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.