CULTURE LOSS AND CULTURE CHANGE AMONG TE IICMA&C OF THE CANADIAN MARITIME PROVINCES 1912-1950 Wilson Do Wallis and Ruth Sawtoll Wallis (1) Probably every young anthropologist at the end of his first field work, breaking reluctantly an identification, however illusory, with a people and a place he feels aro now in a sense his own, resolves to return in, say, twenty-five years and see how lifo has turned out at his particular jungle, desert, or coasts Twenty-five years seems to him a- good span to pick; it approximates his current age, has tho impressive sound of quarter-oentury, and is the farthest durability that he can conceive for the capacity to function normally as scientist and as man. One of the present writers did not make his return journey at the end of the first quarter-century; but in June 1950, after an absonco of 38 years, he went back to study the Micmac in the Canadian Maritime Provinces (2). In 1911 and 1912 the entire summers had boon spent in collecting data for a oomplete ethnological study at practically all Reserves in the three Provinces-Cape Breton exoepted.uwith extensive visits at Burnt Church (New Brunswick), Pictou Landing and Shubenacadio (Nova Scotia), and Lenox Island (Prince Edward Idland) (3), The aim of the 1950 field trip was three-folds to discover how extensive had been the loss of Micmac culture in the 38-year interval; to add, if possible, to descriptions of the old culture and folktalos gathered in the 1911-1912 study; to observe and assesa some of the changes in material life. orientation, drives and motivation, Because three weeks only could be spent in the field, two Reserves were selected. Burnt Church, No Bo, where the major work of the earlier study had been carried out, and Shubenacadie, N. So, whore, under the. Centralization Plan of the Indian Affairs Branch, Canadian Government, a small Reserve of 105 population had recently been expanded to a town of over 600* Early Aooulturation Of the Miomac The Miomac, an Algonquin-speaking people of Eastern Woodland culture, are the dominant Indian group of the Maritimeso Along the St. John River in New Brunswick there are also about 1000 Malisoet closely related in language and culture. According to the Canadian Indian Census of 1949, the total MIcmac population is 5000* Of these 1054 livo within the Mira- michi Agoncr, New Brunswick, which includes Burnt Church; 1058 on both elder of the Baie des Chalours belong to the Rostigouche Agency, Quebec. 100) I|dians of Nova Scotia (2,641) and of Prince Edward Island (273) are 0a. The most casual observation on a Reserve today establishes two facts: Continued use of the native language, and the Miomac's awareness of elves as a people distinct from all others, Indian or White. The ition of these traits implies a basic toughness and pride. For four ed years persons and forces have blindly or consciously worked to the Miomao. Inevitably, inmost fields, they were successful. Traders, lers, niessionaries, who instilled a desire for European goods which sti- ted a simple huntingofishing peoplo to bring in tho furs,.4(thereby desm ing the once abundant supply of gamo), cut down the forest, took tho a and killed many Miomac as. 6nemios or allies in oighty years of English- oh.warfare, until in the mid-eighteenth century, the semi-nomadic savages .beome sedentary Roman Catholic Christians, mainly without occupation. At various points in the long history of acculturation we have doou- ary evidence of European traits introduced, adopted, or rejected. In Lesoarbot, lawyer and traveller, described the Indians around Port 1* Other accounts include those of: the Jesuits, Biard at Port Royal at the St. John River (1611-1613), and Andre Richard at Misoou in 5 and 1646; Nicolas Denys, trader and official, who published in 1672 .results of his 40-years contact with the Miomao from Baie Chaleur to e Breton; the Recollet priest Le Clercq, 1691; the Sieur de Diere-ville, 8; the final brief word in the autobiography of the Abbe Le Loutre, 57)g last missionary to be sent from France. The description of aocul- ation is fragmentary, widely separated in time and place, concerned nly with material things, and selected according to the particular crest of the writer; but in the history of the following 175 years, anthropologist would be grateful for half as much. During the seventy years between their glimpse of Jacques Cartier 534) and the founding of the first French agricultural settlement at t Royal (1606), the Miomac had maintained enough contact with European shermen who dried their catch along the shores of the Gulf of Sty Law- oe, and with traders settled on Newfoundland, to establish standards of lue for goods given or received. Soon after the establisaiaent of Port al, a ohief, hearing that the Frenoh king was unmarried, stated that the king should condescend to marry the chief's daughter, he would onsider the following as "handsome presents" to himself as father-in- s four or five barrels of bread, three of peas or beans, one of tobacco, r or five cloaks worth one hundred sous apiece, bows, arrows, harpoons, d other similar titi ole s (4). Also from Port Royal comes the earliest account of a trait unaocep- 'able to the Miomac. They snever wanted any bread." Grinding of grain handmills wvas a tough job which the French tried to turn over'to .the savages employed around the fort, a task steadily refused, although they were offered half of the grinding for their own use (5). Here, as in most instances, we do not know by what steps bread eventually became a basio t;foods 101~ Acculturation by contact with traders and settlers was a casual pro- cess. Missionaries, however, had a definite policy of introducing French traits, inspired in part by the belief that civilization and Christianity must advance together.; in part because with nomadic bands it was .impa - sible to maintain the steady contact necessary to lasting conversion. "IfX they are savages,. wrote Father Biard in 1611, "it is to domesticate and civilize them that people come here" (6). We learn of an attempt twenty-five years later at literal domestication, when Father Andre Richard, from the lonely mission of St. Charles at Miscou. sent the good word to Paris that three families of converts had agreed to settle near the mission in separate houses built for them "in the French fashion."* "We have induced them," is how he puts it. There was also a fourth house- a sort of Cabin of Charity founded inadvertently. The Fathers had resoue a sick Eskimo slave about to be executed by his Micmac master, an act which led the Indians to dump several aged and crippled persons on the mission doorstep. Probably, Father Richard concludes ruefully, "they will be more constant to us than all the others" (7)o We do not know how long these first house dwellers remained at Miscou, how many joined. them, 1if ard how the trait spread. Curt.a n.iy VhIlO the woods covered most of New Brunswick and the gaw was f o.L>,; a cr3 M. ng to season, the old way of liviing remai L d. The wigwram wa:; s;U. the typical dwelling in 1700 (8) and 200 yoars later most men ar., women could construct them, and did so on hunting expedition although ol .,he resesr'ves they lived in frame houses* From crte J Th centu-ry observer, howover, we have a record of certai -traits discarcl be the 7.cmac- and other traits persis'-1ng, after seven years o?' cont'. ' vt.h , ;es, In 1672, Nicolas Denys., In his Natural HIsto,,r dc';v. c chap' to "the difference that there is betwreen the anc.'Lt Cas1; ON of the iMiomaci Indians, and those of the present." During those seven decades there had been frequent contact with Europoans Cr thei.r descendants. Donys, who had lived in Acadia for forWy of ttVi0 yeru' S ateS ,t.at the Micmac still practised "1their ancient foriii .f burnt in. l rspect, except that they no longer place any-. {h i:; i n theilr gravcs fz' of this thoy are ent'rciLy disabused. They have abandoned amid thoes offering, so frequent and usual, which they mado as homage to their manitou in passing places in which there was sow, risk to be taken, or where indeed there had happened some misfortune... Their are also cured oDf other little superstitions which they had, such as a KGbcno on giving hor,- e to the Dogs, roastinag Ecl sl, and many others of - t?'; sort vi-iieh ---re eirely abolished*.*Thoy practise still all the. sas r'- i;dv of hinltir-e. ii this difference, hlewover, that in place of an.- ir '.heir arrows and spoars with the bones of animals, pointed and shar- pa(,< they arm thorm today with iron, which is made expressly for sale ema. Thoir spears now are made of a sword fixed at the end of a ; s',> of) seven or eight feet in length*.*They are also furni.R:^o{d with iroe h~arpenrspo - ho muELh is used by them i'.ro than all otheo woa.ns,. in tioA~eir h..rn-jtingo., bot' for animals and birds..As for their festivals9 they mntke these as they did formerly. The women do not take part in 102 t~homrn and those who have their monthlies are always separate. They always make speeches there, and dances; but the outcome is not the same. Since they have taken to drinking wine and brandy they are subjoot to fighting. v$*Their quarrelling comes ordinarily from their condition; for, being drunk, they say thoy are all groat chiefs, which engenders quarrels betvoon themo At first it needed littlo wino or brandy to make them drunk. But at pro- sent, and since they have freqiented the fishing vossols. they drink in quite another fashion" (9)X Burnt Church, N B. The Indian Resoreo of Burnt Church, on Biramichi Bay.! wrory.; 230 years after the foregoing obseorvationg, our study cf aCLu;li^ut ion began, is the site of an aboriginal Micmac settlome,:lt and an early mooting'~place K of Idians ad Whitos. Theso circumstances are important factors in the l social solidarity of the people today: the bolief that they live in their own self-chosen home, and the existence of a long history and pro- cess of acculturation which they share with the White Canadians who are literally their neighborse The Miramichi, at least from the day in 1534 when canoes so crowded round Cartior's ship that he christened the spot "The Bay of Boats," has been a focus of Miomac activity. Here they set up a seasonal fishing- :;eoamp, and here as early as 1605 they must have encountered Frenchmen who put in to shore to dry their cod fish (10). Up the bay and along the manyforked river to which it leads, paddled FrencK priests from St. GkCrlos on Misoou Island0 to hold missions, in 1646 and 1684, perhaps in many yoars between. In 1688 Richard Denys, son of Nicolas, in his fort newly built at the forks, wrote that five hundred