The Original Canada and Canadians

Historic and Original "Canada" and "Canadians"

The term "Canada" from a word in an Iroquoian language meaning "village", kanata, was used to describe the territory in which the "Canadian River" i.e. the "St. Lawrence River" was found. The Original people known as "Canadian" are the Indigenous peoples living along the "Canadian River", Kaniatarowanenneh, the "great waterway" in Mohawk; Moliantegw in Abenaki. The "Canadians", which is the word the Jesuits used to describe the Indigenous peoples, had (and still have) their own "Canadian" languages, as well as culture, customs, and homeland which has never been ceded, deeded, sold, or transferred by the Original inhabitants to any European Crown or corporation.

References about "Canada" and "Canadians" abound in the following (here are just a few):

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents - 1610 to 1791

- "great River of Canada" i.e. the St. Lawrence River

- "New France, or Canada" (1611 Letter from Biard to Aquaviva)

- "Canada or New France" (p. 203, An Account of the Canadian Mission)

"NORTH AMERICA is occupied principally by three nations — the Spanish, the French, and the English. Mexico, a part of Florida and of California, belongs to the Spanish dominions. The shores opposite to the rising sun, and stretching Southward, have been occupied at various times by the English, the Swedes, and the Dutch. The French possess the territory which lies between these and the Mexicans, towards the north and west, commonly called New France or Canada." (p. 205)

Concerning ... New France

"THERE are two great rivers in New France. One, called by the natives Canada, a name thence extended to the whole country, is now called the River St. Lawrence, and flows in a very broad channel from west to east." (p. 245)

J. R. 1

The Mission in New France, or Canada

"But the name of Canada, which is commonly given to this entire country, belongs only to that Northern region which is washed by the abundant waters of the river Canada, and of the noble gulf which is called St. Lawrence." (p. 199)

J. R. 2

"on the location of new france, and those who first attempted to settle there."

"I believe it was Jean Verazan who was Godfather to this title of "New France;"1 for Canada (a name by which they also frequently call it) is not, properly speaking, all this extent of country which they now call New France; but it is only that part, which extends along the banks of the great River Canada, and [4] the Gulf of St. Lawrence ..." (p. 40)

"Acadie, or the Souriquoys country farther South, is next to Canada, and still farther down, on the other side of French Bay, is Norambegue." (p. 41)

J. R. 3

"Canada is only a part of new France, namely, the land along the great river Canadas."

"Canada, a Province of new France, first discovered by Jaques Cartier, in the year 1524."

"Canada parallel to France, in the same climate and Polar elevation."

"Canada colder than our France, and why."

"Canada subject to Scurvy or land disease."

"Canada brings sickness to those who are idle."

"Canada shows vegetation as early in Spring as our France."

"Canada in the coldest places yields the wheat crop in its season."

"Canada has no high mountains."

"Canada, very much intersected by rivers and arms of the sea, is thereby rendered colder."

"Canada, on account of the continuous forests, is heated by the Sun, and therefore colder than the open countries."

"Canada, not being cultivated, is covered with hard crust, almost impenetrable to the Sun, and therefore much colder."

"Canada produces the wild grape in many places, which ripens in its season."

"Canada, in the lands known to the French, has only ten thousand inhabitants."

"Canada, with the exception of Port Royal, given to Madame de Guercheville." (it wasn't theirs to "give"!)

"Canada under Authority of the Prince de Soissons."

"Canada, why the French should cultivate it."

"Canadians" = Indigenous Peoples living along the Canada ("St. Lawrence") River

"Hunting and fishing are the only resources of the Canadians."

"Devil tormenting the Canadians before the coming of the French."

"God, among the Canadians, is known by the same name as the Sun."

"Ten thousand people only in all the lands of Canada."

"Right of property in Canada evidenced by the possession of the dog and of the bag."

"Du Pont the younger employed to translate the Catechism into the Canadian language."

"Large families the strength of Canadian Sagamores."

"Canadian husband gives to his father-in-law, instead of receiving from him."

"Canadian women bear the burdens of the household, and are in a worse condition than chambermaids."

"Canadian women modest."

"Canadian women ..."

"French have taught the use of poison and other evils to the Canadians."

