term indicating shamanic abilities) was wounded because he was caught
unawares.39 He then used his power to remain under a river until the danger had passed.
In another tale an old man used his power to predict the arrival of a Kwedech war party
on his family's isolated wigwam. He enhanced the fighting ability of his two sons and
when he was eventually captured, his power allowed him to survive the torture of the
Kwedech without releasing a groan. The Kwedech were so impressed by his power that
they decided to adopt him, but he refused and returned home, much to the delight of
his village.40 The importance of power in achieving victory reinforced the spiritual beliefs
of the Micmac warriors and served to strengthen the relationship between spiritual and
worldly life.
Rand's version of the Micmac story detailing the causes and beginning of the war
between the Micmac and their neighbours, the Kwedech, indicates both the use of
common metaphors and symbols in a story to convey meaning and the use of stories to
teach social behaviour. According to a story told to Rand by Louis Benjamin Brooks in
58
1869, the war between the Micmac and the Kwedech started after a young Micmac boy
was killed while playing with youths from a neighbouring Kwedech village on the
opposite shore of the Restigouche River. At a subsequent feast involving the two villages,
the Micmac youths avenged themselves on the Kwedech and killed two of them. Thus
an animosity was built between the young men of both villages. In the spring a party of
fifty Micmac, who had gone up the river to fish, were ambushed and killed by a party
of young Kwedechs led by their Chief's son. But one old Micmac used his power to
escape. Micmac justice held the whole of the Kwedech village responsible for the attack,
and rather than face open warfare, the Kwedech remove their village to Canada. Before
they departed, the Micmac chief promised to visit them on occasion, a veiled threat of
war. What had started as an accidental death, or even a disguised murder, had escalated
into a blood feud and a full fledged war. The lone survivor of the attack eventually led
a party of warriors against the Kwedechs. The meeting between the two forces began on
mock friendly terms, with the Micmac leader being hosted in the chiefs tent. The other
warriors gathered on ice flows in nearby lake and began to playfully push and shove
until it turned into a general melee, which the Micmac won.41
There is a possible metaphoric allegory in this story. When the lone survivor of
the Kwedech raid led a war party against the relocated Kwedech, he spied the Kwedech
chief's son, who was disguised as a lynx. He did this by changing several of his warriors
into white bears. Both the lynx and the white bear had meaning in Micmac mythology.
The trickster character, Quinquajou, sometimes appeared as a lynx, although usually he
was portrayed as a wolverine.42 The white bear possibly represents a harbinger of
death.43 Thus in the story, the Micmac leader sent death to the foolish Kwedech. The
59
death of the young Kwedech punctuated the consequences of leading an unsanctioned
war party. This type of tale would have been used to control young warriors, anxious
to prove themselves, regardless of the greater impact their actions may have had on the
whole community.
Alongside the roles of boosting the Micmac social ego, reminding the audience
of who the enemy were and why, and warning against unwarranted action, the stories
also taught the rules and etiquette of warfare. The warfare portrayed in the stories was
a hit and run affair, with few major battles and no organized armies. Raiders struck
silently, killing and scalping enemy warriors and carrying off women and children.
Raiders who were discovered, however, were greeted and feasted by their intended
victims. Pleasantries were exchanged, which were actually challenges, and preparations
for the youths' "play" made. Naturally, these delays favoured the defenders, who could
summon reinforcements and ensure themselves of victory.44 Many of the tales that
develop along this line include the mutilation of the face or legs of a few survivors, who
are then returned to their home village. This was both a warning and a taunt45 As agents
of socialization, these tales taught young Micmac males, especially those who were just
becoming warriors, what was expected of them in the face of battle, even long after the
end of Native and colonial conflicts.
In terms of how they operated as historical accounts, the Micmac war stories
bridge the gap between truly mythical accounts about animal characters or cultural
heros, and mundane stories about daily happenings. Micmac war stories contained an
historical component in their actual or idealized accounts of past conflicts, descriptions
of war practices, and commentary on Micmac relations with their neighbours. However,
60
there is a general quality about the genre that links them to more explicitly mythical
accounts. These qualities include the possession of special abilities by the war hero,
including power, strong social allegories, common or similar plots, localization of a story
through geographic setting, and certain overarching values, attitudes and religious beliefs
that inform the stories.
Within historical sources pertaining to the Micmac from both the French period
and the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there is evidence to support Doty's
historical-functional perspective on mythography and to justify the application of his
perspective to Micmac documented oral accounts. While the evidence is scattered
throughout the historical record, and often appears in the sub-text of oral accounts, it
nevertheless builds a strong connection between theory and evidence. This connection
allows for the use of more elaborate and complex understandings of how myths operated
in society to recreate a sense of how stories and storytelling operated within Micmac
society to convey meaning.
Developing an Interpretive Methodology
Because the accounts refer to a particular culture with its own understanding of
the world, it is necessary to devise a way in which the accounts may be interpreted
through that specific cultural understanding. The anthropological concept of "world
view" helps to address this concern by providing an intellectual framework that looks
from the subject society out into the world. As explained by anthropologist Robert
Redfield,
61
'world view'[means] that outlook upon the universe that is characteristic of a people....'World view' differs from culture, ethos, mode of thought, and national character. It is the picture the members of a society have of the properties and characters upon their stage of action. While 'national character' refers to the way these people look to the outsider looking in on them, 'world view' refers to the way the world looks to that people looking out. Of all that is connoted by'culture,"world view' attends especially to the way a man, in a particular society, sees himself in relation to all else. It is the properties of existence as distinguished from and related to the self. It is, in short, a man's idea of the universe. It is that organization of ideas which answers to a man the questions: Where am I? Among what do I move? What are my relations to these things? 4 6
The nature of world view as an analytical concept is that it describes what exists
implicitly within a culture. It is that group of assumptions about nature and society that
is learned at an early age, but is seldomly explicitly articulated. In a predominantly oral
society, such as the Micmac, the evidence for their world view is scattered throughout
their oral culture.
Mythology plays an important part in the shaping of world view. According to
Doty's definition, myths are part of a complex network and, as a collective, express
aspects of the societal world view.
Within a network, various myths may actualize parts of the underlying cultural worldview. Seldom does a single myth actualize the entire worldview, because that seems to require a collection of many interlocked stories, a canon rather than one sample. In the processes of transmission, constant change and adaptation to new or changed contexts seem to be normal. 4 7
62 Individual myths do not communicate complete world views. They include, often as
sub-text, aspects of a world view, elements of a way of thought, and wisdom handed
down through the generations.48 Following Doty's argument, the elements of Micmac
myth in the documented oral accounts should contain aspects of their world view. The
world view of the Micmac was not clearly stated in any particular myth or legend, but
was communicated through references, metaphors, and symbols in the storyteller's
narrative. Within, what for the purposes of discussion I will call the "Micmac world
view," lies the intellectual context in which those stories were invented, told, and
understood. It was both informed by the contents of the stories and acted as a filter
through which the stories were returned to the body of oral culture when they were
retold. Therefore it should be possible to reconstruct parts of the Micmac world view
from mythic elements found in the accounts. A reconstructed world view, based on the
beliefs and assumptions of the Micmac as recorded in the documented oral accounts,
may then provide an interpretive framework for understanding the wide range of material
contained in Micmac storytelling.
There are several approaches to the problems of ordering the source material and
selecting a period in which to situate the framework. One is to try and reconstruct the
belief systems of groups and individuals before contact. While this may appeal to some
anthropological purists, there are overwhelming limitations in the proto-historical and
early historical records. A second approach relies on current field research and adopts
upstreaming as a method to build an "ethnographic present". This is also a troubled
approach for historical purposes because its assumptions about the nature and pace of
change are antithetical to the historical perspective. The reconstruction that is labelled
63
the ethnographic present is a static one that weeds out all the changes that have taken
place over time. While what remains may be important longstanding structures in social
and cultural life, it also limits the historian's ability to measure the impact of changing
circumstance on those structures precisely because of reasons for which they were
selected.50
A more promising approach uses comparison between chronologically distinct
reconstructed elements of the Micmac world view to detect possible changes in Micmac
ideas and beliefs in various times and places. The approach begins with establishing
hypothetical reconstructions of Micmac belief systems at particular places in time and
then searches .for changes forwards and backwards in time. Inconsistencies in the
sources, in both narrative and sub-text, may indicate the possible presence of change.
This is an approach that arises from the sources themselves, since the most complete
reconstructions come from the periods in which documented oral accounts abound. One
advantage of this approach is that it addresses the need for the flexibility required to
produce an effective analytical tool.
The comparative approach also utilizes the differences in the documented oral
accounts that result from such a variety of recorders and the inherent diversity in
storytelling and biases in recorders. Differences in the stories may be seen as the results
of the influences of change in Micmac society and culture, or simply variations within
storytelling and recording, rather than errors or conflicting points of view. For example,
Silas Rand and Chrestien Le Clercq both recorded samples of Micmac storytelling, but
from different eras, for different reasons, using different languages, and their own
translations of Micmac, which naturally produced distinct results. The writings of one are
64
n o t supe r io r o r i n fe r io r to that o f t he o ther , b u t rather t h e y c o m p l e m e n t each o ther a n d
expose the range a n d va r ie ty o f M i c m a c s to ry te l l i ng a n d European r e c o r d i n g pract ices.
T h e y establ ish s o m e g u i d e l i n e s as to h o w M i c m a c stories m i g h t be i n te rp re ted . T h e y d o
n o t p u t f o r w a r d d e f i n i t i v e statements o n M i c m a c stories against w h i c h a l l o thers must
be e v a l u a t e d . Such an a t t i tude t o w a r d s the var ious sources o f M i c m a c d o c u m e n t e d ora l
accoun ts a n d d is t inc t in te rpre ta t ions o f M i c m a c stories he lps to create a f l e x i b l e a n d
sensi t ive i n te rpe t i ve f r a m e w o r k for subsequen t readings o f M i c m a c accoun ts , a n d in
large measure reduces m a n y o f t he i n h e r e n t p r o b l e m s o f us ing d o c u m e n t e d ora l
accoun ts .
A l t h o u g h in t h e case o f t he M i c m a c t h e co rpus o f r e c o r d e d stories is severe ly
r e d u c e d a n d con ta ins f e w e x p l i c i t expos i t i ons o n M i c m a c perspect ives, a lesson o f
Boasian e t h n o g r a p h y suggests that m a n y o f t he stories tha t w e r e r e c o r d e d m a y c o n t a i n
e lements o f re l ig ious bel iefs. These sources are espec ia l l y r i ch in e x a m p l e s o f abstract
t h o u g h t , i n c l u d i n g e lements a b o u t t he c rea t ion a n d s t ruc ture o f t he un iverse , t h e nature
o f b e i n g , a n d genera l assumpt ions a b o u t cause a n d effect. T h e in te rp re ta t i on o f these
m o r e abstract aspects f o u n d in t he d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts , is d e p e n d e n t o n
theore t i ca l u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f h o w oral c u l t u r e i n f o r m e d soc ie ty . A n h i s to r i ca l - func t iona l
perspec t i ve , g r o u n d e d in par t o n the re la t ionsh ip b e t w e e n stories a n d w o r l d v i e w , he lps
f o r m u l a t e i n te rp re t i ve f r a m e w o r k s in to w h i c h spec i f ic stories m a y be p l a c e d . Read ing the
stories f o u n d in t h e d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts t h r o u g h an i n te rp re t i ve f r a m e w o r k based
o n a h y p o t h e t i c a l M i c m a c w o r l d v i e w helps to genera te an i n f o r m e d a n d c o n t r o l l e d
e m p a t h y to the i r mean ings a n d nuances. It is r e c o g n i z e d , h o w e v e r , tha t a n y a t t e m p t at
re -c rea t ion o f M i c m a c bel iefs f r o m European p r o d u c e d c o n v e n t i o n a l h is tor ica l sources
65
and documented oral accounts is an idealized view of the world, but reading
documented oral accounts through the lens of a reconstructed world view at least
attempts to understand the stories from the perspectives of the storyteller and the
audience.
66
CHAPTER THREE:
AN EXPLORATION OF CHANGES IN MICMAC RELIGIOUS BELIEFS: A CASE STUDY
Change in Micmac religious thought is, I suggest, one area of Micmac history that
lends itself to exploring the potentials of using documented oral accounts for source
material. There is a close relationship between religious behaviour, storytelling and
belief, a result of the abstract nature of religious thought and its reliance on metaphoric
and symbolic forms of expression. This suggests that documented oral accounts are an
important information source about changing religious ideas among the Micmac. An
enduring characteristic of the centuries of contact and interaction between the Micmac
and European communities from the beginning was the intermittent effort by various
groups and individuals to convert the Micmac to Christianity. Many of the writers who
created documented accounts had religious backgrounds and interests, and, as a result,
much of the material they selected to record was either religious in nature or conveyed
spiritual ideas. The French missionaries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
succeeded in creating a Catholic population, but after the end of New France, the
Micmac practised their new religion without priestly guidance for many generations.
Micmac identification with the Catholic faith helped them to resist attempts to convert
them to Protestantism in the nineteenth century. Within Micmac religious culture,
however, older religious ideas continued to persist along side new ones, and gained new
forms of expression within the framework of a new faith.1
To explore Micmac documented oral accounts for evidence of change in religious
thought I employ the methodology developed from the historical-functional perspective
67
advocated by William Doty, in Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals, discussed
in the previous chapter. First, I identify and develop key concepts in the Micmac world
view that pertain to Micmac religious thought. The ideas of spiritual beings, dreams as
a form of communication in the spiritual environment, and spiritual power are
developed using anthropological theory from related Native peoples in Northeastern
North America, ethnographic data on the Micmac, and material contained in the
documented oral accounts. These form "reconstructed aspects" of the Micmac world
view. The anthropological theory and the ethnographic descriptions together provide
collaborating evidence for the material in the documented oral accounts and support
interpretationsof,Micmac documented oral accounts.
Then, these reconstructed aspects of the Micmac "world view" are used to
provide an interpretive framework for studying the interaction between Micmac religious
ideas and the transplanted Christian ideas. Documented oral accounts and ethnographic
descriptions supply the source material for explorations into changes in Micmac religious
thought, with a concentration on religious beliefs, symbols and characters. Three themes
are explored: changing ideas about creation and the creator, from the early French
period to the twentieth century; the use of the cross symbol by the Miramichi Micmac,
known as the Gaspesians, during Chrestien Le Clercq's era; and the critical question of
religious syncretism among the Micmac. The latter addresses the influence of Christian
anthropomorphic deification and hero worship, expressed in the form of God, Jesus
Christ, and the Christian patriarchs, on Micmac mythological characters.
68
Micmac Spiritual Beliefs
T h r e e re lated sp i r i tua l concep ts f o r m the basis o f M i c m a c re l ig ious bel iefs:
sp i r i tua l be ings , c o m m u n i c a t i o n w i t h the sp i r i tua l w o r l d (dreams), a n d sp i r i tua l p o w e r .
In t he M i c m a c v i e w o f t he w o r l d , o t h e r - t h a n - h u m a n persons w e r e t h e agents in t he
cosmos w h o caused al l na tu re o f th ings t o h a p p e n . D reams w e r e t h e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s
n e t w o r k w i t h i n the i r cosmos . Spi r i tua l p o w e r was t h e means b y w h i c h persons m a d e
th ings h a p p e n . These bel iefs are d o c u m e n t e d for b o t h the seventeenth a n d e igh teen th
c e n t u r y French p e r i o d a n d the late n ine teen th a n d ear ly t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y m o d e r n
" a c a d e m i c d o c u m e n t a r y " p e r i o d . In c o m b i n a t i o n , t h e y suggest a c lear M i c m a c
u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f t he sp i r i tua l w o r l d a n d h o w it w o r k e d . These bel iefs w e r e par t o f a
genera l v i e w o f b o t h the mater ia l w o r l d a n d the sp i r i tua l cosmos , w h i c h was expressed
in ideas, va lues a n d at t i tudes, a n d also i n f o r m e d r i tual b e h a v i o u r . W i t h i n t h e stories f r o m
the past f o u n d in t h e d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts , t he concep ts o f o t h e r - t h a n - h u m a n
persons, d reams a n d p o w e r are the ac t i ve agents, o r c o g n i t i v e s y m b o l s o f s to ry te l l i ng .
These sp i r i tua l concep ts w e r e t h e means b y w h i c h the heroes w e r e a b l e to succeed ,
events w e r e e x p l a i n e d , a n d d a i l y exper iences w e r e c o n n e c t e d to i m p o r t a n t cu l tu ra l ideas
t h r o u g h s to ry te l l i ng . T h e y w e r e c o m p l e x symbo ls , u n d e r s t o o d b y b o t h the s tory te l le r a n d
the a u d i e n c e . But these in te l lec tua l structures w e r e f u l l y in tegra ted w i t h M i c m a c c u l t u r e ,
i n t e r d e p e n d e n t , a n d sub jec t to c h a n g i n g in te rpre ta t ions . By e x a m i n i n g t h e character is t ics
o f these aspects o f t h o u g h t / a n d a l l o w i n g for change , v a r i a b i l i t y a n d incons is tency , i t is
poss ib le use these bel iefs to re-create the essential f r a m e w o r k o f M i c m a c re l ig ious
bel iefs.
69
Spi r i tua l Beings: O t h e r - T h a n - H u m a n Persons
In m a n y o f t he stories c o l l e c t e d b y Rand, Parsons a n d W a l l i s t he m a i n characters
w e r e usua l l y e i ther a n i m a l characters w i t h h u m a n traits o r n o n - h u m a n be ings such as
c a n n i b a l g iants , u n d e r w o r l d serpents, t he an imal - t r i cks ter Q u i n q u a j o u , a n d the cu l tu ra l
he ro , G l u s k a p . 2 These a n i m a l characters a n d n o n - h u m a n be ings w e r e cent ra l t o M i c m a c
s to ry te l l i ng , m y t h o l o g y a n d r e l i g i o n . T h e an ima ls characters in t h e stor ies, such as Ki l ler
W h a l e , Rabbi t , M o o s e a n d Beaver, o c c u r r e d in t he M i c m a c ' s e c o l o g i c a l e n v i r o n m e n t
a n d o f ten p o r t r a y e d persona l i t y types associated w i t h the d i f fe ren t a n i m a l spec ies . 3 These
story characters f i l l ed the o ther w o r l d s o f the M i c m a c c o s m o s , 4 w h e r e t h e y l i ved l i ke
h u m a n s , in h u m a n f o r m . 5 But t h e y w e r e n o t jus t characters tha t a p p e a r e d in my ths ; t h e y
w e r e c o n s i d e r e d b y t h e M i c m a c to be real , i n f l u e n c i n g a n d a f fec t ing the i r l ives.
T h e c o n c e p t tha t best descr ibes b o t h the a n i m a l a n d n o n - h u m a n characters in t he
M i c m a c stories a n d integrates t h e m i n t o the M i c m a c w o r l d v i e w is that o f
" o t h e r - t h a n - h u m a n p e r s o n " , w h i c h was f irst p u t f o r w a r d b y a n t h r o p o l o g i s t A . I r v i ng
H a l l o w e l l in his i m p o r t a n t a n d fa r - reach ing essay " O j i b w a O n t o l o g y , Behav iou r , a n d
W o r l d V i e w " . 6 Based o n his o w n f ie ld w o r k a m o n g the O j i b w a , H a l l o w e l l d e f i n e d
o t h e r - t h a n - h u m a n persons as a f u l l y a n i m a t e class o f b e i n g tha t ex is ted a n d in te rac ted
w i t h h u m a n s , b u t a lso possessed ab i l i t ies a n d character is t ics usua l l y c o n s i d e r e d b y
W e s t e r n t h o u g h t to be supernatura l o r sp i r i tua l . T h e c o n c e p t o f t he o t h e r - t h a n - h u m a n
person was cent ra l t o H a l l o w e l l ' s ef for t to address the i m p o r t a n t issue o f h o w c u l t u r a l l y
p resc r ibed in te l lec tua l cons t ruc t ions mani fes ted themselves in b e h a v i o u r a n d o u t l o o k .