Indians wore liv- ine in eighty wigwams -r'. -he rivers Richard did not stay long on tho Miramichi, and for many y-ears theroafter a few Frenchmen came and wonts imutil 1755 when 3500 Acadian refugees settled at various points on both z-8ides of the twelve-mile wide bays Two of the groups chose on the north shore a spot near the indian village and mission of Eskirnwoblud.ich, soon uto be renamed Burnt Chuiach. "It was our church that they burned the Miomac tell yeo today. "The White village got its name from ours." This is historic fact (Sop- -tombor 17, 1758) and the source of two legends. One, still current among some Whitesj, attributes the destruction to the crea of a ship bearing Cleneral Wolfels body, which pat in for water at BEsk:inowobudioh and wore refused it; the other a Micmac version,. accuses "Yankeo sailors" of stealing a solid gold altar worth a million dollarse Actually the fire was set by an expedition sent out by Wolfe from Louisburg to destroy all Acadian settlements, and which accomplished only the demoli;-ion of houses and wigwams in a single village, the theft of livestock and throo hogs- hoads of beaver skins. and, as Murray, the commander, reported to Wolfe, tIthe Chur-oheea very handsome one built vwith stone., did not escape" (11)* In other ways than 'in priority of name and in history and legend, the church is a pregnant symbol to the communityo All Miomac are Catholic; 103 and at Burnt Church was the first Catholic cometery on the Miramichi; for yoars all Indians and many Fronch and English wore brought there for bur- ial. There on St. Annets Day groups from other Roserves gather as they aro belioved to have gathored for hundreds of years before thoir annual Ths.'ival had received Christian acculturation, although not perhaps from so far away or in quito such large numbers as it now seems to those local1 old mon who say, UBurnt Church is the Micmac capital." Early and lasting conversion to a single faith has spared this and ovory Miomac community tho disunion and strife of soctarianisme Burnt Church, for those without an automobile, is a somewhat isolated spot. (In 1950 only ono lemnac resident owned a car.) Fivo miles to tho north- oast, tho small French village of Neguac offors a few services not local- ly available; Nowcastlo, a town of more'than 3,000, is twbnty-five miles southoest. Of the four main Roserves of the Miramichi Indian Agoncy (12), Burnt Church has long boon second in populations in 1949 there wore 303 inhabi-t tants; in 1911, 223, each figure about thirty per cent of the Agency's totals. The character of the population seems essentially the same in the two periods. About 1901, stabilization and concentration took place when individuals moved in from Pokomouche and Tabusintac, and some 40 loft the Rosorve and settled along the Intercolonial Railway. "Beggars and makers of Indian wares, an agent commented in 1901, "have left per- manont.ly.9" In addition to about 10,000 aores of woodland on the two abandoned Reserves, tho Burnt Church band owns 2058 acres on the main Reserve, 250 acros occupied, the rest in woodland (13). Today 70 families live in about 50 houses at Church Point and anothor 20 or so across the covered bridge over an inlet. The small frame houses are set along two roads, the Back Road with woods behind, and the Front Road along Miramichi Bay, each continuous with the main roads of the Whito village of Burnt Church* Three gravol roads lead from town and Reserve to a paved highway. The White town extends from the fish pier, canning factory and store along ono side of the Front Road. Year-round houses with Karmas and many summer cottages, form an unbroken line almost to the first house of the Rosorve. Farther on in the Reserve, houses are on both, sides of the Front Road; and there is what might be called the Civic Contr of Burnt Church# most conspicuous the white, tall-spired church; next it) the neat, two-room school and the toachorage, with the unused jail in the front yard; across the road the dilapidated Counoil house, rough boards, broken windows partly boarded up, where are hold the Sunday af- ternoon Bingo games and the dances following weddings and festivals. Betwoon the road and the shoro of MUiramichi Bay two crosses rise from the flat fields to mark a cometery, and a shrine opened only on St. Anna 's Day. In 1912 tho school was now, the church not finished; there was a toacher, absent for the summor. and a visiting priosto Conditions in 1950 wore not quantitatily very diferent. The superintendent, who Livod. somc 40 miles away, made feortnightly visits,, as did the priest, and 104~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~, a visiting nurso como onco a wock. No nuns woro in residence The two j toachors rocordod vital statistics and dispensed simple drugs, and a quiot little Miomac constable performod the solo function of tolophoning the mountie whonevor a rackot got too loud. 3el, Ground In 1950 certain itoms of acculturation wore chooked briefly at Eol - Ground (population 243), on tho Northwest Miramichi rivor, tho Resorvo noarest to Burnt Church, and six or soven miles by direct bus to New- : oastle. Tho less isolated situation and the froquent oontacts-with Burnt LChuroh suggested the possibility of significant contrasts. 8hubonaade, N. So In geographic situation, history, and prosent physical, social, and t economic conditions. the Resorve at Shubonacadie (P. Q. Micmac) is an .almost complote contrast to Burnt Church. The people are not essentially different. All are Catholic Micmac; many are related by blood or inter- M nrriage to other Miramichi groups. and visiting with membors of other settlements in typical Micmac fashion is froq7ionte In reont years thoir life, hoevrir, has boon radically altered, and not by themselves* Shubonacadioe a town of 1800, in the rivor valley of that name, lios -,'halfway botwoen Truro (10,000) and tho great port of Halifax. Micrxac-in the valley or at the old Indian Brook Rosorvo, four miles from town, have boon acquainted with large cities most of their livos; for poor ooonomic possibilities have forced them into casual itinerant labor or the homo anufacture and roadside or door-to-door vonding of so-called `Indian ware Is In the early days of Europoan settlement in what is now Nova Scotia, many Micmac had as early and probably closer, contacts with the French as did the Miramichi peoploso By 1689, 703 Europeans wore settled in three Aoadian towns, and there was a sprinkling of a fow hundred through the hinterland,. Shubonacadio first appears in history in 1699, and curi- ously, in view of its prosent condition, as the proposed site of a reset- tlement scheme, The missionary, Father Louis-Piorre Thury, perhaps doubt- ing the possibility of Christianization while the Indians continued their tsmi-nomadic life, proposed to the French govorneont that he try to col- lect all the Miomac of Acadia into one settlement between Shubonacadio and Halifax. The King approved, and ordered that money and provisions be sent, but Father Thury did not live to carry out his social experiment (14). In 1700, when the Siour de Di?0revillo met a group of Miomac on the shores of Chobucto (Halifax) Bay, they displayed such signs of accultur- ation as muskets and hatchets, rosaries and reliquaries; all of them had boon baptized by Father Thury (15)* Thirty-eight years later, a more. practical missionary, though. in the end perhaps not a more fortunate one (16-) the Abb6 Lo Loutro built at Shubenacadio a church and a pros- bytery, at which the wandering hunting-peoples could assemble for the efasts of Easter, ?entecost, and All Saints. This mission ended in 1745. 105: Aftor British victory in Acadia, the old Cape Breton missionary, Abbe Maill4 ard was pensioned and allowed to live in Halifax, whore Micmac visited his Mass House (17). Unlike the significant early history of Burnt Church, these Whito contacts in relation tn the later Indian Resorves at Shubenacadie seem an almnst complete non soquiture In 1912 when cno of us, with horse and buggy, drove ovor the four-mile road from the town of Shubenacadio to t1o Reserve then known as Indian Brook, he found a group of 76, of whom 32 wore sohool-age children* A school, closed for some years from lack of attendance was reopened that year, but only nino of the children were registered. By 1916 the population had increased to 243, but intorest in education remained low; school onrollment 17, average daily attendance 7. In 1930 the school again was closed, Population had decreased to 105 in 1937. Then came a sudden upswing: 1944, 200; 1949, 620. The change in these last Cwc years marks the development and zenith of the Government's Centralization policy for tho Micmao of Nova Scotia, begun in 1941-42. The goal was self-support for the Indians who, at 20 small Reserves in- effectively administered by 20 part-time agents, were all on relief. Similar conditions existed in Prince Edward Island0 Sufficient land was purchased, it was thought, to move all those in Nova Scotia to two Re- serves: Eskasoni, in the Bras D1Or region of Cape Broton, and Shubena-m cadie. Logs were cut and lumber fashioned in sawmills by the Indians} ~by'l945, GO'housos had boon built at the two sites9 and the migration' startedamtoward-the-goal of self-support-.for the Micmac'o Two years later, the new houses totalled 118. At Shubenaeadie tho old Indian Brook houses wore repaired, a six-room day school was ready, a handsome white church was on the way. And the Indian Service reported that so poor wore chances for employment in the region that only tho construction of housing kept the men busy* More houses were built, and moro families were moved in (18). ; 'Shubecadiet a Miomac baskot-seller on the highway said to us, '`that's a real little Indian city,." In Juno 1950 there was an air of bustle and movement about the place. The sawmill was booming in the middle of the long road lined with now framo houses and in the yrards wero cars, bicycles, children's wagons, store-bought swings. At tho top of the hill the road became a street between the buildings of Church and Statos the church itself, finished in 1949, a homo for the priests, and a convent, Agency offices. Agency store, the homes of agent, clork, and storekeepers Beyond were more Indian homos, and a Band house. Up and down.the street passed the cars of Mounted Police and other Agencr visi- tore.. of Indians and of tourists, and at noon, the big Agoncy trucks bringing the sawmill-workers home for dinner* Young mothers in bright shortie coats pushing baby-buggies, and an Indian constable in blue uni- form swinging his nightstick, old men, and