Cannibal Wihtiko Finding Native-Newcomer Common Ground
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Cannibal Wihtiko Finding Native-Newcomer Common Ground Cecil Chabot Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Doctorate in Philosophy degree in History Department of History Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Cecil Chabot, Ottawa, Canada, 2016 ii ABSTRACT Cannibal Wihtiko: Finding Native-Newcomer Common Ground Cecil Chabot Jan Grabowski 2015 Nicole St-Onge Two prominent historians, David Cannadine and Brad Gregory, have recently contended that history is distorted by overemphasis on human difference and division across time and space. This problem has been acute in studies of Native-Newcomer relations, where exaggeration of Native pre-contact stability and post-contact change further emphasized Native-Newcomer difference. Although questioned in economic, social and political spheres, emphasis on cultural difference persists. To investigate the problem, this study examined the Algonquian wihtiko (windigo), an apparent exemplar of Native-Newcomer difference and division. With a focus on the James Bay Cree, this study first probed the wihtiko phenomenon’s Native origins and meanings. It then examined post-1635 Newcomer encounters with this phenomenon: from the bush to public opinion and law, especially between 1815 and 1914, and in post-1820 academia. Diverse archives, ethnographies, oral traditions, and academic texts were consulted. The cannibal wihtiko evolved from Algonquian attempts to understand and control rare but extreme mental and moral failures in famine contexts. It attained mythical proportions, but fears of wihtiko possession, transformation and violence remained real enough to provoke pre- emptive killings even of family members. Wihtiko beliefs also influenced Algonquian manifestations and interpretations of generic mental and moral failures. Consciously or not, others used it to scapegoat, manipulate, or kill. iii Newcomers threatened by moral and mental failures attributed to the wihtiko often took Algonquian beliefs and practices seriously, even espousing them. Yet Algonquian wihtiko behaviours, beliefs and practices sometimes presented Newcomers with another layer of questions about mental and moral incompetence. Collisions arose when they discounted, misconstrued or asserted control over Algonquian beliefs and practices. For post-colonial critics, this has raised a third layer of questions about intellectual and moral incompetence. Yet some critics have also misconstrued earlier attempts to understand and control the wihtiko, or attributed an apparent lack of scholarly consensus to Western cultural incompetence or inability to grasp the wihtiko. In contrast, this study of wihtiko phenomena reveals deeper commonalities and continuities. They are obscured by the complex evolution of Natives’ and Newcomers’ struggles to understand and control the wihtiko. Yet hidden in these very struggles and the wihtiko itself is a persistent shared conviction that reducing others to objects of power signals mental and moral failure. The wihtiko reveals cultural differences, changes and divisions, but exemplifies more fundamental commonalities and continuities. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is dedicated to the James Bay Cree, the people of Moose Factory, and those who have lived, loved and worked among them, especially the two people who gave me life. From them I have learned much and still have much more to learn. It is also dedicated to Jane, my wife, best friend and constant support, and to our children, Claire, Grace, Peter, and Cecilia. I owe a great debt of gratitude to my patient thesis director and co-director, Jan Grabowski and Nicole St-Onge, who were generous in their support from the start, and who have stuck with me to the end. I am also grateful to the examiners, Ken Coates, Richard Connors, Eric Allina and Brenda MacDougall, who provided very detailed and helpful advice that substantially improved this thesis. I am also indebted to the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada for a generous Canada Graduate Scholarship and a Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement; to the University of Aberdeen for hosting me for the fall 2009 semester, and to Alison Brown in particular for making that possible and acting as my host research director; and to Dominican University College and its President, Maxime Allard, for generous support, including the loan of an office from 2012-2014. There are many others who have helped me in one way or another, but there are a few that stand out in particular: Alicia Colson, who has been tremendously supportive and generous with her time and feedback; Christina Nielsen, who provided invaluable editorial input on a first draft of the entire thesis