H e used O j i b w a examp les t o demons t ra te h o w A l g o n q u i a n peop les c o n c e p t u a l i z e d the
cosmos , h o w these ideas w e r e m a d e ava i l ab le to t he soc ie ty t h r o u g h m y t h o l o g y a n d
70
storytelling, and how this understanding affected both behaviour and the explanation of
phenomena.7
Hallowell based his recognition of other-than-human persons on a common
grammatical construction found in Algonquian languages. By providing an animate
ending for a large variety of objects, Algonquian grammar allowed for the possibility of
animate behaviour, giving them "person" status. Other-than-human persons were also
identified by their existence in mythology, ability to metamorphose from character to
human form, anthropomorphic behavioural traits, and contact with humans during
dreams.8 Hallowell's conceptualization transcended earlier explanations of Algonquian
mythical characters. He rejected the usual dichotomy between natural and supernatural
forces as foreign to Ojibwa ways of thinking, arguing that the idea of "natural forces" did
not exist for the Ojibwa. All phenomena were thought to be the result of actions taken
by a person, but not necessarily by a human.9 Hallowell's explanation opened new
perspectives on Algonquian beliefs. Previously viewed simplistic stories of mythical
creatures became sophisticated treatments of the world with important behavioural
implications.
While Hallowell theorized that his arguments extended to all northeastern
Algonquian peoples, including the Micmac, there are concrete cultural and intellectual
links between the Micmac and the Ojibwa that strengthen the application of his ideas
to Micmac sources. For one thing, the Micmac and the Ojibwa shared the linguistic
structures that form the basis of Hallowell's work. Although the Micmac and the Ojibwa
belong to different linguistic and cultural Algonquian sub-groups, the Micmac language
does contain the same type of animate and inanimate endings and they are used in
71
s imi la r w a y s to i n c l u d e a va r ie ty o f ob jec ts tha t mos t Wes te rners w o u l d have t h o u g h t o f
as i n a n i m a t e . 1 0 Second ly , l i ke the O j i b w a , t h e M i c m a c c o n s i d e r e d o t h e r - t h a n - h u m a n
persons to be "g randparen ts " . In t he ear ly t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y , o n e M i c m a c i n f o r m a n t
re fer red to t h e cu l tu ra l he ro , G l u s k a p , as the M i c m a c ' s best G rand fa the r , a n d
an ima l -pe rsons w e r e also regarded as g randparen ts , b o t h m e t a p h o r i c a l l y a n d as real
sp i r i tua l ances to rs . 1 1 Con tac t w i t h these "g randparen ts " , espec ia l l y d u r i n g d reams,
e n a b l e d p e o p l e t o a c q u i r e p o w e r . 1 2 In several o f t h e w a r tales p o w e r f u l p e o p l e e i ther
t r ans fo rmed i n t o an ima ls , the i r t o e m u l . o r else d r e w p o w e r f r o m an o b j e c t that
s y m b o l i z e s i t . 1 3 ' In Le C le rcq 's t i m e , a M i c m a c shaman car r ied a c a r v i n g o f a w o l v e r i n e ,
poss ib ly a representa t ion o f t he t r ickster-character , Q u i n c a j o u , a n d regarded h i m as the
c h i e f o u a h i c h or p o w e r - s o u r c e . 1 4
T h e f ina l c o n n e c t i o n b e t w e e n the M i c m a c a n d t h e O j i b w a occurs in the i r ora l
c u l t u r e . W h e n fo l k lo r i s t St i th T h o m p s o n u n d e r t o o k a s tudy to d e m o n s t r a t e t h e v a l u e o f
s t u d y i n g ora l t rad i t i ons in a l i terate soc iety , b y s h o w i n g h o w ora l stories ope ra ted in a
non- l i t e ra te e n v i r o n m e n t , he chose as his e x a m p l e a N a t i v e N o r t h A m e r i c a n ta le
c o m m o n l y re fer red to as T h e Star -Husbands. T h e story ex is ted in m a n y parts o f N o r t h
A m e r i c a , b u t o n e par t i cu la r va r ian t ex is ted o n l y in Canada a n d t h e state o f M a i n e ; i t
a p p e a r e d in b o t h M i c m a c a n d O j i b w a s to ry te l l i ng . T h o m p s o n suggested tha t t he w h o l e
s tory o r i g i n a t e d in t he U p p e r Grea t Lakes r e g i o n , p r o b a b l y w i t h t h e O j i b w a , a n d then
spread east a n d wes t . The re is, h o w e v e r , reason to cons ide r an Eastern A l g o n q u i a n
source , at least for t h e va r i a t i on at t he e n d o f t h e s tory i n v o l v i n g Q u i n c a j o u . Regardless,
t h e e v i d e n c e ind ica tes that t he re m a y have been an e x c h a n g e o f s tory mater ia l b e t w e e n
the O j i b w a a n d the M i c m a c a l t h o u g h t h e reasons for th is are unc lear . Fur ther
72
comparison of Micmac and Ojibwa story material indicates a strong similarity between
the two outside of the "cultural-hero cycle",15 with the primary trickster character
Wolverine existing in both Micmac and Ojibwa stories. Shared linguistic structures and
stories suggest that it is possible that more sophisticated cultural characteristics, including
world view, may also have been shared in common. This does not suggest that the
Micmac and Ojibwa viewed the world in identical ways, but it does indicate a similarity
in general outlook that encompassed local idiosyncrasies and provides enough evidence
to allow for the application of Hallowell's conclusions about the Ojibwa to the
Micmac.16
In the Micmac stories, many of the animal characters are recurring, appearing in
various stories as both primary and secondary characters. The relationship between the
other-than-human person and the actual animals was one of elder sibling. Micmac
hunting rituals concentrated on maintaining a good relationship with the senior animal.
This was done by first seeking the animal-person out in a dream. Seeing the
animal-person indicated a successful hunt was in the offering.17 It was thought that the
animal-person allowed itself to be killed/giving of itself whenever a "younger brother"
was taken, and this generated the rituals surrounding the proper treatment of the bones
and carcasses of game.18 By portraying the local wildlife as active persona, the stories
integrated the natural environment into Micmac mythology and religious thought. In
religious terms other-than-human persons were important both as agents of causation,
and as benefactors in the hunting cult. In reading the documented oral accounts,
other-than-human persons occupy a central space, acting out the moral dilemmas and
73
social relationships, providing a real connection to the physical environment and
fulfilling a metaphysical expectation.
Dreams
In the French historical ethnologies only Biard and Le Clercq mentioned the
Micmac belief in dreams. Biard simply added the belief in dreams to his general
description of their religion,19 but fortunately Le Clercq made more extensive notes. Le
Clercq considered the belief in dreams to be a superstition, but he also recognized its
importance in conditioning Micmac behaviour and decision making. He struggled with
them to abandon the practice, as his encounter with Ejougouloumouet, an unbaptized
Micmac between 50 and 60 years of age, indicates. Ejougouloumouet claimed to be
superior to the Biblical Patriarchs, because God spoke to him during his sleep, telling
him where he could catch game. "Nevertheless, his hopes were vain and profitless, and
he was in fact obliged to admit that he had been too credulous, and that for the future
he would believe no more in visions or in dreams, to which all these Indians are
attached, even to the verge of superstition."20 Because there was no game, the hunting
dream of Ejougouloumouet turned out to be a false dream, which invalidated that
particular dream, and only with the work of Le Clercq was it seen to discredit dreaming
altogether. This was a rare success, however, as elsewhere Le Clercq lamented that, "Our
Gaspesians are still so credulous about dreams that they yield easily to everything which
their imagination or the Devil puts into their head while sleeping."21
The belief in dreams as a conduit to places beyond the material world remained
as an active part of Micmac thought and world view well into the twentieth century, as
74
indicated by the field work of Wilson Wallis in 1910. Wallis was able to collect several
dream stories from his Micmac informants, which stressed the active agency that dreams
played in connecting with the spiritual realm and the role that they had as an avenue
for gaining power and information. One of his informants, John Newell, provided seven
different stories about his own dreams, including an encounter between himself and a
witch. During the encounter with the witch Newell discovered why she had made his
knees too sore to walk with a bad wish. In other dreams, Newell received prophesies
or harbingers of other peoples death, encountered the Saviour, and did battle with his
enemies. On occasion, in both his dreams and the dreams of others, the physical results
of the blows delivered in the dream fight appeared on the other combatant in waking
life.22 Another informant, Chief John Sark, of Lennox Island Reserve, P.E.I., spoke of
struggles with witches in dreams. According to Sark, witches sent bad wishes, often in
the form of animals (he used bears as an example) which the dreamer had to fight off.
The outcome determined whether or not the ill will resulted in sickness and death.
Victory could return the bad wish to the sender.23
Dreams were important in Micmac society, and in other Northeastern Native
societies, because they acted as a conduit between the spiritual world and the waking,
material world.24 Through dreams a person sought contact with the spirit masters of
animals in a quest to locate game, received calls for vengeance from dead ancestors,
sought the causes and cures of illness, learned of enemy attacks, and attempted to
predict the future.25 In war stories, dreams alerted the hero to advancing enemies and
the prophetic nature of his dreams indicated his power. One of the responsibilities of the
shamans was to interpret dreams and determine their validity. As in the case of Le
75
Cle rcq 's i n f o r m a n t , E j o u g o u l o u m o u e t , th is was o f ten a re t roac t i ve assessment, based o n
e x p e r i e n c e . John N e w e l l ' s d reams tha t forecast deaths w e r e s ign i f i can t because those
p e o p l e d i d d i e soon after t he d r e a m . H a d n o o n e in t h e c o m m u n i t y passed o n , t he
d r e a m w o u l d p r o b a b l y have been c o n s i d e r e d meaning less . It was a lso t h r o u g h dreams
that p e o p l e g a i n e d p o w e r a n d con tac ted o t h e r - t h a n - h u m a n p e r s o n s . 2 6 T h e h u n t i n g d r e a m
was an in tegra l part o f M i c m a c a n d Eastern A l g o n q u i a n r i tua l a n d bel ie f . Because the
be l ie f in d reams was so preva len t , i t is n o t su rp r i s ing that d reams w e r e a c o m m o n d e v i c e
in s to ry te l l i ng . T h e y w e r e used to a ler t t he a u d i e n c e to the unusua l a n d t h e y w e r e an
i m p o r t a n t e l e m e n t in re la t ing a story that had a sp i r i tua l na tu re or i n d i c a t e d con tac t w i t h
e i ther sp i r i tua l be ings or the i r w o r l d s .
T h e M i c m a c be l ie f in d reams n o t o n l y was a l o n g h e l d a n d e n d u r i n g sp i r i tua l
c o n c e p t b u t m a y also have fac i l i ta ted changes in o ther M i c m a c re l ig ious bel ie fs . T h e
M i c m a c be l ie f in d reams as a ac t i ve par t o f l i fe , d u r i n g w h i c h t h e ma te r ia l , e v e r y d a y
w o r l d c a m e i n t o con tac t w i t h the sp i r i tua l cosmos, has persisted f r o m t h e t i m e o f Pierre
Biard to the t w e n t i e t h cen tu ry . A n d w h i l e s o m e ear ly t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y i n fo rman ts
d o u b t e d t h e v a l i d i t y o f d reams, t h e y a lso w e r e q u i c k t o m e n t i o n w h e n the i r o w n p r o v e d
to be p r o p h e t i c . 2 7 A . G . Bai ley 's scho la rsh ip a rgued that t h e be l ie f in d reams h e l p e d to
c h a n g e M i c m a c re l ig ious ideas. H e observed tha t t h e French miss ionar ies even used the
Nor theas te rn A l g o n q u i a n be l i e f in d reams to e n c o u r a g e c o n v e r s i o n . T h e repeated
messages o f t h e priests en te red i n t o t h e sub-consc ious o f t h e f l o c k a n d t h e n reappeared
in d reams. Th is c o m m o n psycho log i ca l p h e n o m e n o n h e l p e d to c h a n g e M i c m a c re l ig ious
c o n c e p t i o n s . 2 8 T h e M i c m a c be l i e f i n d reams r e m a i n e d as an i m p o r t a n t a v e n u e o f con tac t
w i t h t h e sp i r i tua l w o r l d , even if changes in M i c m a c re l ig ious bel iefs a l te red t h e messages
76
rece ived in t h e d reams a n d the w i l l i n g n e s s o f M i c m a c i n fo rman ts t o a d m i t t o b e l i e v i n g
in t h e m .
Sp i r i tua l P o w e r
T h e cosmos po r t rayed in t h e M i c m a c stories was in fused w i t h sp i r i tua l p o w e r .
T h e heroes o f t he m y t h i c a l tales, w h e t h e r t h e y w e r e h u m a n or no t , a l w a y s possessed
sp i r i tua l p o w e r . Silas Rand c o n v e y e d sp i r i t p o w e r as mag ic , its p rac t i t i oners are w i z a r d s ,
mag ic ians , great p o w w o w s , a n d p o w e r f u l b o o o i n s ( b u o i n ) , o r j u g g l e r s . 2 9 W i l s o n W a l l i s ,
in his M i c m a c e t h n o l o g y , used the M i c m a c t e r m g]nap_jtranslated as "s t reng th " , to
i nd i ca te p o w e r o r superna tura l s t rength , e q u a t i n g i t w i t h mag ic , a n d c lassi f ied t h e b u o i n
as w i t c h e s . 3 0 Recent ly , Ruth H o l m e s W h i t e h e a d asserted that p o w e r was energy , that
p u o i n a q . o r b u o i n w e r e p e o p l e w i t h p o w e r , a n d k i n a p a n d m n ' t u w e r e s y n o n m y s for
p o w e r . 3 1 She d e f i n e d p o w e r as, " the essence w h i c h under l ies t h e pe rce i ved un iverse ; it
g ives rise to it, t ranscends it, energ izes a n d t ransforms it. It is e v e r y w h e r e at o n c e , a n d
ye t it is a lso consc ious , par t i cu la te : it is Persons . " 3 2 U n f o r t u n a t e l y , these d e f i n i t i o n s a n d
unders tand ings o f p o w e r d o no t p r o p e r l y e x p l a i n the c o n c e p t as t h e M i c m a c u n d e r s t o o d
a n d used i t in the i r stor ies. W h i t e h e a d in par t i cu la r , b y m a k i n g p o w e r t h e mys t ic
l i fe - force tha t b o u n d the i r un iverse , needless ly ove r c o m p l i c a t e s a n d roman t i c i zes the
c o n c e p t . W h e t h e r it is u n d e r s t o o d as a mag ic , sp i r i tua l energy , o r t h e ac t ions o f spir i ts ,
p o w e r has been e x p l a i n e d a n d v i e w e d f r o m a European perspec t ive . Part o f t he p r o b l e m
is t h e ins is tence tha t p o w e r exists i n d e p e n d e n t l y o f p e o p l e , persons, a n d ob jec ts . Th is
is t h e resul t o f t h e w a y academics , b o t h h is tor ians a n d an th ropo log is t s , d e r i v e m e a n i n g
77
by raising the level of abstraction, through erroneous analogies with European concepts,
and by continuing to use the natural/supernatural dichotomy.
An effective, consistent, and compatible working definition of power that I find
useful when reading the Micmac stories is simply to think of "power" as "the ability to
make things happen." Power was a characteristic, an attribute, and no different from
physical strength except that it applied to areas Westerns would regard as beyond the
physical, material world. The power to transform from human to animal, or to see into
the future was the same as the strength required to lift a heavy object. And just like
lifting a boulder, power was evident through its use. Shamans of the seventeenth,
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were those individuals who combined a knowledge
of healing with the rituals of forecasting the future and assessing dreams. In the
seventeenth century ethnologies they demonstrated their power by being able to predict
the future, warn of enemy attacks, interpret dreams, and cure sickness. Their power
came to them through their dreams, in which they encountered persons. From them they
received strength and ability. Like physical strength, power ebbed and flowed. If power
was evident by success, failure in turn denoted its loss, and did not refute previous
accomplishments. When an object, such as a kettle, wore out, it was thought to have
lost its power.33 Even the Micmac cosmos was subject to this type of decline,
demonstrated by the comment recorded by the early seventeenth century Jesuit Pierre
Biard that the Autmoinos or shamans complained that their "Devil" had lost power since
the arrival of the French.34
This interpretation of power is supported by the Micmac understanding of cause
and effect. The Micmac assumed that living beings made things happen. Natural
phenomena were the result of the activities of other-than-human persons. The trenches
and other glacial scars found in Micmac territory were caused by the movement of
Horned Serpent Person underground. Death and disease, like other events, were
believed to be caused by persons, either human or other-than-human. Displeasing a
powerful person was certain to bring about illness.35 This view extended to everything
in the animate class, including objects, such as a cross. A story about cross worship, told
by Chrestien Le Clercq, illustrates the point.
An Indian women, named Marie Joseph,... Falsely alarmed, in common with the other Indians ... and believing that the Iroquois had invaded ... embarked with very much haste in her birch canoe, in order to cross the river, and, having abandoned it to the will of the current, she lost herself purposely in the woods in order to escape the fury of her enemies. The hunger and need felt by this poor woman became so great that she considered herself fortunate to find in these wastes some roots which served her nourishment during the ten or twelve days of her wanderings. Overwhelmed with misfortune in this vast solitude, she had no other consolation than her Cross. She never parted with it, even when obliged to repass the river by swimming.... She preferred to forsake and leave the little she possessed rather than to abandon her Cross, which she held between her teeth. She returned thus to the wigwams, saying that there was nothing more precious than the Cross, since it had preserved her from an infinity of dangers, had procured her all kinds of consolations in her misfortunes, and that, in a word, life would appear to her altogether without interest if she had to live without the Cross.36
Marie Joseph believed that the Cross had preserved her through her trials. Similarly, had
she lost the cross, its disappearance would have been blamed for the hardship that she
did suffer. Finding the roots and surviving the river currents were caused by the cross,
it made these things happen, it had power. For a culture that ascribed personal causes
79
t o a l l p h e n o m e n a a n d events, t he a b i l i t y to m a k e th ings h a p p e n i n d i c a t e d p o w e r . F r o m
a M i c m a c p o i n t o f v i e w , n o fu r ther e x p l a n a t i o n was n e e d e d because the q u e s t i o n o f
h o w a pe rson , w h e t h e r h u m a n o r o ther , m a d e th ings h a p p e n , was n o t asked . T o t h e
M i c m a c , t h e p e r t i n e n t ques t i on to u n d e r s t a n d i n g t h e w o r l d was n o t " H o w does th is
happen?" b u t rather, " W h o d i d t h i s ? " . 3 7
M o r a l l y , p o w e r in a n d o f i tself was ne i ther g o o d nor e v i l , i t w a s t h e use o f p o w e r
that had mora l va lue . Those w i t h s t rong p o w e r w e r e to be feared because t h e y c o u l d
cause ca tas t roph ic events , n o t b y b e i n g i n h e r e n t l y e v i l , b u t because t h e y w e r e s t rong a n d
p o t e n t i a l l y dangerous . T h e best e x a m p l e o f th is a t t i t ude c o m e s f r o m Rand's s tory o f
U l g i m o o , a "great m a g i c i a n " . Set d u r i n g the M o h a w k W a r s , he leads his p e o p l e to
v i c t o r y against a dangerous e n e m y . W h e n he w a s an o l d m a n , he fo resaw a M o h a w k
at tack, b u t p u r p o s e l y sent his w a r r i o r s t o t h e w r o n g p lace. W h e n t h e raiders a r r i ved a n d
t r i ed to b u r n h i m at t he stake, he t rans fo rmed h imse l f i n t o a y o u n g m a n a n d s lew al l o f
his o p p o n e n t s . W h e n he e v e n t u a l l y d i e d , he i n f o r m e d the p e o p l e tha t he was n o t to be
b u r i e d b u t p laced o n a scaf fo ld . In t he s p r i n g he was a l i v e aga in , b u t a mar ten had
c h e w e d a h o l e in his cheek , p r o v i n g he had been d e a d . T h e s e c o n d t i m e he d i e d , he
was b u r i e d . H e t o l d the p e o p l e to o p e n his g rave after o n e n igh t , a n d he w o u l d be a l i v e
a n d stay w i t h t h e m forever . H e w o u l d g i v e a s ign that his sp i r i t had re tu rned to his b o d y :
a c lap o f t h u n d e r o n a c lear day . But his f r iends a n d t h e p e o p l e d e c i d e d to let h i m
r e m a i n in his res t ing p lace . T h e y d u g a d e e p g rave a n d c o v e r e d i t w i t h rocks, so tha t he
c o u l d n o t get o u t . 3 8 Even t h o u g h he was the i r leader a n d f r i e n d , t h e M i c m a c feared his
p o w e r m o r e than t h e y feared the M o h a w k . O v e r t h e centur ies o f c o n t a c t a n d se t t lement
t he b u o i n , o r ho lde rs o f p o w e r , s l o w l y b e c a m e associated w i t h t h e European idea o f t h e
80
w i t c h , a c o n c e p t a c q u i r e d , n o d o u b t , f r o m the A c a d i a n a n d Scott ish H i g h l a n d
n e i g h b o u r s o f t h e M i c m a c . 3 9 Th is i m p a r t e d t h e charac ter is t ic o f ev i l o n t o t h e b u o i n , a n d
the i r c h i e f o c c u p a t i o n b e c o m e t h e cas t ing o f bad w ishes o n o ther p e o p l e , m a k i n g t h e m
sick.
