Creation Stories: The Story of Mesh

 

First Nations have an abundance of creation stories. Many of them are ancient stories. They have been passed down for thousands of years in the form of oral stories. One of the most famous stories, is the story of Mesh.

Innu are a First Nation in eastern Canada. The Innu are the indigenous people found in much of what we now refer to as Labrador and Quebec. At one time, they were to as the Montagnais-Naskapi Indians. They are not the Inuit (or formerly  ‘Eskimo’) who live further north.

The Innu have a creation story of Mesh (pronounced and often written ‘Mee’ in Innu). That story has passed down orally through many generations.  According to that story, two which  prehistoric fish, one male and one female, came out of the water. Eventually they grew legs which of course were much more useful on land.  Legs are often quite useless in water. This made them look like lizards, and together they climbed a tree. When they came down from the tree their bodies were covered in hair and they could walk like humans today. Some people believe, not entirely without some justification that this story told by Eruoma Awashish/Terre Innu  in the CBC series shows that Indigenous people understood the concept of evolution. Evolution is the story of change caused by organisms adapting to changed circumstances. Like the two fish.

Mi’Kmaq:  Cooperation or Competition

 

As I said earlier, much of eastern Canada was Mi’Kmaq territory when Europeans first made contact.  And as I have already mentioned, the Indigenous people of North America have a deep attachment to the land they occupied. The attachment was so deep it is not an exaggeration to say it was, and is still, a spiritual connection. This is a critical difference between Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people. A friend of mine said the attachment of Mennonites was the same. I have not noticed such a strong connection, but try to keep an open mind on the issue. I invite people to correct me.

 

According to Quenton Condo, a Mi’Kmaq  member on that CBC Gem series I already blogged about, the treaty of 1752 negotiated by the Mi’Kmaq and the British Crown was by the Mi’Kmaq intended to make sure that no one would interfere with the Mi’Kmaq way of life. The problem is, according to the Mi’Kmaq, that the non-indigenous people were not taught about the treaties in Canada and now react in anger and hate when they learn what it means. This is a failure of the Canadian educational system, he says.

“After all, how much did any of us learn about treaties in school? Frankly, in my case, even in Law School, I learned almost nothing about treaties. Now I know that treaties are very important. They have constitutional significance. And treaties are fundamental to learning about Canada.”

If we know nothing about treaties, we know nothing about Canada!

 My goal on this jaunt across Canada is to learn more about Canada. Therefore I have to learn more about treaties and will blog about them.

Although, that is their [Mi’Kmaq] interpretation, it has the ring of truth as far as I am concerned. Those treaties did not give them the right to hunt. They already had those rights which they inherited from their ancestors. That of course, follows from them being part of the land, which is a fundamental principle to most indigenous peoples in North America and elsewhere.

The Innu territory and Naskapi overlapped as well as Inuit and Cree. As one Innu woman said,

“At the time of our ancestors there were no borders. Our ancestors did not use measuring tapes to say, ‘This is yours,’ and ‘this is mine.’ The territory was shared amongst all the nations. And we shared it well.

 

Indigenous people have always been willing to share.  Non-indigenous people were more aggressive. They started out willing to share, but then wanted to take over and impose their will. That is exactly what they did, and ever since Canada has had problems. The Innu woman also said that at one time there were plenty of caribou in their territory. Some said there were so many “it moved the mountain.” That would be a lot of caribou.

An unidentified woman on the CBC show said “Nations were intertwined in all aspect of our lives and in our approaches to sharing. This insured the survivals of our peoples.”

I don’t want to suggest that Indigenous People of the region were perfect. No one and no people are perfect. Not even Mennonites. Yet stories like this show the truth of those who say, people who live in places where survival is very difficult, like the Canadian north, have found that sharing works best for survival. This is what the traditional knowledge of the people of the region tells us. I can’t argue with this. This is a fundamental principle of survival.

