Residence Patterns and Related Aspects of Kinship Organization in a Swampy Cree Community

KATHRYN T. MOLOHON Laurentian University

Introduction This paper examines residence patterns and related as­ pects of kinship organization in the contemporary Swampy Cree community of Attawapiskat, Ontario, Canada (see Honig- mann 1956, 1961; Molohon 1983, 1984a, 1984b; and Vezina 19- 78).' Attawapiskat is located at the mouth of the Attawapiskat River on the west coast of James Bay, and has a current pop­ ulation of about 1,000. During the firstpar t of this century, the people under study were nomadic hunter-trappers who congregated around Hud­ son's Bay Company trading posts in the summer in order to trade their furs, buy supplies, and participate in religious and social activities. Beginning in the late 1960s, the majority of these people gradually became sedentarized in response to the introduction of government transfer payments (welfare pay­ ments), improved educational opportunities, access to medical and dental care, and improvements in both the availability and speed of long distance travel. The economy of modern day At­ tawapiskat is based on government transfer payments which are

Research for this paper was funded by the Social Sciences and Hu­ manities Research Council of Canada Grant Number 410-82-0412. This support is gratefully acknowledged. I would also like to thank my research assistants in Attawapiskat, including John Edwards, Elizabeth Gull, and Gregory Hookimaw. 119 120 KATHRYN T. MOLOHON supplemented by hunting, fishing,gathering , trapping, and oc­ casional wage labor. Although traditional (pre-sedentarized) Swampy Cree culture is still very much in evidence, seden- tarization and modernization have been accompanied by the breakdown of geographic isolation, changes in the economy, diet, and health of the people, and changes in demographic parameters including residence patterns. Demographic data which has been collected on Attawapiskat include accurate and detailed baptism, marriage, and death records from 1883 to the present. By extrapolation from these records, genealogies of the people are being reconstructed as far back as about 1850. Maps of the location of houses in the village have been compiled, and an analysis of current resi­ dence patterns has been made. These combined data indicate that despite the changes which have so far been introduced by sedentarization and modernization, basic features of tradi­ tional Swampy Cree kinship structure are still very much in ev­ idence, including persistent attempts to reproduce traditional residence patterns whenever possible. Before making further comments about the residence pat­ terns and related aspects of kinship organization of the con­ temporary village of Attawapiskat, it is worthwhile to examine aboriginal residence patterns and related aspects of kinship or­ ganization among Swampy Cree in the area. Aboriginal Residence Patterns and Related Aspects of Kinship Organization of the Attawapiskat Swampy Cree According to Honigmann (1956:58-65), the aboriginal At­ tawapiskat Cree were similar to other northern forest peoples in that they had a relatively simple social organization. A sparse population density combined with an uncertain food supply reduced opportunities for contact with strangers and led to a situation where social interaction occurred primarily among kin. The (probably) bilateral extended or composite family household was the primary economic, political, and so­ cial unit, which is still the case in Attawapiskat today. Groups larger than the family, such as seasonal hunting or traveling groups and seasonal settlements at good fishing sites, tended to have shifting memberships and to command only'a weak sense of allegiance and identification. These larger groups were actually microcosmic, fluid bands which were often composed of kin and had fluidsize s and memberships which could adapt KINSHIP ORGANIZATION 121 to shirting food resources. Coordination of these larger groups was provided by male leaders who were chosen on the basis of competence. Beyond the microcosmic band, there was a vague, noncor­ porate unit which might be called the local group or macro- cosmic band. Macrocosmic bands consisted of perhaps ten to fifteenfamilie s occupying a particular river drainage. No term for this kinship aggregate along a river drainage existed in the Swampy Cree language. Probably because people in macrocosmic bands realized that others in adjacent territories were already using the available food supply to its limit in a region which could support only a limited number of people, members of macrocosmic bands tended to keep to their own territories. Not much is known about the stability of macro­ cosmic bands, but is probable that in each generation, affinal ties created links between microcosmic units within macrocos­ mic bands, and thus formed "the basis for (the) circulation of people within (their) territory" (Honigmann 1956:59). Among the aboriginal Swampy Cree in the area surround­ ing Attawapiskat, the nuclear family seldom occupied a dwelling or campsite by itself. Households were often linked by sibling ties, as for example by two brothers-in-law living together in a household with a nucleus consisting of two sisters. Aging par­ ents often lived with their daughters and were supported by their sons-in-law. Two or more brothers often married sisters, and brothers could also form the nucleus of a household which included wives, children, and perhaps a son-in-law serving a period of bride service. Adoption occurred whenever