T h e th ree sp i r i tua l ideas, o f o t h e r - t h a n - h u m a n persons, be l ie f in d reams, a n d
sp i r i tua l p o w e r toge the r f o r m t h e c o r n e r s t o n e o f M i c m a c c o s m o l o g i c a l be l ie fs . A t least
w i t h i n the d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts , i t was t h r o u g h these th ree ideas that m o r e
un iversa l re l ig ious concep ts such as c rea t ion a n d h u m a n i t y ' s re la t i onsh ip w i t h the
sp i r i tua l w o r l d w e r e expressed. As a system o f symbo ls , these concep ts w e r e used b y
s toryte l lers to relate a va r ie ty o f i n f o r m a t i o n , k n o w l e d g e , w i s d o m t o the i r aud iences .
These ideas c h a n g e d over t i m e , b u t r e m a i n e d essential c o m p o n e n t s o f b o t h M i c m a c
s to ry te l l i ng a n d re l ig ious bel iefs. T h e y a lso f o r m a f r a m e w o r k t h r o u g h w h i c h
d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts m a y be in te rp re ted . By a r t i c u l a t i n g t h e poss ib le mean ings o f
p o w e r , for e x a m p l e , t he terms used b y Rand to d e n o t e ho lde rs o f p o w e r , such as
m a g i c i a n a n d w i z a r d , b e c o m e m o r e m e a n i n g f u l a n d prec ise, a n d , at t he same t i m e ,
n a r r o w s the gap b e t w e e n t h e M i c m a c u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f t h e b u o i n a n d Rand's a t tempts
to t ranslate it i n t o a m e a n i n g f u l c o n t e m p o r a r y n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y w o r d . It a lso a l l o w s
for a g l i m p s e i n t o the d i f f i cu l t ies that Rand had in a t t e m p t i n g to c o n v e y M i c m a c stories
t h r o u g h a n o t h e r language a n d w o r l d v i e w . Such insights a id t h e h is to r ian in
u n d e r s t a n d i n g s o m e o f t he m o r e abstract nuances a n d subt le t ies c o n t a i n e d in t he
M i c m a c d o c u m e n t e d ora l a c c o u n t s . T h e f r a m e w o r k f o r m e d f r o m t h e c o n c e p t s o f
o t h e r - t h a n - h u m a n persons, d reams a n d p o w e r b y n o means g ives t h e researcher fu l l
access to t h e M i c m a c w o r l d v i e w or a c o m p l e t e u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f M i c m a c s to ry te l l i ng ,
81
but as an analytical device it does allow for a greater understanding of Micmac
documented oral accounts as historical documents.
Changes in Micmac Religious Beliefs
The historical-functional approach to documented oral accounts suggests that
through the comparison of stories and story elements changes in social structures,
cultural symbols and their related functions over long and short periods of time may
become apparent. These changes are set in motion by cultural contact, altered social,
political, and economic circumstances, and even environmental change. They tend to
occur slowly rather than result from sudden events.40 One example of this type of
phenomenon is the change in Micmac religious ideas from the seventeenth century
through to the early twentieth century, a process indicated by the growth and
development of Christian and European ideas in Micmac religious thought and
mythology. Underlying the exploration of changing Micmac religious thought is a
concern for how storytelling and documented oral accounts communicated and recorded
historical evidence. Throughout the investigation, material from documented oral
accounts and historical ethnologies is analyzed and manipulated to reveal evidence and
processes of change in Micmac thought. The concepts of other-than-human persons,
dreams, and power act both to inform the interpretations of the documented oral
accounts and to delimit the parameters of possible explanations. In what is essentially
a variation on intellectual history, the following discussion indicates the ways that the
Micmac adjusted to new ideas and incorporated them into existing intellectual
frameworks. They focus on changes in ideas about creation and the nature of the creator,
82
the adoption of a new religious symbol, and changes in the representation of the cultural
hero.
The Micmac Creator
Two intellectual developments concerning the concept of creator point to a
pattern of change in Micmac religious thought over several hundred years. The first is
the incorporation of sun worship and a belief in the sun as creator within the framework
of Christian creation and monotheism. The second is the closely related elevation of the
concept of manitou from local spirits to a single deity in the form of the Great Manitou.
Throughout the French era, the Micmac were exposed to French culture and ideas
through contact with fishermen, fur traders, farmers, and missionaries. Part of the cultural
exchange that took place was the swapping of stories.41 Through this process, many
European and Christian ideas entered into Micmac culture, and some aspects of Western
mythology, superstition, and religious belief were incorporated into the Micmac world
42
view.
Micmac mythic expression and religious ideas underwent important and
significant changes during the French regime, both as a result of the encounter with
Europeans generally, and the missionizing efforts of the French in particular. Conversion
to the Catholic faith began shortly after the establishment of a permanent settlement at
Port Royale and began to influence Micmac religion, world view and oral culture. By
the end of the French period, after one hundred and fifty years of missionary activity,
most of the Micmac in Acadia were at least nominally Catholic.43 Part of the challenge
of contact and acculturation for the Micmac was to preserve within their Catholicism a
83
sense of identity separate from their Acadian neighbours. By merging their pre-Christian
notions of a sun-creator with the Christian god, the Micmac were able to conform to
both their new religion and maintain respect for the old ways. Evidence of these changes
in religious thought appear in their religious beliefs and practices, oral culture and
language.
A central characteristic of seventeenth century Micmac religious thought was the
belief that the sun was the creator and giver of life.44 In reference to sun worship, Le
Clercq wrote that,
This [the lack of worship], however, is not true with regard to the sun, which they have worshipped, and which has always been the constant object of their devotion, homage, and adoration.45
According to a speech recorded by Maillard the sun was responsible for the growth of
plants and the creation of the Micmac. The sun impregnated the ground, causing the
Micmac to grow out of it like the herbs and trees, "of which thou art equally common
father."46 The sun was also described as all knowing and had some characteristics of a
war god and judge, a possible result of Old Testament influence47 The Micmac may
even have considered the sun to be the first author of stories and songs, "cet astre
lumineux ... , en etoit aussi le premier auteur;"48 In Maillard's "Lettre a Madame de
Drucourt", his informant, Arguimaut, a Micmac shaman, tells of the honouring of a
woman who kept the winter fire burning for over three months. She was "to share in the
benign influence of the Father of Light, the Sun, because she had so skilfully preserved
His emanations."49
As early as the writings of Le Clercq, there is evidence that the Micmac world
view, and the myths that justified it, were beginning to incorporate European mythic
material. Often these ideas were used by the Micmac to explain the presence of
Europeans in their material and cosmological world. But there is also the sense of
Micmac storytellers adapting new story elements to Micmac settings. Le CLercq's
description of Micmac ideas concerning the flood in Genesis provides an example.
They have, indeed, if you will, some dim and fabulous notion of the creation of the world, and of the deluge. They say that when the sun, which they have always recognised and worshipped as their God, created all this great universe, he divided the earth immediately into several parts, wholly separated one from the other by great lakes : that in each part he caused to be born one man and one woman, and they multiplied and lived a very long time : but that having become wicked along with their children, who killed one another, the sun wept with grief thereat, and the rain fell from the heaven in such great abundance that the waters mounted even to the summit of the rocks and of the highest and most lofty mountains. This flood, which they say was general over all ther earth, compelled them to set sail in their bark canoes, in order to save themselves from the raging depths of this general deluge. But it was in vain, for they all perished ... with the exception, however, of certain old men and of certain women, who had been the most virtuous and the best of all the Indians. God came then to console them for the death of their relatives and their friends, after which he let them live upon the earth in a great and happy tranquillity, granting them therewith all the skill and ingenuity necessary for capturing beavers and moose in as great numbers as were needed for their subsistence.50
Le Clercq finished the passage with this tormenting comment, "They add also
certain other wholly ridiculous circumstances, which I purposely omit, because they do
not bear at all upon a secret which is unknown to men [their origin], and reserved to
85
God alone."51 The Biblical stories of Adam and Eve and Noah and the Flood,
centrepieces of Christian mythology, were incorporated into Micmac oral culture (those
wholly ridiculous circumstances) to place the Europeans in the Micmac cosmos. The
idea of multiple creations, on separate continents, was a commonly used device, which
accounted for the Europeans and their religion, and also allowed Native peoples their
own close relationship with the creator. In this case, the sun remains the creator, but
quickly assumes a character similar to the Christian God of the Old Testament.
As discussed earlier, the seventeenth and eighteenth century Micmac concept of
manitou, as revealed by the French missionaries and chroniclers, was an interactive,
persuasible, and omnipotent being, or spirit, which tended to be localized and plural.
In all the early French sources dealing with the Micmac, manitou was personified by the
authors and treated as a deity, spirit, or devil.52 The Micmac themselves saw manitou as
both benign and malevolent, and expended considerable religious energy pursuing its
goodwill, advice and knowledge. Later on, after several generations of Micmac were
exposed to European religious ideas, through both the missionary effort and Acadian
folklore, the idea of manitou was elevated to god status, confronting and accommodating
the European Christian concept of Supreme Being. By the nineteenth century, the idea
of a Great Manitou had become part of their religious thought.
It is linguistic evidence that connects the sun-creator with the Great Manitou. In
the seventeenth century, Biard wrote that they had no name for God other than the sun,
named Niscaminou. which Diereville recorded as Nichekaminou and translated as "the
Very Great". Anthropologist Wilson Wallis suggested that both Niscaminou and
Nichekaminou were forms of the Central Algonquian Kitchimanitu. equating the ending
86
minou with manitu. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries similar
terminology for the sun-creator identified the Great Manitou. Silas Rand gave the word
ukchesakumow as one word for deity in his Micmac dictionary, the first part of which
was similar to the terms Uckcheeginupt and Utchginup, used by Clara Dennis in the
1930's as a Micmac name for the Creator. Dennis also identified "Ginup, a mighty
worker who with Glooscap helped to finish the world-'" and the root ginap was used
by Wallis to indicate physical strength. Micmac terminology for the creator stressed
greatness, power and strength and these terms were used to describe both the
sun-creator and the Great Manitou or Spirit creator. The linguistic connections between
the sun, the Great Spirit and the creator indicate that within the Micmac language, the
ideas of a personified and animate sun-creator, and a omnipotent spiritual being were
becoming integrated."
In Micmac documented oral accounts collected between the mid-nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries, the ideas Great Manitou and sun-creator existed together in
different versions of the same story. In the nineteenth century the sun and his female
companion, the moon, still maintained "creator", or deity status in the old stories. In a
story called Hanged-up-by-Heels, the title character, an abandoned boy, makes a request
that he and his sister become fully grown so that they may fend for themselves. In
Rand's version he made the request to the Creator, "After a time the boy asks of Keswolk
(the Great Spirit; the Creator, literally)." However, in a version gathered by Elsie Clews
Parsons, the boy asks it of the moon, the female companion of the sun and an object of
religious affection in Maillard's eighteenth century work.54 After centuries of exposure
to Christian ideas about one creator-God, these Micmac documented oral accounts
87
testify to a continuing diversity of expression for a creator class of being and a lack of
fusion even between older and newer Micmac concepts.
While it is almost impossible to determine how ideas of sun-creator, great
manitou and god changed over three hundred years, it is possible, using documented
oral accounts, historical ethnology, and mythographic theory, to hypothesize how these
ideas changed in reaction to missionary efforts. The missionaries aggressively attacked
both belief and ritual, confronting the shamans at every turn, attempting to replace the
Micmac world view with a Christian one. In response, the Micmac seized upon those
aspects of their own belief that were most in agreement with the missionaries, sometimes
grafting Christian ideas onto older ones. The elevation of an animate, personified,
creator-sun, to the level of God and supreme being preserved Micmac identity and
self-esteem while at the same time brought old beliefs in line with the successful new
teachings. Catholic missionaries facilitated the process, by also utilizing those aspects of
Micmac belief that could be interpreted as analogous to Christian doctrine. Such
cross-overs may have lasted until the twentieth century.55 The sacred/mythic idea of
manitou may have changed from a localized spirit, to a universal monotheistic Great
Manitou in reaction to the idea of the Christian God. The apparent ability of the
Europeans to survive epidemics and their subsequent economic and political success
would have been perceived as a waning of power on the part of the Native spirit world.
This experience would open the way for new mythic explanations of the world. As well,
new myths were needed to replace old beliefs that were attacked and dispelled by the
French in the seventeenth century.56 As a continually renewed archetype, the idea of
88
m a n i t o u c h a n g e d as events w e r e i n te rp re ted , f u l f i l l i n g the ro le o f m y t h in e x p l a i n i n g the
w o r l d a n d rev is ing to ref lect n e w exper iences a n d u n d e r s t a n d i n g s . 5 7
T h e C o m i n g o f t h e Cross
A d iscuss ion o f t h e o r ig ins o f t he cross s y m b o l a m o n g t h e b a n d o f M i c m a c in t he
M i r a m i c h i reg ion examines a legendary a c c o u n t o f a k n o w n , b u t mys te r ious , even t
w h i c h resu l ted in t h e a d o p t i o n o f a fo re ign re l ig ious s y m b o l i n t o the i r ex i s t i ng c u l t u r e .
Th is deba te o v e r t he o r ig ins o f t he cross p rov ides a f r a m e w o r k for e x p l o r i n g w a y s to read
a M i c m a c legend as a source o f h is tor ica l e v i d e n c e a n d also ind icates h o w the set t ing
o f t he s tory a n d its c o n t e x t c h a n g e d to b e c o m e m y t h i c a l a n d legendary rather than
cu r ren t : a shi f t f r o m a k n u t m a q n (news) to a ' t u k w a q n (my th ) . T h e M i c m a c legend
c o n v e y e d i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t an h is tor ica l even t t h r o u g h t i m e , u s i n g m e a n i n g f u l
references t o ac tua l pract ices a n d bel iefs t o g i v e i t s ign i f i cance . L o o k i n g at h o w t h e s tory
i tself was passed o n o v e r t i m e , i t is poss ib le to see s o m e o f t h e mechan isms a n d
processes tha t p r o d u c e c h a n g e in ora l c u l t u r e at w o r k . As an e p i s o d e o f cu l tu ra l con tac t
b e t w e e n t w o d e e p l y d i f fe ren t re l ig ious systems, t h e a d o p t i o n o f t h e cross s y m b o l b y the
M i r a m i c h i M i c m a c p rov ides e v i d e n c e , I w i l l a rgue, o f t h e a d a p t a b i l i t y a n d f l e x i b i l i t y o f
M i c m a c re l ig ious p rac t ice .
In February , 1677, Father Chrest ian Le C l e r c q t rave l led o v e r l a n d f r o m his miss ion
o n t h e Rest igouche River to v is i t a b a n d o f M i c m a c o n t h e M i r a m i c h i . T h e r e he f o u n d
t h e most unusua l p rac t ice o f M i c m a c s p a y i n g mater ia l h o m a g e to the s y m b o l o f t he
cross: i t a p p e a r e d in the i r art w o r k a n d e m b r o i d e r y , a n d o n the b o w s o f the i r canoes.
T h e y pa in ted crosses o n the i r sk in , h u n g crosses a r o u n d the i r necks, a n d p laced a cross
89
at the center of their councils. The cross symbol that Le Clercq first saw among the
Miramichi Micmacs, was a small wooden one, embodied with beads, occupying the
place of honour in his guide's wigwam.58 Naturally intrigued by the sight of what to
Christians was a sign of salvation, Le Clercq endeavoured to find out as much as
possible about its origins and the nature of its worship among the Micmac.
In attempting to explain the presence of the cross among the Mirimichi Micmac,
Le Clercq provided both his own explanation and the following Micmac story detailing
the events surrounding the origins of the worship of the cross symbol, its discovery and
its adoption. Le Clercq's information provided the basic data for a conventional debate
concerning the origins of the worship of the cross; it also allows for new investigations
into how Micmac storytelling related an event and how the Micmac version may
contribute to the conventional historical debate.
I do not know what judgement you will pass upon the manner in which our Indians say they have received the Cross, according to the tradition of their ancestors. They claim that, at a time when their country was afflicted with a very dangerous and deadly malady which had reduced them to an extreme destitution in every respect and had already sent many of them to their graves, certain old men of those whom they considered the best, the wisest, and the most influential, fell asleep, all overwhelmed with the weariness and despair at seeing a desolation so general and the impending ruin of the entire Gaspesian nation, unless it should promptly be rescued through the powerful aid of the sun, which they recognised ... as their deity. It was, they say, in this sleep filled with bitterness that a man, beautiful as could be, appeared to them with a Cross in his hand. He told them to take heart, to go back to their homes, to make Crosses like that which were shown them, and to present these to the heads of families with the assurance that if they would receive the Crosses with respect they would find these without question the remedy for all their ills. As the
90
Indians believe in dreams... [they] resolved, by common consent, that all would receive with honour the sacred sign of the Cross,.... And so it turned out in fact, for the sickness ended, and all the afflicted who used the Cross with respect were restored miraculously to health. 5 9
The testimony of both the French and the Micmac indicate that, whatever the real
origin of the cross symbol was, it had, by 1677, become enshrouded in myth and was
part of Micmac oral culture. The explanation provided by the Micmac to Le Clercq was
a legend, not an eyewitness account. He stated that, "... I have no solid foundation for
the persuading [the reader] of this truth than the testimony of the older Indians and of
the French, which is confirmed by ... Saint Vallier, now Bishop of Quebec.60
There are essentially two possibilities concerning the origin of the cross symbol
among the Miramichi Micmac. It was either a symbol of aboriginal invention, or it was
adopted from Europeans. The Micmac themselves and William Ganong, Le Clercq's
modern editor,61 claim a pre-contact usage of the cross. The Micmac claimed the cross
appeared to them in a dream while Ganong suggests that the cross was a totemic symbol
that had Christian ideas grafted on to it. Le Clercq and Father Lafitau believed the cross
to be of Christian origin. Le Clercq thought that the source of the cross was Christian,
but he also thought that their belief in the cross pre-dated the arrival of the French. This
was consistent with his idea that the Micmacs were of ancient Christian origin. Lafitau,
however, accused Le Clercq of exaggeration and claimed that all he had seen were relics
from earlier missionaries.62
The Micmacs who informed both Le Clercq and Saint Vallier's French source on
the origins of the cross insisted that it occurred before the arrival of the French or other
91
Europeans. When Le Glercq tried to persuade the Micmac that they had adopted the
Cross from Europeans, one Micmac responded:
Dost thou not still see everyday the old man Quioudo, who is more than a hundred and twenty years old? He has repeated to thee often that the Indians of Mizamichi (sic) have not received from strangers the use of the Cross, and that his own knowledge of it has been derived through tradition from his fathers, who lived at least as long a time as he.63
Saint Vallier added that,
[An old man], aged a hundred or a hundred and twenty years questioned by M. Fronsac, son of M. Denis, said that he had seen the first ship from Europe which had landed in their country; that before its arrival they had already among them the usage of the Cross; that this visage had not been brought to them by strangers; and that everything he knew about it he had learned by tradition from his ancestors.64
Regardless of these claims by the informants, conventional documentary evidence allows
for a European origin of the cross, and evidence within the story itself points towards the
same conclusion.