As one Anishinabe man, Andrew “Stitch” Manitowabi, said about his people, “As an Anishinabe people we don’t go by boundaries. We use the language of speaking Anishinabe which extends into the United States in the Quebec area and northern Ontario.” This is a very different approach to determining territory.

The Anishinabe, like most Indigenous people used the language of sharing, not the language of boundaries. Non-Indigenous people did not always realize that, resulting, sometimes, in serious misunderstandings between the parties. In this country we still live difficultly with that misunderstanding. It has never gone aay.

Mi’Kmaq learned to cooperate.  Non-indigenous people must also learn.

 

 

Inch Aran Lighthouse, Dalhousie New Brunswick

 

After we left Percé, we travelled south around the Bay of Chaleur and into New Brunswick. We spent the night in the town of Dalhousie. In the morning after breakfast in an unlikely place, a Canadian Legion on the recommendation of someone in our hotel, we found another lighthouse. Again, I could not resist.

 

The Inch Arran Point Front Range Lighthouse in Dalhousie is what is called “square-tapered” and stands 11 metres (36 feet) tall. It was first built in 1870, but replaced in 1972 about a few hundred  metres to the west of where the current version stood. It is found on a flat tidal plain overlooking the famous Baie des Chaleur which played an important role in the history of Canada after settlement by the French.  This land is the most northern part of New Brunswick just south of the Restigouche River.

One of the locals insisting on taking our photograph.

 

Like so many lighthouses, it was built by Canada immediately after Confederation as the government wanted to expand the lighthouse system to improve navigation on Canada’s coasts to facilitate commerce. It was used to guide vessels into Dalhousie harbour.

Members of the Arsenault family kept the light here for sixty-five years, between 1870 and 1935.

According to real lighthouse afficionados, it stands out for its birdcage-style lantern gallery which consists of thin curved metal spars that arch around the lantern. Apparently, this feature is unique among extant lighthouses in Canada and this is the most distinctive character defining elements of this lighthouse.  To me its most important aspect on this day was how it stood out against the marvelous blue sky and water. I particularly loved its reflection in the water.  On the trip so far, I thought it was in the best light of any of the lighthouses I had seen so far on this trip.

The simplicity of the beauty without unnecessary embellishments became the favoured design for Canadian lighthouses.

 

I was also very fond of the small maple tree in the foreground. I think maples are a symbol of the beauty of Canada as are its lighthouses which, by definition, provide light into a dark and dangerous world. That’s what lighthouses do!

 

While admiring the view, we met someone from Manitoba who grew up here. often return to admire it just as I had. We agreed that if you don’t like lighthouses you don’t like life in Canada. According to Heritage Canada,

“the Inch Arran Lighthouse continues to serve regional and local shipping needs and, in clear weather, can be seen from a distance of more than 25 kilometres… [and] has an extremely high landmark value for Dalhousie and is a recognized symbol of the community. Residents have incorporated the lighthouse into their municipal identity and many think highly of the lighthouse’s services to the area.”

 

Gulls can be a pain, but they are undeniably beautiful birds.

We spent an enjoyable hour here on our journey across the country.

 

Colonization by the French

 

According to Barbara Huck in her book on the fur trade routes of North America, the French crown was pursued by people who wanted to make profits in North America, but

“none of the royal suitors really believed that colonizing what was now being called New France was a reasonable prospect. But the profits to made in furs justified signing agreements that demanded the establishment of settlements. And over the next 150 years those two unsuitable partners—fur trade and settlement—would create a pattern of penetration of North America that can still be seen today, in the people who dominate the region that gave its name to Canada in French place names as far west as Oregon and in French spoken as far south as the Gulf of Mexico.”

 

The French also were very different from the English that settled to the south and later, in Canada after the 7 Years War of 1763. Huck explained their attitudes this way:

“In the main, the French were not interested in colonization. They recognized early that settlement and the fur business were diametrically opposed. Clear the land for agriculture and the animals disappear along with the forests.”