parents of younger children died or found themselves with too many mouths to feed. Thus, it was not unusual for households to include adopted or fostered children. With the possible excep­ tion of bride service, the above aspects of family structure are still characteristic of the residents of Attawapiskat today. Honigmann (1956:61) states that among the Swampy Cree, "Siblings of the same sex felt a closer bond than those of the •+ ^ " qutPrs in particular remained close even after opposite sex. ters in pa ^^ ^ r_ marriage, especia ly ^/founded on polygyny" (1956:62). wl1^ S^nof pofygyny, this is still the case in the contemporary village of Attawapiskat. Although most marriages in aboriginal times were mono>sa' - 122 KATHRYN T. MOLOHON mous, sororal polygyny, and less commonly, non-sororal polyg­ yny were known. The sororate, and less commonly, the levi- rate, were practiced. Wife exchange was practiced between friends, but never between brothers or brothers-in-law, and it was also practiced with strangers. Significantly, polygyny can be identified in the records of baptisms for people associated with Attawapiskat up until about 1910, when it disappears from the records, presumably due to the influence of Roman Catholic missionaries. Adultery was not condoned in aborigi­ nal times, and often led to physical violence, as is still the case today. Cross-cousin marriage was both practiced and reflected in the kinship terminology of the aboriginal Swampy Cree. This is still the case for the contemporary residents of Attawapiskat. For example, siblings-in-law are classified and referred to as ei­ ther cross-cousins of the opposite sex or cross-cousins of the same sex. Furthermore, friendship networks have always been considered extremely important, and were supplemented abo­ riginally by many social customs such as wife exchange, visit­ ing, and generous feeding or other acts of hospitality toward guests. With the probable exception of wife exchange, these social customs as an adjunct to friendship networks are still practiced today. The Importance of Contemporary Kin Clusters The contemporary social organization of Attawapiskat cen­ tres around what might be called "kin clusters", or clusters of kin which are located throughout the village wherever residen­ tial preferences and available housing arrangements coincide. Within kin clusters, bilateral extended or composite family households are primary economic, political, and social units, as was the case aboriginally (see above). The phenomenon of kin clusters probably represents continuity with aboriginal social organization as a kind of post-sedentarized grouping of these primary organizational units. In present-day Attawapiskat ex­ tended family or composite family households are frequently based on parent-child or sibling ties, or both. in clusters are herein defined as subsets of bilateral kin­ dreds (see Murdock 1949:45-46, 56-57) whose members always live in close residential proximity, as for example next door or across the street from one another. The distinction between kin clusters and bilateral kindreds is important because mem- KINSHIP ORGANIZATION 123 bers of kindreds can be scattered throughout a village such as Attawapiskat and in other Swampy Cree villages as well. Thus, kin clusters are distinguished from kindreds by being defined as groups of kin living in very close proximity, as for example in a specific geographic area of a village. In the past, when Swampy Cree families camped in tents during the sum­ mer and sometimes built log cabins with moss insulation in the cracks, members of kindreds were probably less spatially- dispersed in Attawapiskat than they gradually became after the government of Canada began providing North American-style housing in the late 1950s (see Vezina). In the contemporary village of Attawapiskat, members of kindreds may be scattered throughout the village. By contrast, kin clusters are subsets of bilateral kindreds which are located in specific geographic areas. Today, all permanent residents of Attawapiskat live in North American-style houses on streets marked out in the square-grid pattern which is typical of North American towns. New hous­ ing financed by the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs is being built through its Lumber and Housing Program at the rate of about ten to fifteen houses per year. However, new housing is barely keeping pace with a rapid population increase based on a birthrate of about four percent per an­ num, combined with decreased infant mortality due to better access to medical care, and some in-migration from other Cree communities. The strategics of arranging houses in a square-grid pattern mean that it is now more difficult for members of potential kin clusters who would prefer to live in close proximity to do so. In the past, people who came into the village in the summer orga­ nized the spacing of their tents as they wished. At that time, tents were organized according to a flexible strategy for the spacing of kin which accommodated the expansion and contrac­ tion of kin clusters and helped prevent conflicts because people who developed conflicts could move away from each other. To­ day, the increased level of conflict in Attawapiskat and other Swampy Cree villages in northern Ontario may be partly due to the fact that recently nomadic people who develop interper­ sonal conflicts, and who were formerly accustomed to handling these conflicts by the tactic of moving, cannot always get away from each other as easily as they could in the past. 124 KATHRYN T. MOLOHON