External circumstantial evidence suggests the possibility that the cross arrived after
early contact, despite the denials of the Micmac. Le Clercq most likely reached the
Miramichi in 1677. Even if his informant was one hundred and twenty, which was
unlikely, Jacques Cartier's arrival on the North Shore of New Brunswick preceded his
birth by more than twenty years.65 and Basque fishermen probably were in the Gulf of
St. Lawence at least a decade earlier than him. However, the sporadic nature of
European presence along the North Shore makes it possible for there to be more than
92
o n e f irst con tac t , as m e m o r i e s o f ear l ier European visits f a d e d . W h i l e i t m a y seem
i m p r o b a b l e that such a s ign i f i cant even t as con tac t w i t h Europeans w o u l d be fo rgo t ten
b y M i c m a c s , i t mus t be kept in m i n d that contacts m a y o n l y have lasted a f e w days or
even hours , a n d been separated b y decades. W i t h n o last ing i m p a c t o n the M i c m a c s ,
these e x t r a o r d i n a r y events w o u l d be regarded as v is ions , d reams, o r even r o u t i n e
contacts w i t h o the r - than h u m a n p e r s o n s , 6 6 a n d w o u l d p r o b a b l y n o t be r e m e m b e r e d w i t h
great accuracy . It is t he re fo re p laus ib le , a n d f r o m a M i c m a c perspec t i ve , real is t ic , that
t h e y t h o u g h t t he cross had a r r i ved be fo re the French , w h e n i t had not . If " a r r i va l " is
i n te rp re ted as "se t t lement " rather than "con tac t " , t h e n the M i c m a c in te rp re ta t ion o f
p re -European b e c o m e s even m o r e unders tandab le .
T u r n i n g to the actua l story, t w o factors, t he be l ie f that a cross c u r e d t h e sickness
a n d its ar r iva l in a d r e a m , s t rong ly suggest that t he actua l even t o c c u r r e d in t he late
s ix teenth or ear ly seventeenth centur ies , d u r i n g t h e ear l ier phases o f European con tac t .
T h e t r a d i t i o n a l a c c o u n t o f t he o r i g i n o f t he cross is set d u r i n g a p e r i o d o f severe distress
for t h e M i c m a c d u e t o s o m e myster ious disease. T h e ex ten t a n d lethal na tu re o f t h e great
m a l a d y suggests tha t t he ar r iva l o f t he cross was p r e c e d e d b y a European disease,
p r o b a b l e spread b y f i s h e r m e n . T h e c o i n c i d e n t a l eas ing o f t he a f f l i c t i on at t he same t i m e
as a m iss ionary e f for t w o u l d have, in t he eyes o f t h e M i c m a c s , m a d e e i ther t he
miss ionar ies or the i r rel ics the source o f t he cu re , a n d the re fo re a great sou rce o f sp i r i tua l
p o w e r . S ince the de l iverers o f t he crosses had d e p a r t e d , t he crosses themse lves w e r e
c r e d i t e d w i t h c u r i n g the disease. T h e M i r a m i c h i M i c m a c w o u l d have re ta ined the r i tuals
t a u g h t t h e m b y the miss ionar ies because t h e y w e r e p r o v e n to be e f fec t ive , w h i l e o the r
bands m a y have i g n o r e d or d iscarded t h e m . C e r e m o n i a l e v i d e n c e fu r ther ind ica tes that
93
t he M i c m a c c o n s i d e r e d the cross to be a source o f p o w e r . T h e y regarded t h e cross as
"a p o t e n t s ign f i l l ed w i t h a marve l l ous fe r t i l i t y o f favours a n d b e n e d i c t i o n s . " 6 7 W h e n
s e n d i n g an ambassador to ano the r n a t i o n , " the c h i e f w o u l d d r a w f r o m his b o s o m an
espec ia l l y f i n e Cross.. . . S h o w i n g it w i t h reverence to t h e w h o l e assembly , he w o u l d
m a k e , b y means o f a p repared speech, a reci ta l o f t he favours a n d blessings w h i c h the
w h o l e Gaspes ian na t i on had d e r i v e d f r o m t h e assistance o f t he C r o s s . " 6 8 These f i ne
crosses w e r e i n h e r i t e d b y heads o f househo lds a n d h e l d in v e r y h igh e s t e e m . 6 9 T h e
neg lec t o f t he w o r s h i p o f t he cross n o t e d b y Le C l e r c q 7 0 a lso ind ica tes tha t t he M i c m a c
p r o b a b l y t h o u g h t t he cross had p o w e r . Af ter t he c a l a m i t y had passed, t he cross w o u l d
have been seen as respons ib le for f e w e r a n d fewer successes, w h i c h was cons is ten t w i t h
the p o w e r ' s f l ee t i ng nature .
T h e a p p e a r a n c e o f t he cross in a c o m m u n a l d r e a m , d e l i v e r e d b y a beaut i fu l
pe rson , s igni f ies that the M i c m a c c o n s i d e r e d its ar r iva l t o b e a sp i r i tua l event , b u t also
an unusua l a n d e x t r a o r d i n a r y o n e . In k e e p i n g w i t h t h e idea tha t spo rad i c c o n t a c t w i t h
Europeans m a d e l i t t le impress ion in M i c m a c s to ry te l l i ng , o v e r t i m e a n y re ference to
Europeans m a y have been e n h a n c e d to b e c o m e t h e e x c e p t i o n a l beau t i fu l m a n . Th is
d e s c r i p t i o n m a y even have been a d o p t e d f r o m a miss ionary 's d e s c r i p t i o n o f Chr is t .
P lac ing its a r r iva l in a d r e a m m a d e it par t o f M i c m a c sp i r i tua l i t y , because d reams l i n k e d
t h e phys ica l un ive rse t o the sp i r i tua l w o r l d , a n d it w a s a M i c m a c be l ie f that p o w e r c o u l d
be rece ived d u r i n g dreams. Set t ing the unusua l a n d i n e x p l i c a b l e i n t o a d r e a m m a d e it
accep tab le , a n d M i c m a c . In th is w a y , w h e n a v is i t b y c ross-bear ing priests o r l a y m e n
c o i n c i d e d w i t h the eas ing o f a disease, t he cross b e c a m e i m p o r t a n t as a source o f p o w e r ,
9 4
w i t h the i m p o r t a n c e o f its ar r iva l b e i n g s ign i f ied b y the d r e a m set t ing, a n d t h e actual
de l i ve rers w e r e r e d u c e d to a s i m p l e sp i r i tua l f i gu re .
It is poss ib le f r o m this analysis to t race the e v o l u t i o n o f a M i c m a c ta le f r o m
a k n u t m a q n (news) to a ' t u k w a q n (myths) . By e x a m i n i n g t h e s tory in c o n j u n c t i o n w i t h the
c o n v e n t i o n a l h is tor ica l facts, t he changes tha t o c c u r r e d in t h e s tory b e c o m e apparen t .
Th is reveals h o w ora l t r a d i t i o n f u n c t i o n e d as a carr ier o f i n f o r m a t i o n f r o m o n e genera t i on
to the next , a n d h o w h is tor ica l fact, as u n d e r s t o o d b y W e s t e r n h is tor ians, b e c a m e
in tegra ted w i t h o ther aspects o f M i c m a c s to ry te l l i ng . T h e fact tha t t h e s tory o f t he
C o m i n g o f t h e Cross was a legend ind icates that t he even t was n o longer a k n u t m a q n
(news) , n o r was it m e m o r a b l e ; t he eyewi tnesses a n d the i r cohor t s w e r e n o longer a l i ve .
T h e r e f o r e t h e s tory m a y be p laced in m y t h i c a l t i m e .
O n e aspect o f M i c m a c myths is that t h e y w e r e g e n e r a l l y set in a t i m e tha t
p reda ted European set t lement . T h e bel iefs tha t t h e cross c u r e d disease a n d tha t it
appeared in a d r e a m b o t h re in fo rced t rad i t i ona l be l ie f . T h e accep tance o f a fo re ign
re l ig ious o b j e c t was m a d e m o r e pa la tab le b y s u r r o u n d i n g i t w i t h M i c m a c bel ie fs . As the
s tory was t o l d a n d r e t o l d , the M i c m a c character is t ics s t rengthen a n d t h e s y m b o l o f t he
cross was a b s o r b e d i n t o M i c m a c re l ig ious a n d ora l c u l t u r e . F u r t h e r m o r e , as a s to ry te l l i ng
d e v i c e , p l a c i n g the ar r iva l o f t he cross in a d r e a m a ler ted a u d i e n c e tha t t h e f o l l o w i n g
a c c o u n t was o f a mys ter ious a n d sp i r i tua l na ture . T h e i m p o r t a n t f u n c t i o n o f t he s tory was
to c o n v e y t o the a u d i e n c e that t he cross w a s a source o f p o w e r , respons ib le fo r c u r i n g
sickness. Secondar i l y , t he s tory re in fo rced ideas c o n c e r n i n g b o t h sp i r i tua l c o n t a c t a n d
the r e c e i v i n g o f p o w e r t h r o u g h dreams. In b e c o m i n g m y t h i c a l , t h e s tory w a s set in a
p re -con tac t era, a n d Europeans w e r e s l o w l y r e m o v e d , if t h e y ever w e r e i n c l u d e d in t he
95
story. Once this had happened, subsequent generations of Micmac would believe their
story rather than assertions made by the now more permanent and familiar Europeans
who were among them.
Trickster Tales and Hero Stories
The trickster and hero tales of the Micmac constitute the most complete oral
narratives ever recorded by the folklorists and anthropologists who studied this culture.
At first glance, the story cycles and tales of the trickster wolverine Quincajou and the
cultural hero Gluskap also appear to be the least informative sources for historical
evidence. In part this is because they resemble literary fiction and common European
folktales, which fall beyond conventional documentary material, and even that familiarity
is betrayed by the alien cultural concepts which abound in these stories. Thus in both
their familiar and foreign guise they dissuade the historian. Upon closer examination,
however, these story cycles and tales reveal two important types of historical
information. In terms of historical evidence, they provide material that could indicate the
slow process of acculturation, such as instances of the adoption of European and
Christian ideas, values and motifs into Micmac storytelling and oral culture. In terms of
historical process, they show how tales and stories acted as agents of change,
disseminating new ideas through a common and accepted format.
One of the assumptions that informs this discussion is that story materials that
have animal characters, semi-human heros and other-than-human persons as their main
actors are a'tukwaqn, and older than those with the anthropomorphic cultural hero
Gluskap, especially those in which he encounters Europeans or Jesus Christ. The
96
collections that provide the stories roughly span a sixty year period, excluding Wallis's
additional material from 1950 and 1953. Within the whole body of material, there is no
chronological distinction between older Micmac story elements and newer Christian
influences. The old and new co-exist, and some of the least influenced material was
collected near the end of the period. Because acculturation is a slow and incomplete
process, and Micmac storytelling was free form and idiosyncratic, it is not surprising that
a story collected in the 1870's is more fragmented and incomplete than a similar tale
collected in the 1930's.71 It is also important to note that generally, in Micmac
storytelling, plots and characters were interchangeable, so that an analysis based on
changes in detail is less persuasive than one based on shifts in patterns and trends. The
more significant changes are in values, attitudes, and cosmological outlook.
Signs of acculturation in Micmac society and culture in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries are evident in the hero and trickster story cycles. They show
up in the emergence of the anthropomorphic Gluskap as the main story character, the
replacement of other heroes by him and the gradual reduction of the importance of the
trickster Quincajou along with other animal characters in the stories. Quincajou was
most likely the older of the two characters. As mentioned earlier, evidence of the
wolverine as an important cultural symbol stretches back to the time of Le Clercq, when
it appeared in the form of a wolverine-shaped bark carving claimed by a shaman to be
the most powerful ouahich. or power-source.72 His companion, sometimes referred to
as his little brother, was Marten, who was looked after by Mrs. Bear, or Grandmother.73
In the stories recorded by Rand, Wallis, Parsons, and Dennis, Quincajou is uniformly a
97
malevolent, mischievous, foolish and powerful character,74 who most commonly
interacts with other animal characters.
In contrast, there is no mention, nor indirect evidence, of Gluskap in the earlier
French sources; he does not appear in Micmac historical sources until Rand's 1894
collection. Although claimed by the Micmac as an original creation, he also appears in
other Eastern Algonquian oral cultures.75 He may well have originated in New England,
or among the Malecite, who knew him as the Liar. In Micmac sources, however, only
one mention of Gluskap as a trickster character appears, and it was probably borrowed
from the Malecite.76 It is possible that Gluskap is an intermediary character, a transitional
figure that facilitated the intermingling of older Micmac stories with newer Christian
ideas.77 In the collected Micmac works concerning Gluskap, he has two personae. One
is as a granter of favours, who lives in a wigwam with his two companions,
Grandmother Bear and younger brother Marten. He is a helper to the Micmac, the
provider of material culture, and a shaper of the landscape. He has great power and
many of the stories about him involve his overcoming the power of other persons,
especially enemy buoin. In these stories he often interacts with other characters from
Micmac story telling, including Quincajou. This type of Gluskap tale generally conforms
with other Micmac stories, in their disconnected narrative form and in plotlines.
This older form of the Gluskap character was part of a conventional change in
storytelling. The decline of animal characters reflected the changes in the Micmac's
social and economic life. The forest economy no longer dominated their way of life, and
the old story connections between animals and people fell into disuse. Animal characters
played a significant role in Micmac storytelling, often depicting human personality types,
98
which, in part, accounts for their appearance simultaneously as animals and humans.
When this psychological framework went into decline, the older animal and person
stories began to condense around Gluskap. Gluskap tales adopted the plots of animal
stories and other characters, and rendered previously independent characters as
subordinates or supporting cast members.78 This was not an unusual process. Remnants
of the eighteenth century Papkootparut story appear in some Gluskap tales, indicating
that storylines were attached to different personalities through time and existed
independently in Micmac oral culture.79
However, in stories from the 1920's, Gluskap began to encounter Jesus Christ,
and developed an hierarchical relationship to both Christ and the Christian creator-God.
The relationship between Gluskap and Christ marks a second transition in Micmac
storytelling and a second persona for Gluskap. It exemplifies how storytelling acted as
a strong agent of change, enabling Western and Christian ideas to enter into Micmac oral
culture and compete with previous held notions for acceptance and prominence. Often
these ideas were added onto older stories as trailers, and slowly gained a circulation. In
the second type of Gluskap story he adopts a Messianic role. In some stories, Gluskap
has departed from the land of the Micmac, to a distant place, usually to the west. He is
expected to return in a time of dire need, to defend the Micmac from their enemies and
his return will either occur during the last days of earth, or else his return will usher in
the end of the earth. These elements sometimes appears independently, but are often
added onto the end of the first type of Gluskap tale. Attending these, and acting as a
reminder of Gluskap as cultural hero, were his transformations of the landscape, the
most common Gluskap characteristic, and his companions, Grandmother and Marten.
99
In 1910 Wilson Wallis recorded two examples of a familiar tale, in which
Gluskap transforms the landscape of the Maritimes. The story he collected from Peter
Ginnish at Gaspe also contained a story element in which Gluskap, when he returns,
fights the devil. The description has strong overtones of Revelations and he attributed the
last part to the Bishop and the Scriptures.80 The two stories collected by Parsons with
both Christ and Gluskap incorporated a sense of the Biblical story of Genesis into an
older framework. Christ was the creator, while Gluskap retained his role as the cultural
hero and provider for the people. Whites and Indians were created separately, with the
Biblical account of Adam explaining the creation of the Europeans, who were
responsible for sin, probably an expression of attitude towards them. Independent
Micmac religious identity was bolstered through the mention of the older practice of
praying to the moon. Gluskap provided a social charter for the Micmac, as Christ did for
Christians.81 Frank Speck also included stories that involved both Gluskap and Christ,
during which they tested each others strength, with Gluskap proving to be Christ's
equal.82 By the time Wallis returned to the area in the 1950's, the stories surrounding
Gluskap contained both Micmac and Christian elements. Older stories were blended
with newer ones; conventional animal stories and familiar characters occurred alongside
allusions to Armageddon and references to the Christian creation myth.83 Gluskap
retained, however, his position as benefactor, landscapes and inventor of material
culture.84 These examples indicate that Micmac storytelling not only provides evidence
of the change in Micamc intellectual and cultural life, but also illustrate that the stories
themselves, as Peter Ginnish revealed, carried rich new material into Micmac oral
culture.
100
T h e r e c o r d e d p roduc ts o f M i c m a c s to ry te l l i ng c o n t a i n e v i d e n c e o f h is tor ica l
c h a n g e in re l ig ious ideas. Storytel lers i n c o r p o r a t e d Chr is t ian ideas i n t o t h e ex is t i ng
a n c i e n t f r a m e w o r k s o f M i c m a c r e l i g i o n , s y m b o l i s m a n d m y t h o l o g y . By b l e n d i n g
Chr is t ian e lements i n t o establ ished themes a n d patterns o f s to ry te l l i ng , t h e storyte l lers
w e r e p r o b a b l y eased t h e M i c m a c s ' ex is tence in t w o sp i r i tua l cons t ruc t i ons . In a sense,
M i c m a c storyte l lers b e c a m e ac t i ve agents o f c h a n g e in M i c m a c t h o u g h t , rather than
m e r e l y p rese rv ing o l d e r cu l tu ra l expressions. T h e d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts a n d
h is tor ica l e thno log ies also c o n t a i n b o t h i m p o r t a n t e v i d e n c e for r e c o n s t r u c t i n g the
M i c m a c w o r l d v i e w a n d the stories that express M i c m a c ideas. T h e h i s to r i ca l - func t iona l
m e t h o d thus is an i m p o r t a n t t o o l for h is tor ians. U n d e r s t a n d i n g the m e a n i n g f u l symbo ls
w i t h i n the stories themselves leads to an a p p r e c i a t i o n o f t he in te l lec tua l w o r l d b o t h o f
t he o r i g i n a l s toryte l lers a n d the i r a u d i e n c e .
C O N C L U S I O N
101
T h e recent debates in b o t h a c a d e m i c a n d l i te rary c i rc les c o n c e r n i n g the
a p p r o p r i a t i o n o f t he N a t i v e N o r t h A m e r i c a n " v o i c e " a n d o w n e r s h i p o f t h e past has
b r o u g h t a t t en t i on to t h e search for n e w h is tor ica l sources tha t m a y reveal t h e " v o i c e " o f
h i s to r i ca l l y s i lent p e o p l e . F o l l o w i n g the successful w o r k o f an th ropo log i s t s in c o l l e c t i n g
ora l t e s t i m o n y f r o m l i v i n g in fo rmants a b o u t the i r pre- l i terate c u l t u r e , h is tor ians have also
t u r n e d to ora l mater ia l t o e x p a n d the i r sources. A n i m p o r t a n t va r ian t o f ora l mater ia l
c o l l e c t e d in t he f i e ld are those ora l accoun ts s t e m m i n g f r o m ear l ier pe r iods a n d f o u n d
in ex is t i ng h is tor ica l d o c u m e n t s . A t f irst g lance , d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts appear to
have t h e po ten t ia l o f c o n t a i n i n g w i t h i n t h e m the " v o i c e " o f the i r i n f o r m a n t s ; t o present
in s tory f o r m t h e ideas, va lues, a n d even h is to ry o f ora l societ ies. E x a m i n i n g d o c u m e n t e d
ora l accoun ts for h is tor ica l e v i d e n c e renews the deba te ove r t he t rus twor th iness o f ora l
accoun ts as h is tor ica l sources, b u t also cha l lenges h is tor ians t o m a k e use o f t he types o f
i n f o r m a t i o n f o u n d in these accoun ts .