crowds of children around tho store, all these mado lively movement on a Reserve of which the Indian Affairs department reported, that yoar, t"Welfaro projects and land clear*. ing continued to be the chief source of work." In 1953 population had fa:llen to 500, and the rate of enlistment in the armed forces was partiouE lawrly high. : 106 Of thoso in residence many were young veteran families with attrac- tive homes and tiers of small children. Many more were the old people, movod willingly or not, to a place whore they would be well-cared for, who ormembered tho old days at Pictou and did not much like "that bunch from rurot or elsewhere, while a minority consisting of old Shubenacadie in- habitants sat somewhat apart and also remembered the past. The Obvious e oi Dr uso In the 38-yoar period between our field-trips, there had been manyr changes in the Miomac world, some of them evident to any visitor. Tho old ramshackle huts that dotted the settlemont at Burnt Church wore gone and in their place wore story-and-a-half frame houses. Gray, weathered shingles and boards predominated, with hore and thore now homes covered th asphalt siding in brick red or bluo-gray. Although the houses variod in age, sizo, and stability, few wero old shacks, and the surrounding land, arron of troes and with fow shrubs and flowers, were remarkably tidy* ites in the settlement said that in the spring every Miomac family cleanod p the winter accumulation in his yard. In contrast to 1912, most familios no havo an outhouses Superficially favorable as this appears, tho Superintendent of tho ramichi Agency, Mr. En J. Blakoy, considered improvement of housing the ost important job for the Indian Sorviceo All of tho Dopartment's limit- d resources are now being used to build good woether-tight houses that 11 afford privacy as well as greater comfort, primarily for old people, hoso with unusual handicaps from illness, and those with large families. ho change in the character and appearance of tho houses since 1912, tho ow means of acquiring houses, and the present attitude of the Mimacr, ro evidences of changes occurring in other phases of their life0 Until ecently oach man built; or provided for the building of his houso, kept t in repair, or lot it fall to piecos. Annual government reports from 912 to 1944, which do not specify Reserves, frequently describe the Now runswick and Nova Scotia houses as small frame structures, badly built d providing poor protection against the cold. In 1938, however, the ow Brunswick situation was said to have improvod; houses of more solid tonstruct'.on, with squared timbers and white-washed shingles, apparently re built by the Indians themsolves-probably by very few of thom. However, there are now other ways of obtaining housing, and the emac are well aware of them. As an illustration of this awnreness: n an li-shoot map of Burnt Church drawn for us in 1950 by a thirteen- ar-old Miomac girl, 50 of tho Resorve's 70 houses are depicted, each abolled with the owners name, and in six cases an additional identifi- ationa examples ares (4) "Mr. William Motellic. Vedoran" and (2) "1Wel- are House.t Our first interpretation was groat local pride in tho vy- erans, of which we had some ovidence, and a fooling of superiority, or t least apartness. from families on relief, an attitude counter to Mic- e democracy. The actual moaning,, as wo later learned, was very differ- unt. 107 By tho Voteran' s Land Act of 1945, a maximum grant of $2320 is mado to any Indian veteran of World WVar II who sottlos on a Reserve. The sum, for which no repayment to the Votorants Buroau is required, may be used to buy equipment for forestry, fishing, farming, or trapping, for clear-. ing land, or for the cost of building-matorial or construction. The four veteran houses at Burnt Church, and others at Eol Ground, wore considered good units with comont foundations and brick chimnoys, gray-shingled walls and pleasing blue roofso Tho "Wolfaro Houso'l has. about as long a history. Since 1944, as a funotion of' the Welfare Division of the Indian Affairs Branch$ house- building has boon undertaken for the groups above mentioned. Portablo sawmills are brought to Reserves, lumber cut there, and in all processes "Indians are employed wherever feasible.'" At Shubonacadio, a largo num- bor of otherwise jobless men were so omployod in erecting a small town, but at Burnt Churoh, White carpenters wore working on two houses in the summer of 1950 while one of the prospective owners carried on his job of commercial fishing, and the other sat importantly all day in tho yard. We woro told that the Indians had been offerod work if they would report with thoir tools. No one appeared. When ono compares tho old shacks and the apathetic dependence of 1912 with the improved housing of 1950 (in part acquirod before 1945, through Micmac efforts) and the awareness that bottor housing ean be obtained, and how, tho greater vitality of the proseat society is apparent. But, as in other problems of Rosorve life, the dependence remains, accompanied in this later more vigorous period by informed demand. In what might be called grooming and adornment, houses at Burnt Church, Eel Ground, and Shubonacadie display varied degrees of owner interest and caro. There are a few flower gardens and picket fences painted white. Many windows are softonod with draw-shades- or hanging curtains, and now and thon a plant. In other houses, the minority, bro- kon glass is not roplacodo The front door is important, perhaps particularly to the older peopleo The sole old woman left at the Millbank Reserve in Truro after the ovacu- ation of the aged to Shubenacadio could not boar to leave her "good front door"t On eaoh of-two Reserves a man of some self-importance has, in thoso ?fae-to-face social groups, a large metal namo-plato on his hoevy- panelled port. The six-year-old son of ono of these households anxiously asked his teacher to toll us that the spatter of tiny oblongs which he had drawn in the picture of his house represented the sun-porch, tho only one on the Roserve. For the interior of the Micmac homo, government agencies supply no- thing, and nevor have done so, not oven a stove. Hotehold equipment, therefore, oxpresses individual industry and taste. All households are thoso of a very low income group, but there is considerable range in com- fort and in number end kind of small luxuries. Only a very general com- parison with 1912 interiors is possible; at that date the countinlg of pots 108 and pans was not anthropologically fashionable. To observe household in- teriors one must go into the dwelling; and not every Indian is hospitable. Of the fourteen houses which time and owners permitted us to visit in 1950. only one, that of an old man neglected by the relatives who were paid to care for him, approached the dirt and squalor seen in many houses In 1911 and 1912. The present Mimac two-story, or story-and-a-half, houses are divided on the ground floor into from two to three or (rarely) four rooms; the upper story usually is not partitioned. Curtains of thin material are hung across first-floor bedroom doorso The first impression made on a White visitor is bareness and cleanness. There is almost total absence of things characteristic of the average White house: heavy drapes, lamps, coffee tables, ash trays, cushions. Old wooden chairs and tables are not repainted; there is almost no color. The worn floors, the shabby lino- leums, are brown.gray. But in nearly every house they are scrubbed often. In contrast to the Whites' conception of the filthy Indian home, the Micmac house is clean, and for that reason probably seems cleaner than it actually is' Standard in nearly every house, in addition to the stove, beds, chairs, nd table, is a small battery radio; not quite so common is a kitchen pump. A holy picture hangs close to the ceiling, and family photographs (grouped snap-shots, or a heavily framed enlargement of a photograph of a past generation, or a father in the uniform of World War I) usually are supple- mentary ornaments. Nearly every house has also one or more prized posses- sionst at the bottom of the scale this is an uncushioned rocking chair; at the top., a modern veneered bureau with round unframed mirror or, more rarely. a sofa. Families of unusual industry and thrift own a sewing- machine and/or a good white-enameled wood-burning stove. Prominent in many houses is a triple-functioning baby-buggy, which serves for transport, baby-bed, and a plaything for all children of the household. Our observations received a partial cheek from the list of objects most frequently depicted by 20 Burnt Church school children (9-14 years of age) who on request drew "The Inside of My House." They show: table, 17; stove, 15; stairs, 13; bed, 12; chairs, 11; radio, 9; pump, 8 (very carefully drawn and labelled "pomp" or "bump"); cupboard, 6; mirror. 3; box or toolbox, 4; dishes, 3; sewing-machines, 2; flour barrel. 2; wash- stand, 2-; clock, 1; sofa, 1; bookcase, 1 (19). As the following paired descriptions indicate, age does not determine the degree of acculturation reflected in house furnishings: Old Couples. Each man, over 70, is still an active fisherman. A. Bare, gray, clean. Two old wooden chairs. Old cook-stove in main room has on the shelf above it a set of pastel pottery dishes, placed so that each piece can be seen. B. Braided rugs on floor, foliage plants in windows, ornamen- tal clock on a shelf, nicknacks, curtains hanging at doors of bedrooms at right and le~ft, Hand-made quilts on the 109 beds, made with fine stitches in elaborate patterns* Large wooden bedstead in "master bedroom" with framed picture hanging over it of a daughter and her Ieteran husband. From a low hook, three dainty, starched dresse. of a young grand-daughter, each garment on small hangersB Young Couples* Ae Husband, early thirties, a Veteran and a community leader An energetic lobster fisherman. New Veteran house. Freo ruffled curtains at upper and at lower windows. Good kitchen sink and stove. In living-room, a set of new an attractive furniture, including a glass-fronted wardrobe. B. This man, early thirties, is also a leader. He does not use the rather expensive lobster-fishing equipment with which the Government has supplied him, and the family lives entirely on relief. Front room: kitchen table. Two straight old wooden chairso One rocker without cushion. Small radios Big wood cook-stove. Two pictures hung at top of wall (holy1 picture and enlargement of a young child deceased). Large back room: rocker with broken-arm, a pump, small table, with wash basin. Side room: a chest of drawers, baby-buggy. The