The fluid spacing of households which was once possible with tents in Attawapiskat is no longer possible with North American-style frame houses. On occasion, contemporary res­ idents of Attawapiskat literally move their frame houses in or­ der to place them in preferred locations. When houses in At­ tawapiskat are hooked up to plumbing at some point in the fu­ ture, this will no longer be possible. Where lack of space makes it impossible to relocate houses in preferred positions, people in Attawapiskat have been known to trade houses. However, these ingenious strategies for attempting to organize households ac­ cording to traditional Swampy Cree ideas about the residential spacing of kin do not always ensure that everyone who wishes to live in close proximity will be able to do so. Unless the flex­ ible spacing of family clusters is accommodated before North American-style, frame houses are built, it is strategically im­ possible to organize the same social groupings with the spac­ ing of frame houses which were formerly organized through the spacing of tents. In Attawapiskat, frame houses have always been built on an ad hoc basis as money for new housing has become available. Thus, there has been no overall planning of the spacing of houses in order to accommodate traditional Swampy Cree ideas of where people should live and how they should space themselves in order to relate effectively to kin and carry out normal kinship activities. Instead, it has generally been assumed that the act of providing Indians with modern, North American-style houses is sufficient.

The advantages of living in kin clusters are many. Food and other resources are circulated freely among members, and opportunities for wage labor are often kept within the same kin cluster (a great deal of gossip in the village concerns which families control which scarce jobs). Kin clusters also play a central role in the socialization of children. Indeed the break­ down of parental control over children which has accompanied sedentarization and modernization may be partly due to the fact that many people are unable to space their residences so that senior kin are always on hand to help control children and teenagers. Several people in Attawapiskat commented that a major reason for "so much partying and drinking among young people" is that young married couples are issued their own houses wherever there is room to build houses on the periph- KINSHIP ORGANIZATION 125 ery of the village. As such, these young couples can invite their friends to parties whenever they wish and are no longer under the direct control of senior kin as was formerly the case when young married couples routinely lived with kin. Other in­ formants commented that having parents or in-laws next door was invaluable in the management of their children at all stages of the children's development. These same informants agreed that one of the problems of moving away in order to findjob s or attend school was that they would no longer have access to this consistent help with the management and discipline of their children. Kin clusters in modern-day Attawapiskat are usually headed by the most competent senior members of the group. A senior male who is still an active hunter-trapper may provide a con­ siderable amount of meat, fish,an d income from trapping for members of his kin cluster. In return, such men command high respect throughout the village and tend to exercise substantial control over the kin for whom they provide. Senior females in kin clusters complement this leadership role and play a central role in the socialization and control of children and grandchil­ dren. Further Comments on the Contemporary Social Organization of Attawapiskat Many of the current residents of Attawapiskat have only recently made the transition from a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle to year-round residence in the village. In addition, many people see themselves as members of families or kin clus­ ters which happen to be located in the village rather than as members of the community as a whole. Thus, kinship relation­ ships are major points of identity and social organization, and a sense of community, including identification with anything larger than kin groups, has been slow to develop. Almost without exception, adults residing in Attawapiskat maintain comprehensive genealogies of their own and other families, as well as mental maps of kinship relationships among residents of the village in their heads, and can reproduce these genealogies and mental maps when asked to do so. New relationships among the residents of Attawapiskat which have developed as a result of sedentarization include intensive peer group relationships among teenagers (see Molohon 1983). However, these new relationships are not necessarily replacing 126 KATHRYN T. MOLOHON traditional (pre-sedentarized) kinship relationships. Instead, they appear to operate in addition to traditional kinship rela­ tionships, and to be motivated and controlled by these tradi­ tional kinship relationships. In keeping with the importance of traditional kinship re­ lationships, parents in Attawapiskat often continue to arrange the marriages of their children as was the custom in the past. This custom is so important that Catholic priests have found it necessary to ask parents of engaged couples if a marriage is permissible; otherwise, parents who disagree with a son or daughter's choice of a spouse may become extremely angry at the priest. There have been cases where marriages which were performed without parental approval resulted in threats of physical violence against priests. Interviews of young mar­ ried people demonstrated that some people who are now in their twenties were denied the right to marry the person of their choice, and were instead compelled to marry a spouse who was more or less chosen by their parents. Both adoption and fostering are practiced by the contem­ porary residents of Attawapiskat, and families with many chil­ dren may "give" one of their children to childless siblings or to parents who no longer have children living with them. In that case, biological parents usually retain the right to reclaim their children when necessary. Sisters often co-operate in the social­ ization, discipline, and general welfare of each other's children, as was the case aboriginally (see above). The Importance of Positive Kinship Affect The closest and most intimate emotional ties in the con­ temporary village of Attawapiskat are between husbands and wives. These intimate emotional ties are closely followed in intensity by extremely strong emotional ties between parents and children and between siblings. In Swampy Cree culture, positive kinship affect is a carefully taught, intricately struc­ tured, highly elaborated, and jealously guarded resource which cements relationships between kin. It ensures that kingroups will be tightly-knit and will retain their members, maintain co-operation among members, and share human and material resources. Further study of this phenomenon is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the Attawapiskat Swampy Cree and their behaviour during sedentarization and modern­ ization. KINSHIP ORGANIZATION 127

