I recently purchased a book at a flea market on Native Americans and I would like to share some exerts from it. The title of the book is The Canadian Indian Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces. Here are some parts of the book I shall change the word Indian to Native American later in the story. I hope you will enjoy this:
When European explorers rediscovered North America at the close of the 15th century, the present Atlantic Provinces and most of Quebec were inhabited by migratory tribes who were called by the newcomers “Indians”. The name dates from a letter written by Christopher Columbus in Feb. 1493, when he wrote of the “Indios” he had with him on his return to Spain. He thought he had reached India.
In Eastern Canada the majority of the Native American people spoke dialects of the extentive Algonkian linguistic family. They were the Micmac, Malecite,Abenaki,Naskapi,Montagnais,Algonkin and Cree. In addition an Iroquoian tribe lived along the banks of the St Lawrence River in Jacques Cartier’s time, and today are represented in Quebec by Mohawks and Hurons.
The history of the various Native American tribes or nations in the Atlantic Provinces and Quebec, none of whom had a written language, is based on the observation of early white travellers, the people own oral tradition, and modern archaeology. Artifacts exhumed from ancient burial sites and camp grounds reveal much about their foods, implements and other cultural aspects of the people before recorded history. John and Sebastien Cabot first met the Beothuks who lived in Newfoundland and where the last survivor died in 1829.
In 1633 a Joannes De Laet of Leyden Holland described the Beothuks as follows :
Comparing the people with the Europeans of his own time, he described them as being of medium height, the hair black, the face broad, the nose flat and the eyes large; all the men are beardless and both sexes tint not only their skin but also their garments with kind of red color. They live in certain conical lodges and low huts of sticks set in a circle and joined together in the roof. Being nomatic they often change their habitations. They had a kind of cake made of eggs and baked in the sun and a sort of pudding stuffed in gut and composed of seal fat, livers,eggs and other ingredients. Their canoes made of bark were not more than 20 ft long and could carry up to five people. They stored their food in pits and tree caches. In the early 18th century the Micmacs of Nova Scotia, aided by French interests moved in large numbers to western Newfoundland. They lived in amity with the Beothuk whom they called macquaejeet meaning “the red men”. The Micmac were both hunters and traders and acted as middle men for the Europeans. It is generally considered that the Micmac are the original native people of Nova Scotia, although today members of the tribe also live in New Brunswick and Quebec. The Native Americans of Prince Edward Island and the few in Newfoundland are also Micmac. The first notice that Europeans had of this important group was perhaps the unhappy venture of Gaspar Corte Real, a slave trader, who captured a number of them and took them to Europe in 1501. In 1611 Jesuit Father Pierre Biard estimated that they numbered between 3000 and 3500 persons. They called the entire country that they occupied Megumage. It was divided into 7 areas each with a chief. The head chief lived in Cape Breton. The other chiefs lived in Pictou, Memramcook, Restigouche, Eskegawaage ,Shubenacadie and the area around Annapolis where the great saga more Membertou befriended the first French Settlers. The following is how Father Biard described the Micmac people. “You could not , he wrote, distinguish the young men from the girls, except in the way of wearing their belts. For the women are girdled both above and below the stomach and are less nude than the men. Their clothes are trimmed with leather lace, which the women curry on the side that is not hairy. They often curry both sides of elk skins, like our buff skin, then variegate it very prettily with paint put on in a lace pattern and make gowns of it; from the same leather they make their shoes and strings. The men do not wear trousers….they wear only a cloth to cover their nakedness. Their dwellings were usually the conical bark wigwams though sometimes when on the move, they used skins or matting made from reeds or pounded roots. The Micmac were excellent canoe men and much of their food came from the sea or the shore. They tapped the Maples in the spring to make syrup, and used the berries in the woods and wild plants to supplement their diet, which was as rich as that of the West Coast Indians. The Micmac people had a heritage of folktales and mythology which was carefully collected by travellers and written down by scholars before it disappeared.
And finally The Abenaki. Today the Abenaki live chiefly in the province of Quebec. Their early history places them in the state of Maine. Their name in their language means people of the dawn, or the people of the east. Father Sagard gives a description of their lives before the coming of the Europeans. He said:
They were more of an agricultural people than the other eastern tribes, growing maize in much the same way as the Hurons. They knew about the use of fertilizer and gave longer life to their gardens by burying one or two fish in each hill.
Their houses were built of poles covered with large sheets of birch bark, or woven mats of willow or reeds. The settlements were more or less permanent and were often surrounded by a palisade. The largest house was the council chamber. Each band had two chiefs; one had a civil role and acted as an advisor and the other chief was a war leader. TheAbenaki were a religious people and believed in spirits of good and of evil. They were firm allies of the French. One of the outstanding heroes of the Abenaki was Assacumbuit, a war chief who rendered important aid to Iberville and Montigny in 1696.He was knighted in France by King Louis X1V.
And the stories go on, but this is all for this time, I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have. I have some Native American Blood in my line way back and I am very interested on knowing about the way the Native Americans lived because of them I am here………..
Now I would like to share a few new products of mine, a note to say I also have a few Native American items along with the following and other items. Go to
