Mi’kmaq Studies 10
Land
1. Write 1 statement explaining how the Mi’kmaq feel towards land, animals, and sharing.
2. Write 1 statement explaining how the European settlers feel towards land, animals, and sharing.
3. When are the two times animals were killed?
4. Write down 5 parts, of Mi’kmaq spirituality
5. What is a salite?
6. How does native spirituality, and Christianity, feel about abortion, and euthanasia?
7. Give 6 reasons, in point form, as to why you feel the Christian religion had a similar set up to Mi’kmaq spirituality.
8. What are the 7 lands of the Mi’kmaq?
o 1 Lands End
o 2 Wild Potato Area
o 3 Drainage Area
o 4 Land of Fog
o 5 Laying in the Water & Explosive Place
o 6 Skin Dressers Territory
o 7 Last Land
2 times Mi’kmaq kill an animal.
Roles
Topics Test #3
Male
· Hunted
· Fished
· Made bows, arrows and lances
· Made cradle boards, and tobacco pipes
· Should know how to make shields, fish traps and weirs, canoes, axes and knives
· Should master the basics of hunting, fishing, and preparing food, clothing and shelter.
Female
· Carried game back to camp
· Transported all camp equipment and set up camp
· Prepared and preserved food
· Made birch bark dishes, wove mats from rushes, made clothing and corded snowshoes
· Fetched water
· Took care of children
Write 1 statement explaining how the Mi’kmaq feel towards land, animals, and sharing.
Write 1 statement explaining how the European settlers feel towards land, animals, and sharing.
Write down 5 parts, of Mi’kmaq spirituality and briefly explain the significance of each one.
Label the 7 lands of the Mi’kmaq.
Essay Question
Why was Christianity, in some ways, seen as a fit for Mi’kmaq spirituality? Give 7 reasons, in point form, as to why you feel the Christian religion had a similar set up to the Mi’kmaq spirituality.
The Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia had the first known contact with European explorers in 1497 when John Cabot arrived. Soon after, fishing ships from Europe were a regular sight in Mi’kma’ki (the land of the Mi’kmaq). Organized fur trade began in the 1500s. Settlers and Christian missionaries moved here during the 1600sand 1700s.
The Europeans did not understand the ways of the Mi’kmaq and they were inaccurately portrayed as barbarians and savages. For example, the Mi’kmaw belief that animals and trees had a spirit was seen as a sin to Roman Catholics. The Mi’kmaw concept that the land was shared by all and owned by none, was seen as backward to the Europeans.
Bowing to the pressure of the missionaries, the Mi’kmaq began to convert to Christianity.
On June 24, 1610 at Port Royal, Grand Chief Membertou was the first Mi’kmaw to be baptized a Roman Catholic. Mi’kmaq began to follow the Grand Chief’s example, adopting many of the practices of Catholicism. In the absence of the Missionary Priests, many Mi’kmaw people, especially members of the Grand Council, assumed the role of teachers as well as religious and prayer leaders. While the Mi’kmaq accepted the teachings of the Catholic Church, they did not give up their own beliefs. In fact, they found that many of the
Catholic teachings went well with their traditional teachings.
They also continued to practice their own Mi’kmaw spirituality. Unfortunately when the Shubenacadie Residential School opened in 1930, Mi’kmaw youth were forced to give up both the Mi’kmaw language and spiritual beliefs in favour of the Catholic religion. Convinced by religious leaders that Mi’kmaw spirituality was evil, more and more Mi’kmaq gradually converted to Catholicism.