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COLONIAL
REPORTS--MISCELLANEOUS.
No. 54.
NEWFOUNDLAND.
REPORT BY THE GOVERNOR ON A VISIT TO THE MICMAC INDIANS AT BAY
D'ESPOIR.
Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty.
September, 1908.
THE GOVERNOR TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
Government House,
St. John's,
8th July, 1908.
MY LORD,
I have the honour to inform you that I left St. John's on the 28th
May to visit the settlement of the Micmac Indians at Bay d'Espoir,
on the south coast of this Island.
Bay d'Espoir is a long inlet of the sea, extending up country over a
score of miles. The district is hilly, and is covered by a forest of
rather small trees, spruce and birch, but further inland the hills
are generally bare. There are comparatively few European residents
in this bay.
2. The Micmac settlement is on a reservation situated on the eastern
side of the Conne arm of the bay, with a frontage to the water of
230 chains, with an average depth of about 30 chains. It is on the
slope of a wooded hill which is generally steep down to the sea, and
at most places hard and rocky, covered by spruce forest. Most of the
Micmac houses are on an area of about a quarter of a mile, where the
ground is least steep and most suitable for building and gardening.
In Appendix I. hereto is given a list of the 23 families, consisting
of 131 persons, now living on or near the Reservation; and of the 7
persons that have left it for Glenwood in this Colony. Two years ago
three families left the Reservation to settle at Lewisport, and have
not returned.
3. The Reservation, it appears, was laid off for the Micmacs about
1872, by Mr. Murray, Geological Surveyor of the Colony. It contained
24 blocks of about 30 acres each, with a water frontage of 10
chains. From the copy of the plan of the Reservation enclosed
herewith it will be noticed that each parcel was to form the subject
of a personal grant to the individual whose name is on the
allotment. The right then conferred was in each case a "licence to
occupy," of which I enclose a copy in blank form. The licence, it
will be observed, would, on the fulfilment of certain conditions,
have been replaced by a grant in fee, after five years. In few
cases, if in any, have the terms of the licence been complied with,
and no grant in fee or other title has been issued to any of the
occupants on this Reservation.
4. These Micmacs are hunters and trappers, and are ignorant alike of
agriculture, of seamanship, and of fishing. There are not more than
three or four acres of cultivated land in the whole settlement. The
greatest cultivator would not grow in one year more than three or
four barrels of potatoes and a few heads of cabbage. There are two
miserable cows in the place, and some of the least poor Micmacs
possess three or four extremely wretched sheep. They have
practically no fowls, but I saw one fowl and a tame wild goose.
Their houses are small and inferior, of sawn timber, but have
windows of glass. A few hundred yards of road, constructed at the
expense of the Government, traverses the end of the settlement where
most of the people reside.
5. The community is Roman Catholic, and they have a small church,
decently well built and kept, on the best site on the Reservation.
It is built of sawn timber and would contain nearly one hundred
people, which is too small for the festival of St. Anne, the
patroness of the congregation. Over the entrance to the church there
is printed in large characters, in the Micmac language, a total
prohibition against spitting in church.
The cemetery immediately adjoins the church, and there they bury
their dead as members of a single family.
They have had a small school open since the 17th January last. It is
a wooden room, about 12 feet by 15 feet, by no means new, with a
small stove and two little windows.
The teacher is a woman of partly Micmac origin. She receives some
very small allowance from the parish priest, and a few of the
children, she says, pay some small fees. There are 34 children on
the roll, and the winter attendance was from 25 to 30. They are
divided into three classes, the highest of which could read slowly,
in English, words of three or four letters. About half of them could
write a little, a few of them surprisingly well on such brief
tuition. The teacher says they are very amenable to discipline.
Seldom has a school been started under greater difficulties than
this Micmac institution. I was able sincerely to congratulate the
teacher on what she has been able to accomplish under such
unfavourable circumstances. It is manifest that the children are
bright and clever, and that they would become useful and intelligent
citizens if they had ordinary educational advantages.
In this probably lies the best hope of a future prospect for this
community. The settlement is visited now once a month by the parish
priest; and in his absence, one of themselves, Stephen Jeddore,
reads the service on Sunday. Last year they were visited by the
Right Reverend Bishop McNeil.
6. They appear to be a comparatively healthy people. So far as
known, no one is at present affected by tuberculosis in any form. I
saw one woman of ninety years of age, Sarah Aseleka, perhaps the
only Micmac of pure blood in the settlement. She was born at Bay St.
George, and came to Bay d'Espoir some three score of years ago when
the Micmacs first settled in this bay. The next oldest person is
John Bernard, who is about eighty. Few of them were even fairly well
clothed; the majority were in rags. A few wore home-made deer-skin
boots, but most of them had purchased ready-made boots or shoes.
