A MICMAC CREATION STORY
The Birth Of Mnigu
After creating the universe, the Great Spirit sat down to rest. Then he created Glooscap and gave him special spiritual and physical powers. He called Glooscap to share the sacred pipe and said, “Glooscap, I am going to create people in my image. They will be special people who will have a mind of their own. You will teach these people, but they will have a choice between good and evil. I will call them Micmac.”
The Great Spirit took out his special bow and selected a magic arrow from his quiver. He shot this arrow into a huge sacred birch tree. He arrow hit the tree with a resounding crash and tore the bark into many pieces. The Great Spirit picked up these pieces of bark and blew upon them and they instantly turned into beautiful men, women and children, who had healthy, dark red complexions. They remained in a deep sleep.
The Great Spirit was pleased with his creation. He took out his sacred pipe and again called Glooscap. As the Great Spirit was smoking he noticed a large amount of dark red clay left over. “Glooscap, look at this large piece of clay, the same colour as my Micmac people. I will shape this clay into a crescent form and it will be the most beautiful of all places on mother Earth. It will become the home of my Micmac People…”
The Great Spirit fashioned an enchanting island and called it Mnigu. He dressed her dark red skin with green grass and lush forests of many different kinds of trees, and sprinkled her with many brightly coloured flowers. Her forest floors were like deep soft carpets which would cushion the moccasined feet of the Micmac people.
The Great Spirit continued. “Glooscap, take Mnigu and my beloved Micmac people and place them in the most peaceful part of Mother Earth. The Micmac people will remain asleep until you reach your destination… After you have rested from your long journey, take this special arrow and use it for anything the Micmac people might need for survival… Glooscap, you will… return … when I send our Loon messenger to you. Until then, I want you to live with the Micmac people and teach them how to care for all that I have created
- Archaeology is a scientific approach to the study of the past
- Oral tradition and archaeology teach about the past in different ways.
- Our knowledge of past cultures is based on artefacts, oral tradition and written history.
- Many types of artefacts provide evidence of life in ancient times.
- Many different ways of life developed in North America.
North American peoples developed many different ways of life, partly in response to the different environmental conditions they encountered, and partly as a result of the invention and sharing of new technologies. Archaeology reveals this diversity: the things people made are clues to how they made a living; what they used for food, clothing and shelter, where they travelled and what their spiritual beliefs may have been – in short, their technology helps us imagine what their way of life was like. By studying artefacts and sites where they are found, archaeologists have learned a great deal abut the history of the Maritime region before the arrival of Europeans. They have been able to make an approximate timeline of significant cultural developments and the effects of contacts with people and ideas from other parts of North America.
- There are many kinds of material evidence that archaeologists do not find at sites in the Maritimes.
- People have been living in North America for at least 12000 years.
- Recent discoveries indicate that people may have been in North America longer.
What survives in the Maritimes?
- stone
- fired clay
- organic matter (rarely)
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There is rarely, if ever, conclusive evidence about who made the artefacts at a site and how the people there were related to those who lived there before and after them – excavation. In particular, there is often debate about how the people who were living in the Maritime region at different times in the pas were related to one another. It used to be assumed that people who had different ways of making things or obtaining food were not related; if a new technology appeared at a sit, this was interpreted as the arrival of a new people – as if the people of ancient times were incapable of inventing or changing or improving anything!
- The conclusions of archaeology are tentative.
- Archaeology is a valuable science, but we should also keep in mind the emotional and spiritual content of history.
- Archaeology tells only a part of the history of life in the Maritime region.
Micmacs and Maliseets know much of their history through the oral tradition, which uses the mind (for example, in remembering family history and ties to the land), the heart (in shaping human interactions and political relations), the spirit (in honouring the sacredness of stories), and the body (in understanding and surviving the hardship and suffering that occurred when a way of life was destroyed).
- It is important that native people take part in interpreting what is found at archaeological sites.
The question of who has the right to investigate the pas and who can speak about it with authority is controversial. The theory that Native people first came to North America across a land bridge at the Bering Strait has been rejected by some Native people as degrading to them. They remind archaeologists that it is the Creator who put them on this continent, that they are not immigrants and that their claim to a heritage in North America is based on the fact that they have always lived here. This is not just an argument about religion versus science Many natives see archaeology as yet another way in which non-Natives attempt to control and suppress contemporary Native culture and to deprive Native people of their beliefs.
