Mi'kmaq

By DANIEL STROUTHES

Gaspesians (Quebec Micmac), Micmac, Mikmaw, Migmagi, Mickmakiques, Souriquois (Nova Scotia Micmac), Tarrantines

The Mi’kmaq are a Canadian Indian group living in eastern Canada. The name “Micmac” is from the Micmac Mi:'maq, the plural form of Mi:k'mawaj, “one of high ability,” a word derived from Mi”k'amwesu, the name of a legendary forest dweller with supernatural power.

At the time of contact, the Mi’kmaq occupied what are now eastern New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec. In historic times, the Mi’kmaq colonized Newfoundland. Presently, Mi’kmaq also migrate in significant numbers from their Canadian reserves to cities and towns in Ontario, Quebec, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey; they often spend years or decades in these places before returning to the reserves, often to retire.

In 1972, the number of registered Mi’kmaq was 9,805, with 1,943 in Quebec, 2,645 in New Brunswick, 4,769 in Nova Scotia, and 448 in Prince Edward Island. There is also a small number of Mi’kmaq in Newfoundland who have only recently been legally registered as Indians. Owing to natural increase, the Mi’kmaq population has been growing rapidly; by 1985, the Nova Scotia figure alone had reached 6,781. Recent estimates indicate some 14,000 Mi’kmaq descendants in the early twenty-first century (Mi’kmaq 2011).

Mi’kmaq belong to the Eastern Algonkian branch of the Algonkian division of the Algonkian-Ritwan family. The 3 major dialects are the Nova Scotia, the New Brunswick, and the Quebec.

Archaeological and linguistic evidence indicate that the Mi’kmaq arrived in eastern Canada from the north. The Mi’kmaq were perhaps the first American Indian people on the North American continent to be contacted, first by the Vikings and then by John Cabot in 1497. First colonized by the French, the Mi’kmaq were converted to Catholicism by the Jesuits beginning in 1611. A traditional enemy was the Maliseet, called the Ejemin, with whom the Mi’kmaq frequently fought. Alongside their French allies, the Mi’kmaq defeated and incorporated another traditional enemy, the Beothuk of Newfoundland. Later, along with the other members of the Wabanaki Confederacy (Penobscot Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet) and the French, the Mi’kmaq fought the British and their allies the Iroquois. Following the French defeat, the Mi’kmaq military leadership and many other Mi’kmaq went to Cape Breton Island, which remained French until 1763. During the American Revolution, the Mi’kmaq allied themselves with the Americans. After that war, the Mi’kmaq became itinerant peddlers, and the British established Indian reserves at traditional Mi’kmaq meeting places.

Just before 1900 the Mi’kmaq began to become sedentary. Prior to this time, they were migratory hunter/gatherers and itinerant peddlers of baskets and axe handles. Although reserves had been established since the late eighteenth century, they were temporary meeting places rather than permanent settlements until the turn of the twentieth century. By that time, railroads obviated the need to migrate to sell handicrafts. There are presently twenty-nine inhabited reserves—thirteen in Nova Scotia, nine in New Brunswick, four in Quebec, two in Prince Edward Island, and one in Newfoundland. Three of these reserves have populations of two thousand people or more, but several have fewer than one hundred.

The Mi’kmaq hunted caribou, moose, deer, and bear primarily. They fished for cod, eel, clams, oysters, lobster, smelt, salmon, trout, and other fish. They gathered berries and wild potatoes. In the early contact period, the fur trade was very important. European trade provided metal tools, which improved hunting and fishing, but European efforts to make farmers of the Mi’kmaq failed. Only the potato was a successful introduction; potatoes provided valuable food in the winter, and raising them did not interfere with other activities.

Most Mi’kmaq cash income has come from wage labor and the sale of handicrafts and fish. There have recently been numerous failed attempts by the federal government to develop manufacturing industries. Mi’kmaq have owned and operated gift shops, convenience stores, garages, and logging and construction companies, which have done well for the most part. Presently, welfare and work projects are the major sources of income on most reserves; on a few, many of the men travel to cities to work in construction or factories.

Aboriginal crafts included stone toolmaking, woodworking, bone and antler working, skin and leatherwork, and the construction of bark housing, cookware, containers, and canoes. The major items of manufacture in the later postcontact period were ash-splint baskets, axe handles, and butter tubs. Presently, only a few people still produce baskets.