They make deer-skin boots by scraping caribou skin, and tanning it
in a decoction of spruce bark. Such boots are, they state, worn
through in a few days. The women can spin wool, and knit stockings.
Their food consists chiefly of flour, a few potatoes, some cabbage,
and perhaps about half a score of caribou a year for each family,
hung up on trees and thus frozen during the winter. They also smoke
fish, principally freshwater fish, and obtain a few grouse and
hares, but this small game has almost disappeared from the district.
They have to go inland a score
of miles to obtain caribou for food.
The men are of good size, and strongly built, but clearly of mixed
descent, many being nearly like Europeans. The children have all,
without exception, very dark, soft eyes, straight black hair, and
the nose much more prominent than in the Esquimaux of Labrador.
7. The principal Chief is Olibia, but I unfortunately did not meet
him. He had gone out in March to his trapping ground near Mount
Sylvester, but could not then reach his traps on account of the
unusually great quantity of snow, and he had returned thither at the
time of my visit.
I was informed that he was selected as Chief by the Micmacs of the
Reservation, and was appointed by the principal Micmac Chief at St.
Anne's, Nova Scotia, and by the priest. I was shown the insignia of
office worn on ceremonial occasions by the Chief. It consists of a
gold medallion with a chain attached, the whole in a case covered by
red velvet. The medallion is inscribed "Presented to the Chief of
the Micmacs Indians of Newfoundland," but with neither name nor
date. The
community paid for this badge of office forty-eight dollars.
The second chief is Geodol--called in English Noel Jeddore--who
represented Olibia in his absence. Geodol is the owner of one of the
two cows on the Reservation, and his brother possesses the second
one. The Chieftainship is not hereditary, but is conferred, when a
vacancy occurs, on the man the people prefer. They are easy to
govern and seldom quarrel. They have no intoxicating liquor and
seldom obtain any. They pay 60 to 70 cents a pound for their
tobacco, 20 to 30 cents for gunpowder, and 10 cents for shot. They
sell their fur locally where they make their small family purchases.
8. The head of each family has his own special trapping ground in
the interior, over which others may travel, fish, or shoot, but not
trap. For example Geodol, the second chief, traps about Gulp Lake;
Olibia, the chief, about Mount Sylvester; Nicholas Jeddore about
Burnt Hill; George Jeddore at Bare Hill and Middle Ridge; Stephen
Jeddore at Scaffold Hill; Noel Matthews at Great Burnt Lake; &c.
None go as far north as the railway, but Meiklejohn goes as far as
John's Pond. Europeans are encroaching on their trapping lands, but
do not go far inland. This pushes the Micmacs further inland to get
away from the Europeans. They claim no fishing rights at sea, and
say frankly they are only trappers and guides.
They go inland in September, when their first care is to shoot a
deer and smoke the flesh as food. They return home from the 20th to
the 25th November to prepare their traps for fox, lynx, otter, and
bear. In December they shoot, as winter food for the family, does
and young stags, but not old stags. They say the arctic hare is now
very rare on their trapping lands; and snipe, geese, and ducks are
far fewer than they were a few years ago. They appear to be very
careful not to waste
venison, never killing any deer they do not actually require and use
as food.
9. It is not possible to regard the present condition and the
prospects of this settlement of Micmacs as being bright. Game, their
principal food, is manifestly becoming more difficult to procure;
their trapping lands are being encroached upon by Europeans; they
are not seamen; they are not fishermen; and they do not understand
agriculture. In the middle of their Reservation a saw-mill has been
in operation some years, apparently on the allotment of Bernard
John, but without his sanction or permission, and, it seems, in
spite of the protests of the community. None of the Micmacs work at
this mill. Formerly they cut logs for it, but the trees that grew
near the water have, they say, all been used up and there are none
left within their reach that they could bring to the water. The
saw-mill is thus an eyesore to them, as it is on what they regard as
their land, and in defiance of them.
Although they have not complied with the conditions set forth on the
form of licence, which would have entitled them to a grant in fee,
yet their occupation has extended over so many years that there is
no probability whatever that the Government of Newfoundland would
withhold from them grants, as a matter of grace, if they only
applied for them and could show how they could use the land. It
would not be difficult to find a location for the community that
would be more suitable for them so far as cultivation is concerned,
and be equally good for hunting and trapping. With some aid, such as
supplies of seed potatoes and a few animals, they could no doubt
derive much greater resources than at present from agriculture,
especially if to that were added a good school for the young.
The question of their trapping lands will have to be dealt with
before long. Each man regards his rights to his trapping area as
unimpeachable. They are recognised at present among themselves, but
they have no official sanction or their trapping lands either as a
community or as individuals, just as they have no official title to
the Reservation.
