This is a brief note. I am working on The Song of Hiawatha(1855)by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (27 February 1807 – 24 March 1882), but every Sunday I share brunch with a friend. I was in the kitchen.
About Amerindian tales
I have read several Amerindian “fairy tales.” Shapeshifting is a recurrent motif or “constant” in Amerindian tales. Shapeshifting is often a trickster’s device, but also an attempt to discover the truth and to protect oneself. It is survival through deceit, such as playing dead.
There are numerous Creation myths. They are listed in Wikipedia.
Sequoya’s Syllabary (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Sequoya’s Syllabary
Before Sequoya (1770 – 1840), the gifted Cherokee who created a syllabary, it is reported that Amerindians could not write. Once Sequoya invented his syllabary, literacy among the Cherokee surpassed the rate of literacy among the white. Sequoya, who may have been a Métis, developed 86 syllables, borrowing from several alphabets.
According to Wikipedia, in order to convince other Cherokees to use his syllabary, he wrote down what they were saying and called his daughter, to whom he had taught the Sequoya syllabary. She read her father’s text, and Cherokees recognized that it was what they had said.
John Ross, Cherokee Chief(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Sequoya moved to Oklahoma and may have done so voluntarily. But Scots-Cherokee Chief John Ross left Georgia unwillingly. Yet he organized the removal, at least part of it. He bought 12 wagons, the same wagons as the ones used to carry the white west, but each of which carried a total of 1,000 persons. I do not understand the full logistics of the removal. Some Cherokees travelled by boat, but many also walked during part of the 2,200-mile journey (3,218 km). It was a true “trail of tears.” Reports vary, but it appears 6,000 Cherokees died on their way to Oklahoma, one of whom was Chief John Ross’ first wife.
According to James Mooney, 4,000 lives were lost. (See Myths of theCherokees, Gutenberg [EBook #45634].) In all, the population was “16,542 Cherokees, 201 inter-married whites, and 1592 slaves (total: 18,335 people).” (See Cherokee Removal, Wikipedia.)
Let me return to the Cherokee’s account of a deluge. It begins with the formulaic “A long time ago:”
(A long time ago a man had a dog, which began to go down to the river every day and look at the water and howl.) This formula tends to reinforce the fictional character of a story. It happened a long time ago and, if possible, elsewhere.
The formulaic “A long time ago… ” may be James Mooney’s wording. He is the person who took the tale away from an oral tradition to insert it in a learned, i.e. written, tradition. Yet it could be that storytellers have long used this kind of wording, if only to get attention.
“House [below] built in early 19th century by John McDonald, maternal grandfather of John Ross. Now called the ‘John Ross House,’ it was occupied by Ross’ daughter and her husband, Nicholas Scales. It is located in Rossville, Georgia.” (Caption and photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Apparently we have administered the vast territories of the north in an almost continuing absence of mind.” Louis Saint-Laurent(12th Prime Minister of Canada)
—ooo—
The quotation above suggests that Canada has neglected its Inuit, known as Eskimos (Esquimaux; FR). It did, until 1939.
“In 1939, the Supreme Court of Canada found, in a decision known as ReEskimos, that the Inuit should be considered Indians and were thus under the jurisdiction of the federal government.” (See Inuit, Wikipedia.)
Matters have changed, as the stories of Nunavut and Nunavik confirm. Nunavut is now a separate part of Northern Canada. As for Nunavik, it is Northern Quebec, but Inuit also live in Labrador-Newfoundland (pronounced New-fen-land) (Terre-Neuve; FR) as well as Alaska (US), Siberia (Russia), and Greenland (Denmark). We will deal with Canadian Inuit only.
In English, the word Inuit is the plural form of Inuk, but in French one says un Inuit (singular) and des Inuits (plural). Esquimaux is the plural form of Esquimau.
Presents to Indians by Alfred Jacob Miller (Courtesy Walters Art Museum, Baltimore)
North American “Indians”
Let us begin at the beginning.
According to the Canadian Encyclopedia (see Indian), it seems Christopher Columbus, known as the discoverer of America (1492 CE), was the first person to use the term “Indian.” He may have thought he had discovered India, as would Jacques Cartier in 1534 CE. At any rate, the term spread to include nearly all American Aboriginals, with the probable exception of Eskimos (Esquimaux; FR).
People have started using the words Aboriginal and Amerindian (Autochtone et Amérindien-ne) with respect to “Indians.” However, although Eskimo has become a pejorative descriptor in the eyes of Inuit, Aboriginals may still be referred to as Indians, but less so as Eskimos, in the case of Inuit …
Groups of Canadian aboriginals
In Canada, there are three groups of recognized Aboriginals:
the Métis (mixed blood), the descendants of voyageurs (French mainly, but also Scottish or Irish) who married Amerindians and live mainly in what is now Manitoba (from Manitou);
Until recently, however, only First Nations Amerindians were status Amerindians, most of whom lived on Indian reserves.
According to the census of 2011, Canada totaled 1,400,685 people, or 4.3% of the national population. These are “spread over 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands with distinctive cultures, languages, art, and music.” (See Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Wikipedia.)
The rights of Amerindians in Canada were first recognized by George III, king of the United Kingdom, in his Royal Proclamation of 1763. Members of the Royal family still receive gifts from Amerindians who feared that having lost the protection of the French, who offered gifts, settlers would invade their land and endanger their life. The genocide of Amerindians could well be the worst ever. They were massacred. England drew a proclamation line behind which the aboriginals of its new colony would be secure. A Royal Proclamation also protected Britain’s French-speaking subjects.
