Legends and the Landscape Trudy Sable The Mi’kmaq have a rich oral tradition with many legends and creation stories filled with place names that are descriptive of resource areas, landscape features (including “sacred sites”), and important historical events. Some describe events that most likely reflect natural occurrences such as earthquakes and glacial retreats that shaped the landscape of Mi’kma’ki, perhaps dating to 13,000 years ago. These legends are filled with imagery, such as giant beavers and toads, that once existed, and most likely mirror the actual events as experienced by Mi’kmaq as they occurred. In addition, these legends may have acted as oral maps detailing important resource areas such as lithic resources for making stone tools and weapons, the location of various woods for shelter and implements, and areas to find food and medicine. As with many oral traditions, these legends were “libraries” of valuable knowledge hidden within the memories of elders, and in features of the landscape as it is recalled and as it still exists. These legends tell not only of practical information for survival but are the language of the land; how people were in continual relationship with it and psychically inseparable from it. These few short extracts included below are from longer legends that give a sense of how the landscape of Mi’kma’ki can be experienced as sentient and as part of a network of relationships people exist within. The following excerpt is from a longer legend, Wizard Carries of Glooscap’s (Kluskap’s)Housekeeper recorded by the Baptist missionary, Silas Rand. Map created gratis for T.Sable by William Jones, exp. Services According to legend, Kluskap created “a crossing over place” to facilitate the passing of his people back and forth “between Partridge Island and the shores of Cumberland Bay, and running parallel to the River Hebert. It is called by the Indians Owŏkŭn but in English River Hebert…which still remains and is called by the white people ‘the Boar’s Back’. It is the ridge which gives the Indians the name Owŏkŭn to the place and river” (Silas Rand: 1874/1971:292). Whitehead, Ruth. See Introduction, Stories from the Six Worlds: Mi’kmaw Stories. Nimbus Publishing, 2014 Sable, Trudy. Another Look in the Mirror: Research into the Foundation for Creating a Cross-Cultural Science Curriculum for Mi’kmaw Students. M.A. Thesis, Saint Mary’s University, 1996; Preserving the Whole: Principles of Sustainability in Mi’kmaw Forms of Communication. In, Unlearning the Language of Conquest, ed. Four Arrows (Don Trent Jacobs) University of Texas Press, 2005 Ibid. Wo’qn means spine. As mentioned in the recording of this legend, it appears to refer to the boar’s back, a layman’s term used for a rock formation such as a stone ridge that acts as a causeway or “crossing over place”. However, if you look at the 3-D map, the river way creates a spine-like image and acts as a natural highway for Mi’kmaq travelling from Parrsboro to Chignecto, as did many of the rivers throughout Mi’kma’ki. Another legend, Gluskap and Beaver, was documented by Elsie Clews Parson, an anthropologist who travelled to Nova Scotia from the U.S.A. in the 1920s. The legend includes Salt Mountain, Wi’sikk (“shaped like a beaver’s dam”), Indian Island, and Grand Narrows in Cape Breton. Map created by William Jones, exp. Services From Salt Mountain (Wi’sik). [Footnote 4: The English name is from the fact that the water out of the mountain is salty. The meaning of Wi’sik was unknown to Mrs. Morris. To her it did not mean cabin (Speck 1:59)]. The English name is from the fact that the water out of the mountain is salty. Gluscap (Kluskap) was chasing a beaver; beaver made holes in Indian Island (Elnuewe’e minigu). Trying to get under it…He did get under it and went to Elguanik. Came out at Tewil (Grand Narrows). The rock Gluscap threw at Beaver became little island. The lesser of the two elevations of Indian Island was also made by the soil thrown by Gluskap (Parson 1925; n. 6 “Rand 1: 216”). From Salt Mountain Gluskap could make Indian Island in one step, (i.e., stand with one foot on the mountain, the other on the island). (Parsons:1925: 86). In an interview with Gregory Johnson of Esskisoqnik (see In Memoriam), he mentioned that the ‘Wi’s in Wi’sikk referred to a beaver den, and the ‘ikk’ meant it was shaped like a beaver den or house. Wi’sikk referred to being shaped like a beaver den or house. In a subsequent interview with Florence Young of Esskisoqnik, she mentioned that