 

 

Huck also pointed out how the French also understood as the British did not,

“that North Americans knew how live and travel in their own lands and, were more rapidly than their British counterparts, they adopted the birchbark canoe, the moccasins and snowshoes, the toboggan (from the Mi’Kmaq word tab’agan) and the travelling rations of dried corn and dried buffalo meat or pemmican that North Americans had been manufacturing for millennia. They were also quick to learn new languages and marry into local tribes.”

 

Marrying into Indigenous families proved problematic. After all, the priests expected their French men to convert North American women into what they thought was a superior religion and culture but “the French found that a large proportion of their young men were instead adopting the ways of the people they called the Huron and Montagnais, or later, the Cree and Ojibwe.”

As a result, the French dominated the North American fur trade until 1763 when they ceded control to the English under the Treaty of Paris. In the meantime, the French penetrated the continent more deeply than the other European powers.

Of course, no one asked the indigenous people what they wanted.

 

Religious Snobs

Jacque Cartier and his men were impressed with this rock. Who could blame them? They were not so impressed with the people. That was white supremacist bias.

The Europeans who arrived in North America were also snobbish about religion. As Barbara Huck said in her book, “Europeans had a remarkable intolerance for other religions and a deep conviction that their particular brand of Christianity was the only true faith.” They were also often reluctant to acknowledge the help they had received from the inhabitants. As Huck explained, “

 

“By 1545, the difficult climate and hatred of the Iroquois (prompted by the barbarous treatment of the very people who had more than once saved French lives, convinced the French to end for a time at least—their first foray into the “new world.””

Of course, as we all know they came back. When they came back to eastern Canada, they were a little smarter. They realized the wealth on this continent was not so much in precious minerals but other treasures. As Huck said,

“When they returned, at the beginning of the 17th century, they were driven by the same motives—a search for glory, souls, and gold—but the gold was now recognized to lie not in glittering metal but in soft lustrous fur. By 1600 the trade in fur, particularly beaver fur for felting, by seasonal fishermen was so lucrative that many visited the coastal shores to fish for fur rather than cod and a succession of noble were petitioning the French crown for the right to participate—or better yet, monopolize—the trade in North America.”

 

But I think even Huck missed the real treasure. The real treasure was to be found in the remarkable people of North America, their astounding knowledge and understanding of the natural world around them, and the deep spiritual truths that knowledge triggered. That to my mind, was the real unappreciated treasure of North America. It is still under appreciated to this day.

Snobbery is hard to overcome. Even when it is irrational.

 

Sharing is Caring

Great Blue Heron in Mi’kmaq territory

 

The Mi’kmaq were the original settlers of what we now call the Maritime Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. They were not exclusive occupiers everywhere but they occupied a large of it. They had their own form of government and each community had their own leader known as Saqamaw (pronounced sah-ha-mahw) which is the Mi’kmaw word for “respected older person” or Elder.  Of course, not all older persons are respected.

 

The Mi’kmaq had their own laws and a comprehensive knowledge of the plants growing around them in their territory. Many of those plants were used to create medicines.  According to Theresa Meuse in her book, L’nu’k the People: Mi’kmaw History, Culture and Heritage, “They lived in communities that revolved around the idea of sharing with one another.” Sharing was fundamental to whom they were. Sharing came naturally to them.

 

They called themselves L’nu’k their word for ‘the people’. I am always amazed at how often a First Nation around North America name themselves “the people”. Meuse said, “When Europeans started coming to North America the Mi’kmaq welcomed them with the greeting, nikmaq, which means “my kin-friends.”  They immediately saw strange people as kin. I find that amazing. Amazing and wonderful.  But these feelings were not always reciprocated.