taste of Miomac women as expressed in their house furnishinga ornamentation closely follows that of the White homes in Burnt Church. The handwork-braided rugs, quilts--is the same and the occasional large plastic or pottery animal from Eatonts, crouched on a Micmac bureau is found in herds and flocks in a White village parlor, where family snap"2 shots stare at you from beneath the glass of a coffee table; in the undo cluttered Micmac home snapshots are similarly displayed under glass, bi hang on the wall* That. the Indians are ready to consume all of the ma-; terials they can buy is illustrated by the immediate reaction to the in; Production of electricity to Burnt Church in July 1950, a month after we left the Reserve. In response to a letter asking a woman what electrio equipment she was going to buy, the informant wrote in August: "I don't bother Electric washer. Too much for poor woman like me. Iron is enou and toaster. Maybe when I get old, not able to do my washing, I try and getc` Many people were planning to install lights after their return f potato-picking in Maine, which they evidently did; a high proportion of school children's Draw-a-Man tests in March 1952, show the man standing outside a house with prominently attached electric wires. Probably the trait in which the Micmac differ least from the White is dress. On the whole this was true in 1912, but quality and grooming; have greatly improved; and all traces of the old costumes are disappearS 110 Forty years ago the men ordinarily wore the clothes of a Canadian workman, \but on special tribal occasions, for example, St. Anne's Day, they donned kneewlength coats of blue wool heavily beaded at shoulder, wrist, and -hemline , and on bands down the front that had been traditional for at least a hundred years. A "chief 's coat" was more elaborate. Men of all 'gss wore such decorated coats; a young man about to be photographed with jX shirtsleeved partner in a dice (walttes) game insisted on first fetching ghs ceremonial coat. None of these coats existed at Burnt Church in 1950, and at Shubenaoadie, when two old men recently resettled on the Reserve showed us photographs taken in Halifax "when I went to see the King fGeorge VII", they proudly pointed to the Plains headdresses supplied for the occasions Dark clothing is worn by the older men, black suits for Sunday, and g-Saki or other plain colored work-clothes throughout the week. Young ton may appear on festive occasions or for trips to Newcastle or to Hali- fax in white shirts open at the neck, bright blue trousers and a plain ,ark suit-coat. The felt hat is characteristiocof the old or the middle- bgesd man; young men and boys go bareheaded or wear cloth caps with long visors jauntily turned up, a feature copied by little boys and reproduced ia the drawings of school children. Shirts of boys and the youngest men are gay (plaids, and Hawaiian and cowboy prints), also the choice of White males of their age groups. The change in women's dress is more marked than in the men's. In ~1l2 the older women, the most conservative portion of the tribe, covered he head with tight scarfs, often of figured material, and with a shawl astened and. draped from the crown of the head. On festive days they * the traditional beaded cloth cap which came down to the lower angle of the- jaw# bodice with beaded tabs, full dark skirt with embroidered td beaded bands, and ropelike bead necklaces. In 1950 no Burnt Church omn owned an item of this costume, but black cloth skirt, bodice and Maddress heavy with beads are owned by a few old women at Shubenacadie, Fd are brought out on St. ,Annets Day, although they say that now the amg people laugh at them. Even there, although they own the charming d squaw caps, they prefer to be seen and photographed in the beaded adband with one cocky feather, inspired by pictures of Plains Indians. _ feel all shut in in that cap," an old woman rationalized, while insis- 1m on being photographed in "my Indian costume" or not at all. A second 3.4 lady is proud that visiting White women want to be photographed in her utfit. and has a collection of such pictures. These two women were for veral years basket-sellers in contact with Whites, and know what the tes think Indians should be. A Burnt Church woman sixty years of age o had visited Shubenacadie on St. Anne's Day commented on the artificial raoter of this survival in dress: "It isn't real Indian [meaning olac3 It's more like a show. Age and degree of conservatism can be inferred at a Sunday morning a, but it is the conservatism of a White rural congregation. Grand- hhers at Burnt Church wore plain black coats over light or dark print on dresses and added a gay feather or flower to black felt hats. sit ~~~~~~~111 Teen-age girls wore a babushka and a red or a green coat; their mothers and little sisters, berets. Sunday hairdos were produced as elsewhere by pin-curls, rags, and permanents from the iNeguac beauty shope A mother explained the extremely curly hair of her small son: "I wanted a permao nent so bad before he was born that I marked him." It is the children who are most obviously and proudly dressed, as their mother's say, tlike White,,"1 in. part because they are the offspring of the younger, more accul- turated group; in part under the stimulus of the Family Allowance (discus- sed below)* Also clothes in small sizes cost comparatively little* Pink silk ruffled bonnets and matching smocked dresses are standard for baby girls; and the boy of the only pair of twins at Burnt Church has the equi-* valent in pale blueo A change immediately evident to the returning anthropologist was the manner of his reception. In 1912 most Miomac seemed to shy away from Whites. At Burnt Church in 1950 old men greeted a visitor to their house with `come up and be seated," ( ilaymsit teim'Ana, that is, take the seat back of the fire, the freest from draughts and the most comfortable in the wigwam), and appeared glad to see a Whiite newcomer. The change to an easier social manner was especially apparent in the women. In 1912 seldom would a woman in the household of an informant converse with the anthropologist. In 1950 the women treated him in about the same way as would women in a group of Whites. In 1912 he was in the twenties; in 1950 he was in the sixties; he had moved into the group of old men. But he thinks this is only a small part of the explanation of the changed attitude toward this visitor* Because of greater use of English, shared work, and to some extent shared amusements, the Micmac are more at home in the White world, bbtter acquainted with their neighbors in village and country. Baseball was adopted at least as early as 1890. An old infor- mant stated in 1950 that it was taught the Micmac by Yankee fishermen who came into Miramichi Bay. Now almost every Reserve has a team, and the nearby White community shares the pride in its performance. tThose fellers are sports," declared a truck-owner frequently hired by one team to take them to matches away from the home Reserve* "They always pay me back." Baseball contributes in two respects to the rather meager recrea- tions of both the White and the Indian communities at Burnt Church. Not only are there games to attend; good feature-pictures are brought weekly during the summer resort season to the hall in the White village by the priest who serves the Micmac church, and with the proceeds he buys equip ment for the team and pays their transportation to other Reserves. Both Indians and Whites attend these movies. In the past forty years most White holidays have been taken over, and observance of them is increasing. About 1935 Micmac at Burnt Church began to put up Christmas trees in the homeo Now every house has one, decorated with tinsel, bells, stars, and artificial snow, from the dime store in Newcastle or the mail order house. Every child believes in Santa Claus. Stockings are hung up on Christmas Eve* Many ask Santa for the things they want --olothes, toys, and so fortho A child is told "If you are good, Santa will bring them; if you are not good, he will not^+ bring them." ll~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~, In 1912 the old women used to say, tDontt let the children know about istmas.` "But," said a grandmother born in 1886, "you can't keep it om them now* They read it in the paper, they hear it on the radio." early mailing of the December family allowance cheek ("because the i1 grows so heavy at Christmas time") (20) is additional stimulus to Sing for children. Some adults also receive presents; not uncommonly bers of the family join in the purchase of a gift for father. Women * to send Christmas cards. (We receive also each year valentines from family with which we correspond.) Birthdays and parentsa days are recent celebrations. Nowadays a man woman of any age receives a birthday cake; children blow out the birth- ,candles according to White custom. Mother's Day reached Burnt Church or three years ago, and in 1950 few families honored it. The suitable is a cake. A mother of sixty-four years of age, photographed by her ghter-in-law, the donor, holds a handsome decorated cake from a city' ery, and a greeting card. The suitable gift for Father's Day is a pipe. The preeminent Micmac holiday is July 26th and days-formerly weeks bhereafter. St. Anne's Day is a modernization, with priestly assistance, an old tribal gathering held annually at about that .date and calleo, 2ording to an old informant in 1950, Mabuktso, (Protection). Tradi- pn1 descriptions of its celebration at Burnt Church and at Pictou, Nova ptia, were obtained in 1912 and in 1950, and in the latter year, infor- bion about the current celebration. One of us attended the celebrations 1911 in New Brunswick, and in 1912 in Nova Scotia, but without notebook bando Burnt Church, traditionally through the ages, and historically ioe at least 1891, has been the central gathering-plaoe for Miomac from Miramiohi region and perhaps from much farther (21). The modern ptation, as of 1950, of the old ceremonious arrival of canoe-loads Em Eel Ground, Big Cove, and Red Bank is described by a Micmac woman: Oh we have a poor picnic this year. Rainy all day. Could not do anything Buses and care and trucks all loaded with peopless But could not get off, so they turn backs My, we were sorry and priests, too, because it's Saint Aneiiea Dayo Every Indian. celebrates that. But we couldn't. Maybe next year will be a kind day on that day. Degrees of acculturation in ceremonies at marriage and at death at se Reserves with different history and contacts were briefly described. ding. are held in a Catholic church. At relatively