The Importance of Controlling Women

Throughout the general area where Attawapiskat is located, the advent of government transfer payments now permits the survival of unmarried individuals, a phenomenon which was unlikely in the past. In Attawapiskat and other Swampy Cree villages, it is no longer economically necessary for adult men and women to marry in order to survive. As a result, the number of single people has increased, especially including sin­ gle mothers. However, government transfer payments or other government programs are not the only factors affecting the contemporary marital and reproductive behaviour of Swampy Cree women. Instead, this behaviour appears to be compli­ cated by the responses of Swampy Cree culture and kinship structure to rapid culture change. In present-day Attawapiskat, women play a central role in maintaining the continuity of Swampy Cree culture and family life. It might be hypothesized that the strong control of women which is exercised by many parents, husbands, and extended family groups in the village may be a strategy for helping to assure the continuity and stability of Swampy Cree culture. For example, prevention of the out-migration of young, un­ married women, as well as other, equally effective controls on the behaviour of women appear to contribute heavily to the stability and continuity of both families and the community as a whole. Young women with an interest in continuing their education or in otherwise leaving Attawapiskat can be pre­ vented from doing so by their parents, especially their fathers. In addition to the control of young women which is exercised by parents and extended family networks, husbands may also try to control wives who are intellectually curious or otherwise adventurous by opposing opportunities to exercise these inter­ ests while at the same time attempting to keep their wives' attention focused on the traditional female roles of kin-keeping and kingroup organization. In addition to attempts to prevent the out-migration of many young, unmarried women and the frequent control of women by their husbands, there is a gener­ alized pattern where young women who have not yet married men in Attawapiskat become pregnant in their teens or early twenties with the net result that they remain dependent on their families and cannot easily leave the village. Effective birth control and information about its proper use 128 KATHRYN T. MOLOHON have been freely available through the hospital in Attawapiskat for some time. Although birth control may eventually affect the total number of pregnancies for Attawapiskat women over their reproductive lifespans, it has not yet had a significant impact on the post-sedentarized pattern of firstpregnancie s for young, unmarried women. Women who do not eventually give birth to at least one child regardless of their marital status are not very numerous, and in most cases have been unable to conceive. Sooner or later, most unmarried women in the village become pregnant. If they do not soon marry men in Attawapiskat, they tend to remain in the village under the protection of their parents and extended-family networks. In due course, many unmarried mothers marry men in At­ tawapiskat and settle into the respected roles of kin-keepers and kingroup organizers. As might be expected, the children of women born while their mothers were single are often re­ garded (and tend to regard themselves) as strongly allied with their mother's kin. There is little, if any "stigma" attached to these children. In general, the older a woman in Attawapiskat becomes and the more children she has, the higher her social status within her extended family network and the community as a whole. In trying to control women and their reproductive behaviour during the rapid changes which have accompanied sedentariza­ tion, the Attawapiskat Swampy Cree may be similar to the great peasant cultures of Europe and countless others which have discovered that the systematic control of women and their reproductive capacities can be an adaptive strategy for cultural and community continuity. The reason for this may simply be that young women with dependent children have basic needs and vulnerabilities which make them easier to control than men. Thus, the dependency of young women in Attawapiskat can be systematically encouraged and they can be made to re­ main in the village by cultural features which ensure that they will become pregnant at a relatively young age even if they are not yet married to men in the village. Although efforts to con­ trol young males in Attawapiskat are also very strong these efforts are frequently less effective than efforts to control the behaviour and reproductive allegiances of young females. If half of the population of a community can be controlled and largely prevented from leaving, and if this half of the pop- KINSHIP ORGANIZATION 129 ulation also plays a strategic role in producing and socializing the next generation, then many young men in a community such as Attawapiskat may also be encouraged to stay due to attachments to women and children. Thus, both the culture of the community and its continuity will be more secure than might otherwise have been the case. In conclusion, although government transfer payments and other innovations have affected the residence patterns and re­ lated aspects of kinship organization, including the reproduc­ tive behaviour of women in the contemporary village of At­ tawapiskat, these factors do not provide a complete explanation for the post-sedentary social organization of the Attawapiskat Swampy Cree. Instead, it is suggested that many apects of abo­ riginal residence patterns and kinship organization have per­ sisted, and that the control of women and their reproductive behaviour may be a strategy for cultural and community con­ tinuity in a village such as Attawapiskat where rapid economic and social changes following sedentarization are likely to be disruptive by providing opportunities for the out-migration of young people.

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