The Wabanaki As Mariners

The Wabanaki as Mariners NICHOLAS N. SMITH Ogdensburg, New York , Although the marine abilities of southern New England Indians have been well established (Little 1981), the Micmac are their only northern Wabanaki neighbours who have been recognized as mariners (Martijn 1986). The primary concern of this paper is the Maine and New Brunswick Wabanaki. Speck subtitled his Penobscot Man "The Life History of a Forest Tribe In Maine" ignoring their expertise as a sea people. However, he found a relationship between some Penobscot family names and the sea: Lobster or Crab, Sculpin, and Whale adding that, "Mythically the aquatic families seem to be the oldest" (Speck 1940:211). He noted that their hunting ter ritories were to the south and were smaller than those in the north. His calendar gives two names for August: "(seals) fattening moon" and "corn moon" which stresses the importance of seals to those on the coast just as corn was to those of the interior. Islands have been ignored in descriptions of hunting territories, yet a perusal of Maine island histories shows that almost every Maine island has a tradition of Indian inhabitants at the time that whites discovered it. There is historical documentation from the 17th to the 20th century showing that Passamaquoddy of the Neptune Chief lin eage considered Campobello Island their hunting territory. Could islands and the ocean surrounding them have been included in the definitions of the aquatic family hunting territories? Archaeologists led by Bruce Bourque have provided ample evidence that island and Maine coastal campsites were occupied from fall until spring, winter campgrounds. The shell-heaps were usually summer sites (Sanger 1982:195-203). Contemporary archaeological reports of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia island and coastal sites conform with Bourque's findings (Stew art 1989:62-73). Carbon tests made in both Maine and the Maritimes have given dates of some sites at more than 7,000 years old (Timreck 1987:Video). A semilunar knife was brought up in a scollop fisherman's drag working off Deer Island Maine in about 40 feet of water (Rice 1979:12) providing further evidence that prehistoric Maine/Maritime man was a mariner. 364 NICHOLAS N. SMITH 365 No one knows what type of craft was used for the voyages to and from the islands in the early times. Some believe that those of the Red Paint culture constructed large wooden canoes similar to those used on the Northwest coast into the 20th century. Another popular theory is that dugouts were used. Although dugouts are known for both ocean (Keavitt 1968:1-5) and inland water travel in southern New England, the south, and the Caribbean — Caribs came to Florida in them — no remains of aborigi nal dugouts have been discovered on the coasts of Maine or the Maritime Provinces. The few dugouts that have been found near the northern New England Maritime coast appear to have been made from large pine proba bly by Europeans for lake use, most as recently as the late 1800s (Carter et al 1982:248; Jack 1905:135). Several dugouts have been discovered in the interior of northern New England that may be of aboriginal origin (Savonen 1985:1-3). Some have concluded that trees of sufficient size for a dugout were scarce in northern New England. About 1920 Turney Gray made a 28- foot pine canoe used on the Southwest Miramichi from the last such pine he knew in New Brunswick (Belyea 1976:5). In 1951 I had the opportunity to see the last stand of virgin pumpkin pine near Mount Katahdin and several years later accompanied the late Peter Paul into a northern New Brunswick virgin wilderness to obtain birch bark. These opportunities to see the north woods as they must have been during Colonial times were evidence of huge trees available suitable for a dugout, yet there is no evidence that coastal Wabanaki used the dugout canoe. The birch canoe has been considered a fairly recent innovation. Lescarbot when on the New England coast in 1607, investigated the whole subject, and we know both from him and Champlain, that, while bark canoes were made in Massachusetts and Maine, the preliminary type was that of the log canoe. In 1524, it is probable that the birch canoe was not known at all, as it was difficult to make before the introduction of iron tools by Europeans, and was confined to northern parts, where the trees were generally small and scarce, which rendered canoes of bark and skin necessary, no matter what the cost. (De Costa 1876:7) Most scholars have accepted Lescarbot's assessment without question. Les carbot made his statement with the knowledge that Indians had adapted successfully to the Basque shallop. He had seen two manned by Indians at Canso, one of which