Report by the Governor on a Visit to the Micmac Indians at Bay dEspoir | Page 2

they have a small church,
decently well built and kept, on the best site on the Reservation. It is
built of sawn timber and would contain nearly one hundred people,
which is too small for the festival of St. Anne, the patroness of the
congregation. Over the entrance to the church there is printed in large
characters, in the Micmac language, a total prohibition against spitting
in church.
The cemetery immediately adjoins the church, and there they bury their
dead as members of a single family.
They have had a small school open since the 17th January last. It is a
wooden room, about 12 feet by 15 feet, by no means new, with a small
stove and two little windows.
The teacher is a woman of partly Micmac origin. She receives some
very small allowance from the parish priest, and a few of the children,
she says, pay some small fees. There are 34 children on the roll, and the
winter attendance was from 25 to 30. They are divided into three
classes, the highest of which could read slowly, in English, words of
three or four letters. About half of them could write a little, a few of
them surprisingly well on such brief tuition. The teacher says they are
very amenable to discipline. Seldom has a school been started under
greater difficulties than this Micmac institution. I was able sincerely to
congratulate the teacher on what she has been able to accomplish under
such unfavourable circumstances. It is manifest that the children are
bright and clever, and that they would become useful and intelligent

citizens if they had ordinary educational advantages. In this probably
lies the best hope of a future prospect for this community. The
settlement is visited now once a month by the parish priest; and in his
absence, one of themselves, Stephen Jeddore, reads the service on
Sunday. Last year they were visited by the Right Reverend Bishop
McNeil.
6. They appear to be a comparatively healthy people. So far as known,
no one is at present affected by tuberculosis in any form. I saw one
woman of ninety years of age, Sarah Aseleka, perhaps the only Micmac
of pure blood in the settlement. She was born at Bay St. George, and
came to Bay d'Espoir some three score of years ago when the Micmacs
first settled in this bay. The next oldest person is John Bernard, who is
about eighty. Few of them were even fairly well clothed; the majority
were in rags. A few wore home-made deer-skin boots, but most of them
had purchased ready-made boots or shoes. They make deer-skin boots
by scraping caribou skin, and tanning it in a decoction of spruce bark.
Such boots are, they state, worn through in a few days. The women can
spin wool, and knit stockings. Their food consists chiefly of flour, a
few potatoes, some cabbage, and perhaps about half a score of caribou
a year for each family, hung up on trees and thus frozen during the
winter. They also smoke fish, principally freshwater fish, and obtain a
few grouse and hares, but this small game has almost disappeared from
the district. They have to go inland a score of miles to obtain caribou
for food.
The men are of good size, and strongly built, but clearly of mixed
descent, many being nearly like Europeans. The children have all,
without exception, very dark, soft eyes, straight black hair, and the nose
much more prominent than in the Esquimaux of Labrador.
7. The principal Chief is Olibia, but I unfortunately did not meet him.
He had gone out in March to his trapping ground near Mount Sylvester,
but could not then reach his traps on account of the unusually great
quantity of snow, and he had returned thither at the time of my visit.
I was informed that he was selected as Chief by the Micmacs of the
Reservation, and was appointed by the principal Micmac Chief at St.

Anne's, Nova Scotia, and by the priest. I was shown the insignia of
office worn on ceremonial occasions by the Chief. It consists of a gold
medallion with a chain attached, the whole in a case covered by red
velvet. The medallion is inscribed "Presented to the Chief of the
Micmacs Indians of Newfoundland," but with neither name nor date.
The community paid for this badge of office forty-eight dollars.
The second chief is Geodol--called in English Noel Jeddore--who
represented Olibia in his absence. Geodol is the owner of one of the
two cows on the Reservation, and his brother possesses the second one.
The Chieftainship is not hereditary, but is conferred, when a vacancy
occurs, on the man the people prefer. They are easy to govern and
seldom quarrel. They have no intoxicating liquor and