Category: Reading Logs

In both articles the Beothuk were presented as a people who were under threat from European settlement. Dwindling access to coastal food resources, volatile association and resistance with the settlers and the ultimate expansion of the European settlement, forcing the migration of the Beothuk into the interior, demonstrates the compromised way of life for the Beothuk people. Holly goes on to explore the idea of the Beothuk being active participants, making decisions that would impact their lives and those impeding on their territory. Instead of trading or befriending the settlers, the Beothuk took to resisting against. The Beothuk and the European Settler were able to exist independently of one another. Finally the migration to the interior of the Island of Newfoundland had a grave impact on the quality of existence for the Beothuk. Both Holly and Pastore elaborate on European Settlement as devastating the Beothuk way of life, ultimately leading to their extinction.

Unable to survive as they had, the Beothuk targeted the European settlers as a threat to their existence and contact became usually hostile in nature.[1] The European Settlers were well armed and monopolized any area that was abundant in resources. Shorelines and salmon rich rivers were pillaged. With salmon being one of the Beothuks main food sources, this depletion and monopoly of such a vital lifeline was cause for retaliation.[2] Both Holly and Pastore argue that the Beothuk and the European Settler had little need for one another. The Beothuk did not trade furs, therefore the Settlers were made to become self-reliant and the Beothuk did not need to trade for metals as they were able to scavenge the abandoned fishing stations which offered up a treasure trove of nails, metal and whatever posed useful.[3] Newfoundland’s interior was where the Beothuk eventually migrated to, which is argued by both Pastore and Holly as being the main reason for their extinction. This is due to the lack of year round food sources. Pastore explains how the island of Newfoundland lacked many of the inland food sources that are considered “fall-back” species such as moose, deer and porcupine which are readily found on the mainland. Without these food sources all year round, the Beothuk were at risk of starvation.[4]

The arguments by both Holly and Pastore regarding the demise of the Beothuk people are believable. Pastore presents diagrams depicting the seasonal availability of food, migration routes and historical Beothuk coastal settlement maps and Holly provides nearly eleven pages of sources that he has used to gather his evidence. Both provide the reader with a clear understanding of how the European settlers and the Beothuk people did not require one another, ultimately leading the less sophisticated group of the Beothuk to retreat to a region that did not allow for their continued survival and eventuated in their extinction.

[1] Donald Holly, “The Beothuk on the Eve of their Extinction,” Arctic Anthropology 37, no. 1 (2000): 8-9.

[2] Donald Holly, “The Beothuk on the Eve of their Extinction,” Arctic Anthropology 37, no. 1 (2000): 3.

[3] Donald Holly, “The Beothuk on the Eve of their Extinction,” Arctic Anthropology 37, no. 1 (2000): 4. Ralph Pastore, “The Collapse of the Beothuk World,” Acadiensis 19, no. 1 (Fall 1989): 57-58.

[4] Ralph Pastore, “The Collapse of the Beothuk World,” Acadiensis 19, no. 1 (Fall 1989): 53-54.

 

 

I believe the common theme in Chapter two centralized on clarifying the historical resources of Indigenous peoples that existed prior to newcomers in the Americas and that they efficiently documented these stories. Ronda’s article and Chapter two in Belshaw importantly emphasise the fact that the efficacy of the Aboriginal way of documenting was alive and well. They had a way of documenting history that was different to Europeans. Their history was rich and passed along through generations, not in writing but orally and through paintings and sculptures. The history of the Aboriginal’s has long been documented most notably through time-biased media.[1] Ronda’s article discusses the idea of the Europeans feeling the need to change the belief system of the Aboriginal’s because it differed to theirs. The theme of the Europeans believing in the Aboriginal inadequacy resonates in both literature pieces.

Belshaw reiterates the following, “But the important point is that they did have media; they had a written record, which the Europeans chose to ignore or attempt to destroy where it challenged their own media.”[2]  Ronda further describes how the speeches of Indians were all subject to the white man’s interpretation and how this is devastating to the accurate recording of the Indians History.[3] In “We Are Well As We Are” Ronda illustrates an argument of ignorance personified by the White man missionaries. This is noted when Ronda describes the theological debates between missionary and Indian and how each of their religious views were ultimately quite similar.[4] What I really enjoyed was how Ronda was able to show how the Indians accepted these missionaries into their homes they were open to discourse and community but they were ultimately satisfied with their way of life and their creator. “We are well as we are, and desire not to be troubled with these new wise sayings.”[5] I simply love this sentence.

The article by Ronda really moved me. My ex-boyfriend grew up in the “Bible-Belt” in West Virginia. We often discussed what it would be like for him to not have his faith and the end result is that he would feel completely lost. His entire world would literally cease to make any sense. The Indians were faced with an even greater challenge. They had Christian missionaries entering their lives with the purpose of converting them to Christianity.

[1] John Douglas Belshaw, Canadian History: Pre-Confederation (Vancouver: BC Campus, 2015), 28-33.

[2] John Douglas Belshaw, Canadian History: Pre-Confederation (Vancouver: BC Campus, 2015), 28.

[3] James P. Ronda, “’We Are Well As We Are’: An Indian Critique of Seventeenth-Century Christian Missions,” The William and Mary Quarterly 34, no. 1 (1977): 67.

[4] James P. Ronda, “’We Are Well As We Are’: An Indian Critique of Seventeenth-Century Christian Missions,” The William and Mary Quarterly 34, no. 1 (1977): 77.