There is archeological and historical evidence of precontact and contact-era trade with peoples to the west and the south. The Mi’kmaq were among the first to engage in the fur trade with the Europeans, and consequently they depleted their stock of fur-bearing animals early. Later they peddled baskets and axe handles. They also caught and sold fish and in some places hunted porpoises for oil, which was sold. When temporarily settled, they traded butter tubs to nearby stores for food and manufactured items. Trading activities essentially ceased when welfare payments were increased in the 1950s.

In early historical times, men hunted, trapped, fished, moved their families, made wooden and bone tools, wigwams and canoes, and carried on warfare. Political and ritual activities were also primarily performed by men. Women brought water and firewood, prepared skins and made clothing, cooked, made bark containers, cared for the children, and retrieved game that the men had killed. In later postcontact times, men cut and split the wood used in baskets, and women wove it. Women also did most of the selling of baskets. Men would work as laborers on nearby farms, and women as domestic laborers. In contemporary times, women keep house while men work at casual labor as lumberjacks and carpenters. The governing of the bands is still largely a male task.

At contact, Mi’kmaq were mobile, though some leaders regulated hunting territories within their sphere of control. After this, people of European descent slowly took control of the lands, until it became necessary to create reserves, and whites encroached on many of these. Reserve land is vested in the Crown in right of the dominion, with Indians holding a beneficial interest. Band members may lawfully possess lots on reserves, if so approved by the band's council and the minister of Indian affairs.

The only universal functioning kin group was and is the nuclear family, although two-generation and three-generation families occasionally function as a temporary unit. Nuclear families related by kinship or marriage often cooperate in mutual ventures, at least temporarily.

Traditional kinship terminology is cognatic, reflecting generation and gender. Presently, Mi’kmaq terms have taken the meanings of English terms, and Mi’kmaq terms that make distinctions not present in the English system are rarely used. Distinctions in English that are not present in Mi’kmaq are largely ignored.

Traditionally, it is likely that cross-cousin marriage was preferred; polygyny was acceptable. A groom would have to perform bride-service during a probationary period. Nowadays, Mi’kmaq follow Roman Catholic rules of prohibition; ideally one should never marry kin of any degree of relatedness. Until 1970 or so, parents would often arrange marriages or persuade their offspring to marry their boyfriends or girlfriends. Neolocal residence was and is the norm, though now that the Mi’kmaq are sedentary, newlywed couples usually live on the husband's reserve, often near his parents' house.

The traditional domestic unit was the nuclear family, though it sometimes included an aged parent or grandparent as well. Today this is still true. Increased illegitimacy, however, has led to households of one mother and her children, and the raising of children by their mothers' mothers. Also a shortage of housing has resulted in many young married couples living with parents.

Traditionally, real property played no part in inheritance, and personal items were buried with their owner. Since the end of the nineteenth century, at least, the wishes of the decedent concerning the disposition of personal and real property have been respected. A few Mi’kmaq use wills, which are usually executed by the Department of Indian Affairs, according to the provisions of the Indian Act.

Parents and other family members treat children tolerantly and provide love and support under nearly all circumstances. It is frequently left to people outside of the family to admonish children when they misbehave. Parents teach their children by having them assist them in their own tasks and by example. Formal education is not highly valued, and few children complete high school.

In early postcontact times, men held superior status, though women had equality and greater status in some respects. Elder men and women were sought for their advice and approval. Presently, ability with the English language and success off the reserve or in business brings the most prestige. Although men have lost status since they ceased subsistence hunting and fishing, they still hold the bulk of political and domestic authority. As in early postcontact times, identification as a member of an extended family is of central importance. There are no economic classes. Mi’kmaq are organized by the federal government into bands; usually, one reserve is assigned to each band.