had a moose painted on its sail (Lescarbot 1914(2):309). Many of the occupied islands were within a few miles from the coast; others like Monhegan and Isle de Haut are more than ten miles from the mainland. Although New Hampshire and Maine mountains can be seen from quite a distance from the mainland, small, low, islands that are several miles out are difficult to see from a bobbing canoe until one gets fairly close to them even on the clearest day. The unpredictable weather and ocean 366 THE WABAN AKI AS MARINERS conditions of the Maine/Maritime coast demand an appropriate, easy to 1v1icmac can manage craft, and good knowledge of navigation. were well a· Wabanaki were commonly observed in their birch canoe on the coast wrench the and in the vicinity of islands in the 17th century. Some Micmac and Pas or Passama, samaquoddy found the bark craft adequate for their use into the 20th cen custom pers tury. Birch bark was probably the Wabanaki's most important material. the Passam: The skills and technology that went into birch bark canoe making were almost to g, also found in the making of other material goods such as watertight birch great rate ' bark kettles, wigwams, and snowshoes. At the turn of the century many repeating iJ Maliseet preferred their traditional stone hammers when making a canoe canoe!" (~ (Adney 1877). The ribs and sheathing were made from the light durable not reliable cedar, only a few inches in diameter, having characteristics of splitting eas was a coml ily; work easily done with stone and wood tools. The properties of spruce 1937:117). gum were also well known. Ajunique technological aspect of the birch bark trade becoJ canoe that differs from other craft including those of the Eskimo is that that they ·" the outer cover (bark) is the first step. After the bark was laid out, the 1753 Ande1 ribs, gunnels, and cedar sheathing were inserted. To my knowledge all Finland, "J other craft, including Wabanaki skin boats, start with a frame that is then included i11 covered. The Irish coracle and curragh may have been exceptions. The con "Along thE temporary small seagoing canvas-covered fisherman's curraghs of Ireland's place for t Dingle Peninsula are similar in construction and appearance to popular adjacent tl canvas-covered canoes made for sportsmen on this continent. In 1970 Tim the same t othy Severin sailed from Ireland to Newfoundland in a replica of an ancient canoe with curragh, evidence that such craft are extremely seaworthy. The bark ca In 164' noes were too well entrenched in North American and Eurasian aboriginal scot and t culture, each tribe having developed its own style to meet the individual sail. In tl characteristics of their waterways, to have just learned to make the bark on the coc craft a generation or so before European colonization began. The canoe, 1959 (67): although it cannot be surfed like Polynesian craft, was the easiest to con St. Lawre1 trol in the tricky cross-currents and tides of island necklaced river mouths, 1959 (67): ocean conditions, as well as in various river conditions. canoe was Aboriginal use of sails has been widely discussed concluding that those Altho1 on the northeast coast did not use sails (Edwards 1965:356). However, ognize th< it is inconceivable that the Indians were not aware of the power of the them. Bo wind. The design of the low ended Maliseet canoe shows how well they encounter: knew the effect of wind on their craft. Although as early as 1630 Le Jeune Maine/M< could not persuade Micmac to use a sail so attempted to make the task of 1985:333- paddling easier by putting a sheet to use as a sail in each missionary's canoe venturers (Jesuit Relations 1959 (6):277), some unidentified New England Indians had the India1 mastered the art of sailing their canoes before 1700. Louis Nicolas, a Jesuit missionary in New France circa 1667-1775 is thought to be the author of ... fii the manuscript Codex canadensis that includes illustrations of Maliseet and ketke~ biska) NICHOLAS N. SMITH 367 Micmac canoes, one with a mast for a sail (Nicolas 1700:17). The Indians were well aware that the power of the unpredictable wind could quickly wrench the canoe from their control. No one knows when the first Micmac or Passamaquoddy sailor mounted a fir tree in his canoe for a sail, but the custom persisted into the 20th century. One can easily imagine the plight of the Passamaquoddy who rigged a fir tree sail. The wind suddenly increased almost to gale force sending the canoe cutting through the white caps at a great rate while the Indian could only sit like a statue steering his canoe repeating in a mournful voice, "too much bush, too much bush, for little canoe!" (Ward 1883:474).

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