"Leggings and shoes of the Canadians."

"Wars of the Canadians are carried on by strategy."

"Clothes of the Canadians made of hairy skins."

"Seal oil the Canadian sauce the year round."

"Jesuits exhort the Canadians, baptized before they came to Canada, to discard Polygamy, and what they answer thereto."

"Jesuits try to change into the Canadian tongue the principles of the Faith, but suitable words for this purpose cannot be found."

J. R. 4

Much more about the historic unincorporated pre-colonial "Canada" and the "Canadians" at this link (however it should be kept in mind that it was written from a Eurocentric point of view and not an Indigenous one):

Reference: The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents - 1610 to 1791

Kanata, a village -- compiled by Kisikewiskw, first published to facebook 11 Sep 2009 at 15:24 edited for blog 16 Feb 2012

Comment by Kisikewiskw: They (the Jesuits) seem to be a little confused there though, sometimes they're talking about Mi'kmaq / L'nuk, sometimes Anishinaabek, sometimes (probably) Aln8bak / Abenaki, and sometimes Wendat and probably Kanien'keha:ka Mohawk peoples; since they had little success in learning the languages and needed translators, maybe sometimes they thought it was all one people, rather than many nations of peoples. -- 11 Sep 2009 at 16:00

Modern Metis Myth making by AHF

Comment on Aboriginal Healing Foundations's article 'Who are the Métis'

The article 'Who Are The Métis' by AHF illustrates exactly what I've been writing about recently in re "myth" and "legend".

People who look into the ethnicity of the Métis patriarchs will quickly discover they were not European. The majority appear to have been Eurasian (Y DNA Haplogroup R1b1a2) which is neither Asian nor Caucasian but intermediate between Asian and European (Central Asia, maybe North Africa origin?), although there were also more than a few African and West and East Asian patriarchs as well.

As for language, they had their own, first the now lost (except for survival of some words in Louisiana and perhaps some words in joual) "Acadian trade language" and as well their Indigenous "mother tongues". Then Michif. So it's absurd to say they were even "French speakers".

As for being "French", the french observe jus soli, the law of naturalisation, rather than jus sanguinis. Even if some of the engaigés (short term contract workers) had actually born on french soil (naturalised as "French"), when their three year contracts with the french were up, they were freemen. Any children they fathered who were born in North America were also free, not slaves and not subject to anyone in europe.

It probably irked and still irks the British Crown, who made sure with its laws that children of slaves were themselves born slaves in the Virginia colony, that the French Crown at the time freed these multi-ethnic, multiracial, "mixed", Métis people after their contracts were done. Labelling them retroactively as "French" when they were not even francophone, and revising history, concealing the truth, it seems obvious what the agenda is there. "The French" were never their owners, just their employers.

As for "most interracial marriages" being "officially discouraged"? Not by the French Crown: "our young men will marry your daughters and we shall be one people" (pledge made by Samuel de Champlain 1633 & 1635) -- literally true with many of the nobles sent here from France who married Indigenous women to form their trade alliances. Their descendants are still here because when the French returned to France, their children remained behind as they were not considered French because they had not been born on French but on North American soil.

It wasn't just frowned upon by the British, marriage between "races" (as defined by the British Crown "white" supremacists) -- miscegenation -- was against the law by 1713! "Frowning on" something does not include dehumanisation and genocide. It does not include labelling of people as "savages" and "beasts". Nor does it include paying bounty on scalps, including those of women and children.

They have to create this "myth" and "legend" to try to conceal their ignorant racism and ancient hatred of all the free "coloureds" and browns there are on the planet -- both in their homelands and in North America where they married in to Indigenous families and communities. Which include(d) the "Celtic / Basque" peoples -- who are Eurasian ethnicity rather than Caucasian.

-- Kisikewiskw, 20 Dec 2011

Reference: Indigenous American Genetics

"French Heritage" study at family tree

* Read a copy of AHF's 'Who are the Metis' here.

