INDEPTH: CHAMPLAIN ANNIVERSARY
How French settlement affected Mi'kmaq people
Patricia Doyle-Bedwell | May 10, 2004
Samuel de Champlain arrived in Nova Scotia on May 12, 1604. The establishment of French outposts in Atlantic Canada led to the founding of Acadia.
Mi'kmaq legend had long foretold the arrival of white men from across the ocean, and the appearance of Europeans in tall ships seemed to fulfil this prophecy:
"Micmacs' first contact with Europeans did not surprise them or alter their world view. A legend in which one of their spiritual beings travelled across the Atlantic to 'discover' Europe taught that blue-eyed people would arrive from the east to disrupt their lives.
Micmac people also knew the story of a woman who had a vision of an island floating
toward their lands; the island was decked out with tall trees on which were living beings.
Thus the Micmacs were not startled by the appearance of early explorers in sailing ships.
Instead, they greeted the newcomers, set up a brisk trade with them, and looked forward to incorporating the strangers' new technologies into their own culture.
Relations with outsiders grew more complex when the Micmacs began converting to Catholicism. This process occurred over a 70-year period, beginning with the conversion of Grand Chief Membertou in 1610."
-Mi'kmaq Resource Centre
The arrival of the French, and later the British, significantly changed the Mi'kmaq way of life. When I look at my family tree I see the French influence on my own family. When I listen to the Mi'kmaq language I hear Mi'kmaq words borrowed from the French. The fact that I am Catholic stems from the time of the first contact when Chief Membertou converted to Catholicism.
Courtesy: National Archives of Canada
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I am Mi'kmaq. I feel a strong connection to my ancestors and their struggles for survival. Mi'kmaq people did not passively accept the newcomers, nor did they give up their power. Instead, we survived by adapting and evolving.
According to stories passed down through Mi'kmaq oral tradition, one of our ancestors had a vision about the arrival of the white man. Perhaps this vision arose from our contact with early Viking settlers. Regardless, Mi'kmaq people have always known that more white people would arrive on their shores.
Mi'kmaq values of sharing and helping ensured that the French would be welcomed here. The French faced life-threatening conditions in the "New World." Without the assistance of the Mi'kmaq, they most certainly would have died. I believe that the Mi'kmaq treated the newcomers in accord with our principles of sharing and inclusion. The French and Mi'kmaq remained allies.
I wonder how our world would have taken shape if the French had not arrived.
Our first experience of the newcomers was based on sharing and caring, and established the parameters of the relationship. The Order of Good Cheer, created by Champlain, included Mi'kmaq people. Some consider the conversion of Chief Membertou to the Catholic faith the first treaty between the Mi'kmaq and the Holy See. Champlain mapped the area and opened the doors to further settlement. He did not do this alone but with the aid of the Mi'kmaq and other aboriginal peoples.
Mi'kmaq people traded with the French and became dependent on foreign goods. Our trade in furs for these goods caused a shift in the economic roles of men and women. The conversion to Catholicism further eroded women's roles in our community as the French missionaries felt that men did not have enough power. The Jesuits who arrived on our shores became friends and allies, but they also felt obliged to "civilize" the "sauvages."
Courtesy: National Archives of Canada
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The French did not infringe upon Mi'kmaq territory but instead respected our territory. This may have been self-interest as the fur trade depended upon Mi'kmaq people hunting in their own territories. The French profited from this trade.
But all was not sweetness and light. With the goods and the newcomers, came sickness. Our people began to die from illnesses our medicine people could not cure. Our population decreased significantly during the early period of contact with first the French, and then the British.
If disease had not decimated the Mi'kmaq people, the history of Nova Scotia might have been very different. The friendship between the French and the Mi'kmaq could have changed the military outcome in Nova Scotia if we had not suffered such a population loss.
In commemorating the arrival of the French in Acadia, we cannot forget the impact of their arrival on the Mi'kmaq people and our territory, Mikamaki. Without the Mi'kmaq, the French would have not survived. At the same time, the arrival of the French wrought great change in the Mi'kmaq in terms of our religious beliefs, our trade and our health.
Our language reflects the influence of French speakers, notably the word "Magasan" for store. The Mi'kmaq people had a name for the French, "Wenuj." The influence of the French has been far-reaching. Despite the influence of the newcomers, we as a people have survived, changed but intact.
Patricia Doyle-Bedwell is a Mi'kmaq who teaches law at Dalhousie University.
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The Works of Champlain and The History of New France by Marc Lescarbot are available at: The Champlain Society
READING:
Champlain by Joe C. W. Armstrong (MacMillan of Canada, 1987)
The Beginnings of New France 1524-1663 by Marcel Trudel (McLelland and Stewart, 1973)
Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France by Samuel Eliot Morison (Little Brown and Company, 1972)
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