growing up she was told it was a sacred mountain, and that people could tell the weather by looking at the mountain. She said that if a person spoke badly of the mountain or insulted it, it would bring bad weather. Most likely, Wi’sikk is a weather mountain similar to ones still respected by the Innu of Labrador. These are mountains the Innu use to tell weather by the amount of cloud cover or clear sky, etc. above them. Visitors are told never to point at these mountains or bad weather will come. Coincidentally, there is a weather station on Salt Mountain today. (Sable and Francis 2012: 70-71) Again, from the legend Wizard Carries of Glooscap’s (Kluskap) Housekeeper. Glooscap (Kluskap) goes from Partridge Island to Cape Blomidon where he decks his aged mother out in beautiful minerals, goes back to Spenser’s Island where he butchers, cooks, and eats animals, turns his kettle upside down to form and island called “ooteomul” (S/F: Wtuoml: “his/her pot”) then to the River Hebert, and over to pitch his tent at Cap D’or (S/F: L’mu’juiktuk: “place of the dogs”) (Rand, 1894/1971:291-293). The area around Blomidon and Cape Split is noted for its beautiful amethysts and agate and other rocks, and the necklace Kluskap decks his Grandmother in may well be a metaphorical description of the area rich in these valued minerals. The Minas Basin has numerous mineral deposits and is a “rockhounds’s paradise” noted for its jasper, agate, and chalcedony, each of great value for making stone tools and weapons. Archaeological excavations conducted at various sites such as Scots Bay, Amethyst Cove, and along the Minas Basin around Parrsboro, the Five Islands and Cape D’or, are evidence of lithic workshops dating back to pre-contact time. The Mi’kmaw word for Blomidon is Metoqwatkek: “bushes extending down the bank,” also Tkoqnji’j: translation unknown) This legend, as well as the one that follows, is also an example of a story connected to a “grandmother” or “grandfather” rock. Certain rocks and rock formations throughout Mi’kma’ki are honorifically called Kukumijinu (‘Our Grandmother’) or Kniskamijinu (‘Our Grandfather’). These are usually prominent and/or anomalous landscape features, such as large rocks or rock formations that acted as guide posts for Mi’kmaq travelling, or offered protection and/or a good look-off point for spotting anyone approaching. They commonly have legends associated with them, such as the mythic hero, Kluskap, turning his Grandmother or Grandfather to stone as he does in the excerpt above. A great amount of respect was and is shown to these rocks because they are considered animate and perceived as conscious beings, and for the roles they play(ed) for Mi’kmaq. According to linguist, Dr. Bernie Francis, “Like Grandmothers and Grandfathers, they kept an eye on people and protected them by helping them find their way. Once the perception of the rock as a Grandmother or Grandfather occurs in the mind of the perceiver, one feels comforted and not alone.” Another reference documented in the notebooks of travel writer Clarissa Archibald Dennis, from an interview with Jerry Lonecloud (a.k.a. Alexis Bartlett), mentions how Kluskap turns Toad into a Grandmother at Cape Split: Then Glooscup (Kluskap) got some meat—she [ed:Toad] was always a great inspector of food to see there was no vermin or insects in it before it was served to Glooscup. Her reward from Glooscup was she was turned to a stone. (Goomeginuwahnayinook meaning our great Grandmother). Glooscup’s grandmother sits at Cape Slip (sic, Cape Split) looking out. Glooscup turned her to stone to be remembered & seen by different tribes & he promised Goomeginuwahnayinook that she should be turned to a person when he returned. So, she looks in that direction ever since expecting him to return. (Clarissa Archibald Dennis MG1 Vol 2867 #1 Field Notebook 1, 1923: 8). The following picture was taken at Cape Split. Is it possible that the shadow is Kluskap’s grandmother looking for him to return? Photo: David Sable Sable, T. Legends as Maps. In Ta’n Wetapeksi’k: Understanding from Where we Come: Proceedings of the 2005 Debert ResearchWorkshop Debert, Nova Scotia, Canada. Eds. Tim Bernard, Leah Morine Rosenmeier, and Sharon L. Farrell, 2011, pp. 157-172 Translations by Bernie Francis. Sable, Trudy and Bernie Francis. The Language of this Land, Mi’kma’ki. Cape Breton University Press and Nimbus Publications, 2012, pp. 43- 44Ibid According to Dr, Bernie Francis, the Mi’kmaw word for Great Grandmother is pitu-kukumijinu