John Cabot and his crew sailed west from the English port of Bristol to Newfoundland in 1497. He and his men went fishing not far from what the French later called Gaspésie, where we were traveling,  but even closer to the south coast of Newfoundland. Cabot reported codfish so thick in the Grand Banks that the fish could be caught by lowering baskets from the side of the ship. Soon European fishers from England, Spain, and Portugal were flocking to the region for the bounty of fish. The French came soon as well. At first the fishers salted the fish on board their vessels, but in time they set up shore stations to make “dry fish.”  These were lightly salted and sundried. Cod was easy to keep and store and as I know personally, delicious to eat.  As Barbara Huck said in her wonderful book, Exploring the Fur Trade Routes of North America, the fish “soon became Canada’s first major export to the world.”

 

It is likely that trade with locals began soon after that. Probably, the local Beothuk and Mi’kmaq were interested in exchanging things for the European knives. Europeans were good at producing technology. However, Europeans like Jacque Cartier, who came from France were slow to appreciate the smarts of the local people. In 1534 Cartier wrote that the Iroquois he met along the shore of the Gaspé Peninsula “had not anything above the value of five sous, their canoes, and fishing nets excepted.”

 

Yet the Europeans kept coming. Perhaps they wanted to know what was beyond the mouth of the very large river (the St. Lawrence). Perhaps they hoped it would lead to the Pacific Ocean, where they might sail to China, a land of untold riches they had heard about. They probably hoped to find similar wealth in Canada.

Bonaventure Island and Percé Rock National Park

 

 

 

Percé Rock is part of the Bonaventure Island and Percé Rock National Park. The huge block of limestone was formed about 375 million years ago and is currently crumbling at the rate of 300 tons per year.

One can walk out to the rock at low tide on a sand bar. I would have liked that. Sadly, circumstances dictated to us that we only had time for a cursory visit. Visitors are not allowed to climb onto the rock because it is crumbling too much, walking out to it at low tide would have been great or taking one of the many boat trips to it that we could have taken.

What did I miss? The smaller island is called Bonaventure Island. It contains a spectacular colony of northern gannets.  These are magnificent birds. The island is considered one of the largest migratory bird refuges in North America.  Its colony of gannets is one of the most accessible and largest in the world. I was told you can almost walk up to them. It is haunting me that we did not spend an extra day here. Approximately 300,000 seabirds nest on the island, including razor-billed auks, gulls, kittiwakes, murres, and cormorants. My very Bad.  Actually, we had hoped to spend an extra night here but after we had trouble securing accommodation we decided to meander on.

Another sad case of would, coulda, shoulda. The travellers curse. But what  a beautiful place. Canada is truly beautiful.

Percé Rock in Pink

 

We got to Percé at the eastern tip of the St. Lawrence just before dark. You can see a little pink in the rock, reflected from the pink sky in the west.

The Percé Rock (“Le Rocher Percé“) is the most famous feature on Gaspésie. The arch is one of the largest arches in the world over water. Christiane and I saw a similar sized arch in New Zealand on the North Island where our motor boat traversed through the arch in disconcertingly rough waters. Currently, the arch is large enough that a small boat could pass through during low tide.

Percé Rock is a huge sheer rock formation in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence on the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula 433 metres (1,421 ft) long, 90 metres (300 ft) wide, and 88 metres (289 ft) high, with an arch 15 metres (49 ft) high on its southern end).

At one time there was a second arch where there now is a gap between the big rock and the smaller obelisk rock on the right? It was there when Jacques Cartier “discovered” it in 1534. He actually reported that there were 3 arches, but there is some doubt about that. Some have claimed there used to be 4 arches, but evidence for that is not strong. The last of the arches in any event collapsed on June 17th, 1845 due to severe erosion, leaving one arch and a separate island.

But if you want to see the arch you’d best go soon. According to scientists, erosion will lead to the destruction of the last arch in about 400 years and in fact the entire rock will vanish in about 16,000 years.