[5] James P. Ronda, “’We Are Well As We Are’: An Indian Critique of Seventeenth-Century Christian Missions,” The William and Mary Quarterly 34, no. 1 (1977): 81.

 

Both the article by Noel and the article by Leduc, present the reader with depictions of the specific roles that women played in New France during colonial times. Leduc establishes the means by which many young women arrived to Colonial New France by visually encapsulating the role of women known as ‘filles du roi’ in a letter that she writes to her husband’s ancestor.  Noel goes on to argue that women were not relegated as simple homemakers. Instead, women were dynamic, savvy, highly resourceful and entrepreneurial individuals in the poor colonies that they inhabited.

What is very apparent in Noel’s article is that the woman in roles outside of the typical homemaker was out of necessity due to their husband’s long excursions away on business ventures, inability to manage the affairs of the family or untimely deaths. Even more importantly, these women were highly successful in their economic pursuits.[1] When Louise Denys de la Ronde died, her assets were over 46,000 livres.[2] Interestingly, the ‘filles du roi’ were said to be orphans and wards of King Louis xiv. Having come from very humble beginnings and likely to never be anything more than their title of orphan; many of these women were offered an opportunity to be something more in New France and one could surmise that these women and their descendants did not let that opportunity go to waste. Being a homemaker and raising a family was just the beginning.[3] This was interesting when considering the roles of women and how they shifted out of necessity. Not only were women highly adaptable they were also very skilled in their roles. Noel shares an excerpt of a report written by a French Engineer, whereby the engineer realizes that the “best birch-bark canoes in the colony”[4] were being constructed by women and girls. The reader found gender roles during the colonial time in New France to be highly interesting; seemingly in some ways similar to the time of hunter gatherers. Because these families were colonizing, would this present an environment that would be similar to those times? Everyone was expected to partake in maintaining the farm and the idea of spending all day indoors attending to knitting was unheard of. Noel maintains that this behaviour was definitely a reinvention of the preindustrial era in a way, due to the multifaceted role that women led in the “expansive wilderness that constituted New France.”[5]

Colonial times in New France opened up a new world for the “fille du roi”. Through hard work and solid determination, women were able to put their industrious and entrepreneurial spirits into action; often with great success. Both articles were believable and highly interesting reads.

[1] Jan Noel, “’Nagging Wife’ Revisited: Women and the Fur Trade in New France,” French Colonial History, no. 7 (2006): 47-49.

[2] Jan Noel, “’Nagging Wife’ Revisited: Women and the Fur Trade in New France,” French Colonial History, no. 7 (2006): 48.

[3] Adrienne Leduc, “A Fille du Roi’s Passage,” Beaver, no. 81, Issue 1 (Feb/Mar 2001): 1-2.

[4] Jan Noel, “’Nagging Wife’ Revisited: Women and the Fur Trade in New France,” French Colonial History, no. 7 (2006): 51.

[5] Jan Noel, “’Nagging Wife’ Revisited: Women and the Fur Trade in New France,” French Colonial History, no. 7 (2006): 52.

 

The Acadian’s did not stand a chance against the whim of the French and English political powers of the time. Both of the readings are chronological in manner, giving the reader an insight into the birth of the Acadian right through to the attempted dismantling of the Acadian identity and then the slow and arduous task of recreating what once was. What is very apparent is the devastation that occurred for the Acadians when they were deported.

Griffith’s examines the creation of the Acadian; their arrival to Nova Scotia as settlers, not yet having developed the name Acadian[1] to their acquired identity as being one encompassing great economic success as farmers, healthy people with abundance of good food to eat, importers of quality goods, established generationally, and existing with the belief that they were a neutral entity with no allegiance to England or France specifically.[2] It was shocking to the reader how the English decided that it was time the Acadians were removed and then the actual act of taking these people away from the land that they had cultivated over generations. Not only had the Acadians lost their homes and material possessions but they were now without their people and acquired customs. One could almost compare this act to the assimilation of the Indigenous people, in a loose manner; in comparison was the lack of immunity in the Acadians to the diseases such as cholera and small pox, which resulted in mass death when the Acadians were dispersed among the other colonies.[3] The timeline by the CBC demonstrates the control of the land being a constant back and forth between France and England.[4]

One of the most complicated things unfolding is the ability to decisively articulate the lengthy article by Griffith’s into a one page journal entry. The article is very rich with information that carries the reader through the development of the Acadian people who are somewhat out-of-sight and out-of-mind from the Europeans, having a distinct society with a self sufficient economy; it is of the opinion of the reader that this in itself gave rise to the creation of the Acadian.[5] The first thing that came into the reader’s mind, after having read the article and the website pages on the Acadians, was that the plight of the Acadian is similar to Paradise Lost.

[1] Naomi Griffiths, “Acadian Identity: The Creation and Re-creation of Community,” Dalhousie Review 73, no.3 (Fall 1993): 329.

[2] Naomi Griffiths, “Acadian Identity: The Creation and Re-creation of Community,” Dalhousie Review 73, no.3 (Fall 1993): 335-336, 341.

[3] Naomi Griffiths, “Acadian Identity: The Creation and Re-creation of Community,” Dalhousie Review 73, no.3 (Fall 1993): 338.

[4] http://www.cbc.ca/acadian/timeline.html accessed (October 8, 2016).

[5] Naomi Griffiths, “Acadian Identity: The Creation and Re-creation of Community,” Dalhousie Review 73, no.3 (Fall 1993): 330, 335.