In e x p l o r i n g s o m e o f t h e issues c o n c e r n i n g d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts W i l l i a m
G . D o t y ' s perspect ives o n m y t h o g r a p h y have p r o v e d i n v a l u a b l e . A p p l i e d to t h e
d o c u m e n t e d ora l accoun ts o f t he M i c m a c p e o p l e o f A t l a n t i c Canada , his perspect ives
presented a b r o a d a p p r o a c h to the types o f in te l lec tua l mater ia l f o u n d in t he accoun ts
w h i c h is p ragmat i c , f l e x i b l e a n d , i m p o r t a n t l y , c o m p a t i b l e w i t h the h is tor ica l perspec t ive .
In D o t y ' s o w n assessment o f m e t h o d s o f m y t h analysis, he c o n t i n u o u s l y stresses t h e
i m p o r t a n c e o f socia l a n d h is tor ica l con tex t ; t o D o t y , my ths are a d y n a m i c cu l tu ra l fo rce .
F r o m D o t y ' s w o r k I have been ab le to cons t ruc t a n d a p p l y an h i s to r i ca l - func t iona l
102
approach towards mythic accounts. Once the stories from the documented oral accounts
are placed in their proper cultural and intellectual context, that is, the Micmac world
view, it is possible for historians to see how stories may have recorded changes in
Micmac culture or even have been active agents of change.
I selected documented oral accounts of the Micmac for this study because they
cover a wide range both chronologically and in terms of types of documenters. Living
on the northeast coast of North America, the Micmac had early contact with Europeans;
from the early seventeenth century on, the Micmac made regular appearances in the
historical record. Within this relatively large historical record, there are many different
types of documented oral accounts, spanning most of the historical period. This record
was created by a diverse collection: missionaries, traders, folklorists, anthropologists and
travellers. In studying the published legacy of Micmac oral culture, I found that the
context in which they were recorded to be extremely important. Just as the stories
cannot be separated from the original storytellers, neither can they be separated from
their recorders.
The particular themes and stories explored here, concerning Micmac spirituality
and religious thought, contain powerful insights into Micmac abstract culture and
intellectual life. By looking at the incorporation of both European Christian and "pagan"
ideas and concepts into Micmac religious beliefs, I attempted to probe their ability to
convey important ideas. What I found was that the relationship between oral culture and
behaviour is most evident in the relationship between stories and religious practices. This
is confirmed by early accounts of Micmac life. Chrestien Le Clercq's recounting of cross
worship amongst the Mirimichi Micmac, for example, clearly indicates how storytelling
103
recorded past events, justified current religious practices and preserved fundamental
Micmac religious concepts. The stories in the Micmac documented oral accounts also
provided direct examples of how particular concepts in the Micmac world view took
shape in Micmac oral culture.
Studying Micmac documented oral accounts revealed that storytelling was an
important and essential form of communication in Micmac cultural and social life.
Storytelling had the ability to convey a myriad of values, beliefs, ideals, and attitudes,
as well as an understanding of the past and past events. The historical role of storytellers
may be added to recent interest in storytelling from anthropologists and the
contemporary revival of Native cultural activities. I found that the particular cultural
milieu and intellectual training of the recorders of the accounts had great significance
in shaping the types of material they were interested in and how they presented it.
Finally, I gained some insights into the relationships between the recorders and the
individual Micmacs from whom they learned and among whom they worked. While the
relationship between seventeenth century missionaries and the Micmac may have been
paternalistic, and the views held by many nineteenth and early twentieth century field
researchers are condemned in the late twentieth century, it was interesting to learn how
these people actually interacted with their Micmac informants and hosts. It is important
to note that many of these documenters, despite the reactions to them by the Micmac,
their own contemporaries and modern commentators, appear to have had a sincere
interest and concern for the Micmac and their culture.
I must conclude, however, that documented oral accounts, because they were
recorded by non-Natives, and translated from their original language, are unable to
104
provide historians with examples of the pure Native "voice". The stories in the accounts
are only representations of a much wider body of oral culture and therefore only allow
impression of Micmac thought. Yet even though documented oral accounts are limited
and imperfect, they nevertheless offer historians a unique and unequalled glimpse into
Micmac intellectual life. They are a product of Micmac cultural life, and as such record
elements of Micmac creativity and belief, if not their "voice". Despite the fact that the
stories in the documented record were influenced by contact with Europeans and
settlers, they remain a product of the Micmac imagination and in this capacity are a
significant historical source. Attempting to enter into the Micmac cultural world through
the stories found in the accounts may be an intrinsically flawed endeavour, but the
attempt is necessary if historians are to at least approach how the Micmac thought and
felt about their world in the past.
105
E N D N O T E S
Abbreviations: IAFL lournal of American Folklore
W&MO William and Mary Quarterly
Introduction
1. The "New Indian history", like other "new" histories, attempts to place Native peoples at the center of historical work rather than at the periphery, where they have traditionally languished. It is part of the wider movement for a more democratic history, marked by the development of "New" cultural and social histories. Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr. "The Political Context of a New Indian History," Pacific Historical Review XL (1971): 357-358; Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians. Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Refiion, 1650-1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), xi; Lawrence W. Levine, The Unpredictable Past: Explorations in American Cultural History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 3, 6.
2. Campbell Hardy, Sporting Adventures in the New World (London: Hurst and Blackett, 1855), 2:226; Ruth Holmes Whitehead, The Old Man Told Us (Halifax: Nimbus, 1991), xii; idem, Stories From the Six Worlds: Micmac Legends (Halifax: Nimbus, 1988), 221.
3. David Henige, Oral Historiography (London: Longman Group Ltd., 1982), 2.
4. Ibid., 108. For discussions on the methodology of oral history see: Henige, Oral Historiography. Paul Thompson, The Voice of the Past: Oral History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978); and the classic work on African oral history by Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology (Chicago: Adline Publishing Co., 1961).
5. Part of the reason for the disagreements over the definition of oral tradition stems from the diversity of scholarly interest attracted to oral tradition. Anthropologists, folklorists, and scholars of religion, as well as historians, have used, studied, defined, and debated oral traditions. The term oral tradition cuts through other classifications, such as myth, legend, and folklore, and is often implicitly included in definitions of myth and folklore for non-literate societies, adding to the confusion. Oral traditions are an important part of the material collected by fieldworkers, including oral historians, especially those working with the indigenous peoples of Africa, the Americas, Oceania, Australia and New Zealand. But scholars who do not necessarily collect traditions themselves also rely on oral traditions, among other types of evidence, to recreate the past of pre-literate cultures or recover particular aspects of non-literate cultures. In these pursuits they use documented oral traditions found in archival or published sources, which are sometimes combined with their own fieldwork collections.
106
For examples of work using oral traditions from various historical fields and scholarly disciplines see: Vansina, Oral Tradition. 19-20; idem, Oral Tradition as History (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1985), 27-32; Henige. Oral Historiography. 2: David Cohen, "The Undefining of Oral Tradition," Ethnohistory 36 (1989); Elizabeth Tonkin, Narrating Our Pasts: The Social Construction of Oral History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 85-87; Robert Darnton, The Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1984), 15-20; Lawrence W. Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), ix-xiv; idem, The Unpredictable Past. 43-44, 81-82, 301; Ake Hultkrantz, "Myths in Native North American Religion," in Belief and Worship in Native North America, ed. Christopher Vecsey (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1981); idem, The Study of American Indian Religions (New York: Crossroad, Publishing Co., 1983) chap. 1-2 passim; Christopher Vecsey, Imagine Ourselves Richly: Mythic Narratives of North American Indians (New York. Crossroad Publishing Co., 1988), 19-20; Elizabeth Tooker, ed., Native North American Spirituality of the Eastern Woodlands: Sacred Myths. York: Paulist Press, 1979), xi-xvi, 1-7; Renato Rosaldo, llongot Headhunting 1883-1974: A Study in Society and History (Standford: Standford University Press, 1980), 17-18,21-23; Pierre Maranda and Elli Kongas Maranda, eds., Structural Analysis of Oral Tradition (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971); Alan Dundes, ed., The Study of Folklore (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1965), 1-42; William Bascom, "The Forms of Folklore," in Alan Dundes, ed., Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth (Berkeley: University of California Press/1984), 6-29; Richard M. Dorson, "The Debate over the Trustworthiness of Oral Traditional History," in Folklore: Selected Essays (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972), 199-224.
6. Hardy, Sporting Adventures. 226, quoted in Whitehead, Stories From the Six Worlds. 221.
7. Alfonso Ortiz, "Some Concerns Central to the Writing of 'Indian' History," The Indian Historian 10 (1977); Calvin Martin, "The Metaphysics of Writing Indian History," Ethnohistory 26 (1979) and idem, ed., The American Indian and the Problem of History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987); Bruce Trigger, "Ethnohistory: The Unfinished Edifice," Ethnohistory 33 (1986): 262-264; Daniel K. Richter, "Whose Indian History?" W&MO L (1993).
8. In an examination of the role of Native people in the HudsonBay area fur trade, Arthur Ray made extensive use of Hudson Bay Company trade records and the writings of company employees. Arthur J. Ray, Indians in the Fur Trade: their role as hunters, trappers and middlemen in the lands southwest of Hudson Bay 1660-1870 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974); idem, 'Give Us Good Measure': An economic analysis of relations between the Indians and the Hudson's Bay Company before 1763 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978); Leslie F.S. Upton relied on records produced by colonial governments, churches, and the extensive correspondence of various colonists who had dealings with the Micmac in his account of the relations between British colonial governments and the Micmac. L.F.S. Upton, Micmacs and
107
Colonists: Indian-White Relations in the Maritimes. 1713-1867 (Vancouver: University Press of British Columbia, 1979). Both Ray and Upton made only peripheral use of documented oral accounts in their work.
9. For example, Wilson Wallis, the ethnographer of the Micmac, made extensive use of oral traditions and accounts, that he collected from Micmac informants, as a basis for his reconstruction of the Micmac way of life. Wilson D. Wallis and Ruth Sawtell Wallis, The Micmac Indians of Eastern Canada (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1955), 5-8, 317.
10. Robert H. Lowie, "Oral Tradition and History," American Anthropologist n.s. 17 (1915): 597-599 and idem, "Oral Tradition and History," IAFL 30 (1917): 161-167; R. B. Dixon, "Reply" American Anthropologist n.s. 17 (1915): 599-600; John R. Swanton, "Reply" American Anthropologist n.s. 17 (1915): 600; 600; David M. Pendergast and Clement W. Meighan, "Folk Traditions as Historical Fact: A Piaute Example," IAFL 72 (1959): 128-133; Dorson, "The Trustworthiness of Oral Traditional History," 199-205, 216-222; Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre. 19-20; 267 n. 15,16.
11. For two examples from Algonquian peoples see: Gordon M. Day "Oral Tradition as Complement". Ethnohistorv 19 (1972) and Leroy V. Eid, "The Ojibwa-lroquois War: The War the Iroquois Did Not Win," Ethnohistory 26 (1979). Day demonstrated that taken together Abenaki traditions of a raid on one of their villages and the military account of the same event provided a much more complete history than either account alone. The Abenaki versions of the raid resolve a conflict between the French and English accounts over the number of casualties. The English leader of the raid, Robert Rogers, claimed that 200 Abenaki were killed while various French sources suggested only thirty. The Abenaki stories tell of warning before the raid by a sympathetic Indian on the English side, allowing many Abenaki to hide in the woods while their homes burned. 100-101, 103, 105-107.
Leroy V. Eid's reconstruction of the war against the Five Nations Seneca by the Huron-Petun, Ottawa and Ojibwa over the possession of southern Ontario in the latter half of the 17th century is both compelling and uses few conventional European sources. Eid uses the traditions of the Ojibwa and other Algonquians to counter the belief that the Iroquois remained in possession of Southern Ontario beyond the end of the seventeenth century. Like Day, Eid uses accounts of events that appear in published sources, recorded by the descendants of the participants between approximately 160 and 200 years after the war. His evidence is supported by the historic demise of Iroquois power signified by the Grand Treaty of 1701, the numerous and varied oral accounts of the Ojibwa-lroquois War on the part of the Algonquians, and Mississauga (eastern Ojibwa) ownership of Southern Ontario by the time of the American Revolution.
12. Bruce Trigger, The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's Press, 1976), 19-20.
108
13. Trigger, Children, 19, citing A.C. Parker "The Origin of the Iroquois as Suggested by Their Archaeology," American Anthropologist 18 (1916): 480-481.
14. Bruce Trigger is critical of impressionistic research and speculation, as it "can quickly degenerate into fantasy". Trigger launches this criticism at historians who do not pay enough attention to documentary evidence or the rigours of the scientific method, including Calvin Martin. Bruce Trigger, "Ethnohistory: Problems and Prospects," Ethnohistory 29 (1982): 8-9; For some of Trigger's discussions concerning romantic and relativist approaches towards Native history see: Children, xx-xxii; "Evolutionism, Relativism, and Putting Native Peole into Historical Context," Culture VI (1986); "Hyperrelativism, responsibility and the social sciences," Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthroplogy 25 (1989); "Early Native North American Responses to European Contact: Romantic versus Rationalistic Interpretations," The lournal of American History 78 (1991).
15. Eid, "The Ojibwa-lroquois War,"; Trigger, "Ethnohistory: The Unfinished Edifice," Ethnohistory 33 (1986): 261; Elsewhere, Trigger suggested that oral traditions might be used to address problems raised by conflicts between conventional history and traditional beliefs. Idem, "Ethnohistory: Problems and Prospects" Ethnohistory 29 (1982): 7.
16. lulie Cruikshank. Life Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three Yukon Native Elders (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), 2.
17. Ibid., 14. Cruikshank's approach towards orally produced evidence, collected in the field in her own case, differs from history in that it looks at how the past is used by people in the present, distinct from how the past itself may be investigated. This reflects her interest in the essentially ahistorical nature of structural anthropology and her efforts to diminish her role as researcher in presenting the stories of the elders (p.4).
18. Julie Cruikshank, "Myth and Tradition as Narrative Framework: Oral Histories from Northern Canada," International lournal of Oral History 9 (1988): 198-199. A similar version of this statement appears in Life Lived Like a Story. 346-347.
19. Calvin Martin, Keepers of the Game: Indian-Animal Relationships and the Fur Trade (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978). For an anthropological critique of his thesis see: Shepard Krech III, ed., Indians. Animals and the Fur Trade: A Critique of "Keepers of the Game" (Athens, Ga: University Press of Georgia, 1981). Also of interest are Martin's article, "The Metaphysics of Writing Indian History," Ethnohistory 26 (1979) and subsequent book The American Indian and the Problem of History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).
109
20. Daniel K. Richter, The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of The Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992), 289-290, n.1.
21. Ibid., 5-6.
22. White, The Middle Ground, 169-170. In another example, historian Gregory Dowd uses Native American religious beliefs, drawn from documented oral accounts to investigate the role that religion played in resistance to the expansion of the American frontier between the Revolution and the War of 1812. Gregory Evans Dowd, A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity. 1745-1815 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).
Chapter One
1. Philip Bock, "Micmac," in Handbook of North American Indians. Volume 15: Northeast, Bruce Trigger, vol. ed., William G. Sturtevant, gen. ed., (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institue, 1978), 109 (hereafter referred to as HBNI); Dean R. Snow, "Late Prehistory of the East Coast," HBNI. 69. Bock and Snow differ on the relationship between the Micmac and their close Eastern Algonquian neighbours, the Mailseet and Abenaki. Bock in "Micmac," states that the Micmac were closely related to the other two, while Snow in "Late Prehistory," argues that there are some important differences. Both authors suggest that there are some historical factors at work in explaining variations in Micmac culture, but neither are specific. While archaeologists speculate that the ancestors of the Eastern Algonquians in the Maritime region arrived from the Canadian Shield to the northwest around 1000 B.C., replacing or driving out the pre-existing culture, according to Snow there is little archaeological evidence pertaining to the pre-historic Micmac, partly due to coastal erosion. James A. Tuck, "Regional Cultural Development, 3000 to 300 B.C," HBNI. 34; Snow, "Late Prehistory," 69.
2. Philip K. Bock, The Micmac Indians of Restigouche: History and Contemporary Description (Ottawa: National Museum of Canada, 1966), 3.
3. Andrew Hill Clark, Acadia: The Geography of Early Nova Scotia to 1760 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968), 31-36.
4. Bock, "Micmac," 109.
5. Clark, Acadia. 14-22, 36-44.
6. For examples of local landmarks attributed to Gluskap see: Silas T. Rand, Legends of the Micmac (New York: Longmans, Green & Co. 1894), 292-293; Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 325, 330-332. The Micmac used the giant metaphor to help divided their country into seven districts, with the head, Onomag, or Cape Breton, standing alone and the other districts placed together into two even groups. One group of districts extended down the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. The Micmac named Nova
110
Scotia's Eastern Shore Esgigeoag, called the region bound by the valleys of the Musquodoboit, Shubenacadie, and La Have Rivers Sepepenegatig, and referred to the southern third of the province as Gespogoitnag. Together these three districts were known as Gespogoitg, from the Micmac name for Cape Sable, the southern most tip of Nova Scotia. The other group of districts ran along the Northumberland Strait and south coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The districts were Pigtogeoag and Epegoitnag: Pictou and Prince Edward Island; Sigenigteoag: southeastern New Brunswick, the isthmus of Chignecto and Cape Chignecto; and Gespegeoag: northeastern New Brunswick above the Richibucto River, to the Gaspe. Collectively they were called Sigenigt, after Cape Chignecto. Father Pacifique, cited by William F. Ganong (ed.), in Chrestien Le Clercq, New Relation of Gaspesia (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1910; Repr. New York: Greenwood Press, 1968), 63, n.1; Bock, "Micmac," 110; Upton, Micmacs and Colonists. 8. Father Pacifique was the missionary at Restigouche, Quebec, from 1894 to 1943.
7. Bock, "Micmac," 109.
8. Snow, "Late Prehistory," 69.
9. Rueben Thwaites, ed. lesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland: 1898) (hereafter refered to as 1R.) 3:79-83. This economic pattern is supported archaeologically in Tuck. "Regional Cultural Developments," 32-33, which actually refers to the economic activity of the pre-Algonquian Maritime Archaic tradition but is assumed to also represent the Eastern Algonquians.
10. The most complete ethnographic description of the Micmac from the seventeenth century is Le Clercq, New Relation. Modern ethnographies include Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians: Bock, The Micmac Indians of Restigouche. and idem, "Micmac,". An extensive historical ethnography covering the seventeeth and eighteenth centuries was produced by Bernard G. Hoffman (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1955). For social and political life see: Le Clercq, New Relation, 234-239; Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 171-178; Bock, "Micmac," 109, 115-116; on political leadership Upton, Micmacs and Colonists. 7.
11. Bock, "Micmac," 117-118: Wallis and Wallis. The Micmac Indians. 271: Upton, Micmacs and Colonists. 82, 88, 128-130, 172-176.
12. Margaret Fisher, "The Mythology of the Northern and Northeastern Algonkians in Reference to Algonkian Mythology as a Whole," in Frederick Johnson, ed., Man in Northeastern North America. Papers, Peabody Foundation for Archaeology. 3:226-62 (1946).
13. Bock, "Micmac," 116-117.
14. This periodization follows the works of Bock, Wallis and Wallis, and Upton.
I l l
15. Marc Lescarbot, History of New France. 3 vols., ed. and trans. W. L. Grant. (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1907, 1911, 1916; repr. New York: Greenwood Press, 1968), 2:24, 3:125; Whitehead, The Old Man Told Us, 28.
16. David V. Burley, "Proto-Historic Ecological Effects of the Fur Trade on Micmac Culture in Northeastern New Brunswick." Ethnohistory 28 (1981): 203-216.