I was accompanied on this visit by the Honourable Eli Dawe, Minister
of Marine and Fisheries, who, as a member of the Government, will
himself take an interest in the settlement, and call the attention
of his colleagues to the condition of the Micmacs. I was also
assisted by Mr. James Howley, who has been on friendly terms with
these people for many years. I enclose photographs[A] of some of the
Micmacs, taken by Mr. Howley during this visit.
10. The Micmacs are held by ethnologists to be a branch of the
Algonquins, who inhabited Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. It
was from the last-named province that they extended to Newfoundland,
apparently not much more than a century ago. The fact that they
didnot effect a lodgment on Newfoundland sooner may be at least
partly accounted for by supposing that the Beothuks, the aboriginal
natives of Newfoundland, were able to defend themselves and their
country from the Micmacs so long as both sides were unprovided with
firearms, and until the Beothuks were nearly destroyed by their
French and English aggressors.
A sufficiently accurate view of the arrival and early doings of the
Micmacs in Newfoundland may be had from the brief extracts from
official records enclosed herewith. Governor Duckworth reports in
1809 that the Micmacs were coming over, and that the Beothuks were
keeping to the interior in dread of them. The Governor followed up
this Report next year (1810) by a Proclamation to the Micmacs and
other American Indians frequenting Newfoundland, warning them that
any person that murdered a native Indian (Beothuk) would be punished
with death. Unfortunately this Proclamation it would appear had no
restraining effect, as Governor Keats reports to the Secretary of
State in 1815 that the Micmacs had recently come over from Nova
Scotia in greater numbers, and had reached the eastern coast of
Newfoundland; and he expressed the fear that these newcomers would
destroy the native Indians of the Island, whose arms were the bow
and arrow.
The Micmacs, it appears, have always possessed firearms since they
arrived in Newfoundland. On the other hand I have never heard of a
single instance in which the native Beothuks ever obtained such a
weapon. The fears of Governor Keats were therefore only too well
founded. The unfortunate Beothuk was thus crushed out of existence
by the white man and the invading Micmac. Between the white man and
the Beothuk there was always hostility; and I have not heard of any
family or person in Newfoundland in whose veins flows Beothuk blood.
On the other hand it may be doubted whether there is a single
pure-blooded Micmac on the Island to-day. As an ethnic unit the
Micmac can therefore hardly be said to exist here.
At the same time the Micmac community, such as it is, will not, at
least for several generations, be absorbed into the European
population of Newfoundland. It is at present a separate entity, and
as such clearly requires special attention and treatment at the
hands of the Administration, for the Reservation families have
claims on Newfoundland by right of a century of Micmac occupation,
and by virtue of the European blood that probably each one of them
has inherited.
I have, &c.,
WM. MACGREGOR.
The Right Honourable
The Earl of Crewe, K.G.,
&c., &c., &c.
FOOTNOTES:
APPENDIX I.
MICMACS AT CONNE SETTLEMENT, 29th May, 1908.
Head of Family. Family. Condition of Members
of Family.
Stephen Joe 5 Self, wife, 3 children.
Stephen Bernard 5 Self, mother, 3 children.
Noel Matthew 13 Self, wife, 11 children.
Nicholas Jeddore 5 Self, wife, 3 children.
Noel Jeddore 9 Self, wife, 7 children.
Bernard John 2 Self, wife.
John 5 Self, sister, 3 brothers.
Joseph Jeddore 3 Self, wife, 1 brother.
Stephen Jeddore 7 Self, wife, 5 children.
John McDonald, Sr. 2 Self, wife.
John D. Jeddore 2 Self, wife.
John McDonald, Jr. 7 Self, wife, 5 children.
William Drew 4 Self, wife, 2 children.
Matthew Burke 4 Self, wife, 2 children.
John Benoit 9 Self, wife, 7 children.
Ben Benoit 12 Self, wife, 10 children.
John Juks 7 Self, 6 children.
Edward Pullett 4 Self, wife, 2 children.
Reuben Louis 2 Self, sister.
Thomas McDonald 8 Self, wife, 6 children.
Peter Joe 5 Self, wife, 3 children.
John Martin 3 Self, wife, 1 child.
Total Micmacs on the Reservation, 123.
Living off the Reservation were
Head of Family. Family. Condition of Members
of Family.
William McDonald 8 Self, wife, 6 children.
_Gone to Glenwood._
Lewis John 5 Self, wife, 3 children.
Peter John 1 Self.
Louis John 1 Self.
_Totals._
Living on the Reservation 123
Living near the Reservation 8
Gone from the Reservation to Glenwood 7
----
Total 138
----
APPENDIX II.