isolated and con- rvative Burnt Church the service is in the Reserve churoh. Everyone is ted to it and to dinner and supper at the girl's 'parents' homes In evening quad2.illes are danced in the Band house to the accompaniment fiddle and guitar. Recent features inolude, occasionally, the wearing a bridal veil and the ordering of an artificial bouquet from Eaton's. of the guests bring presents to the bride and groom. At Eel Ground, Reserve nearest to Burnt Church, on a highway and a bus line, a few aea from Neastle, all who can afford it are married not in their own uoh but in the W.hite's church in the town. 113 The contrast between 1950 weddings at the resettlement at Shubenacadie and some years ago at neighboring and now almost deserted Truro (Millbrook Reserve) was described by a woman aged sixty-fouro In the old days every one came to a wedding. Enough food was served at the girl's home to feed a.' regiment# meat, potatoes, turnips, cakes* Now only those who were invited attend. A church wedding often is a double one, to save expense, and only sandwiches and cake are servede After the wedding there is dancing throug out the night, quadrilles and modern dances ("people about forty years of age are good at reels, but young people are no gcod,").e The old neighborly cooperation at time of death is modified today. A woman aged 85, living in 1950 at Shubenacadie, who spent her youth and mid- dle age in various parts of Nova Scotia, sayst "W1Ahen someone died, each person in the settlement gave 25 cents or 10 cents. rfe made the coffin and a shroud. Men and women had brown shrouds; children and young girls had white. A woman's shroud was a gowns The man had pants, too. Vrte buried t corpse, and then we auctioned off whatever the dead person owned-a few clothes and dishes-."and gave the money to the priest for Masses.' At Burnt Church in 1950, friends carry the coffin to the church on their shoulders, or by the handles, and from the church to the graveyard, across the roads An undertaker is employed only if the person died in the hospital. In accord with the prestige that the W;.rhite culture of Newcastle exerts on Eel Ground weddings, all except the poorest families on that Reserve send to town for an undertaker and a hearse, although their settle ment is smaller than is Burnt Church. Much of the funeral responsibility at Shubenacadie, where an agent resides, seems to have shifted from neigh- bors to officials. According to the chief clerk, the agency arranges with, an undertaker to fetch the body and bring it back to the Reserve in a coff If the corpse looks too badly, he improves the appearance, but does not e balm. The undertaker has given the Indians an old hearse to which the Mic mac hitch some of their horses for the trip from Church to graveyard. Making a Living On our first walk through the Burnt Church Reserve in 1950 the most surprising sight was two Indian stores. As establishments or as sources o solid income they were not impressive, but to one remembering the spiritle despondent Micmac of 1912, these modest enterprises were striking. Each attached to the ownerts houses one occupied an ell of the largest house in, the settlement and employed a bright eighteen-year-old girl as clerk. The owner, a former hief, was the only man in Burnt Church who owned cows, a horse, and a car. The smaller store. made by enclosing a porch, employed outside help, had a small stock of canned goods, notebooks, pencils, bread doughnuts and cookies from a Newcastle bakery, fruit, candy, and pop. The, larger store did not offer much else. In Burnt Church village a mile away were two stores, one large, both extensively patronized by Indians. In J 150 after electric power was installed at the Reserve the ownor of the s ler store immediately bought a cooler, to supply the blueberry-pickers who each day left by boat from the shore behind the store. Small children pie ed for a reward of ice cream and pop; and the owners wife packed lunches9 and morning and evening "rane like a cat,"I to make the most of the seasonal rush- On Sundays, when the W~hites' stores were closed, people from the smallrer cottage s came f or i ce cream.| 114 The storekeeper's family has engaged in an occupation recently intro- d to the Miomac. In 1940 families from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia lt by train to Houlton, Maine, to pick potatoes. Thereafter arrangements .been made each year between a Maine farmer and a Miemac family. Each or pays his share of the Cost of the food; in 1949, in three weeks a 3. of eleven might net up to $60. r The storekeeper barbers in his kitchen; and his wife washes for a Whites. His main occupation is fishing for lobsters and herring. Whatever the Maritime Indians do for a living, that living is small frequently must be supplemented by relief funds. The Superintendent of bMiramichi stated that an energetic family could bring back about a thou- .,dollars from Maine, and that this would last them until nearly spring. stoves, bicycles, and warm clothing for adults are likely to be pur- ses from these earnings. Micmac in the Shubenacadie area, in addition potato-picking, also leave the Reserves in the spring when families go ly into the woods to pick mayflowers which they ship for sale in the esw Blueberry-picking on Portage Island, in Miramichi Bay, and cutting istmas trees engage men, women* and small boys, and supplement the income, few women and girls obtain seasonal work in a lobster-canning factory or a fish-pickeling plant. A few do housework, particularly at Eel Ground, At is near a town. Few of the Miomacys White neighbors are able to cy domestic help. In the government store at Shubenacadie, Indian iand women work as clerks. A very few have a (free) high school education and have entered the white- lar raks. The school at resettled Eskasoni, N. S., had Indian teachers, at least one Miomac teacher has been employed on Prince Edward Island. o girls at Eel Ground have finished the Commercial course at a Newcastle ient, and in 1950 one of these was about to enter a government office. The main occupations are those of 1912. Men at Burnt Church fish, at lumbering and at sawmills, and as laborers, sometimes in distant s, perhaps in the States for short periods, all at seasonal or tempo ry work, dependent on a changing market. In the summer of 1950 men 3e1 Ground were thrown out or work at the nearby mill when Britain alter- *ts polioyrbf pulp bu ingo At Burnt Church two men, father and son' tly have joinedrthe. loaal Whito cooperative horring fishing. Indus- us Miomagolobster fishermen row out to their traps in heavy dories, with pe8 a boy to help;. Whito men own large powor-driven boats-- Two such ta, costing $1100 each, purchased by the Miramichi Superintendent, pre- bly under the Veteran's Act, were shortly afterward found in the hands 'White purchasers who had obtained them at a greatly reduced price. They re promptly impounded by the Indian Affairs Branch, thus ending ono phase a attempt at economic acculturation. aoar Shubenacadie, mon classified as farmers in 1912 and later, iced a for crops and worked at odd jobs in tho neighborhood. Through- tho Maritimos for at least sixty years a small income has been earned the home manufacture of so-called Indian wrares: potato-baskets, churns, tor- and~wtsh-tubs, handles for axes, pick~s,and poavoyrs; and hobkoypsticks 115 and snow-shoes. By 1916 wood near the Reserves, suitable for these goods, had sharply decreased. During the recent war only the handicapped and the aged carried on the handicraft. Demand exceeded production. Meanwhile the able and willing found steady work in a steel-mill, or in lumbering or farm-work* But in 1947 the Indian Affairs reports again list handles and potato-baskets among the few sources of income in Nova Scotia; and during the following year the government bought and shipped handicraft material to the Reserves. Of handicrafts and professions with a continu- ous history from aboriginal days, a few old women at Shubenacadie still can do skillful porcupine-quill work on birch bark; one of them has saw turated her single market, a New England museums Blight has destroyed nearly all of the birch trees in Nova Scotia, resulting in a further de- orease of a vanishing art* Some women earn a little as midwives and herbalists, and at Shubenacadie an `Indian Doctor,` as his door-plate describes him, a guide for one of us in 1912, drives about the country- side in an old car and sells medicines to lqhiteso Probably the greatest change in home economy since 1912 is the in.. crease in the number of families which make gardens, and of gardens which grow vegetables other than potatoes. Canning, under the stimulus of the visiting nurse, is gaining at Burnt Church. Some women sew, and the few sewing-machines on a Reserve are loaned to friends of the owner. The tendency to buy most of the clothing and to purchase prepared food-stuffs seems to be general, and has perhaps been augmented by the introduction of the Family Allowance. Diet has improved, as has that of neighboring 'Whites. This is evident particularly in the greater use of milk in the non-dairy area of New Brunswick* This means for Indians and Whites what the Maiomac call "IC'nation" (Carnation). One home-manufactured product might bo classified as recreation, or, as a culturally approved release for aggression against the in-group (22). This is Miomao home-brewed beer. Although this most generally used form of alcohol does not lead to family homicides. murders, or suicides, as described by Le Cleroq in the 17th century, it does occasion household quarrels and wife-beating, with loud shouts from the habitually quiet Miomao. The Indian constable at Shubenacadie specified drunken family fights as the chief disturbance on the Reserve. Although at Burnt Church they are confined to the Reserve and do not annoy the Whites, if severe injury is threatened the timid constable phones the Mountio in a nearby town. The only aggression there against Whites by a drunken Indian was charged against a peeper into the window of a teacher who, it was said, was generally unpopular. The ingredients of the beer were described by a Miomac constable as "seeds," and by two Harvard students as "molasses and yeast cakes;" which suggests a very old acculturation. In 1700 Dibrville wrote of French Acadia: "only Beer, made from the tips of Fir trees is brewd there; a strong decoction is put into a cask with Yeast and Molasses.*.all this ferments together for two or three days; when tho fermentation is over the substance settles, and the light coloured Liquor, which is not unpleasant, is drunk" (23). In July 1950 a sign in the government store at Shubenacadie proclaimed: "No molasses sold to people on relief." 