17. Bruce J. Bourque and Ruth Holmes Whitehead, "Tarrentines and the Introduction of European Trade Goods in the Gulf of Maine," Ethnohistory 32 (1985): 327-341.
18. Ibid., passim; A.G. Bailey, The Conflict of European and Eastern Algonkian Cultures 1504-1700 (Saint John, N.B.: New Brunswick Museum, 1937, repr. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969), 12.
19. Uptonf Micmacs and Colonists. 18-20.
20. IR 1:177. Other factors besides disease contributed to the decline in Micmac population. Participation in the fur trade reduced the amount of time spent procuring local food, leaving the Micmac reliant on European food to supplement an increasingly meat oriented diet. As a result, the Micmac were more susceptible to an interrupted food supply and less well fed, which, consequently, left them less able to resist diseases. Alcoholism and increased warfare throughout the French period also reduced numbers through violent death and serious injuries. For early comments on the impact of European disease on the Micmac see IR 2:77, 3:110. For the effects of alcoholism and warfare on Micmac population see: Bock, "Micmac," 117 and Bailey, European and Eastern Algonkian Cultures. 114-115. For an overview of the population debate see: Virginia P. Miller "Aboriginal Micmac Population: A Review of the Evidence," Ethnohistory 23 (1976): 117-127.
21. IR 2:19: Bailey. European and Eastern Algonkian Cultures. 20-23: Upton. Micmacs and Colonists. 22-23.
22. IR 1:77, 165; 2:21.
23. Upton, Micmacs and Colonists. 20-25. Neal Salisbury argues that the Micmac initially accepted baptism as a sign of political alliance, and that the role played by the Jesuit Biard as a healer helped cast Christian religion in a traditional light. Manitou and Providence: Indians. Europeans and the Making of New England. 1500-1643 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 72-75.
24. Bailey, European and Eastern Algonkian Cultures, 15-16: Upton. Micmacs and Colonists. 25-27, 31-42 passim, 153-154, 170; Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 10-12. For an analysis of early French-Micmac relations, up to 1614, in the context of European relations with other Eastern Algonquians see Salisbury, Manitou and Providence. 56-77.
112
25. Upton, Micmacs and Colonists, xiii-xiv, 36-37, 39, 44, 57.
26. British settlement in Nova Scotia was minimal until the establishment of Halifax in 1749. It consisted of only a garrsion at Annapolis, near Port Royale, and a fishing base at Canso. After the explusion of the Acadians in 1750, the Micmac resisted the settlement New Englanders in the old Acadian lands. The Micmac were fully involved in the Seven Years' War on the side of the French, laying seige to Annapolis for a time, raiding throughout the countryside, and helping to defend Louisbourg. However, the most persistent form of armed resistance againsts the British were raids against fishing vessels. Upton, Micmacs and Colonists. 48-60; Olive P. Dickason, "La "guerre navale" des Micmacs contre les Britanniques, 1713-1763," in Charles A. Martijn, ed., Les Micmacs et la Mer (Montreal: Recherches amerindiennes au Quebec, 1986), 233-248.
27. Upton, Micmacs and Colonists. 61-64.
28. Ibid., 81-82, 78.
29. Ibid., 82, 85, 129.
30. Whitehead, The Old Man Told Us. 184; Upton, Micmacs and Colonists. 85-88, 92-94,101.
31. For an overview of the relationship between the Micmac and the Church see: Upton, "Chapter 11: The Micmacs and the Church," in Micmacs and Colonists. 153-170.
32. Ibid., 86-87, 128-129, 175.
33. For surveys of Micmac life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries see Upton, "Epilogue: The Last Hundred Years," Micmacs and Colonists. 171-181; Wallis and Wallis, "Chapter 16: The Modern Micmac", The Micmac Indians. 270-308; and Whitehead. The Old Man Told Us. 183-346.
34. Wallis and Wallis. The Micmac Indians. 278: Upton, Micmacs and Colonists. 173.
35. For Micmacs in Boston see: Jeanne Guillemin, Urban Renegades: The Cultural Strategy of American Indians (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975).
36. Upton. Micmacs and Colonists. 173-181; Bock, "Micmac," 119-121; Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 279.
37. JR 2:45.
38. For descriptions of marriage and funeral orations see:
113
Nicholas Denys, Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America (Acadia), William F. Ganong, ed., (Toronto: Champlain Scoiety, 1908; repr. New York: Greenwood Press, 1968), 408, 438; Le Clercq, New Relation, 185-187, 262, 301; Abbe Pierre Antoine Simon Maillard, An Account of the Customs and Manners of the Mikmakis and Maricheets. Savage Nations. Now Dependent on the Government at Cape Breton (London: S. Hooper and A. Marley, 1758), 7. For recitals of genealogy see: Denys, Description of Acadia 408, 410, 439. For general speaking abilities and respect for speakers, ibid., 418-419; Le Clercq, New Relation. 241-242, 292; Maillard, An Account, 3, 7. See also Father Biard in JR 2:15-17, 21, 45. The gutteral hau, hau, hau appears in most of the early accounts, always as a sign of approval, although the spelling varies, Le Clercq, New Relation, 148, 187; Denys, Description of Acadia. 409.
39. Wallis and Wallis. The Micmac Indians. 318-319.
40. For the decline of storytelling in the first half of the twentieth century see: Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 306, 481, 490.
41. Wallis's assertion that younger working men replaced the elders in leading the communities and that they were much more forward looking than the previous group of elders is borne out in the increased Micmac political activism in the following decades. Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 306-308; Bock, "Micmac," 120-121; Upton. Micmacs and Colonists. 178-181.
42. Sheila Steen cited by Wallis and Wallis in The Micmac Indians. 481.
43. Whitehead, The Old Man Told Us. 346.
44. Ibid., 120, 146, 180, 182,261,292-293,296,317-318,320,340-341,343,346.
45. Whitehead, The Old Man Told Us. xii; idem, Stories From the Six Worlds. 221 citing Hardy, Sporting Adventures. 226. Silas Rand refers toa'tukwaqnas Ahtookwokun. Legends, 75; for the traditional openings see: ibid., 82-83.
46. This summary of the main characteristics of Micmac stories is drawn primarily from the collected accounts of Rand, Wallis and Elsie Clews Parsons, "Micmac Folklore," IAFL, 38 (1925): 55-133. Rand's first story, "I. Murder and Robbery Revenged," Legends. 1-6, provides a good example of anthropomorphic animal characters. For an example of similar stories about different characters see: Rand, Legends. "XXXV. Glooscap, Kuhkw, and Coolpujot", 232-237 and Parsons, "Micmac Folkore," 71-72. Wallis classified a group of stories as historical, many of which concern external relations with other Native peoples and Europeans. Although different in content, they have a similar tone to more abstract stories. Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians, 447-480.
47. Parsons recorded several stories that her informant identified as Sa*kis' we'nuch. "long ago, French" and others that she concluded were Afro-American stories brought
114
back from Florida. "Micmac Folklore," 102 n.1, 102-131, 128 n.1. For another example of a Micmac storyteller reciting European material see Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 319-320.
48. Gordon M. Day, "Oral Tradition as Complement," Ethnohistory 19 (1972): 103.
49. Day, "Oral Tradition as Complement," 100, 103, 105-107. Day noted the slow rate of transmission of Abenaki stories about an English raid near the end of the Seven Years War. Rather than being handed down generationally, it appears as though old storytellers trained youngsters to replace them, and thus the stories were handed down only twice over four generations and two hundred years.
50. Parsons, "Micmac Folklore," 55 n.2; Rand, Legends, 318; Day, "Oral Tradition as Complement," 100, 103, 105. Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 253, suggests that elders taught children the stories around the ages of ten to twelve.
51. Besides Le Clercq, other French writers who recorded ethnographic information about storytelling, dialogues with Micmacs, speeches and other details about aspects of oral culture include Father Pierre Biard, 1R 1-4; Lescarbot, History of New France. Denys, Description of Acadia, and Father Pierre Maillard, "Lettre a Madame Drucourt," Les Soirees Canadiennes. 3 (1863), idem, An Account. Maillard is the only major writer on the Micmac who has work unavailable in reproduction and translation. Parts of the letter appear translated in Whitehead, The Old Man Told Us. 10, 11-12, 12-13, 14, 17, 21, 38, 105, 110-111, 115, 115-117, 118-119. This covers approximately 297-325 of the original journal article.
The modern group also includes nineteenth century folklorists Charles G. Leland, The Algonquin Legends of New England (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1884; repr. Detroit: Singing Tree Press, 1968); Abby Alger, In Indian Tents (Boston: n.p., 1897); as well as early anthropologists Stansbury Hagar, "Micmac Customs and Traditions" American Anthropologist 8 (1895): 31-42; idem, "Micmac Magic and Medicine" IAFL 9 (1896) : 170-177; idem, "Weather and the Seasons in Micmac Mythology" IAFL 10 (1897) : 101-105; Frank Speck, "Some Micmac Tales From Cape Breton Island" IAFL 28 (1915): 59-69; Truman Michelson, "Micmac Tales" JAFL 38 (1925): 33-54; Arthur Huff Fauset, "Folklore from the Half-breeds in Nova Scotia" JAFL 38 (1925): 300-315.
52. Father Biard in JR 1:173. "The nation is savage, wandering and full of bad habits; the people few and isolated. They are, I Say, savage, haunting the woods, ignorant, lawless and rude: they are wanderers, with nothing to attach them to a place, neither homes nor relationships, neither possessions nor love of country; as a people they have bad habits, are extremely lazy gluttonous, profane, treacherous, cruel in their revenge, and given up to all kinds of lewdness, men and women alike, the men having several wives and abandoning them to others, and the women only serving them as slaves, whom they strike and beat unmercifully, and who dare not complain; and after being half killed, if it so please the murderer, they must laugh and caress him."
115
53. Le Clercq, New Relation. 82-83, 103-107.
54. Ibid., 159-187.
55. Ibid., 208-214,146-147,191-192; examples ofspeeches and comments attributed to Micmacs: 103-106, 173-174, 218, 221-225, 236-237, 243, 247-250, 308-315.
56. Ibid., 18-19.
57. Judith Fingard, "Silas T. Rand," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, v. 11, 722; Rand, Legends, xvii.
58. Upton, Micmacs and Colonists. 167-169; Fingard, "Rand," 723. 59. Ake Hulkrantz, The Study of American Indian Religions, 11.
60. For an extensive bibliographic listing of Rand's work see: Rand, Legends. xxii-xxix; see also: Rand, A Short Statement of Facts Relating to the History. Manners. Customs. Language, and Literature of the Micmac Tribe of Indians, in Nova Scotia and P.E. Island (Halifax: James Bowes & Sons, 1850); Rand, A Short Account of The Lord's Work among the Micmac Indians by S.T. Rand. Hantsport Nova Scotia. With Some Reasons for His Seceding from the Baptist Denomination. (Halifax: William Macnab, 1873).
61. Peter H. Hare, A Woman's Quest for Science (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1985); Rosemary Zumwalt, Wealth and Rebellion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
62. Hare, A Woman's Quest for Science, 11-19; Zumwalt, Wealth and Rebellion, 1, 3.
63. Zumwalt, Wealth and Rebellion. 162-170, 313-314. For an assessment of the work of Franz Boas and his followers as it pertained to Native religion see: Hulkrantz, The Study of American Indian Religions. 16-58.
64. Parsons, "Micmac Folklore," 55-133; idem, "Micmac Notes," JAFL 39 (1926): 460-485.
65. Parsons, "Micmac Folklore," 55. "That I was lured to the borders of the field he [Frank Speck] has worked so systematically and successfully, he will explain by our appreciation of the fact that to folktales and their variants there is no end and that my approach through women informants and their family life was from a somewhat distinctive angle."
66. Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 5-7, 7-9, 319-320.
116
67. Robert F.Spencer and Elizabeth Colson, "Wilson D. Wallis: 1886-1970" American Anthropologist. 73 (1971): 257-260.
68. Bock, "Micmac," 122.
69. Whitehead. Stories from the Six Worlds. 222.
70. Leland, The Algonquin Legends of New England, iii; Whitehead, Stories From the Six Worlds. 217.
71. Denys. Description of Acadia. 418-419.
72. Ibid., 385-387. "The Wolverene [Quincajou] is nearly like a Cat, with hair red brown. It has claws. It climbs trees, stretches its length upon a branch, and there awaits some Moose. If one of these passes, it throws itself upon its back, grips it with its claws, encircles it with its tail, then gnaws its neck a little below the ears, so that it brings it down. The Moose swiftly runs and rubs against the trees, but the Quincajou never quits its prize. If the animal does not pass near, it runs after it, chases it, and does not give up. If it is once able to reach it, it leaps upon its rump, and proceeds to attach itself to its neck, and gnaws it so well that it brings it down. In order to save itself the Moose runs to the water as soon as it can and throws itself into it. But before it throws himself into it the Quincajou lets go and jumps to the ground, for it does not wish to enter the water. Four years ago one of them captured a heifer of mine three years old, and broke her neck. The next morning we set our Dogs upon the track, and we found her. It had eaten only her eyes and tongue.
The Foxes and the Quincajou hunt together. The Quincajou has not a good sense of smell as the Foxes have. These beat the woods until they find the track of the Moose, and they hunt without making a noise. If they meet with a track they follow it until they have found the animal. If they find it grazing or lying down they do nothing to it, but they go around and seek a place the most convenient to make their prey pass by. Then the Quincajou which follows them places itself in ambush on the branch of a tree. It Being placed, the Foxes return to fetch the animal. They place themselves at some distance in the woods, on both sides. Another Fox goes behind to make it rise, yelping very softly. If the animal goes directly to where the Quincajou is, those which are on the sides make no sound; if it does not go there, those which are on the side towards which it is going yelp in order to turn it. They do so well that they make it pass where the Quincajou is, which does not fail in its blow, and throws itself on its neck and gnaws it. When the Moose has fallen they throw themselves upon it, and make good cheer together as long as the beast lasts." Nineteenth century Quincajou stories may be found in Rand. Legends. 263-269,306-320. For another example of Quincajou not liking water see Parsons, "Micmac Folkore," 68.
73. Denysf Description of Acadia. 387 n.1.
74. Ibid., 399, 432, 437, 439-441, 442, 449-450.
117
75. Whitehead. Stories from the Six Worlds. 221-223. In this book and idem. The Old Man Told Us. Whitehead attempts to recreate the Micmac historical experience through the use of their stories, myths and legends. From an historian's point of view, the main problem with the book is the mixing of stories from the French period with mid-nineteenth century sources. The inclusion of Papkutparut (Papkootparout), from Le Clercq's 1691 New Relation of Gaspesia, with stories collected by Silas Rand in the 1870's assumes a cultural and intellectual continuity thathas not been demonstrated. In The Old Man Told Us. the Micmac experience is related co-currently with excerpts from colonial history to give some indication of the relationship between the Micmac and the settlers, yet there is still no interaction between the Micmac produced sources and the more conventional colonial material, nor are chronological restraints always respected.
76. Darton. The Great Cat Massacre. 18.
77. Parsons, "Micmac Folklore," 63 n.5, 69. Biard also commented on how the Micmac were "droll fellows". IR 3:45.
78. Maillard, An Account. 3. In commenting on the Micmac language, Abbe" Maillard observed, "I affect, above all, to rhime [sic] as they do, especially at each member of a period."
79. Parsons, "Micmac Folklore," 65 n.6. Rand, for his part, translated the act as "treated it with great indignity". Legends. 319.
Chapter Two
1. Claude Levi-Strauss was one of the major theoretician of structural anthropology. He argued that ethnography, ethnology, and cultural anthropolgy were each part of a process that began with description, proceded to comparison and ended in universal generalization. Within this framework, the study of myths and other oral source materials was part of an overall nomothetic objective. Levi-Strauss used structuralism to search myths for patterns in the logic used by societies. His analysis focused on how the relationships between binary opposites, which were expressed in myth, and mediation between them, shaped the logic of the mind. Levi-Struass drew on the precepts of structural linguistics, seeing the structure of mythology as parallel to the structure of language. The goal of Levi-Strauss was to recreate the mind of humankind, beyond the limitations of time and space. Partly because of the lofty positivistic goals Levi-Strauss set for it, his method of mythic analysis was by its very nature ahistorical. In particular, his structural analysis of mythology required several processes that greatly limit its application to specific studies, such as the investigation of historical problems. The first process was the reduction of the mythemes, or elements of a myth, to a manageble number of motifs for comparitive purposes, The premise of a closed system of limited mythemes accompanied this step. The second limitation was the need for ethnological comparison, which moved the analysis beyond the constraints of place and time. Claude Levi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology (New York: Basic Books, 1963), 1-27, 206 -231,
118
354-356. William G. Doty, Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1986), 23, 51, 68-69, 80, 193-211, 223-224; Annemarie de Waal Malefijt, Images of Man: A History of Anthropological Thought (New York: Knopf, 1974) 325-332; Paul Bohannan and Mark Glazer, eds., High Points in Anthroplogy (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973, 2nd ed. 1988), 422-459.
Good representations of Northrup Frye's arguments and approach may be found in Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957); idem, The Stubborn Structure: Essays on Criticism and Society (Ithaca. N.Y., Cornell University Press, 1970); see also Doty, Mythography, 179-181.
2. Clifford Geertz presents his ideas in two collections of essays, The Interpretation ofCultures: Selected Essays (New York: Basic Books, 1973); idem, Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology (New York: Basic Books, 1983). He defines and discusses 'thick description' in "Chapter 1: Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture," in The Interpretation of Cultures. 3-30; for his criticism of Levi-Strauss's structuralism see "Chapter 13: The Cerebral Savage: On the Work of Cluade Levi-Strauss," in ibid., 354-359. The work of Clifford Geertz is considered part of the symbolic school of anthropology. Symbolic anthropology uses myth and other evidence to search for the internal meaning of culture. Symbolic anthropology as practiced by Geertz attempts to return the symbols and structure of myth and rituals to their creators and users.
Geertz sees in Levi-Strauss a return to the rationalism of the French Enlightenment and Rousseau. In pursuing the logic behind the culture, Levi-Strauss implicitly declares in favour of rational thought as the driving force behind human behaviour. Geertz, on the other hand, lets the emotional action of humanity to speak for itself. Geertz has had an important part in the development French cultural history by influencing the work of Natalie Zemon Davis and Robert Darnton. However, criticism of Geertz, especially applied Geertz, complains that his thick description is as static and ahistorical as Levi-Strauss' structuralism. His rejection of generalizations and comparisons has led to the accusation that his work is the anthropological equivalent of antiquarianism. Another suggestion is that his work operates outside of theoretical development and makes ambiguous comments about it, and it is wondered if his thick descriptions have any relevence beyond their own explanations. Suzanne Desan, "Crowds, Community, and Ritual in the Work of E.P. Thompson and Natalie Davis," in Linda Hunt, ed., The New Cultural History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), 52-53, 64; Aletta Biersack, "Local Knowledge, Local History: Geertz and Beyond," in ibid., 76-80; Natalie Zemon Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France (Standford: Stanford University Press, 1975); Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre. 283 n2, 284 n4.
3. Doty, Mythography. xiii.
4. Ibid., iii.
119
5. Ibid., 168.
6. Ibid., 6-11.
7. Ibid., 11. Doty follows this definition up with an extensive, detailed explanation, 11-40.
8. Ibid., 13.
9. Ibid., 17.
10. Ibid., 16.
1 1 . Ibid., 26-27
12. Ibid., 20.
13. Ibid., 20-21.
14. Early functionalists in anthropology, whether concerned with the individual or society in general, developed it with a strong materialist and corpreal point of view, but failed to accomadate beliefs that went beyond material utility or social function. Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, for example, thought of myth as a force in society that acted as a "pragmatic charter", outlining conventional wisdom and codifying moral behaviour. Subsequent functionalists have modified the view to suggest that myths present an idealized form of society rather than an exacting code of conduct. Doty, Mythography. 43-44. For a discussion on the differences between the methodological functionalism of French sociologist Emile Durkhiem and Malinowski on the one hand and the structural-functionalism of English social anthropologist A.R. Radcliffe-Brown on the other, see: de Waal Malefijt, Images of Man. 181 -190,192-206. The discussion takes place within the context of the relationship between methodological and theoretical developments, most notable the ability of functionalists to explain diversity among cultures and cultural change. The primary difference between Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown is a focus on the biological and psychological needs of the individual in the work of Malinowski and the study of the functions of social structures by Radcliffe-Brown, Bohannan and Glazer, eds., High Points in Anthroplogy. 274-275, 296-297.