The traditional saqmaw (sachem or sagamore), translated by the Mi’kmaq as “chief,” was actually a headman or big man who ruled a particular area demarcated by bays or rivers. His power came from his position in a large, wealthy, well-allied family and sometimes as well from his ability to instill fear in his followers through sorcery. His activities included the redistribution of wealth, the leading of war parties, and the conclusion of agreements with other chiefs, other Indian peoples, and colonial governments, and the adjudication of intragroup civil disputes. Preponderantly, chiefs gave their positions to their sons. There is evidence that Mi’kmaq individuals and nuclear families were often quite mobile, not always remaining within the territory of a single chief. After the end of the colonial wars, the British banished most Roman Catholic priests from the region, and the prime duty of the chiefs became to lead prayer and speak on religious subjects. From the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, traditional chiefs were replaced one by one with chiefs elected under the provisions of the Indian Act; the last traditional chiefs to be replaced were the members of the Grand Council, a unified body of chiefs who governed the Mi’kmaq of Cape Breton Island, the traditional Mi’kmaq “head district.” The Grand Council survives, but has lost real authority. The Indian Act chiefs, and the councilors who assist them, are democratically elected and work as employees of the Department of Indian Affairs primarily as bureaucratic administrators of government aid

Ostracism remains the most important form of social control. In cases of serious wrongdoing, it usually results in the offender leaving the community for months or years. Otherwise, the saqmaw lectured wrongdoers and, in later times, brought them to the police. Today, Mi’kmaq police officers control criminal behavior. Revenge has traditionally played a great role in social control, and the threat of revenge serves to circumscribe the offender's social circle.

Politically, divisiveness occurs along geographic-linguistic lines. The Union of Nova Scotia Indians, created by the federal government, is often split into two factions: one lives on Cape Breton and speaks Micmac; the other lives on the mainland and most of its members do not speak Micmac. The Union of New Brunswick Indians often experiences schisms along Mi’kmaq-Maliseet lines. These disputes are usually over allocations of federal funds and Mi’kmaq representation to the federal government. There are also rivalries between bands, usually played out among young adults in organized sporting events and occasionally in fights. In matters of love, some women will occasionally fight over men, though men almost never fight over women. Most violence involves alcohol. When interpersonal conflict occurs, the extended family functions as a group to ostracize the outsider or to exact revenge.

Traditionally, the Mi’kmaq had two major deities, Khimintu (Manitou) the creator, and Glooscap (Gluskap), a legendary hero with supernatural power who taught and protected the Mi’kmaq; only the former was an object of worship. (Kji) Mintu became the term for the Christian devil when the Mi’kmaq converted to Catholicism, and Glooscap presently waits to appear to the Mi’kmaq when they are most in need. Mi’kmaq religious belief is highly syncretic, and other non-Christian supernatural beings also live on in tandem with Christian belief. These include Kukwes, a giant cannibal, Wiklatmuj, little forest people, Jenu, northern ice giants, and the Kinap, a person of extraordinary or supernatural ability, among others.

The literature records no priests. There were and are, however, male and female sorcerers who used supernatural power to their own advantage. The sorcerer, puoin, traditionally healed or injured, and a male puoin used his powers to make himself or other men leaders. Presently, sorcerers use their powers primarily to bring misfortune or injury to others.

Presently, Roman Catholic ceremonies are most important. In addition to the common ceremonies, the Mi’kmaq celebrate the feast day of St. Ann, the Mi’kmaq patron saint, at several central locations throughout their territory. During most of the last 350 years, when priests were usually unavailable, funerals and weddings were held during the St. Ann's Mission, a celebration of several days ending with the St. Ann's Day Mass

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Historically, the material arts have been important, including the incision of designs on birchbark baskets, the dyeing and weaving of porcupine quills in birchbark, as well as the sewing of Mi’kmaq motifs on clothing, especially the characteristic double-curve motif. Presently, Indian music, some Mi’kmaq and some not, is making resurgence. A few painters, employing Indian motifs, have had much commercial success.

In aboriginal culture, disease was attributed to the influence of malevolent spirits, which were removed by a puoin by blowing or sucking, and using medicinal herbs. The puoin was well paid for his or her services. Today, Canadian clinical treatment and prayer are the first lines of defense, and traditional herbal medicines are used when clinical treatment fails. Abortion is not acceptable to the Mi’kmaq. Recently, Mi’kmaq-oriented drug and alcohol treatment has become available.

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Traditionally, the Mi’kmaq believed that all things have souls, and that human beings have two types of souls, one connected with the body and one that held the life of the individual. At death, both souls were affected, the body soul perishing and the life soul becoming a skate:kmuj, which traveled to the land of the souls. The souls of grave goods traveled with the human soul to assist it in the afterlife. Presently, the house of the deceased must be inhabited until burial in order to prevent the skate:kmuj from returning to it, and Mi’kmaq believe that to see a skate:kmuj signals one's own impending death. Catholic beliefs now exist syncretistically with Mi’kmaq beliefs.

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