116 Lot raits -of Miomac, Culture i: Attempts to obtain information about aboriginal culture were an al- tst complete failure. With old people the topics from technology to folklore were broached. Data difficult to secure in 1912 were impossible i find in 1950. In 1912 canoe-malking was practised by a few experts at Church. Fifteen birch bark canoes were in use there, although here were few on other Reserves. In 1950 there was probably not a single paoh canoe in use in the entire Micmao country; and very few men who knew Fow to make ones In 1912 'at any larger settlement many informants could give a de- tailed description of the birch bark wigwam, its construction, furnish- Angs, and the names of its various parts. In 1950 possibly no one could 0 so. Ocoasionally, after a native name was volunteered by the ethnolo- it, a Micmac would recognise the reference. They still make and use snow-shoes. A few use figure-four traps, Sad set snares for small game. Birch bark household vessels, colon in 19l2, are now rarely seen, in part because of the scarcity of this bark. In 1912 everywhere one went one was likely to see men, or men and Fen, playing walltes, the aboriginal gambling game in which bone `dice" ibh designs incised on one side are tossed up in a large bowl made from kburl of a maple tree. In 1950 we did not see this game played anywhere& only a few old people now know how to score the game, and both dice and bowl are a rarity; indeed in most settlements are not to be found (24). b.' The old beliefs in magic power, ghosts, and small beings, universal- ly expressed in 1912, had disappeared in 1950, or at least had gone under- Wovrg as a result of priestly disapproval, or in shamefacedness. In 19112 everybody believed in kes'kamr.t magic good luck which gave power o do unusual deeds or bestowe superuman skills. In almost every house re were one or more objects that had brought kestkamzlt: stones sug- pting bird or animal, fungus growth resembling aEabT*Very few of se objects exist today. An old man who brought out such a stone and osented it to us, said "Do you know what this is?" When we replied, s'kamstt" he nodded, a bit sheepishly. Probably younger people attach importance to this magic luck; children who served as informants had heard of it. Older men are inclined to interpret it as "a gift from , given especially to those who obey their parents'" Even so, one of Se old men also told of an instance in which a young boy picking blue- Irrnea had an experience which implied the aboriginal keslkamzd~t. Questions about a belief in ghosts, skarelg~uto, the soul after it a left the body (and also the will-o'-tliwispj, were evaded in 1950 by women at Burnt Church, and were denied by an old woman at Shubenaoadie cause she said the priest forbade it. Two children, however, one at oh Reserve told freely of a grandfathers recent meeting with the phe- non and of hearing that the soul of a doad woman had been seen, that ek, standing at the window of her house.* The same boy, at Burnt Church, 117 told of his grandfathers acquaintance with a pugulatAmrtc, one of a human race of tiny beings well-known in 1912, but admitted to reluctantly by an old man in 1950, who after recounting his own experience with one, added that they had now all gone to Nova Scotia. The almost complete disappearance of folktales and of good story- tellers was a disappointment after the comparative riches of 1912. A few old people could tell one or two good stories, or remembered fragments of the rabbit cycle heard as a child and ropeated to their own children Most stories wero at best synoptic variants of long accounts recorded in 1912. Chnge__rientation In 1911-12 the senior writer attempted to obtain a knowledge of Micw mac orientation. With allowance for differences in personalities encoun- tered. in the two periods, this relationship to the world had in four de- cades becomo something very different. The Micmao world in 1911, as it was conceived by the old people-and the old still set the tribal tone Erwas small, looking backward to the Good Old Days, with little room for Canadian actuality, crowded with supernatural creatures vital to their well-being. Any man thirty years of age or older knew something about the pre-White type of life and its values when men wore taller, lived longer, and because of finor medicine were never lame. Glilskap, the cul- ture hero, if not actually around, had not gone so far away that his help could not be summoned in time of needs and at hand were various mythic strong men and little people to warn of danger or-just be there. Tho government was Our King who made a treaty with our chiefs , Of other Indians, except Maliseet and Penobsoot, the Micmac know little and cared less. With one marked exception: in 1911 they still lived in fear of the Bill d the Mohawk, traditional enemies and eighteenth-century allies of the British when the Miomac aided the French. Some fifty of our typewritten pages contain accounts of Mohawk depredations against Micmac, current on most Reserves in 1911-1912. For former apprehension there is corroboration on a tablot gratefully raised in 1938 at Annapolis Royal: "Site of fort built in 1712 by Mohawk Indians under Major Living- ston, employed as allies by the British to intimidate the Miemac."l How- ever, two hundred years is a long time to cherish such anxieties as are illustrated by the following incident which occurred on the first visit of the senior writer to Burnt Church, and was recorded thus in his manu- script: O a- Reserve about thirty miles away I had been taking head and body measurements, and I had hoped to take similar measurements at Burnt Church. After my arrival there a Maloeite Indian from the St. John River, accompanied by a friend of the writer, came to Burnt Church. The Malecite, to assist me (so he later said), went from house to house and told the people how necessary it was that they should be moasured: that from these measurements I could make statues which would be so life-like that one would not be able to distinguish between them and the persons they represented; that by this means one 118 could ascertain the difference between a Miemac, a Malecite, or any other Indian. His efforts bore fruit in an increasing suspicion by the Miomao of my motives. A meeting of men on the Reserve was held, and they decided that I might not take measurements there. I had connived with the Malecite to send these measurements to the Mohawk, who could then distinguish between the two tribes and would sweep down and exterminate the Miomac. The men wrote to Reserves at Pio- tou, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Richibucto, New Bruns wick, to forewarn the Miomac on those Reserves of my sinister designs. The incident placed me under suspicion that remained in the minds of influential men, and undoubtedly was a considerable handicap in wine* ning their confidence. The younger men laughed at the idea; but often one of the older men would recount to me the fighting abilities of the Miomac,. the aid they would get from Gl5skap in time of trouble and so on, in a strain that suggested they knew the danger and meant to show themselves capable of countering it. In 1950 the Mohawk had no part in the Miomac world. When presented th the word Bill some of the old men did not recognize it; some d it meant any Indian other than a Miomac. Only one Mohawk tale was ated and in that they were called Caughnawags* Today a Micmac sees elf as a part of all Indian groups; his knowledge of them may be hat vague, but his interest in them is great. An old man 82 years age recited a long sentence and added, 'That is Kickapoo, but I don't .what it means." A man of thirty, presenting a gift-handkerchief nted with a Plains Indian in war-bonnet regretted that "the Miemac ne no customs." Women passed photographs of Chippewa and Dakota from .m one to another, saying, 'Yes, Indians are the same everywhere." told about recent Chippewa use of the menstrual hut, they exclaimed, orant of their own pre-White practice, "Those must be wild Indians. sBkimo." In the 17th century Eskimo were enemies of the Miomac and * ive Eskimo sometimes were enslavedo Traditional descriptions of imo culture were occasionally mentioned in 1911. At Shubenacadie a man seventy years of age gave one of us a copy of Native Voices Official Organ of the Native Brotherhood of British ffmi a;a monthly journal to wrhih he subscribed. This copy, of April *O, contains an article, AND THEY ,CALLEfl US SAVAGES, which depicts, in ledged extracts from various books, the treatment wrhioh the Whites meted out to the Indians* One of these extracts, taken from a book published in London in 1912, cribes the fate of the Beothuk, and states: "The French, when they upied the south coast of Newfoundland, brought over Mikmak [Miomac] ?ans to chase and kill the Beothuk's or 'Red Indians."' This interest in other tribes of Indians does not, it seems, inten^ 4 interest in Micmac groups other than one's o. There is and has a been a considerable amount of inter-settlement visiting and inter- riage, particularly between settlements which are close to one another. ry adult Miomac knows the location of other Micmac groups in the Province 119 of Quebec, the Maritime Provinces, and Newfoundland, and, it was said in 1950., the Magdalen Islandso But there is no Miomac nationalism. Ability to speak the language is recognized as a tie that binds, or, more pre- cisely, makes visiting among strangers easy. In one respect. the present social world has shrunk* Men, except pose- sibly the aged, no longer are universally aware-of where they stand in re- lation to those peoples who seemed to be almost a part of their Reserves. in 1911, Halfway People, tila'tamfitc, MItgamawetsue Only a giraffe should stick his neck-out so far as to conclude that they have departed forever; but certainly they have gone underground, perhaps literally; and possibly they are no more vital part of present day Miomac consciousness than of the folk superstitions of White neighbors. As for their relation to the Canadian government, while references. to Our King continued and we were frequently shown copies of the treaty with George III, they are also well aware of Ottawa from which some things come and others, allegedly promised, do not. Pride in ancestry, the strength and the land-wealth of the old Miomac, was expressed by young men; but only the aged suggested that wigwams were healthier than were houses. Certainly as regards material culture, the attitude was: The Good Old Days&-St Whati