- Who “owns” the past?
- Many Native people view archaeology as a challenge to their own culture.
- Archaeologists believe that their work has a legitimate place in the study of the history of native peoples.
Canadian archaeologist Robert McGhee has suggested three ways in which this conflict – between archaeology and other ways of knowing the past – might be resolved:
- The first is to reject Native religious beliefs and oral tradition in favour of scientific approaches; but rejecting them is neither wise nor helpful since this type of knowledge is held by all human societies and is an essential part of their culture.
- The second choice is to give up archaeological investigations of native history and allow only Native peoples themselves to study it; but this would mean that Native history would be told from a single point of view, which could not be questioned or interpreted by others.
- The third choice is to accept the idea that there are a number of ways in which knowledge of the past is “used.” Religious knowledge and oral tradition are used by all peoples in shaping their way of life. Written history, based on various points of view, can be used for specific purpose in such places as schools and courts of law. “Professional” history – pure archaeology, for instance – would be used for study purposes only.
- Archaeology can help us learn something about the history of the Maritime region.
- Everyone has personal connections with people who lived in the past.
- Graves are sacred places with personal significance.
- People of ancient times are the direct ancestors of the Micmacs and Maliseets who live in the Maritime region today.
- Archaeology is an important way of knowing about past – for all people.
Questions and Activities
1. Imagine what might be left of your classroom 1000 years from now. Which things in it would have disappeared entirely? Which tings would still be recognizable? Do you think future archaeologists would know what these artefacts were? What else could they know (and not know) about the classroom and what happened there?
2. What are some reasons why knowledge of the past is important to people living in the Maritime region today?
3. Archaeology is one way of studying history. What kinds of questions would you expect archaeology to answer definitively? What kinds of questions might receive tentative answers from archaeological investigation? What kinds of questions would archaeology not be able to answer at all?
4. What kind of evidence do you think has convinced archaeologists that the ancient people of the Maritime region had boats? (no remains of ancient boats have been found.)
5. Think about objects you own and use every day. How are they related to the environment you live in? What things would you get rid of if you lived in the tropics? In the arctic? In a desert area? What new things would you get? (Answer the same questions about your house, too.)
- The Maritime region has been occupied by people for at least 10600 years.
- People of European ancestry have lived here for less than five percent of that time.
- Daily life in the Maritimes is still shaped in part by the ideas, events and knowledge of ancient times.
BUILDING A WIGWAM
Having arrived at the place where they wish to remain, the women must build the camp. Each one does that which is her duty. One goes to find poles in the woods; another goes to break off branches of Fir, which the little girls carry. The woman who is mistress, that is, she who has borne the first boy, takes command and does not go to the woods for anything. Everything is brought to her. She fits the poles to make the wigwam and arranges the Fir to make a place for each person. This is their carpet and the feathers of their bed…
They lined all the inside of the wigwam to four fingers’ depth, with the exception of the middle, where the fire was made, which was not so lined. They arranged it so well that it could be raised all as one piece. It served them also as a mattress and as a pillow for sleeping…
If the family is a large one they make [the wigwam] long enough for two fires; otherwise they make it round, just like military tents, with only this difference that in place of canvas they are of barks of Birch. These are so well fitted that it never rains into their wigwams. The round kind holds ten to twelve persons, the long twice as many. The fires are made in the middle of the round kind, and at the two ends of the long sort.
- Nicolas Denys, 1672,
The Description and Natural History…, pp. 405-406, 423.
Questions and Activities
1. How old is your community? Does it have ties to other, older communities, either here in the Maritime region or in other parts of the world?
2. Which periods of the pas are best known to you? Which aspects of the past do you understand best? Which do you have the best “feel” for? Think about your family history, community history, provincial and national history and world history. Aldo consider your history – your “cultural roots” – from the point of view of religion, music and art, literature and oral tradition, technological developments and other aspects of culture.
3. Think about everything that has happened in your classroom since your school was built. List, in two columns, the things it would be possible to find out about and things that it would be impossible to find out. Your classmates or your teacher may disagree with the column you shoos – be prepared to defend your decisions.
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