As you know, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 was of a temporary nature, but it was reaffirmed in the Constitution Act (1867). However, the Indian Act, passed in 1876, harmed Amerindians in that its aim was enfranchisement or assimilation. The Indian Act is a “Canadianstatute that concerns registeredIndians, their bands, and the system of Indian reserves.” (See Indian Act, Wikipedia.) The rights of Amerindians were reaffirmed in the Canada Act (1982), a document which includes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Note the word “registered.” The Indian Register has been the list of status or registered Amerindians. Status Amerindians are First Nations Amerindians. Métis are in the process of becoming status Amerindians, but …
Status Amerindians have certain rights and privileges:
“the granting of reserves and of rights associated with them, an extended hunting season, a less restricted right to bear arms, an exemption from federal and provincial taxes, and more freedom in the management of gaming and tobacco franchises via less government interference and taxes.” (See Indian Register, Wikipedia.)
In Ottawa, Aboriginals are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and NorthernDevelopment Canada (AANDC), Affaires autochtones et du développement du Nord canadien, AADNC, formerly named the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. However, not all aboriginals are considered status Aboriginals. As noted above, the Métis have only begun to gain recognition.
Inuit were also latecomers. They were not recognized as aboriginals until 1939 and are not status Amerindians. There are four groups of Inuit, two of which live in Nunavut and Nunavik.
Nunavut
Furthermore, Inuit have only recently been associated with a particular territory and a particular language. Nunavut did not become a separate territory until 1 April 1999. On that day, it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act. Nunavut’s InuitspeakInuvialuktun.
Nunavik (Québec)
In theory, the federal government has sole jurisdiction over Aboriginals,
“Section 91 (clause 24) of the Constitution Act, 1867 gives the federal government (as opposed to the provinces) the sole responsibility for “Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians”. The government inherited treaty obligations from the British colonial authorities in Eastern Canada and signed treaties itself with First Nations in Western Canada (the Numbered Treaties).” (See Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Wikipedia.)
Nunavik, however, is a community of Québec Inuit who speaks Inuktitut. They are protected as per the Royal Proclamation of 1763.
In the 1960s, Quebec started developing hydroelectric resources in the north. It built the Manicouagan Reservoir and, in 1971, it created the James Bay Development Corporation to “pursue the development of mining, forestry and other potential resources starting with James Bay Hydroelectric Project, without consulting the native people.”The Quebec Association of Indians,“ sued the government and on 15 November 1973 won an injunction in the Quebec Superior Court blocking hydroelectric development until the province had negotiated an agreement with the natives.” The injunction was overruled, but in the end, Quebec had to sit at the negotiation table. (See JamesBay and Northern Quebec Agreement, Wikipedia.)
We have discussed the Métis, both in voyageur posts (see Canadiana 1) and in telling the story of Louis Riel.
Riel’s story is a testimonial with respect to the hurdles Aboriginals had to face, the worst of which was assimilation. So, I will deal with assimilative measures that could have led to the destruction of Canada’s Amerindians. I am sure that former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien sought the welfare of aboriginals in his 1969 White Paper, but abolishing the Indian Act would have resulted in the disappearance of Canadian Amerindians. They protested.
Inuit are now educated in their mother tongue, but climate changes threaten their livelihood. They use kayaks instead of canoes. Martin Frobisher was the first European to meet an Inuit.
“This painting, once believed to be a reduced autograph replica (a copy by the original artist) after the prime Salon version exhibited in 1872, is now known to be a preparatory sketch dated 1863. Jalabert was a devoted student of Paul Delaroche, working with him in Paris and for three years in Italy. Delaroche’s mentoring of Jalabert gained him access to an elite circle of artists, including Géricault, Delacroix, and Jean-Léon Gérôme. Delaroche encouraged Jalabert to exhibit at the Salon, as well to compete for the coveted Prix de Rome. Faithful, like his teacher, to the beautiful forms of antiquity and its revival during the Renaissance, Jalabert chose to specialize in scenes of everyday life with the anecdotal appeal of this tender rendition of mother and child. After he first exhibited a work at the Salon of 1847, Jalabert was presented by Gérôme to the art dealer Adolphe Goupil. Goupil’s accounting books record this sketch as having been sold to William Walters for 2,400 francs on May 9, 1864, supporting the earlier date recently discovered by Walters’ conservators while cleaning the painting.” (Walters Art Museum) The links are mine.
Yesterday, I looked for more depictions, by Alfred Jacob Miller (2 January 1810 – 26 June 1874), of the life of Amerindians. My search took me to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, an excellent source of paintings by Miller. I went for a second visit today and found the “painting of the day.”
Alfred Jacob Miller
After opening a studio in Baltimore, but finding no success, Alfred Jacob Miller went to New Orleans where he met Scottish “adventurer” Sir William Drummond Stewart, 7th Baronet (26 December 1795 – 28 April 1871). Stewart asked Miller to accompany him on a trip to the north west where Miller made sketches for several paintings. The Walters Art Museum owns a large number of paintings by Miller, watercolors mainly, sometimes enhanced by what seems touches of gouache).
Let the above image be my offering to all mothers.
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