in her ‘spare’ time; Heather McWhinney, whose editorial work and advice in the revision stage was equally invaluable. Derek Smith, Dick Preston, Janine Langan, and Greg Poelzer, have been especially helpful in reading over drafts, providing feedback and encouragement in one way or another. Rose Anne Chabot, Warren Hinkson, Chris Cudahy, Jeanne Baril, Jean-Nil and Anne Chabot all helped with final proofreading. I remain indebted, as v well, to my MA thesis co-supervisors, Toby Morantz and John Dickinson, and to John Long and Joe Rowe, whose efforts to bring local history into Cree schools helped start me down this road. From James Bay Cree territory: Vic and Christina Linklater, Norm Wesley, Stan Louttit, Eli Chilton, Robert Faries, Stella McLeod, Phoebe Sutherland, Gary and Natasha Chewanish, Geraldine Govender, Greg Spence, Rita Cheechoo, Jerry Spence, Jimmy Sutherland, Jemima Hardisty, Kathleen Hardisty, Sinclair Trapper, Paul Rickard, Nellie Trapper, Bobby Sutherland, John B. Edmonds, Derek McLeod, Kenny and Louise Blacksmith, Don Cheechoo, Mike Metatawabin, Peter Coon, Leonard Rickard, the late Arnold Cheechoo, the late John Delaney, Grace Delaney, the late Gilbert and Nellie Faries, the late Randy Kapashesit, Bert Wapachee, Allan Jolly, Doug Jeffries, Yvonne Morrison, Beulah Morrison, Daisy Turner and so many others. From Orkney: Neil Leask, Peter Bews, the late Alex Rosie, Madgie Rosie and Betty Bews, and their families. At the University of Ottawa: Suzanne Dalrymple and the dedicated staff at the Department of History; Caroline Andrew, Georges Sioui, Rarihokwats, Graeme Hunter, Denis Vincelette, Dominic Manganiello, Denis Vincelet, Katie Labelle, Omeasoo Butt, Tim Foran, Dan MacFarlane, Jim McKillop, Robbie Moser, Jeremy Geelen, David Zettel, Iain McKenna, Dan MacFarlane, Denis Lamoureux (who helped in many small ways), Katie Labelle, Jennifer Corrin, Joanne St-Lewis, Catherine Paquet, the administrative personnel at the FGPS, especially Lise Dazé, and others. At the Department of Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen, in addition to Alison Brown: Tim Ingold, Tatiana Argounova-Low, and other faculty and graduate students. At Dominican University College, in addition to Maxime Allard: Lawrence Dewan, Mark Nvylt, Frank Peddle, Louis Roy, Jean-François Méthot, Eduardo Andujar, Michel Gourgues, Didier Canepeel, Lionel Gentric, Jean Doutre, Iva Apostolova, Hervé Tremblay, Peter Foy, David vi Belusci and other faculty, staff, students and Dominicans. At the Centre of Canadian Studies, University of Edinburgh, where I spent time in 2009: Annis-May Timpson. At the centres for the Study of Ethnic Conflict and of Canadian Studies at Queen’s University, Belfast, where I spent a week in 2009: Adrian Guelke, Dan Bulley, Peter Gray, and Stephen Royle. At Santa Croce University in Rome, where I made a brief visit in 2010: Antonio Malo, Luis Martinez Ferrer, Raphael Jimenez, and José Angel Lombo. At the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, where I was part-time Advisor for Indigenous Relations from 2010-2012: (Arch)Bishops Michael Miller, Douglas Crosby, Gary Gordon, Murray Chatlain, Vincent Cadieux, Terrence Prendergast; Msgr. Alan McCormack, Msgr. Patrick Powers, Bede Hubbard, Peter Murphy, Michèle Boulva, Patrick Fletcher, Glenn Byer, Jonas Abromaitis, and Gerry Kelly. At Crandall University, my academic home since 2014: Seth Crowell, Dennis Bustin, Abram Steen, Steve Dempster, Graeme Ching, Jim Rusthoven, Tracy Freeze, and John Stackhouse. At SSHRC: Eric Bastien, Gail Zboch, and fellow Aboriginal Advisory Circle members, especially Marlene Brant- Castellano, David Newhouse, Katherine Graham, Carole Lévesque, and Hadley Friedland. Others who provided advice, references or support: Don and Mary Pat Cleyn, Jean Pierre and Vilma Chabot, Mary and Michele Stocco, Susan Hodgett, Dennis Helming, Chris Richardson, Jim Morrison, Arthur “Skip” Ray, Sheilah McIntyre, Adam Kuper, Leila Inksetter, Joseph Stuart, James Raffan, Ray Fahey, Leslie Tomory, Anne Graham, Carolyn Podruchny, Margaret Somerville, Jim Chism, David Denton, Harvey Feit, Brian Craik, Hans Carlson, Fibbie Tattie, Jerome Rousseau, Colin Scott, Colin Calloway, Jim Miller, C. Douglas Ellis, Reverend James Scanlon, Barry Cooper, Brian Gobbett, Neil Sargent, Hugh Shewell, Mark Abley, William Sweet, Jeannette Fraser, John Borrows, Shawn Smallman, Nathan Carlson, Sidney Harring, Germaine Warkentin, Jean-Pierre Knight, Andrea Bartoli, Patrick Laflèche, Grace Dillon, Adrian vii Tanner, Christine Schintgen, Miguel Rodriguez, Andrew Bennett, John von Heyking, Chris Champion, and Daniel Chamberlain, Greg Bloomquist, Arrow & Loon reading group members. Lynn Lafontaine, Special Collections, Library and Archives Canada; Nathalie Léonard, Law Librarian, Brian Dickson Law Library, University of Ottawa;