 

La Marte Lighthouse

 

We were disappointed that there was road construction that obstructed access to and views of the La Martre Lighthouse. This was a major disappointment because it is one of the more original lighthouses along the Gaspésie coastline. First, it is painted a bright red along with its nearby buildings and second, it has an unusual octagonal base shape. It is considered one of the more photogenic lighthouses in Quebec but the view was seriously marred today. Sometimes life just sucks.

The lighthouse is fully automated today but is operated non-automated during the day so people ordinarily can see the Fresnel lens rotating in its mercury bath while using its original system of weights and pulleys.

After that we veered inland because we were running out of time and I did not want to travel the roads in the dark. Old men must learn to be humble.

 

 

 

 

Mi’Kmaq:  Cooperation or Competition

 

Mi’kmaq are among the many First Nations that inhabited the Atlantic region in Canada, and inhabited the coastal areas of the Maritime Provinces including Gaspé and most of the land east of the Saint John River. This traditional territory is known as Mi’gma’gi  (Mi’kma’ki).  Mi’kmaq people have occupied their traditional territory, Mi’gma’gi or , since time immemorial (at least 10,000 years) and continue to occupy much of this land including Newfoundland as well as parts of Northern New England as far as Boson.

It would be nice if Canadians and Americans could get rid of their supremacist attitudes. Too often they think they have a monopoly of spiritual and economic insight. If we did that, we could have a true pluralist country, where all types, or races, or cultures were welcomed.  By that I mean a society in which many states, or groups, and principles coexist. For example, including religious pluralists where not one group benefits from claiming it is the fount of all wisdom. That would be a tolerant society. Then we could all benefit from each other’s knowledge and would not feel threatened by it. We would not concern ourselves with delusions of supremacy that we all have. These are delusions which we must learn to avoid.

According to Quenton Condo, speaking on the CBC Gem show, Telling Our Stories,  the treaty of 1752 negotiated by the Mi’Kmaq and the British Crown was according to the Mi’Kmaq intended to make sure that no one would interfere with the Mi’Kmaq way of life. The problem is, according to the Mi’Kmaq, that the non-indigenous people were not taught about the treaties in Canada and now react in anger and hate when they learn what it means. This is a failure of the Canadian educational system, he says.

After all, how much did any of us learn about treaties in school? Frankly, in my case, even in Law School, I learned almost nothing. And treaties are fundamental to learning about Canada. If we know nothing about treaties, we know nothing about Canada!

Although, that is their interpretation, it has the ring of truth as far as I am concerned. Those treaties did not give them the right to hunt. They already had those rights which they inherited from their ancestors. That of course, follows from them being part of the land, which is a fundamental principle to most indigenous peoples in North America and elsewhere.

The Innu territory and Naskapi overlapped as well as Inuit and Cree. As one Innu woman said,

“At the time of our ancestors there were no borders. Our ancestors did not use measuring tapes to say, ‘This is yours,’ and ‘this is mine.’ The territory was shared amongst all the nations. And we shared it well.

 

She also said that at one time there were plenty of caribou in their territory. Some said there were so many “it moved the mountain.” That would be a lot of caribou.

An unidentified woman on the CBC show said “Nations were intertwined in all aspect of our lives and in our approaches to sharing. This insured the survivals of our peoples.”

I don’t want to suggest that indigenous people of the region were perfect. No one and no people are perfect. Yet stories like this show the truth of those who say, people who live in places where survival is very difficult, like the Canadian north, have found that sharing works best for survival. This is what the traditional knowledge of the people of the region tells us. I can’t argue with this.

As one Anishinaabe man, Andrew “Stitch” Manitowabi, said about his people, “As an Anishinaabe people we don’t go by boundaries. We use the language of speaking Anishinaabe which extends into the United States in the Quebec area and northern Ontario.” This is a very different approach to determining territory.

The Anishinaabe, like most Indigenous people used the language of sharing, not the language of boundaries.