NEWFOUNDLAND. _No._
_To all to whom these Presents
shall come, I,_ ANTHONY
MUSGRAVE, _Esquire, Governor
and Commander-in-Chief in and
over the island of Newfoundland
and its Dependencies, &c., &c._
SEND GREETING:
WHEREAS ______________________
of __________________________ desirous of permanently settling on
the Land hereinafter mentioned: KNOW YE, that in pursuance of the
power and authority vested in me by the Act of the Legislature of
this Colony, passed in the 23rd year of the Reign of Her present
Majesty, entitled "An Act to amend an Act passed in the Seventh
year of Her Majesty's Reign, entitled 'An Act to make provision
for the Disposal and Sale of ungranted and unoccupied Crown Lands,
within the Island of Newfoundland and its Dependencies, and for
other purposes';" I, the said Governor, do hereby give to the said
________________________ a License to Occupy all that Piece or
Parcel of Land situate and being
__________________________________________________________________
To Have and to Hold the same, with all rights and all privileges
thereto belonging, to the said ________________________________
Executors, Administrators and Assigns, for the term of Five Years
from the date of these Presents: Provided always that if the said
_____________________ shall have settled on and occupied the said
Land for the said term of Five Years, and have cultivated _____
acres thereof, within the said term, and have conformed to the
provisions of said Act, _____ shall be entitled to a Grant in fee,
under the Great Seal, for the said Land: but should he fail to
comply with the conditions of this License and conform to the said
Act, he shall forfeit all claim to the said Land and Grant
aforesaid.
Given under my Hand and Seal at St. John's
in Our Island of Newfoundland, this
___________ day of ______________
Anno Domini One Thousand Eight
Hundred and _________________
By His Excellency's Command,
_Colonial Secretary._
APPENDIX III.
"Antelope" at Spithead.
25th November, 1809.
I am sorry to inform Your Lordship that I am again disappointed in
my hopes of coming at the Native Indians (Beothuks); they still keep
in the interior of the Island (it is reported) from a dread of the
Micmacs, who come over from Cape Breton. The articles that were
purchased for them are deposited in the Naval Store House at St.
John's, where I have directed them to be kept for some future trial
of meeting with them.
THE GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS TO THE MICMACS, &C.
His Excellency, Sir John Thomas Duckworth, K.B., Vice-Admiral of the
Red, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Island of
Newfoundland, &c.
To the Micmacs, the Esquimaux, and other American Indians
frequenting the said Island, Greeting:
WHEREAS it is the gracious pleasure of His Majesty the King, my
master, that all kindness should be shewn to you in his Island of
Newfoundland, and that all persons of all nations at friendship with
him should be considered in this respect as his own subjects, and
equally claiming his protection while they are within his Dominions:
This is to greet you in His Majesty's name and to entreat you to
live in harmony with each other, and to consider all his subjects
and all persons inhabiting in his Dominions as your brothers, always
ready to do you service, to redress your grievances, and to relieve
you in your distress. In the same light also are you to consider the
native Indians of this Island; they too are, equally with ourselves,
under the protection of our King, and therefore equally entitled to
your friendship. You are entreated to behave to them on all
occasions as you would do to ourselves. You know that we are your
friends, and as they too are our friends, we beg you to be at peace
with each other. And withal, you are hereby warned that the safety
of these Indians is so precious to His Majesty, who is always the
support of the feeble, that if one of ourselves were to do them
wrong he would be punished as certainly and as severely as if the
injury had been done to the greatest among his own people, and he
who dared to murder any one of them would be severely punished with
death; your own safety is in the same manner provided for; see
therefore that you do no injury to them. If an Englishman were known
to murder the poorest and the meanest of your Indians, his death
would be the punishment of his crime. Do you not therefore deprive
any one of our friends, the native Indians, of his life, or it will
be answered with the life of him who has been guilty of murder.
Fort Townshend, St. John's, Newfoundland,
1st August, 1810.
J.T. DUCKWORTH.
Abxtr act from Despatch from Governor Sir R.G. Keats to the
Secretary of State, 10th November, 1815.
Some years ago the Micmac Indians formed a settlement in St.
George's Bay on the West Coast of Newfoundland, which is thriving
and industrious. The success of this settlement has probably aduced
others to follow them, and latterly they have come over in more
considerable numbers, penetrated into the country and shewn
themselves the present season on the eastern coast of Newfoundland.
It is to be feared the arrival of these new comers will prove fatal
to the native Indians of the Island, whose arms are the bow, with
whom their tribe as well as the Esquimaux are at war, and whose
number it is believed has for some years past not exceeded a few
hundred.
10th November, 1815. |
