The Historical Ethnography Of The Micmac Of The Sixteenth And Seventeenth Centuries

A work of environmental ethics that looks at how “otherkind”—and humankind—contributes to our moral imagination.

“This book is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the true history of the founding of the most powerful nation on earth.” —Scott Wolter, host of America Unearthed and author of Cryptic Code of the Templars in America Using archival and archaeological sources, two historians reveal the hidden history of the Knights Templar and their travels to pre-Columbian America . . . and their influence on the Founding Fathers. Templars in America reveals the story of two leading European Templar families who combined forces to create a new commonwealth in America nearly a century before the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Henry St. Clair of the Orkney Islands, then part of Normandy, and Carlo Zeno, a Venetian trader, made peaceful and mutually beneficial contact with the Mi’qmaq people of what is now Canada. Proof of their travels is carved in stone on both sides of the Atlantic and can be found in documentary evidence borne out by a strong oral tradition that has withstood the test of time. Historians Tim Wallace-Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins demonstrate how this early contact with the Americas ties into the centuries-long development of the Templars and Freemasonry, which in turn shaped the thinking of the Founding Fathers—and the American Constitution. Wallace-Murphy and Hopkins also reveal the continuous history of American exploration from the time of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, through the age of the Vikings. Templars in America is a wild ride from the golden age of exploration to the founding of the United States.

The Micmac Indians of Eastern Canada was first published in 1955. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. The culture of an Indian tribe over a period of 300 years is described in this comprehensive ethnographic study by a husband and wife anthropologist team. The earliest accounts of the Micmac Indians were written by seventeenth-century French explorers and missionaries. These give historical perspective to the work done by the Wallises, whose research is based on field trips that bridged a 40-years span. Dr. Wallis first observed the Micmac tribes in 1911–12. He and Mrs. Wallis revisited them in 1950 and 1953, assessing the changes in material cultural and in orientation, drives, and motivations. In addition, they have preserved a rich collection of Micmac folktales and traditions, published as a separate section of the book.

Dating back to at least 50,000 years ago, rock art is one of the oldest forms of human symbolic expression. Geographically, it spans all the continents on Earth. Scenes are common in some rock art, and recent work suggests that there are some hints of expression that looks like some of the conventions of western scenic art. In this unique volume examining the nature of scenes in rock art, researchers examine what defines a scene, what are the necessary elements of a scene, and what can the evolutionary history tell us about storytelling, sequential memory, and cognitive evolution among ancient and living cultures?

Responding to anti-Indianism in America, the wide-ranging perspectives culled in Unlearning the Language of Conquest present a provocative account of the contemporary hegemony still at work today, whether conscious or unconscious. Four Arrows has gathered a rich collection of voices and topics, including: Waziyatawin Angela Cavender Wilson's "Burning Down the House: Laura Ingalls Wilder and American Colonialism," which probes the mentality of hatred woven within the pages of this iconographic children's literature. Vine Deloria's "Conquest Masquerading as Law," examining the effect of anti-Indian prejudice on decisions in U.S. federal law. David N. Gibb's "The Question of Whitewashing in American History and Social Science," featuring a candid discussion of the spurious relationship between sources of academic funding and the types of research allowed or discouraged. Barbara Alice Mann's "Where Are Your Women? Missing in Action," displaying the exclusion of Native American women in curricula that purport to illuminate the history of Indigenous Peoples. Bringing to light crucial information and perspectives on an aspect of humanity that pervades not only U.S. history but also current sustainability, sociology, and the ability to craft accurate understandings of the population as a whole, Unlearning the Language of Conquest yields a liberating new lexis for realistic dialogues.

These selections date from early contact of the native peoples of Atlantic Canada with, among others, Norse sailors, and a French priest in 1612. Some excerpts look at the now-extinct Beothuk people of Newfoundland, but most pertain to the Micmac peoples.

The title of this book We Were Not the Savages speaks to the truth of what happened when Europeans invaded Mi’kmaw lands in the 17th century. Prior to the European invasion the Mi’kmaq lived healthy lives and for thousands of years had lived in harmony with nature in the land they called Mi’kma’ki. This book sets the record straight. When the Europeans arrived they were welcomed and sustained by the Mi’kmaq. Over the next three centuries their language, their culture, their way of life were systematically ravaged by the newcomers to whom they had extended human kindness. The murderous savagery of British scalp proclamations, starvation, malnutrition and Canada’s Indian residential and day schools all but wiped out the Mi’kmaq. Yet the Mi’kmaq survived and today stand defending the land, the water and nature’s bounty from the European way of life, which threatens the natural world we live in and need to survive. Since the first edition was published in 1993, Daniel Paul’s ongoing research confronts the mainstream record of Canadian settler colonialism and reveals that the mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples is not confined to the past. In this 4th edition the author shares his research, which catalogues not only the historical tragedy but the ongoing attempts to silence the Mi’kmaq and other Indigenous Peoples. Paul’s work continues to give the Mi’kmaq a voice that must be heard.