Report by the Governor on a Visit to the Micmac Indians at Bay dEspoir | Page 3

seldom obtain
any. They pay 60 to 70 cents a pound for their tobacco, 20 to 30 cents
for gunpowder, and 10 cents for shot. They sell their fur locally where
they make their small family purchases.
8. The head of each family has his own special trapping ground in the
interior, over which others may travel, fish, or shoot, but not trap. For
example Geodol, the second chief, traps about Gulp Lake; Olibia, the
chief, about Mount Sylvester; Nicholas Jeddore about Burnt Hill;
George Jeddore at Bare Hill and Middle Ridge; Stephen Jeddore at
Scaffold Hill; Noel Matthews at Great Burnt Lake; &c.
None go as far north as the railway, but Meiklejohn goes as far as
John's Pond. Europeans are encroaching on their trapping lands, but do
not go far inland. This pushes the Micmacs further inland to get away
from the Europeans. They claim no fishing rights at sea, and say
frankly they are only trappers and guides.
They go inland in September, when their first care is to shoot a deer
and smoke the flesh as food. They return home from the 20th to the
25th November to prepare their traps for fox, lynx, otter, and bear. In
December they shoot, as winter food for the family, does and young
stags, but not old stags. They say the arctic hare is now very rare on
their trapping lands; and snipe, geese, and ducks are far fewer than they
were a few years ago. They appear to be very careful not to waste
venison, never killing any deer they do not actually require and use as

food.
9. It is not possible to regard the present condition and the prospects of
this settlement of Micmacs as being bright. Game, their principal food,
is manifestly becoming more difficult to procure; their trapping lands
are being encroached upon by Europeans; they are not seamen; they are
not fishermen; and they do not understand agriculture. In the middle of
their Reservation a saw-mill has been in operation some years,
apparently on the allotment of Bernard John, but without his sanction
or permission, and, it seems, in spite of the protests of the community.
None of the Micmacs work at this mill. Formerly they cut logs for it,
but the trees that grew near the water have, they say, all been used up
and there are none left within their reach that they could bring to the
water. The saw-mill is thus an eyesore to them, as it is on what they
regard as their land, and in defiance of them.
Although they have not complied with the conditions set forth on the
form of licence, which would have entitled them to a grant in fee, yet
their occupation has extended over so many years that there is no
probability whatever that the Government of Newfoundland would
withhold from them grants, as a matter of grace, if they only applied for
them and could show how they could use the land. It would not be
difficult to find a location for the community that would be more
suitable for them so far as cultivation is concerned, and be equally good
for hunting and trapping. With some aid, such as supplies of seed
potatoes and a few animals, they could no doubt derive much greater
resources than at present from agriculture, especially if to that were
added a good school for the young.
The question of their trapping lands will have to be dealt with before
long. Each man regards his rights to his trapping area as unimpeachable.
They are recognised at present among themselves, but they have no
official sanction for their trapping lands either as a community or as
individuals, just as they have no official title to the Reservation.
I was accompanied on this visit by the Honourable Eli Dawe, Minister
of Marine and Fisheries, who, as a member of the Government, will
himself take an interest in the settlement, and call the attention of his

colleagues to the condition of the Micmacs. I was also assisted by Mr.
James Howley, who has been on friendly terms with these people for
many years. I enclose photographs[A] of some of the Micmacs, taken
by Mr. Howley during this visit.
10. The Micmacs are held by ethnologists to be a branch of the
Algonquins, who inhabited Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
It was from the last-named province that they extended to
Newfoundland, apparently not much more than a century ago. The fact
that they did not effect a lodgment on Newfoundland sooner may be at
least partly accounted for by supposing that the Beothuks, the
aboriginal natives of Newfoundland, were able to defend themselves
and their country from the Micmacs so long as both sides were
unprovided with firearms, and until the