A necessary caution for historians using a functionalist approach is that many functional studies focus on stable societies with engaged cultures. However, because historians are usually more interested in dynamic societies and cultures confronting change, an awareness that functional relationships may be askew is in order. In the case of the history of Native peoples, the society under study is often in the midst of cultural change or else has undergone change, its cultural system already disrupted. In such instances, relationships between function of cultural forms and their meaning arein
120
disarray. Cultural expressions, such as stories, may have lost their prescribed meaning, been replaced in their importance by a new forms, or else been given new meanings to make them more relevant. Doty, Mythography. 46-47.
15. Doty, Mythography. 48-49.
16. Ibid., 49.
17. Ibid., 50.
18. Ibid., 49-51. In the formulation of these operational levels of myth in society Doty acknowledges the work of R.E. Moore, Myth America 2001 (Philadelphia, 1972), which suggests "three phases of myth in the history of Christianity Ibid., 253, n. 5. Doty qualifies these stages, claiming that theyneither represent a process of development that all myths follow nor are they associated with levels of social complexity.
19. Ibid. 42.
20. For Doty on the relationships between myth, religion and world view see: Ibid., 26, 27, 29-30, 33-34.
21. Ibid., 35-36, 49-56. Doty traces the various schools of thought concerning the relationship between myths and rituals in "Chapter 3: Ritual: The Symbolic Intercom," in ibid., 77-106.
22. JR 2:75. There is another reference by Biard in his Relations that is suggestive but inconclusive. He described a shaman's elaborate healing ritual, which centered around a common mythical character. As the rite drew to its climax, the shaman removed a dubious stick from under the patient, declaring, "There is the accursed one with the horn ...." This was probably in reference to the red and yellow horns of the Horned Serpent, a common character in later stories. There is a hint in Chrestien Le Clercq's New Relation of Gaspesia that diseases were caused by a worm, translated to germ. Thus the healing ritual recorded by Biard may connect the cause of disease and illness to a known mythical character. 1R 3:121; For oral accounts containing references to serpent horns or the Horned Serpent see: Rand, Legends. 12, 25, 53, 116; Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians, 345-347; Parsons, "Micmac Folklore," 95-96; Whitehead, Stories from the Six Worlds. 6, 44-47. Le Clercq, New Relation. 90 n.2, 219.
23. Le Clercq, New Relation. 207, italics mine.
24. Maillard, "Lettre a Madame de Drucourt," 304-305; Whitehead, The Old Man Told Us. 17.
25. Le Clercq, "Chapter XII: On the Belief of the Gaspesians concerning the Immortality of the Soul," New Relation. 207 -214.
121
26. Ibid., 208.
27. Ibid., 205.
28. Ibid., 212-213.
29. Ibid., 211.
30. Ibid., 213.
31 . Ibid., 213-214.
32. For use of grave goods by the Micmac see: Lescarbot, History of New France, 3:279, 285, 288; Le Clercq, New Relation. 301; Maillard, An Account. 46.
33. Le Clercq. New Relation. 207. 211. 212. 213.
34. For other Micmac war stories see: Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 447-469; 490-492; Michelson, "Micmac Tales," 41-51; Fauset, "Folklore From the Half-Breeds in Nova Scotia," 305-307. All of the recording of the stories took place at least a hundred years after hostilities had faded. Most, if not all, of these examples were collected well after the establishment of British colonial rule in the Maritimes. With the absence of warfare between the Micmac and either other Native peoples, imperial forces, or colonial settlements, the war stories are set in, and described, the past. This collaborates with Doty's assertion and caution that, "Myths (and rituals) may emphasize values and conditions that are just the opposite of what is found in contemporary experience; .... Hence the mythographer [and historian] should proceed very cautiously in drawing conclusions about social situations from the mythology emphasized at any given period. The emphases of myths in repeated use may reflect idealizations rather than actualities." Doty, Mythography. 30. Indeed, for the Micmac of the period in which the stories were collected, circa 1870-1925, the telling of war stories does not indicate that the Micmac were involved in warfare at the time, or were necessarily fond of actual warfare, but rather, suggests that there was a certain appeal to stories that glorified the Micmac people, presenting them as strong, independent, and powerful, both martially and spiritually.
35. Parsons gives Gwedich as the term for Mohawk from Montreal. "Micmac Folklore," 93. Whitehead states that there is uncertainty as to which Iroquois group the term Kwedech refers to, either the Mohawk, possibly the St. Lawrence Iroquois or both, The Old Man Told Us. 46. Bruce Trigger also refers to the theory that there was a war between the Micmac and the St. Lawrence Iroquois in the Gaspe region during the era of Jacques Cartier. Children. 183, 216. A story recorded Fauset supports the claim, "Folklore From the Half-Breeds in Nova Scotia," 307.
36. Rand, Legends. 126-141, 169-182, 200-222, 238-241, 245.
122
37. For variants in another work of war stories collected by Rand see Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 448-449, 452.
38. For examples of war stories infused with the concept of power see: Rand, Legends: "XV. The Adventures of Ababejit, An Indian Chief and Magician of the Micmac Tribe," 126-136, "XXI. The Marvelous Adventures of Noojebokwajeejit, a Micmac Brave," 169-178, "XXII. An Incident of the Wars With the Kenebek Indians," 179-182; Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 450, 453-454.
39. Rand, Legends. 2, 202, 204, 210, 212, passim. Powwow is a term used by Rand, along with magician and wizard, to denote a person of extraordinary mystical or magical abilities. The Micmac used the term buoin or puoin to mean a shaman or, later, a witch. Different orthographies use either 'b ' or 'p'. Whitehead, Stories from the Six Worlds. 239, Bock, "Micmac", 109. For a study in changes in the meaning of the term buion see: Vincent O. Erickson, "The Micmac Buoin, Three Centuries of Semantic Change," Man in The Northeast 15/16 (1978).
40. Rand. Legends. "XXVII. Kwedech War renewed." 207-211.
41 . Ibid., 200-206.
42. Leland. The Algonquian Legends of New England, 149 n.1.
43. Whitehead, Stories from the Six Worlds. 33-34, 36, 223; Rand, Legends. 50-52.
44. On the rules and etiquette of warfare see: Rand, Legends, 132, 181-182, 201, 205, 208, 209, 217, 239. For another reference to warfare as play see: Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 453.
45. For the scarring of prisoners see: Rand, Legends, 140, 217, 240-241; Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 449, 451.
46. Robert Redfield, "The Primitive World View," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 96, (1952), 30. A. Irving Hallowell cites this definition of world view in his influenzal article, "Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior and World View," in Culture in History: Essays in Honor of Paul Radin. ed. Stanley Diamond, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1960), 19-20.
47. Doty. Mythography, 12.
48. Ibid., 12, 17.
49. Doty supports the process of reconstucting world views and attempting to connect dispersed mythic elements. "The more one studies individual myths constituting a corpus, the more one becomes aware of common elements and internal connections
123
between them. Obviously there is a problem for the analyst, in this context, when only frgamentary sections are extant, but the more familiarity the analyst has with mythemic units in a corpus, the more it is possible to make accurate guesses about the gaps." ibid., 11-12.
50. Francis Jennings, "A Growing Partnership: Historians, Anthropologists, and American Indian History," Ethnohistory. 29 (1982): 29-30. James Axtell, "Ethnohistory: An Historian's Viewpoint," Ethnohistory. 26 (1979): 4-5.
Chapter Three
1. Scholars long ago noted the phenomenon of religious syncretism among various North American Native peoples, including Eastern Algonquians. In 1937, Bailey noted the accomplishments of early twentieth century anthropologists is this direction when he stated that, "The field work of Speck, Hallowell and others has brought to light a large amount of religious lore among the Montagnais-Nascopi and others within the present century, which makes it clear that Chrisitianity and the native beliefs have often continued to exist side by side, the lack of system making it possible for diverse creeds to be held simultaneously.", European and Eastern Algonkian Cultures. 132.
In his own work, Bailey offered an extensive critique of American folklorist Charles G. Leland attempt, in The Algonquin Legends of New England, to prove that much of the mythology and folklore of the Eastern Algonquians originated with the Norse. Bailey made use of stories collected by Leland, Rand, Elsie Parsons, Truman Michelson and Frank Speck to both refute Leland's theory of a Norse origin for Eastern Algonquian oral culture and advance his own arguments concerning the infusion of French folklore into Eastern Algonquian storytelling (Bailey, 170-185) and the impact of missionary activity on culture on aspects of Eastern Algonquian oral culture, especially on the character of Gluskap. (Bailey, 187-188).
2. Ruth Holmes Whitehead, Stories from the Six Worlds. 4, 44; Stansbury Hagar, "Micmac Magic and Medicine," 170-172. Gluskap is alternatly spelt Glooscap, Gloskap, or Kluskap.
3. Rand. Legends. 310.
4. According to Ruth Holmes Whitehead, the Micmac divided the cosmos into five different worlds that had specific geographic positions related to the Earth, the center of the Micmac universe. The other worlds were Beneath the Earth, Beneath the Water, Above the Earth (daylight sky) and Above the Sky (night sky). She also includes Ghost World. Whitehead, Stories from the Six Worlds. 3.
5. Rand, Legends, 288. In describing the Loons that met with Gluskap Rand wrote, "Glooscap found on the island of Newfoundland a village of Indians, friends of his,
124
called Kwemoo (Loons). As in all such cases, these Indians were at one time people, and at another time real loons." For other examples of animal characters living and acting both as animals and humans see Rand, Legends: " I . Robbery and Murder Revenged," 1-6; "LXXV. Pules, Pulowech, Beechkwech (Pigeon, Partridge, and Nighthawk)," 389-395; "LXXVIII. Wiskumoogwasoo and Magwis (Fish-Hawk and Scapegrace.)" 409-415.
6. Hallowell, "Ojibwa Ontology," 19-52.
7. Ibid., 20-21, 27-28, 45-47.
8. Ibid., 21 , 23-24, 27, 30, 33-34, 35, 40-43.
9. Ibid., 21,29.
10. Whitehead. Stories from the Six Worlds. 3-4.
11. Parsons, "Micmac Folklore," 85, 87, 71. For other references to "grandfather" see: Michelson, "Micmac Tales," 52; Rand, Legends, 228. For an example a family descended from a bear see: Parsons, "Micmac Folklore," "30. The Ancestor of the Sylliboy Family," 96-97, also see Rand, Legends. "XLIV. A Child Nourished by a Bear," 259-262.
12. Bailey. European and Eastern Cultures. 136.
13. Rand, Legends, 133, 239.
14. Le Clercq, New Relation of Gaspesia, 222.
15. Bailey, European and Eastern Cultures. 157 citing Dixon "The Mythology of the central and eastern Algonkins," IAFL 22 (1909), 4-5.
16. Stith Thompson, "The Star Husband Tale (1953)," in Alan Dundes, ed., The Study of Folklore. 414-459.
17. Le Clercq, New Relation. 174.
18. Denys, Description of Acadia, 430.
19. IR 2: 75
20. Le Clercq, New Relation, 174.
21. Ibid., 227.
22. Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 160, 138-141.
125
23. Ibid., 158-159.
24. For other commentaries on Micmac and Algonquian dreaming see: Tooker, ed,, Native North American Spirituality. 89-95; A. Irving Hallowell, "The Role of Dreams in Ojibwa Culture," in The Dream and Human Societies, ed. G.E. von Grunebaum and Roger Caillois (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), 267-289; Wallis and Wallis. The Micmac Indians. 138; Upton, Micmacs and Colonists. 11; Bailey. European and Eastern Cultures. 136- 137.
25. In Cape Breton in the mid 1600's, a Micmac claimed that in a dream, a dead ancestor called on him to avenge his death. IR 47:221.
26. Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 299. For acquisition of ginap. or power, during dreams, see: Bailey, European and Eastern Cultures. 136.
27. Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 138-141.
28. Bailey, European and Eastern Cultures. 137.
29. Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 134 n.16.
30. Ibid., 156
31. Whitehead. Stories from the Six Worlds. 3. 5. 8. 13.
32. Ibid, 4. This understanding of power as energy emerged out of attempts to define and explain manitou. Elizabeth Tooker attributes the definition of manitou as energy to the works of anthropologists William Jones, Alice Fletcher, J.N.B. Hewitt, Franz Boas, and Ruth Benedict. Manitou, and its Iroquoian and Siouian counterparts, orenda and wakan. was a concept that was common to most, if not all, Native peoples in Northeastern North America. Because it was both wide spread and foundational to Native religious thought, the idea of manitou attracted considerable attention from early anthropologists. Two competing arguments were advance in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to explain the ideas of manitou, orenda, and wakanda. Animism, put forward by E.B. Tylor, stressed '"the belief in Spiritual Beings'" which inhabited the objects that Native peoples held to be sacred. The second concept, held by R.R. Marett, was animatism. "the attribution of life, or better, supernatural power, to the inanimate.", which suggested that manitou was a form of spiritual power, similar to magic; a mystical force that could influence events and the physical world. Anthropologist Paul Radin criticized these early efforts to define manitou, claiming that there was an excessive influence from current debates over the origins of religion creeping into the discussion and that much of what had been concluded "confused interpretation with fact". Tooker, ed., Native Amercian Spirituality. 12-24.
33. Denys, Description of Acadia. 440.
126
34. 1R 2:77.
35. For examples of natural phenomena that were the result of the activities of other-than-human persons or people with power see: Rand, Legends. 234, "LXXVI. The Adventures of Tornado and Wave," 396-400; Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians, 123, 159, 296; Parsons, "Micmac Folklore", 70-73, 84-85; Whitehead, Stories from the Six Worlds. 4-5.
36. Le Clercq. New Relation, 150-151.
37. Hallowell, "Ojibwa Ontology", 45.
38. Rand, Legends. "Ll. History of the Celebrated Chief, Ulgimoo," 294-297. Informant: Thomas Boonis, circa 1870.
39. Erickson, "The Micmac Buoin," 5. This process was noted by Wallis, but the Western idea of supernatural continued to colour his perceptions concerning power.
40. Raymond D. Fogelson, "The Ethnohistory of Events and Nonevents," Ethnohistory 36 (1988): 140-143.
41. Elsie Clews Parsons recorded several French and Black American folktales recited to her by Micmac women. They held a sharp distinction between their own and other tales, 102 n.1. "Micmac Legends." 102-132. See also Whitehead, Stories from the Six Worlds. 220-221.
42. Erickson, "The Micmac Buoin," 5.
43. Upton, Micmacs and Colonists, xv, 22, 23, 153-154, 170.
44. Le Clercq, New Relation. 84-85.
45. Ibid., 143.
46. Maillard, An Account, 25.
47. Ibid., 22-27.
48. Le Clercq, New Relation, 362.
49. Whitehead, The Old Man Told Us. 11-12, citing Maillard, "Lettre a Madame de Drucourt," 300-301.
50. Le Clercq, New Relation, 84-85.
127
51. Ibid., 85.
52. For early French references to manitou see: IR 2:77; Denys, Description, of Acadia. 117. 418: Maillard. An Account. 37-38. 41-43. 46.
53. IS 3:133-135; Sieur de Diereville, Relation of the Voyage to Port Royal in Acadia or New France, ed. John Clarence Webster, (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1933); Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 143 n.2; Silas T. Rand, Dictionary of the Micmac Indians (Halifax: Nova Scotia Publishing Co., 1888), 78; Clara Dennis, Down in Nova Scotia (Toronto: 1934), 94, 165; Dennis, ibid., 165; Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians, 156; "Genub", a variations of "Ginap", also identified a mighty warrior, see Fauset, "Folklore from the Half-Breeds in Nova Scotia," 309-311. Rand recorded the character as "Kenap", Legends. 275.
54. Rand, Legends. 47; Parsons, "Micmac Folkore," 80.
55. Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 145.
56. Denys, Description of Acadia. 439-441.
57. Doty, Mythography. 188-191.
58. Le Clercq, New Relation. 50, 144-152, 176.
59. Le Clercq, New Relation, 146-150. This story also appears, in a slightly different form on pages 190-192.
60. Ibid., 189. Ganong, in his notes, also provides a version of the story found in Monseigneur de Saint Vallier's 1688 "Relation", 189 n.2.
61. Ibid., 32-40.
62. Ibid., 36-40.
63. Ibid., 191.
64. Ibid., 189-190 n. 2.
65. Ibid., 191 n. 2.
66. Silas Rand recorded a Micmac story regarding the first coming of the Europeans in which a young woman's dream herealded their arrival. This could well have been a previous sighting by the woman, expressed in terms of a dream because of the events unusual nature. Rand, Legends. 225-227.
128
67. Ibid., 147.
68. Ibid., 148.
69. Ibid., 176.
70. Ibid., .151-152.
71. Dennis, Down in Nova Scotia. 168. In her detailed story the loon got its call when it warned other birds to "Open your eyes and fly", after they were tricked and attacked by Wolverine.Rand attributed the loon's call to Gluskap, Legends. 289.
72. Le Clercq, New Relation. 222.
73. Grandmother and Marten appear individually and together in several Gluskap stories. See Rand, Legends, "IV. Glooscap and the Megumoowesoo," 23-29, "XXXV. Glooscap, Kuhkw, and Coolpujot," pp. 232-237, "XLIII. Glooscap and his Four Visitors," 253-258, "XLVI. Glooscap deserted by his Comrades," 270-278, "L. A Wizard carries off Glooscap's Housekeeper," 284-293; Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. "4. Gluskap Wins a Contest With Pesadasixunji [Scalped]" 327, "12. Gluskap as Transformer," 330-332, "15. Gluskap Supplies a French Warship," 335-36; Parsons, "Micmac Folklore", "18c. Gluskap's Grandmother," 86, "18g. Edunabes' visits Gluskap," 87-88, "19. Christ Creates: Gluskap Gives Rules," 88-90; Michelson, "Micmac Tales," "Travels of Gloskap," 51-53, "Gloskap," 54; Fauset, "Folklore From the Half-Breeds in Nova Scotia," "9. Glooscap and the Beaver: How Glooscap Formed Nova Scotia," 304-305. In this story Marten appears as a Mink. "13. Glooscap Entertains Visitors," 309-311. Grandmother and Marten appear independently in Rand, "VIII. The History of Usitebulajoo," 44-61; and Frank Speck, "Some Micmac Tales from Cape Breton Island," "Badger Disguises Himself as a Woman, Meets With Heron, and is Killed by a Giant Bird," 66-69
74. For Quincajou stories see: Rand, Legends, "XX. The Two Weasels," 160-168, "XLV. Badger and his Little Brother," 263-269, "LV. The Badger and the Star-Wives," 306-320; Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians, "2. Gluskap and the Animals," 323-325, "100. Rabbit and Wolverine Visit Kitpusiagana," 417-430, "101. Wolverine's Behavior," 430; Parsons, "Micmac Folklore," "5. Star Husbands : Sucker-Man," 65-68, "6. Crane Betrays Badger, and Other Adventures of Badger," 68-69. For a commentary on the Quincajou cycle see: Whitehead, Stories from the Six Worlds, 221. "The story cycle of Ki'kwa'ju runs to thirty pages, in the version collected by Silas Rand. By 1911, Wallis found only enough material to fill eight pages. In 1975, Rita Joe recorded three paragraphs about 'Key Qua Joo,' told to her by the late Harriet Denny of Eskasoni, one of the last great storytellers. Stories collapsed and condensed as detail was forgotten."
75. For a collection of Eastern Algonquian tales about Gluskap, including the Micmac see Leland, The Algonquin Legends of New England. 15-137.
