Mi’kMaq and the natural world

The Mi’kmaq spoke a language which was a member of the Algonkian family. It was closely related to that spoken by their neighbours the Malecite and Passamaquoddy, and distantly related to other Algonkian-speakers such as the Beothuk and the Innu. In the early historic period, the fundamental unit of Mi’kmaq society was the extended family, which could consist of a leader (sagamaw) of a group of related people including the sagamaw’s immediate family, his married children and their families, and other relatives who lived with him. At times and places where food was plentiful, a number of these local groups could form bands which in the summer could range up to two to three hundred people. On occasion, the sagamaws came together in a kind of council to discuss important matters, especially those having to do with peace and war. A traditional account of the Mi’kmaq people also holds that their land was divided into seven regions and that each region was led by a chief. The Cape Breton regional chief was considered a Grand Chief. It is not clear if this arrangement existed in prehistoric times, and most authorities believe that Mi’kmaq society was essentially an egalitarian one whose leaders were chosen because of the prestige and status that they had earned. Their leadership, it is argued, largely consisted of being able to create agreement within a band about what to do. Such leadership was particularly important in resolving conflicts within a group, negotiating alliances with other people, going to war with enemies, and making decisions about when and where to hunt and fish.

Since the Mi’kmaq lived a bit too far north to be able to depend upon aboriginal crops such as corn, beans, and squash, they relied upon the resources of the forests and the sea. To do so, Mi’kmaq groups had to follow precisely-timed schedules. According to Father Biard, in January they hunted seals on the coasts and off-shore islands, while the period from February to the middle of March was spent inland hunting moose, caribou, beaver and bear. In the last half of March, the people moved out to the coasts and estuaries to catch smelt, and by the end of April herring were available. The spring also brought migratory sea birds and salmon. From May to the middle of September the Mi’kmaq fished and gathered shellfish. Then they moved to the tributaries of the larger rivers to take eel, and in October and November groups moved inland to hunt moose, caribou and beaver. In December, young cod were taken under the ice.

The Mi’kmaq did not make a distinction, as Europeans did, between
what was natural and what was supernatural or spiritual. On the contrary,
not only people, but animals, the sun, rivers, or even rocks, could have a
spirit–could be a person. The sun had special significance, but the
Mi’kmaq believed that all of the universe was filled with a spirit called
mntu or manitou. The universe had become understandable
to the Mi’kmaq in part because of Glooscap or Klu’skap,
who taught the people how the world had come into being and how it
worked now. In the 19th century, a Nova Scotia Baptist missionary
named Silas Rand collected many of the oral traditions of the Mi’kmaq,
including a number of tales recounting Glooskap’s exploits.

Like most hunter-gatherer peoples, the Mi’kmaq had shamans,
religious specialists, who lived among them. These individuals,
called puoin, had the power to cure ills (and to cause them),
and they were relied upon to interpret the spiritual world to the
people. Although Christian missionaries tried to discredit the
puoin and the world-view that they represented, many traditional
beliefs and practices persisted, some down to the present day.

© 1997, Ralph T. Pastore
Archaeology Unit & History Department
Memorial University of Newfoundland