There has been a marked reorientation of age groups. At the time of the earlier visits to Reserves a few middle-aged chiefs were encountered# but most affairs were firmly in the hands of the elders. In 1950, chiefs ranged from young to early middle age. At a settlement with a population of over 300, the chief was 32 years of age, and his councilors were of about the same age. The attitude of old men toward their own deposition seemed to be determined mainly by the faction in Reserve politics to which they adhered. Since 1912 Miomac veterans have returned from two World Wars. At each Reserve visited in 1950 Indians asserted that those men by their oxperiences in other parts of Canada, in Europe, or in Japan, had stirred the imaginations of those who remained at home and who previously had had little interest in things beyond the borders of the Maritime Pro- vinces. The new houses recently given by the Veteran's Administration has further enhanced the prestige of these young men. Another age group which receives enhanced status is the children. This; too, can be attributed partly to the receipt of government largesse. To the Indian on a Reserve, who pays no taxes except on money earned else- where, the Canadian Family Allowance is clear gain. The monthly payments from birth and from six to sixteen if a child is attending school, are interpreted by many Miomao in a way very personal to the child. Although checks are made out to the mother, the common remark is, ttMargaret Rose raged threel' got her family allowance today, so she got a now dress." A teacher was convinced that a child's prestige had definitely increased after 1945, when these grants began. She said, "I've seen a boy of 13 with the eight dollars in cash in his own hands. Parents are very nice to a child just before the Allowane check is duo."t l20 A. As against this explanation for the regard for children, it should remembered that even among Indian groups the Miomac continually, from 17th century on, have been considered extremely affectionate to their ldron and to have considered them capable of making decisions from a early age. Socially the children are much more evident than they in 1911 when it was considered improper for a child old enough to about to stay around older people. Toddlers were very shy with us. "year-old cowboys did not shoot us on the first visit to their homes; waited until the second day. The assertion that the Family Allow- is an inducement to adopt children or to keep illegitimate children the home of a relative, as some Whites allege,.we are not inclined to pt. A wide-spread feature of the childless or the elderly Miomac has long been the nigwenatdelnitcwatcl', the "raising-up child.e 1950 we knew personally many such between five.-and sixfy6ars of age, of whom at the time of adoption promised any benefit to the foster * This is an enduring Micmac custom (25). Although old people have slipped in status, they receive respect, .they continue to hand on to their grandchildren what they believe are rtant tribal, though not aboriginal, skills and knowledge They now ive old-age pensions, and these are regarded by many with prides "We them the same time the Whites did." A few old people, it is true, lore this substitutions for individual arrangements for their care by Matives which might in certain instances result in cash kick-backs. Grandparents live in close contacts with grandchildren; sons or fos- sons usually live in houses adjacent to that of aged parents. In the ids of several old women, "The kids are over here before we're up in morning." Instability of marriages, deaths of young mothers, and il- gitimate births, bring small children into the household. Grandfathers oh boys to make "Indian wares" and tell them about Old Times, which a not pre-White days, but the early hunting and fishing adventures of tselves or their fathers. Grandmothers teach household arts to the la and tell them stories, "mostly about prayers." In this era of rapid go, the oldest generation is a social channel for stimulating tribal sciousness and pride. Between 1912 and 1950, although women have gained in freedom of so8 L manner and in manipulation of modern household material, their posi- n in relation to the men has perhaps not greatly altered. Basically an has always shared most of the economic pursuits of the male, fished *h him from the same canoe, which she had assisted to build, and in fare carried arrows as ammunition for the fighters, and even taken at at the enemy. Folktales of abandoned women who overcame all ob- oles were told in 1911 and again in 1950 with the concluding comment, the old days anything a man could do a woman could do.e Day schools 'e been the rule in the Maritimes, and therefore daughters were not at way from home earlier, and for their protection kept at boarding- ool longer than the sons; a tendency in many groups which results in e years of education for women than for men. 121 Agencies of Acculturation Ways by which various White culture traits have been introduced and accepted have been implicit throughout this paper. Certain institutions and, programs have more or less successfully attempted changes in Miomac life, and some of these were evident in1 950. *The introduction, under the Indian Act, of an elected chief and council was an innovation in de-e mooracy which fitted comfortably with old, and probably aboriginal, pat~ terns. In pre-White days each settlement had a chief and perhaps a coun- cilo Each chief had an assistant with supernatural powers to be used only in a crisis. In 1911 each band had an assistant-chief called "captain." It was said at Burnt Church that if trouble came to the settlement, the assistant with supernatural power would assert himself "although none of .us know who he would be. One is certainly hereo The Indian Act of 1951 provides for a chief, and one councilor- for every one hundred members of the band, to be elected biannually by a ma- jority of the voters (men and women over 21)o The Agency Superintendent, who is present at the election, may not suggest candidates, but has a veto power over the band's choice. On at least one Reserve in 1950 the chief was no favorite of the Superintendent but the latter had not blocked his election, The powers of the council are mainly supervisor. With the right combination of chief, Reserve, and Superintendent, this system can be an effective means of cooperation and solidarity. We did not loarn much about the present functioning of the councils. Amusing evidences of associated acculturation may be mentioned. At one Reserve, the chief i had campaigned on a platform advocating the obviously impossible-things outside his powers; and by offering free taxi-rides to the polls, it is said, increased his chances of election. p ,2 A sudden abandonment of old traits for new has followed contact with a health programe At Burnt Church in 1951 all births took place in the hospital at Newcastle (26). This was a new procedure. Accounts of child- ~ birth practices given in 1950 by women of 66 and 24 years of age differed in no detail. All children under the age of three had been born at the Reserve# Suddenly, none were. Hospitalization obviously is free to In- dians. Another surprising change is the end of breast-feeding and the substitution of canned milk. `All my family were raised on Ctnation," said a young mother, resisting the visiting nurse's prescription of pow- dered milk for premature twins. Under the influence, otherwise accepted, of this nurse who was attached to the Miramichi Agency in October 1948, and this Miomac mother who could follow a schedule, these twins are now at age two-and-a-half years, the only pair ever to have survived at Burnt Church. We find it difficult to interpret the end of breast-feeding as sudden rejection q? the child. The bottle-and C'nation babies observed were the recipients of much fondling by their mothers and of rivalry among siblings over feeding theme The health of Canadian Indians is the ooncern of the Indian Health Services, Department of National Welfare and Health, which took it oer from the Indian Affairs Branch in 1948. It is battling with small funds, ] 12?2 but increasing success, the long terrible sufferings and subsequent deaths from tuberculosis. One agency of acculturation in many Miomac lifes is .undoubtedly the tab. sanitarium. On the envelopes of Christmas cards we received from Miramichi are tuberculosis seals of the Canadian Red Cross, bought by families all of which have had at least one victim of the disease. The role of the Roman Catholic Church in the 17th century as a means of deliberate acculturation has been stated. Qonversion is complete and partial: no Protestant missionary has had a chance of success among the M1cmac; and each Catholic Miomac retains some remnants of the old beliefs. In. addition to the comfort which the faith brings to many, the Church has had certain definite successes. Micmac are married in the sight of God and man. They are not divorced, although marriages are perhaps no more stable than in aboriginal days. Priests and nuns can be, and often are, u"ympathetic friends and counsellors who, if they are native to the coun- tryside, as many are, understand the Indian and his problems. The Church .contributes to social life, through encouraging the Sundy afternoon Bingo games at the Band-house to raise money for its support-another push to- ward acculturation. The following notes made after a Mass held at Burnt Church in 1950 illustrate the sensible way the Church approaches its Mic- ca members: The priest read notices covering the following topics: 1* First reading of wedding banns. 2. Priest will bring a show (the movie, "Green Dolphin Street") : # to the White town-hall on Friday night. Don't schedule a bigibaseball game'for evrycne'to go to as you-didllast Friday. (It is from the proceeds of these shows that the priest buys equipment for the Miomao baseball team and pays their travelling expenses for games away from home.) 3 Announcement of a Bingo game at the Catholic church in a nearby town. All are welcome; door prize of $50. If you can't come, send 40 cents and your name, and you will be be eligible for the $50* 4* A lawyer will be at the store at Neguao every Wednesday afternoon. If you need to see a lawyer, see this man and don't waste time and money on taxis to take you to New- castle. 5. Stop peeking in the teacher's windows after dark. It isntt nice or polite. This is the first time there has been such a complaint. 