This Month in History

October

October - Wikewikús - Fattening Animal Time



1 - Kisaknutmamkewey Na'kwek - Treaty Day

1749 - Governor Cornwallis, in a Council meeting, gives this response to a Mi'kmaq declaration of war: "to declare war formally against the Micmac Indians would be a manner to own them a free and independent people, whereas they ought to be treated as so many Banditti Ruffians, or Rebels".

1944 - St. Anne's Mission Church is established in Membertou First Nation by funds raised by people in the community. Chief Ben Christmas spearheads fund drive through his ticket sales.

2 - 2003 - Sylvester Joe Benoit dies at Western Memorial Hospital. He is son of John Alfred Benoit and Milli (Millicent) Chesson. Leaves to morn his wife Edna May Benoit. He is father of Jasen (A.K.A. Thunder Cloud, jes'n penwa) Benwah, founder of St. George's Bay Mi'kmaq

1749 - Governor Cornwallis issues orders to "annoy, distress, take or destroy the Savage commonly called Micmac", and offers a reward of 10 guineas for every Mi'kmaq taken or killed.

1998 - New high tech high school is opened in Eskasoni by Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Jane Stewart.

3 - 1872, the year Canada was born, our people are being reported as "… very saucy the past three or four years; some one has been telling them they have exclusive right to both land and water in Conn, (Newfoundland) in fact they have a license to hold the south side of Conn, about two and a quarter miles in length and thirty-three chains deep. (Cuff: as reproduced in Journals of the House of Assembly 1873, p792).

1829 - In the Minutes of Council, it is noted Lord Dalhousie wrote to the Legislative Council to figure out a plan "to protect [Mi'kmaq lands] from encroachment and trespass the Indians now complaining that a great part of their land had been settled by intruders, and that others had stripped them of their wood."

1991 - Official opening of the multi-million dollar resort complex at Kingsclear First Nation.

4 - 1900 - Mi'kmaq flag is raised for the first time in Restigouche, Quebec.

1971 - John Leonard Toney and Vincent "Frenchy" Bernard begin their duties as police in Eskasoni. They have no car, no office, no supplies, and no weapons.

1986 - Helen Martin retires from the Nova Scotia Native Women's Association after 15 years.

5 - 1985 - The October issue of the Micmac News reports Alan Toney of Cambridge shot a rare 29 point buck in the first week of the hunting season in the Annapolis Valley.

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7 - 1763 - King George III's Royal Proclamation protects Mi'kmaq hunting grounds. It stated the Mi'kmaq in Nova Scotia would not be "...molested or disturbed...".

1985 - Fifteen basket 'peddlers' take part in an historic train ride through Nova Scotia to commemorate the practice of Mi'kmaq crafts people who rode the trains to sell their wares from door to door. Some of the people taking part were: Victor Christmas, Keith Christmas, Angeline Phillips, Pearl Googoo, Mary Bernard, Rita Smith, William and Alice Googoo, Rita Roadknight and her mother Nancy Christoff, Caroline Gould, Margaret Johnson, Martha Lewis, Mary Rose Gould, and Mary Paul.

8 - 1985 - 97 year old Nancy Christoff of Indian Brook shares traditional Mi'kmaq culture with 5 year old great-grand-daughter Sherry Nevin at Arts & Trade Show in Halifax, October 8-10.

1994 - Lorne Simon, 33, of Big Cove passes away. His first novel "Switches and Stones" would be published later that fall by Theytus Books in British Columbia. Lorne had been awarded the Simon Lucas Scholarship for Achievement in Creative Expression.

9 - 1910 - Father Pacifique blesses the new prayer house at Eskasoni - the Chapel of the Holy Family. Copies of historic documents in Mi'kmaq and English are laid under its cornerstone.

1986 - Attorney General Ron Giffen announces a public judicial inquiry into wrongful conviction of Donald Marshall Jr.

