Scientific Excellence • Resource Protection & Conservation • Benefits for Canadians Excellence scientifique • Protection et conservation des ressources • Bénéfices aux Canadiens DFO L bra y MPO Bib lotheque Ill II I Ill I II 11111 1202009 I II INDIAN AND NON-NATIVE USE OF THE MIRAMICHI RIVER AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE by Brendan O'Donnell Native Affairs Division Issue 10 Policy and Program Planning E98. F4 035 no. 10 D c.1 Fisheries Pêches 1+3 and Oceans et Océans Canae I INTRODUCTION The following is one of a series of reports on the historical uses of waterways in New Brunswick and British Columbia. These reports are narrative outlines of how Indian and non-native populations I have used these rivers, with emphasis on navigability, tidal influence, riparian interests, settlement patterns, commercial use and fishing rights. These historical reports were requested by the Interdepartmental Reserve Boundary Review Committee, a body comprising representatives from Indian Affairs and Northern Development I [DIAND], Justice, Energy, Mines and Resources [EMR], and chaired by Fisheries and Oceans. The committee is tasked with establishing a government position on reserve boundaries that can assist in I determining the area of application of Indian Band fishing by-laws. Although each report in this series is as different as the waterway I it describes, there is a common structural approach to each paper. Each report describes the establishment of Indian reserves along the river; what Licences of Occupation were issued; what instructions were given to surveyors laying out these reserves; how I each surveyor laid out each reserve based on his field notes and survey plan; what, if any, fishing rights were considered for the Indian Bands; and how the Indian and non-native populations have I used the waterway over the past centuries for both commercial and recreational use. Primary sources for this information are found in the National I Archives of Canada, the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, the Harriet Irving Library of the University of New Brunswick, the British Columbia Provincial Archives, the Hudson's Bay Company I Archives, the Indian Land Registry at DIAND, and in the Legal Surveys Division of EMR. Secondary sources are found in the National Library of Canada, DFO's departmental library, DIAND's I departmental library, or are brought in from other libraries throughout Canada on inter-library loan. Each report in the series is being distributed to 'the Reserve f Boundary Review Committee members. It is hoped each will make this research available to other members of their department by 1 depositing the reports in their departmental library. I I I I Indian and Non-Native Use of the Miramichi River An Historical Perspective by Brendan O'Donnell The Miramichi River, New Brunswick, flows chiefly through Northumberland County and empties into the Gulf of St. Lawrence at Miramichi Bay. The river is approximately 140 miles long and nine miles wide at its mouth.' The Miramichi is divided into two principal branches -- the Southwest or main branch and the Northwest. These two branches join at Beaubears Island, near Newcastle, about thirty-five miles from its mouth. The Southwest or main branch of the Miramichi rises in a lake a short distance from the Tobique River, a tributary of the St. John, then flows with considerable rapidity over a rocky bed in an easterly direction until it empties into the Bay. Near its source are three or four lakes, and its chief tributaries are the Cain, Bay du Vin, Napon, Bartibog, Renous and Black Rivers. About ninety miles from its head, the river becomes considerably expanded owing to the discharge of a number of small rivulets. The Northwest branch, which is approximately ninety miles in length, rises in the highlands bordering on the East side of the Nepisiguit River. Its chief tributaries are the Little Tomogonops, Portage, Big Sevogle, Little Sevogle and the Little Southwest Miramichi Rivers. [The Little Southwest Miramichi should not be confused with the Southwest Miramichi, two totally different rivers.] 1 The Encyclopedia of Canada, Volume IV. (W. Stewart Wallace, ed.). Toronto: University Associates of Canada, 1948. Page 307. See also Wayne Curtis, Currents in the Stream: Miramichi People and Places. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions Ltd., 1988. Page xi. I 2 After the St. John River, the Miramichi is considered the second I most important water artery in New Brunswick. The total drainage area of this river is 5,500 square miles.2 The Miramichi is considered navigable throughout most of its course, especially I during the spring-summer months. On the Northwest branch, vessels drawing fifteen feet have been reported to be able to navigate up r to three miles above its junction with the main branch; schooners of sixty to seventy tons have proceeded three miles further I upstream; and canoes can navigate to thé river's source. On the Southwest or main branch, the river is reported navigable for large vessels to the railway bridge two miles above Newcastle; schooners are reported to be able to proceed upstream for another twenty to twenty-five miles; and canoes can navigatej for forty to fifty miles I above the bridge.3 I The tidal influence on the Northwest branch of the Miramichi River can be felt at least as far upstream as Red Bank Village4, and has I been reported detectable at the Indian Point Indian Reserve.5 On I 2 R. Chambers, "Preliminary Report on the Surface Geology of New Brunswick," in Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada, Annual Report 1885, Volume 1. Montreal: I Dawson Brothers, 1886. Page 12GG. See also R. Chambers, "Report on the Surface Geology of North-Eastern New Brunswick...," in Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada, Annual Report 1887-88, Volume III. Montreal: William Foster Brown & Co., 1889. 3 The Encyclopedia of Canada, p. 307. 4 R. Chambers, "Preliminary Report on the Surface Geology of New Brunswick," p. 14Gc; The,Encyclopedia of Canada, p. 307; Encyclopedia Canadiana, Volume VII. Toronto: Grolier of Canada, 1977. Page 114; and The Canadian Encyclopedia, Volume II. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1985. Page 1144. 5 Journal of the House of Assembly of the Province of New 1 Brunswick, from the NineteenthiDay of January, to the IÎ Fourth Day of April, being the sixth session of the twelfth General Assembly. Fredericton: John Simpson, 1842. Page cx. 3 1 III the Little Southwest Miramichi River, the head of tide is reported to be at the Ox Bow Meadow. 8 The tidal influence on the Southwest or main branch of the Miramichi River can be felt approximately forty miles above Miramichi Bay.' The Department of Fisheries and Oceans places the head of tide for administrative purposes at Old 1 Squaw Rock, above the Renous Indian Reserve No. 12. 8 The origins of the name "Miramichi" is from the language of the aboriginal inhabitants of the region. According to one source: 9 Long before the white men came upon the scene, the Micmac Indians found the Miramichi and the Restigouche and all the land between an excellent place for fishing and hunting. They called the Restigouche, the Lustagooch, Goodly River, and the Miramichi, the Lustagoocheechk, the Little Goodly River. The Montaignais Indians called all the land south of the Baie de Chaleur, Maissimue assi, I i Micmac Land; the name, spelled a dozen different ways, became eventually Miramichi, and was applied by the white men to the river rather than to the land. 6 See Dugald Campbell's survey plan, circa 1804, titled: 1 "Plan of the Little Southwest Branch of Mirimichi River with Locations of Land Surveyed thereon according to Instructions from Geo. Sproule Esq. Surveyor General by Dugald Campbell Surveyor"; copy on file at the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources, Crown Lands (Surveys), Fredericton. Plan No. N 1/13. 7 The Encyclopedia of Canada, p. 307. 8 Canada. Fisheries and Oceans. New Brunswick Tidal Waters Boundary Order made under the Fisheries Act. C.R.C., 1978 c. 845. (Ottawa): Published under the authority of the 1 Minister, 1980. Page 106-4. 9 Ester Clark Wright, The Miramichi: A Study of the New Brunswick River and of the People Who Settled Along It. 1 Sackville: The Tribune Press, 1944. Page 6. 4 Another source states that the Micmac word Lustagoocheechk means "'good little river' for canoeing. " I° The Micmac word for the Northwest Miramichi was Elmunokun, possibly meaning "a beaver hole" in reference to Big Hole near the mouth of the Big Sevogle River. 11 Anthropologists and archaeologists speculate that the first aboriginal people moved into New Brunswick some 10,000 years ago, although these were probably not the ancestors of the Micmac Indians who came to inhabit the Miramichi River Valley. 12 Archaeological diggings at the Ox Bow site at Red Bank, on the ' Little Southwest Miramichi, have led researchers to the conclusion that Micmac Indians have inhabited the Valley for at least 2500 years. 13However, according to Micmac legend, this Indian tribe only wrested the Miramichi Valley away from the Kwedech or Canadian [St. Lawrence Valley] Iroquois sometime between the years 1500 and 1600. Thus, the Micmacs refer to Northumberland County, along with Gloucester and Restigouche Counties, as Gespengeog or "the last land." 14 10 Alan Rayburn, Geographical Names of New Brunswick (Toponymy Study 2). Ottawa: Surveys and Mapping Branch, Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, 1975. Page 184. 11 Alan Rayburn, Geographical Names of New Brunswick, p. 204. 12 The Micmac Indians today refer to themselves as the Mi l kmag Nation. However, since all of the reference documents used in this report refers to them as the Micmac tribe, or simply the Micmacs, I shall follow this format for the sake of continuity.