129
76. Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians. 305-306.
77. Bailey, European and Eastern Cultures. 135, 145, 157-167 passim.
78. See, for example, Rand, Legends. "XIII. The Adventures of Kaktoogwasees," 110-119, "L. A Wizard carries off Glooscap's Housekeeper," 284-293.
79. Several Gluskap and Turned-with-a-Hand-Spike stories contain the escaping gift motif, see, for example: Rand, Legends, "XXXV. Glooscap, Kuhkw, and Coolpujot," 232-237.
80. Wallis and Wallis, The Micmac Indians, 331.
81. Parsons, "Micmac Folklore," 88-90.
82. Frank Speck, "Some Micmac Tales from Cape Breton Island," 60-61.
83. Wallis and Wallis. The Micmac Indians. 481-482.
84. Ibid., 305-306.
130
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources
Alger, Abby Langdon. In Indian Tents: Stories Told by Penobscot, Passamaquoddy and Micmac Indians. Robert Brothers, Boston, 1897.
Biggar, H. P. The Works of Samuel de Champlain. The Champlain Society, Toronto, 1922. Reprinted 1971.
Dennis, Clara. Down in Nova Scotia. Toronto, The Ryerson Press, 1933.
Denys, Nicholas. The Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America (Acadia). Edited by William F. Ganoag, The Champlain Society, Toronto, 1908.
Diereville, Sieur de. Relation of the Voyage to Port Royal in Acadia or New France. Edited by John Clarence Webster. Originally published in 1708. First reprint by The Champlain Society, Toronto, 1933. Reprinted by Greenwood Press, New York, 1968.
Fauset, Arthur Huff. "Folklore from the Half-Breeds in Nova Scotia." lournal of American Folklore. 38 (1925) 300-315.
Hagar, Stansbury. "Micmac Customs and Traditions" The American Anthropologist 8 (1895) 31-42.
i
Hagar, Stansbury. "Micmac Magic and Medicine" lournal of American Folklore 9 (1896), 170-177.
Hagar, Stansbury. "Weather and the Seasons in Micmac Mythology" lournal of American Folklore 10 (1897). 101-105.
Hardy, Campbell. Sporting Adventures in the New World. Hurst and Blackett, London, 1855.
Le Clercq, Chrestien. New Relation of Gaspesia with the Customs and Religion of the Gaspesia Indians. Edited by William F. Ganong. Originally published in 1691. First reprint by The Champlain Society, Toronto, 1910. Reprinted by Greenwood Press, New York, 1968.
Leland, Charles G. The Algonquin Legends of New England or Myths and Folklore of the Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Tribes. First published in 1884. Reprinted by Singing Tree Press, Detroit, 1968.
131
Lescarbot, Marc. The History of New France. Edited by W. L. Grant. Originally published in 1618. First reprint in three volumes by The Champlain Society, Toronto, 1907, 1911, 1914. Reprinted in three volumes by Greenwood Press, New York, 1968.
Maillard, Abb6 Pierre Etienne. An Account of The Customs and Manners of the Micmakis and Maricheets Savage Nations Now Dependent on the Government of Cape Breton. S. Hooper and A. Marley, Gay's Head, 1758.
Maillard, Abb6 Pierre Etienne. "Lettre a Madame de Drucourt." Les Soirees Canadiennes. 3. (1863). 291-496.
McEwan, Richard J. Memories of a Micmac Life. Edited by W.D. Hamilton. The Micmac-Maliseet Institute, University of New Brunswick, 1988.
Mechling, W. H. "Maliseet Tales" lournal of American Folklore 26 (1913), 219-258.
Michelson, Truman. "Micmac Tales" lournal of American Folklore 38, (1925) 33-54.
Parsons, Elsie Clews. "Micmac Folklore." lournal of American Folklore 38, (1925), 55-133.
Parsons, Elsie Clews. "Micmac Notes." lournal of American Folklore 39 (1926), 460-485.
Rand, Silas T. A Short Statement of Facts Relating to the History. Manners. Customs, Language, and Literature of the Micmac Tribe of Indians in Nova-Scotia and P.E. Island. James Bowes & Son, Halifax, 1850.
Rand, Silas T. A Short Account of The Lord's Work Among the Micmac Indians. William MacNab, Halifax, 1873.
Rand, Silas T. Dictionary of the Language of the Micmac Indians, who reside in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton and Newfoundland. Nova Scotia Printing Company, Halifax, 1888.
Rand, Silas T. Legends of the Micmacs. Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1894.
Sark, John Joe. Micmac Legends of Prince Edward Island. Lennox Island Band Council and Ragweed Press, Lennox Island and Charlottetown, P.E.I., 1988.
Speck, Frank G. "European Folk-Tales Among the Penobscot." lournal of American Folklore 26 (1913) 81-84.
Speck, Frank G. "Some Micmac Tales from Cape Breton Island." lournal of American Folklore 28 (1915). 59-69.
132
Speck, Frank C. "Malecite Tales." lournal of American Folklore 30 (1917), 481-485.
Stamp, Harley. "A Malecite Tale: Adventures of Bukschinskwesk." lournal of American Folklore 28 (1915), 243-248.
Thwaites, Rueben G. (editor). The lesuit Relations and Allied Documents. The Burrows Brothers Co., Cleveland, 1896.
Wallis, Wilson D. and Wallis, Ruth Sawtell. The Micmac Indians of Eastern Canada. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1955.
Whitehead, Ruth Holmes. Stories from the Six Worlds: Micmac Legends. Nimbus Publishing, Halifax, 1988.
Whitehead, Ruth Holmes. The Old Man Told Us: Excerpts from Micmac History 1500 -1950. Nimbus Publishing, Halifax, 1991.
Secondary Sources
Axtell, James. "The Ethnohistory of Early America: A Review Essay." William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd. Series, XXXV (1978), 110-144.
Axtell, James. "Ethnohistory: An Historians Point of View." Ethnohistory. 26 (1979), 1-13.
Axtell, James. The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985.
Bailey, A. G. The Conflict of European and Eastern Algonkian Cultures: 1504-1700: A Study in Canadian Civilization. New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, 1937. Reprinted by the University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1969.
Berkhofer, Robert F. Jr. "The Political Context of the New Indian History." Pacific Historical Review XL (1971). 357-382.
Bock, Philip K. The Micmac Indians of Restigouche: History, and Contemporary Description. National Musuem of Canada, Bulletin No. 213, Anthropological Series No. 77, Ottawa, 1966.
Bohannan, Paul and Glazer, Mark (eds.) High Points in Anthroplogy. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1973, 2nd edition, 1988.
Bourque, Bruce J. and Whitehead, Ruth Holmes. "Tarrentines and the Introduction of European Trade Goods in the Gulf of Maine." Ethnohistory 32 (1985), 327-341.
133
Bourque, Bruce J. "Ethnicity on the Maritime Peninsula, 1600-1759." Ethnohistory 36 (1989), 257-284.
Burley, David V. "Proto-Historic Ecological Effects of the Fur Trade on Micmac Culture in Northeastern New Brunswick." Ethnohistory 28 (1981), 203-216.
Clark, Andrew Hill. Acadia: the Geography of Early Nova Scotia to 1760. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1968.
Cohen, David William. "The Undefining of Oral Tradition." Ethnohistory 36 (1989), 9-18.
Cruikshank, Julie. "Myth and Tradition as Narrative Framework: Oral Histories from Northern Canada." International lournal of Oral History 9 (1988), 198-214.
Cruikshank, Julie. "Oral Traditions and Written Accounts: An Incident from the Klondike Gold Rush." Culture IX (1989), 25-34.
Cruikshank, Julie. Life Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three. Yukon Native Elders. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1990.
Darnton, Robert. The Great Cat Massacre and other Episodes in French Cultural History. Basic Books, New York, 1984.
Davis, Natalie Zemon. Society and Culture in Early Modern France: Eight Essays by Natalie Zemon Davis. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1975.
Day, Gordon M. "Oral Tradition as Complement." Ethnohistory 19 (1972), 99-108.
de Waal Malefijt, Annemarie. Images of Man: A History of Anthropological Thought. Knopf, New York, 1974.
Diamond, Stanley, ed., Culture in History: Essays in Honor of Paul Radin. Columbia University Press, for Brandeis University Press, New York, 1960.
Dorson, Richard M. Folklore: Selected Essays. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1972.
Doty, William. Mythography: The Study of Mvths and Rituals. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa and London, 1986.
Dowd, Gregory Evans. A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity. 1745-1815. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1992.
134
Dundes, Alan, ed., The Study of Folklore. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1965.
Dundes, Alan, ed. Analytic Essays in Folklore. Mouton & Co., The Hague, 1975.
Dundes, Alan, ed., Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth. University of California Press, Berkley and Los Angeles, 1984.
Eid,Leroy V. "The Ojibwa-lroquois War: The War the Five Nations Did Not Win." Ethnohistory 26 (1979), 297-324.
Erickson, Vincent O. "The Micmac Buoin, Three Centuries of Cultural and Semantic Change." Man in the Northeast 15/16 (1978), 3-41.
Fenton, William N. American Indians and White Relations to 1830: Needs and Opportunities for Study. University of North Carolina Press, 1957. Reprinted by Russell & Russell, NewYork, 1971.
Fingard, Judith. "Silas T. Rand." Dictionary of Canadian Biography. General Editor, George W. Brown, Universtiy of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1966-.
Fogelson, Raymond D. "The Ethnohistory of Events and Nonevents." Ethnohistory 36 (1989) 133-147.
Fontana, Bernard L. "American Indian Oral History: An Anthropologist's Note." History and Theory 8 (1969) 366-370.
Frye, Northrup. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1957.
Frye, Northrup. The Stubborn Structure: Essays on Criticism and Society. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1977.
Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. Basic Books, New York, 1973.
Geertz, Clifford. Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology. Basic Books, New York, 1983.
von Grunebaum, G.E. and Roger Caillois, eds., The Dream and Human Societies. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966.
Guillemin, Jeanne, Urban Renegades: The Cultural Strategy of American Indians. Columbia University Press, New York, 1975.
135
Hallowell, Irving A. "Myth, Culture and Personality." American Anthropologist 49 (1949), 544-555.
Hamell, George R. "Strawberries, Floating Islands, and Rabbit Captains: Mythical Realities and European Contact in the Northeast During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries." lournal of Canadian Studies 21 (1986-1987), 72-94, also published in Man in the Northeast 33 (1987), 63-87.
Hare, Peter H. A Woman's Quest for Science: Portrait of Anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons. Prometheus Books, Buffalo, 1985.
Henige, David. Oral Historiography. Longman Group Ltd., London, 1982.
Hewitt, J.N.B. "Orenda and a Definition of Religion." American Anthropologist n.s. 4 (1902), 33-45.
Hoffman, Bernard G. "Souriquois, Etchemin, and Kwedech - A Lost Chapter in American Ethnography." Ethnohistory 2 (1955), 65- 87.
Hoffman, Bernard G. "The Historical Ethnography of the Micmac of the Sixteenth,and Seventeenth Centuries." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1955.
Hultkrantz, Ake. Conceptions of the Soul Among North American Indians: A Study in Religious Ethnology. The Ethnographical Museum of Sweden, Stockholm, 1953.
Hultkrantz, Ake. "The Problem of Christian Influence on Northern Algonkian Eschatology." Studies in Religion 9 (1980).
Hultkrantz, Ake. Belief and Worship in Native North America. Edited by Christopher Vecsey. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York, 1981.
Hultkrantz, Ake. The Study of American Indian Religions. Edited by Christopher Vecsey. Crossroad, New York, 1983.
Hunt, Lynn, ed., The New Cultural History. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1989.
Jaenen, Cornelius J. The French Relationship with the Native Peoples of New France and Acadia. Research Branch Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa, 1984.
Jennings, Francis. "A Growing Partnership: Historians, Anthropologists and American Indian History" Ethnohistory 29 (1982) 21-34.
136
Jennings, Francis. The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire: The Covenant Chain Confederation of Indian Tribes with English Colonies from its beginnings to the Lancaster Treaty of 1744. W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1984.
Johnson, Frederick, ed., Man in Northeastern North America. Andover, Mass.: Phillips Academy, 1946.
Krech, Shepard, III (ed.) Indians. Animals and the Fur Trade: A Critique of "Keepers of the Game". University Press of Georgia, Athens, 1981.
Levi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology. Basic Books, New York, 1963.
Levine, Lawrence W. Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro- American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1977.
Levine, Lawrence W. The Unpredicatable Past: Explorations in American Cultural History. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1993.
Lowie, Robert H. "Discussion and Correspondence - Oral Tradition and History." American Anthropologist. 17 (1915), 597-599, with responses by R. B. Dixon and John Stanton, 599-600.
Lowie, Robert H. "Oral Tradition and History." lournal of American Folklore 30 (1917), 161-167.
Maranda, Pierre and Elli Kongas Maranda, eds., Structural Analysis, of Oral Tradition. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1971.
Martijn, Charles. Les Micmacs et la Mer. Recherches amerindiennes au Quebec, Montreal, 1986.
Martin, Calvin. Keepers of the Game: Indian-Animal Relationships and the Fur Trade. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1978.
Martin, Calvin. "The Metaphysics of Writing Indian-White History." Ethnohistory 26 (1979), 153-159.
Martin, Calvin, ed., The American Indian and the Problem of History. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987.
McGee, Harold F. The Native Peoples of Atlantic Canada: A Reader in Regional Ethnic Relations. McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, 1974.
137
Merrell, James H. "Some Thoughts on Colonial Historians and American Indians." William & Mary Quarterly XLVI, (1989), 94-119.
Micham, Allison. Three Remarkable Maritimers. Lancelot Press, Hantsport, N.S., 1985.
Miller, Christopher L. and Hamell, George R. "A New Perspective on Indian-White Contact: Cultural Symbols and Colonial Trade." The lournal of American History 73 (1986), 311-328.
Miller, Virginia P. "Aboriginal Micmac Population: A Review of the Evidence." Ethnohistory 23 (1976), 117-127.
Morrison, Kenneth M. The Embattled Northeast: The Elusive Ideal of Alliance in Abenaki-Euroamerican Relations. University of California Press, Berkley and Los Angeles, 1984.
Morrison, Kenneth M. "Baptism and Alliance: The Symbolic Mediations of Religious Syncretism." Ethnohistory 37 (1990), 416-437.
Nowlan, Alden. Nine Micmac Legends. Lancelot Press, Hantsport, N.S., 1983.
Ortiz, Alfonso. "Some Concerns Central to the Writing of 'Indian' History." The Indian Historian 10 (1977). 17-22.
Pastore, Ralph. "Native History in the Atlantic Region During the Colonial Period." Acadiensis XX (1990), 200-225.
Paul, Daniel N. We Were Not the Savages: A Micmac Perspective on the Collision of European and Aboriginal Civilization. Nimbus Press, Halifax, 1993.
Pendergast, David M. and Meighan, Clement W. "Folk Traditions as Historical Fact: A Paiute Example." lournal of American Folklore 72 (1959), 128-133.
Ray, Arthur I. Indians in the Fur Trade: Their Role as Hunters. Trappers and Middlemen in the Lands Southwest of Hudson Bay 1660-1870. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1974.
Ray, Arthur J. 'Give Us Good Measure': An Economic Analysis of Relations between the Indians and the Hudson's Bay Company before 1763. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1978.
Redfield, Robert. "The Primitive World View." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 96, (1952), 30-36.
138
Richter, Daniel K. "War and Culture: The Iroquois Experience." William & Mary-Quarterly 3rd. ser. XL (1983), 528-559.
Richter, Daniel K. The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1992.
Richter, Daniel K. "Whose Indian History?" William & Marv Quarterly 3rd. ser. L (1993), 379-393.
Rosaldo, Renato. Ilongot Headhunting 1883-1974: A Study in Society and History. Standford University Press, Standford, 1980.
Rosaldo, Renato. Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis. Beacon Press, Boston, 1989.
Salisbury, Neal. Manitou and Providence: Indians. Europeans, and the Making of New England. 1500-1643. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1982.
Sahlins, Marshall. Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities: Structure in the Early History of the Sandwich Islands Kingdom. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1981.
Sheehan, Bernard W. "Indian-White Relations in Early America: A Review Essay." William & Marv Quarterly 3rd. ser. XXVI (1969), 267-286.
Simmons, William S. Spirit of the New England Tribes: Indian History and Folklore. 1620-1984. University Press of New England, Hanover and London, 1986.
Simmons, William S. "Culture Theory in Contemporary Ethnohistory." Ethnohistory 35 (1988), 1-13.
Spencer, Robert F. and Elizabeth Colson. "Wilson D. Wallis: 1886-1970." American Anthropologist 73. (1971). 257-260.
Steinhart, Edward I. "Introduction." Ethnohistory 36 (1989), 1-8.
Stewart, Frances L. "Seasonal Movemants of Indians in Acadia as Evidenced by Historical Documents and Vertebrate Faunal Remains from Archaeological Sites." Man in the Northeast. 38 (1989), 55-77.
Thompson, Paul. The Voice of the Past: Oral History. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1978.
139
Trigger, Bruce G. "The French Presence in Huronia: The Structure of Franco-Huron Relations in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century." Canadian Historical Review XLIX (1968), 107-141.
Trigger, Bruce G. The Children of Aataentsic: A.History of the Huron People to 1660. McGill-Queen's Press, Kingston and Montreal, 1976.
Trigger, Bruce G, vol. ed., Northeast. The Handbook of North American Indians. William C. Sturtevant, General Editor. Smithsonian Institute, Washington, 1978.
Trigger, Bruce G. "Ethnohistory: Problems and Prospects." Ethnohistory 29 (1982), 1-19.
Trigger, Bruce G. "American Archaeology as Native History: A Review Essay." William & Marv Quarterly 3rd, ser. XL (1983). 413-452. Trigger, Bruce G. Natives and Newcomers: Canada's "Heroic Age" Reconsidered. McGill-Queen's University Press, Kingston and Montreal, 1985.
Trigger, Bruce G. "Ethnohistory: The Unfinished Edifice." Ethnohistory 33 (1986), 253-267.
Trigger, Bruce G. "The Historians' Indian: Native Americans in Canadian Historical Writing from Charlevoix to the Present." Canadian Historical Review LXVII (1986), 315-342.
Trigger, Bruce G. "Evolutionism, Relativism and Putting Native People into Historical Context." Culture VI (1986), 65-79.
Trigger, Bruce G. "Alfred G. Bailey - Ethnohistorian." Acadiensis XVIII (1989), 3-21.
Trigger, Bruce G. "Hyperrelativism, responsibility, and the social sciences." Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 26 (1989), 776-797.
Trigger, Bruce G. "Early Native North American Reponses to European Contact: Romantic versus Rationalistic Interpretations." The lournal of American History 78 (1991), 1195-1215.
Tonkin, Elizabeth. Narrating Our Pasts: The Social Construction of Oral History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992.
Tooker, Elizabeth, (ed.) Native North American Spirituality of the Eastern Woodlands: Sacred Myths. Dreams. Visions. Speeches. Healing Formulas. Rituals and Ceremonials. Paulist Press, New York, 1979.
Upton, L.F.S. Micmacs and Colonists: Indian- White Relations in the Maritimes. 1713-1867. The University Press of British Columbia, Vancouver, 1979.
140
Vansina, Jan. Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology. Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, 1965.
Vansina, Jan. Oral Tradition as History. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1985.
Vecsey, Christopher. Imagine Ourselves Richly: Mythic Narratives of North American Indians. The Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, 1988.
Vecsey, Christopher, ed., Religion in Native America. University of Idaho Press, Moscow, Idaho, 1990.
Wallace, A.F.C. The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca. Alfred A. Knopf, NewYork, 1969.
White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians. Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region. 1650-1815. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991.
Zumwalt, Rosemary Levy. Wealth and Rebellion: Elsie Clews Parsons. Anthropologist and Folklh and Rebellion: Elsie Clews Parsons. Anthropologist and Folklorist. University of Chicago Press, Urbana and Chicago, 1992.