10 - 1976 - "Micmac Magazine" radio show goes on air on CHER Radio in Sydney and CIGO in Port Hawkesbury. A half-hour show, it was hosted by Conrad Paul of Sydney.

1977 - There is currently no Mi'kmaq presence at the Fortress of Louisbourg and officials say that if the Mi'kmaq can provide historical documentation, they will consider employing Mi'kmaq as animators.

1999 - Talented Mi'kmaq fiddler and performer Lee Cremo passes away.

11 - 1872 - Joseph Julien is born in New Glasgow, N.S. to Noel and Madeline (neé Sylliboy) Julien. He would be a leading figure on the Mi'kmaq religious and political scene until his death at age 85.

1993 - Official opening of the new wigwam shaped church at Indian Island, New Brunswick. The community had been without a church for nearly 37 years.

12 - 1972 - First exhibit of the costumes, tools, crafts, and paintings of the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Iroquois, Woods Cree, Plains Cree, Sioux, Blackfoot, Nootka, and Eskimo peoples opens at the Nova Scotia Museum.

12 - 1915 - Armed-drifter Frons Olivar 1915 disaster. Commander McDermott; H.M.S. Calypso, received a message Wednesday morning from the Admiralty, stating that five members of the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, who had formed part of the crew of the armed diifter Frons Olivar were lost when that ship struck a mine and was blown up the previous day on October 12, 2015 in the North Sea. This included Mi'kmaw Naval Reservist Victor J. Benoit , son of Joseph Benoit and Ellen Damois of Cape St. George, NL. Buried in Hamilton Road Cemetery, a combined municipal and military burial ground situated in the coastal town of Deal, Kent, in South East England. 13 - The October 1996 issue of the Micmac Maliseet Nations News features photographs by Clayton Paul. One is of Indian Brook resident Norman Brooks, who won a job in a logging camp when he was 15 by cutting down ten more trees than the camp foreman!

14 - 1923 - The Sunday Leader reports Charlottetown Mi'kmaw Barney Francis, competing for the Abegweit Amateur Athletic Association made history by "registering a thrilling upset victory at the mile race at the Canadian Track & Field Championships in Halifax…". His time of 4:32:05 upset the previous Maritime record and was to stand until 1938.

15 - 1982 - Dalhousie University Arts Centre is the venue for the first Atlantic Indian Arts & Crafts Festival.

16 - 1989 - Eugene Denny bags first moose under the one-year conservation agreement. The moose weighed 970 pounds and had a 32-point rack.

1998 - The Micmac Native Friendship Centre in Halifax celebrates its 25th anniversary.

17 - 1986 - Holland College, P.E.I. graduates nine native constables from the Atlantic Police Academy.

18 - 1749 - Excerpt from a letter transcribed by Père Maillard from the Mi'kmaq to the government of Nova Scotia: "The place where you are building dwellings, where you are now building a fort, as it were, to enthrone yourself, this land of which you wish to make yourself now absolute master, this land belongs to me. I have come from it as certainly as the grass, it is the very place of my birth and of my dwelling, this land belongs to me. It is God who has given it to me to be my country forever."

19 - 1741 - Governor De Quesnel awards medals and commissions to Mi'kmaq chiefs - helpful allies against the English.

1993 - Chief Noel Doucette of Chapel Island is reported in the Chronicle Herald as asking the Nova Scotia Transport Minister to share the cost for a sidewalk after three people are injured in three separate traffic accidents October 16, 17, and 18. Despite speed limits there is a tendency for vehicles to speed along the stretch of highway.

1997 - Nova Scotia Museum launches its web site "Mi'kmaq Portraits Collection".

20 - 1987 - As of October 20, 1987, after passage of Bill C-31, band membership at Afton First Nation rises by 104 members, going from 476 as of December 31, 1986 to 537 by October, 1987.

2001 - Ada Benoit of the Miawpukek First Nation, Newfoundland, becomes the first Aboriginal person to graduate from the Dalhousie University Nurse Practitioner Program.

