While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Malecite, Various explanations of
this name have been given. According to Chamberlain it is from their
Micmac name Malisit, 'broken talkers'; Tanner gives the form as
Mahnesheets, meaning 'slow tongues'; Baraga derives it through the
Cree from mayisit or malisit, 'the disfigured or ugly foot';
Lacombe (Diet. Cris, 707) agrees with Baraga and gives the etymology as
magi or mal, 'deformed,' and sit, 'foot.' Maurault's
explanation is radically different from all, as he says it is from
Maroudit or Malouidit, 'those who are of Saint Malo.' Vetromile
says it "comes from malike, which in old Abnaki and also in
Delaware means witchcraft," but adds, "hence the French name Micmac is a
substitute for Mareschite," as he writes the name. According to
Chamberlain the name they apply to themselves is Wulastuk-wick,
'dwellers on the beautiful river,' or, as given by Maurault,
Ouarastegouiaks, `those of the river whose bed contains sparkling objects.
The Malecite belong to the Abnaki group of the
Algonquian stock. Maurault makes a distinction between the Malecite and
the Etchimin, but adds that "the remnants of this tribe and the Etchimins
are called at the present day Malecites." Their closest linguistic
affinity is with the Passamaquoddy, the language of the two being almost
identical, and is closely allied to the New England dialects, but more
distant from that of the Micmac.
Although the New Brunswick coast was visited by or soon
after the middle of the 16th century, and St John river located on maps as
early as 1558, making it quite probable that the people of this tribe had
come in contact with the whites at that early date, the earliest recorded
notice of them is in Champlain's narrative of his voyage of 1604. He found
the country along the banks of the St John in the possession of Indians
named "Les Etchemons," by whom his party was received with hospitality and
rejoicing, and says they were the " first Christians " who had been seen
by these savages, which may have been true of the particular party he met,
but doubtful in the broader sense. That these were Malecite there is no
reasonable doubt. " When we were seated," says Champlain, "they began to
smoke, as was their custom, before making any discourse. They made us
presents of game and venison. All that day and the night following they
continued to sing, dance, and feast until day reappeared. They were
clothed in beaver skills."
Early in the 17th century Ft La Tour was built on St
John river, which became the rallying point of the tribe, who there
learned the use of firearms, and first obtained cooking vessels of metal
and the tools and instruments of civilized life. The few French settlers
on this river intermarried with the Indians, thus forming a close
alliance, which caused them to become enemies of the New England settlers,
between whom and the French there was almost constant warfare. After the
English came into possession of the country there were repeated disputes
between them and the Malecite in regard to lands until 1776. Afterward
lands were assigned them. In 1850, according to Schoolcraft, "the Tobinque
river and the small tract at Madawaska, Meductic Point, and Kingsclear,
with their small rocky islands near St John, containing 15 acres,"
constituted all the lands held or claimed by them in the country which was
formerly their own. In 1884 they numbered 767, of whom 584 were in New
Brunswick and the others in Quebec province. According to the report of
Canadian Indian Affairs for 1904 their number was 805, of whom 103 were in
Quebec province and 702 in New Brunswick.
