Madame Manon Jeannotte, new lieutenant-governor of Quebec, places herself at the head of the legislative power and the Quebec state, a first in the history of the province. She will have to represent His Majesty Charles III, the King of Canada, in Quebec for the next five years.
Mi’kmaq couple.
Public domain
This appointment by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is, in my opinion, an opportunity for all non-natives of Quebec to open up to the culture and reality of the Mi’kmaq Nation. Small clarification, the name “Micmac” is now written in the singular “Mi’kmaq” and in the plural “Mi’kmaw”.
The Mi’kmaq Nation occupied the Gaspé Peninsula at least 3000 years before the arrival of the first Europeans. Today, the Mi’kmaw mainly inhabit the territory of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. They are also found on the island of Newfoundland, in the American Northeast and here, in Quebec, on the Gaspé Peninsula. The Mi’kmaq community of Gespeg (where our new governor general comes from) took root in Gaspé Bay at the beginning of the 16e century. Gespeg means “Where the earth ends” in the Mi’kmaq language.
Mi’kmaw toponyms Several Mi’kmaw names that describe the territory still exist today in Quebec toponymy. For example, Anticosti takes its name from the word “Natigosteg” and means “advanced land”; Quebec, from “Gepe’q”, means “where the river narrows”; Matane, from the word “Mantanne”, means “beaver pond”; Tadoussac, from “Giatosog”, means “between the rocks” and Rimouski simply means “the land of the moose”.
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MI’KMAQ CULTURE
The Mi’kmaw way of life was intimately linked to the natural resources around them and the heart of collective decisions was centered on the management of hunting and fishing. Mi’kmaq authority was based on the prestige of individuals and the respect that members of the community gave to the leader.
Long before the arrival of Europeans, the Mi’kmaw had a government that we will call the Great Mi’kmaq Council (Sante’ Mawio’mi). Under colonial rule, each nation had the power to negotiate treaties as equals with European emissaries.
The language spoken by the Mi’kmaw is part of the Algonquian language family. It has an alphabet made up of pictograms. It is very similar to that spoken by their neighbors the Maliseet and the Pescomodys. This language has many dialects, including Restigouche, a dialect unique to the current territory of Quebec.
The northern nature of the Mi’kmaw country did not allow them to easily meet their food needs with only the cultivation of corn, squash and beans. They also depended on the resources of the sea and forests to survive. They therefore lived during the warmer seasons on the coast, from where they could fish for smelt, herring or salmon and harvest crustaceans and molluscs at low tide. Then, in winter, they migrated inland where they hunted caribou, moose, bear and beaver.
These people had an intimate relationship with the sea, they were excellent navigators. They built long birch bark canoes with which they were able to navigate long distances in murky water. Their country on the coast obviously placed them in the forefront when cod fishermen, whale hunters, fur traders and European explorers arrived on the coasts of Gaspésie. They will, therefore, be the first victims of European microbial contamination in North America. It is estimated that between the year 1500 and 1600 smallpox and measles will decimate between 50% and 90% of the Mi’kmaw.
Belong to the Mi’kmaq Nation of Gespeg with pride. Manon Jeannotte has just been sworn in as the 30th lieutenant governor in the history of the province of Quebec.
Credit: National Assembly of Quebec
THE IMPORTANCE OF TREATIES
As if this were not enough, the Mi’kmaq population was also affected by conflicts between Europeans. She will be forced to take a stand and participate in the war. The Mi’kmaw will take part, most of the time, alongside the French. What is interesting is that this military and political positioning will lead them to sign numerous peace treaties between the year 1726 and 1761. These treaties of 18e century officially recognized rights for the Mi’kmaw. After the fall of New France in 1760, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 even established rights for the Indigenous people of the Province of Quebec. Over time, new arrivals of European origin will ignore the ancestral rights of these first peoples. Today, the Supreme Court of Canada obliges the Crown, of which Manon Jeannotte is the representative, to respect these famous Mi’kmaw ancestral rights on the lands which are described in these historic treaties.
“In Canada, Aboriginal people have had the right to vote in federal elections under certain conditions since Confederation as provided for in the Act to encourage the gradual civilization of the Indians of 1857, one of the founding laws of the famous Indian Act of 1876. This right to vote could only be exercised if Aboriginal people agreed to “emancipate” themselves, that is to say, to renounce their special Indian status to fully embrace the rights and obligations of other Canadian citizens and thus obtain land subject to property tax. The participation of Aboriginal people in the two world wars broadened their access to suffrage. From 1950, the right to vote was extended to Aboriginal people who renounced their tax exemption provided for by the Indian Act of 1876.
Credit: La Presse, March 11, 1960