21 - 1988 - Angry picketers demonstrate outside a Nova Scotia cabinet meeting in Truro to protest violations of Mi'kmaq treaty rights. President and Vice President of the Nova Scotia Native Council, Viola Robinson and Dwight Dorey lead the protest. Mr. Dorey is resplendent in a suit of prison stripes.

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26 - 1975- SAQAMAW BILLY JOE LEADS A BLOCKADE OF A FOREST ACCESS ROAD IN RETALIATION FOR PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT'S UNFAIR TREATMENT IN ALLOCATING TIMBER RIGHTS. PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT UPGRADES ROAD TO SECONDARY HIGHWAY TO MAKE IT LEGAL TO STOP US.

1971 - The Cape Breton Post notes that Mi'kmaq children are advised not to speak Mi'kmaq in school. With the resurgence of interest in Mi'kmaq culture, a mere 13 years later the language is promoted and taught to children at the Chapel Island school. Things can change.

27 - 1996 - Rita (Toney) Smith passes away having served as chief of Annapolis-Horton for three terms. She and her husband Abraham were also known for their skill in basketry. Their work is displayed at the Indian Arts Centre, Ottawa.

28 - 1993 - Donald Marshall Jr. is formally charged with illegally fishing eels on August 24, of that year.

1999 - Donald Marshall Jr. is quoted in the Globe & Mail, "We belong on this land, we're going to live on this land, and we're going to stay on this land."

29 - 1838 - In response to a questionnaire on the number and living conditions of Indians in Cape Breton, Joseph Howe writes: "There are about 130 families in the island - the Micmac tribe - generally degraded - attributed to the loss of their hunting grounds - the aged and helpless are very miserable."

30 - 1928 - John James Tourout marries Catherine (Katie) Wheeler in Port au Port, NL.

2001 - Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Robert Nault publishes a piece in the Halifax Herald advising replacement of the Indian Act with a "First Nations Governance Act."

30 - 2016 - The Mi'kmaw Centre officially opens it's doors in it's grand opening ceremonies. A long time goal of Saqamaw Jasen Benwah, Benoit 1st Nation finally build the centre which is now the hub of Mi'kmaw Cultural activity in the area.

31 - 1872 - Joseph Julien is born in Pictou County. He would later become chief of Membertou in 1911 and chief of Millbrook in 1917. He died February 6, 1957.

Acknowledgements/Sources

Mi'kmaq Resource Centre Book of Days for the Mi'kmaq Year
Micmac News 1970-1991
Micmac Maliseet Nations News 1992 - 2002
Mi'kmaq Past and Present: A Resource Guide N.S. Dept. of Education
Nova Scotia Virtual Archives Mi'kmaq Photo Collection On-Line
Mac Leod, Heather. Past Nature: Public Accounts of Nova Scotia's Landscape, 1600-1900
1995 St. Mary's University Ph.D. Thesis.
Mi'kmaq Association of Cultural Studies. Micmac Hymnal 1984.
Newton, Pamela. The Cape Breton Book of Days 1984 Sydney: University College of Cape Breton Press.
Paul, Daniel M. We Were Not the Savages: 21st Century Edition 2000 Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
Paul-Martin, Patsy. Mi'kmaq Months of the Year From a series of posters produced for the Millbrook Literacy Center by Eastern Woodlands Publishing.
Reid, Jennifer. No Man's Land: British and Mi'kmaq in 18th and 19th Century Acadia
1994 Ph.D. Thesis University of Ottawa.
Ricker, Darlene A. L'sitkuk: the Story of the Bear River Mi'kmaw Community 1997
Lockport, N.S.: Roseway Publishing Co. Ltd.
Wicken, William. Mi'kmaq Treaties on Trial 2002 Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Benwah, Jasen Sylvester, St. George's Bay Mi'kmaq Bay St. George Mi'kmaw Researcher, Stephenville, NL.
Renee Jeddore, http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/2772/ Conn River, NL.



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