6. Be sure to bring all of your babies which are over six months of age to the clinic at the school-house on Wedzros- day, to be inoculated and immunized against smallpox whoop- ping cough, and diptheriao On nearly every Reserve, next door to the church stands the day sohools Before Canadian Confederation (1867) there were no Indian schools any the Maritimes; in 1893 there were seven. Burnt Church and Eel Ground toget theirs by 1898, but Big Cove, the largest of the Miramichi Reserves, [auntil 1989 refused to put up a building. The Indian Affairs Reports E ~~~~~~~~~123 ntc;es. attendance poor; great difficulty in maintaining school attenl Calice after the third grade; "the fondness for their offspring which is so admirable a characteristic of Indian parents prevents the exercise of firmness which .....is necessary even to compel children more or less pre- pared by heredity to undergo confinement and school discipline." In l 1911 the more conservative Micmac expressed much opposition to White education. The `natural way," they said, is the Indian's way. Education leads to disharmony formerly, when one man spoke, all others gave assent; now, each has a different opinion. A man who could read and write was more likely to be distrusted than respected by his fellows. In 1950 more respect, at least verbal, was given to the school. Compulsory attendance for Indians between the ages of seven and sixteen was established in 1920; and the Family Allowance instituted in 1945 is stopped if a child does not attend school. Nevertheless, neither enroll- ment nor attendance attains the level in White schoolso Like most laws that run counter to cultural sanctions, the truancy laws are not greatly enforced. Children may be absent for a period not exceeding six weeks per term to `assist in husbandry or...necessary household duties." For many Micmac these include the annual potato-picking in Maine and the Shubenacadie mayflower-gathering. The falling off between the first and the second grade is marked: in 1949-50 it was for all Canada a decrease of 57%; for Nova Scotia, 46%; New Brunswick, 43%; Burnt Church Reserve, 62*5%. The older people say that at first the children like to go to school, then they don't, and we can't make them; that is, they can not force the young to follow a course, particularly one in which the elders do not entirely believe; for to compel is not the Micmao way. Many boys and girls leave school at twelve or thirteen years of age, in spite of the loas of the $8 monthly Allowance. The favorite school subjects, according to both teachers and child* ren, are most often drawing and arithmetic. Neither of these requires the use of much English; and instruction conducted in English is a handii cap to those who come from homes which are predominantly Miomac-speaking (2 7). Despite these drawbacks, the school has been a strong agent for acculturation. In 1950 nearly all Micmac between the ages of forty and fifty could read and write some English, and probably all adults who were not more than thirty years of age could do so; only a few very old peopl& could not speak English, and many were fluent speakers. On 411 Reserves some subscribe to newspapers from nearby towns or from Halifax or 'St. John, and make some use of the information thus obtained. For instanoes a woman in the Miramichi obtained her adopted son by reading about babie, of Indian girls and White air force men offered for adoption through a St. John maternity hospital. Micmac women, like Whites. pour over Eaton "wish book" and. send mail orders. They correspond with friends away fro* the Reserves. Other probable ramifications of the educational process and the consequent modifications of personality escape short-time observ. vation. . .~~~~a omac of 1950 The greatest change between the Yicmac of 1911-12 and those of 1950 wa -their attitude toward life * Vitality and drive have to some extent eplaced general lassitude and despair,$ They now want the material -. bhings of White culture. They are ready and eager to consume all of the ods they can obtain. But their idea of the method of securing them is amost entirely the hope for greater munificence from a paternalistic vernment which owes them everything. Because of their isolation on serves and of segregation in schools they have little realization of the Whites around them obtain tho things both groups desire. They te for the most part in a poor econlomic environment; and many Whites s away; but Miemac stay and, thanks to help from the Government, will t starve. In many instances intelligent Micmac are so habituated to ir culture and its presuppositions that they are blind to the funda- bal viewpoints and factual situations of White culture. To cite an example: at one Reserve the chief, a man in the early rties, spoke to us while we were walking through the settlement on hevening of our arrival, and briefly passed the time of day. His ttitude was cordial and open* Almost immediately, however, he embarked an oration, carried on in conversational tones, the import, if not the met words, of which was as followss "The Micmac are a great people-and ed to awn all of this Province CNew Brunswick]. "The Indians used to own all of North America. What they gave to Whites was worth millions, perhaps billions, of.dollo'rso Db yout. ow any Micmac down in the States? "Well, they came from the States* The Government there cwes them llions of dollars. Other Indians have been trying to get this money; they can not get it, for the Government in the States is holding it or the Micmac and will not give it to any other Indians. Some day we 11i get it." We were told that this man's campaign for election to the chieftain- ipwas carried on in terms of great benefits he would obtain for the omao from the Government. If acculturation is to succeed to the full-whether it is desirable another matter--the individual must become a member of the larger ity of the Maritimes, of Canada, and of the modern worlds The omao have not achieved that status. (28)o 1a5 ENDNOTES lo RSW joined WiMDW in the 1950 field work and in the preparation of this articles 2. The visit in 1950 was made possible by grants from the Anthropology Department and from the Graduate School Research Fund, University of Minnesota. 3 ' The manuscript of the 1911-1912 field trips, with additions of 1950 material is now in preparation for publication. 4o Biard, in Jesuit Relations, vol. I, 177. Biard tells this story not to illustrate the a5'ot.on of European foods but to complain of Micmac presumption. A further cause of dissatisfaction with the savages which he relates to his Provincial in Paris is their extreme incompotonce as language teachers to the French# 5. Lescarbot, 57. 6. Jesuit Relaticns, vol. I, 141, 1611. 7. Je suit Relations, vol. 30, 127-143. 8. Dier6villea 90 Denys. vol. 2, 442-444. 10. Lescarbot, 59* 11. Wright. Several Micmac accounts of the burning of the church and of the Great Fire of 1825, recorded in 1911-12, are in Wallist manuscript. 12. Big Cove. Burnt Church, Eel Ground, Red Bank. 13s Canada, Indian Reports. 14. Diereville, 78, footnote. 15. Diereville, 76-77@ 16 Captured by the British in 1755 as a secret agent. He was a prisoner for eight years. 17. Le Loutre, 18o Canada, Indian Reports, 1896-1950. 19. The last mentioned by a boy, age 14. Hi s sister, 10, drew a'. toolbox in the same place. 126 20. You and Your Family, Information Services Division, Dopartment of National Health & Welfare, Ottawa, Canada, 139 21. 1891. "At their great festival of Ste. Anne they have a nuimber of visitors and all.work is suspended for a weekte celebrationott 1893. `This is one of those Reserves where they celebrate the festi- val of Ste. Ann during which term they ignore work." Indian Affairs Reports. 22. Hallowell, 255. :23. Diereville, 9. ;24* An old lady at Shubenacadie recalled the great contests in which she.had defeated "Frank Smith" (Frank Speck). 25. The Family Allowance was not introduced until 1945. RSW plans to continue in 1953 the study of adopted children in Micmac society begun in 1950. 26. E. J. Blakey, Superintendent, Miramichi Indian Agency. Communica- tion to RSYW.o 27* Further material about the Micmac schools will be presented else- where in papers now in preparations studies of. drawings in coopera- tion with Professor Dale Bo Harris, and of child training by Ruth Wallis. 28. We are deeply indebted to the cooperation and kindness in 1950, of the following agencies and individuals: the Canadian Department of Citizenship and Immigration, Indian Affairs Branch, for permission to do fieldwork in the Maritime Provinces, and for patient answers to our inquires; to Mr. E. J. Blakey, Superintendent, Miramichi Indian Agency, and to Mr0 H. C. Rice, Superintendent at Shubenacadie for time and information granted us during our visits; to Miss Gilberte Allain and Miss Delphine, Murphy, understanding teachers in Miramichi schools; to Agency personnel and Sisters of Charity, most helpful to us at Shubenacadie; to the late William Martin and to to William Sayres, then students in the Department of Social Relax* tions, Harvard University, who generously shared with us their find- ings at Shubenacadie; and to many Micmac rionds in the Maritimo Provinces. l~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~2 BIBLIOGRAPHY Canada, Indian Affairs 1886-1950 Annual Reports* 1886-1930 Sessional Papors, Department of Indian Affairs* 1934~1949 Department of Mines and Resources, Indian Affairs Branchd 1950M- Department of Citizonship ai'd Immigration, Indian Affairs Branch. Denys, Nicolas 1908 Description Leographique et histor e des costes do 11Amerique se ntPae, v , Paris, C. Bobin 1672, translated by STi ham F. Ganong, The Champlain Society, Toronto. Diereville, le Sieur de 1933 Relation des Voyages du Port Royal do 11Acadie ou do Ta NoLWelle France, 1708, edited by John Clarence 7.,[ebster, The Champlain Society, Toronto. Hallowell, A. I. 1946 "tSome Psychological Characteristics of the Northeastern Indians," in Man in Northeastorn North Amorica, Papers of the Ro~ort S. sabody-Foundation forArchaeologyo Vol. 3, pp9 195-225. Le Clereq, Christian 1910 Nouvelle Relation do la Gaspesie, Paris, 1691, translated by W. F Ganong, Chamnpain Society, Toronto. Le Loutres Abbe Jean-Louis 1931 Autobiographie, edited par A. David. Nova Francia, organe de la Societ4 dHistoiro -du Canada, Volo VI, no o 1, pp. 1-34. 128 soarbot, Marc 1618 ifistoire de la Nouvelle France, Paris, 3rd od. )vaites, Reuben Gold, Editor . 1896.4901 The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Cleveland, it ~~Ohio* ! ~ ~ &io :-. hllis, Wilson Do. MMss. Tales and Traditions of the M.iomac Indians. tight, Estor Clark 1945 - The Miramichi, The Tribund Press, Saokville, N. B. 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