Make / read comments on the Kisikew Forum

tags: aboriginal, acadia, acadien, africans, ahf, albannach, basque, basque diaspora, breton, british, british crown, canada, celtic basque, central asia, champlain, contract workers, cymry, dna, east asia, engaige, engage, ethnicity, ethnic basques, eurasian, first people, france, free africans, freemen, french heritage, fur trade, haplogroup, highland clearances, highlanders, historical revisionism, irish, jus sanguinis, jus soli, la cadie, legend, metis, miscegenation, mixed race, multi-ethnic, multiracial, myth, naturalisation, north africa, north america, one people, pre-columbian, race, racist, samuel de champlain, scalping, scots, slaves, slavery, un peuple, virginia colony, west asia, white race, white supremacist, who are the metis

Tiny URL http://tinyurl.com/ca244kk

Review of MSGC flag design

Review of a link to something I've found on the interwebs, not necessarily recommending this but it is interesting and is about / by / for Metis Nation and peoples...

Metis Settlements General Council
The Metis Settlements flag, depicts the outline similar to the Canadian flag. The two outside bars with the signs of infinity represent the eight Metis Settlements land areas and keep the infinity sign of Louis Riel’s Metis flag. The circle of life in the centre reflects the joining of two cultures, the red symbolizes our Native ancestry. The white represents our French and Scottish ancestry. The brown is our new vibrant Metis culture. Within the circle two peoples join hands and invite ours into the circle with their extended hands. The bottom half has the letter “M” for Metis. historyonline.msgc.ca/

There's not much on this site or the links don't work. So my comment is pretty much limited to the flag design. The design is very eyecatching, I like it. However, historically the red infinite Métis flag was associated with the Hudson's Bay Company. The blue infinite Métis flag (which was the original one)
was associated with the Northwest Company. I kind of wonder why they used the red one (times 8). I also realise that this flag represents Métis Settlements, but there were originally 12 Métis Settlements, so it only represents a post-1960s reality. I don't think the flag designer was striving for an historic representation though.

There is no such thing as a "white race". It's an artifical social construct. I've written about this many times, and I doubt I am done with it, suffice to say the idea that there is was engendered by self-described "whites" (European Christian elites, so called "upper class") so they could enslave, demonise, and dominate those they labelled other "colours" or just "people of colour" in general.

Also written this many times now, the "French Heritage" DNA study, which was expected to "prove" all these alleged "Frenchmen" were ancestors of the Métis people indicates that the Métis (and Acadien) patriarchs were actually an extremely diverse group of people with origins in both East and West Asia, Africa (North and West), and pretty much all around the world, not just France and not just Europe. They may have worked for "the French" and some may have been francophone, besides speaking their own language which was Michif, but they could hardly have been said to be "French". As a group the Métis patriarchs were themselves métis: "mixed" or multiracial peoples of many ethnicities.

Besides the reality of the "French of France" observance of jus soli, the law of naturalisation, rather than jus sanguinis. And besides the reality that there was no nation of France for at least 200-400 years (maybe more) after the patriarchs arrived in North America.

The most represented ethnic group of Métis patriarchs appears to have been "Celtic / Basque" (Eastern Woodlands). And that's of the francophones, or those who worked for "the French" Northwest Company. Of course the "Selkirk Settlement" Scots (Albannachd) of the highlands and islands who joined the core group of Métis in Assiniboia "Red River Settlement" would share that "Celtic / Basque" ancestry (ethnicity) as well for the most part; however, their language (native or mother tongue) would have been gaidhlig (unless they had already lost their language during The Clearances).

So the patriarchs of the historic Métis Nation were as a whole a related group of ethnic "Celtic / Basque" peoples and peoples from continents other than europe including North America, whose ancestors spoke different languages as mentioned: gaidhlig, français, and their own language Michif.

There certainly were very few french cultural elements expressed by the Métis Voyageur (Traveller, in english) lifestyle, if any.

Anyway as I wrote, I don't think the flag designer was striving for historic accuracy, so much as trying to represent its own entity, the Métis Settlement General Council, which I suspect is (to be?) kind of like a grand band council for eight of the original 12 Métis Settlements.

-- Kisikewiskw
18 Dec 2011

Image (above right) is Voyageurs "Shooting the Rapids" 1879 by Frances Anne Hopkins, copyright and other information here.

tags: albannach, alberta, assiniboia, basque, canada, celtic, celtic basque, clearances, council, east asia, eastern woodlands, ethnicity, flag, french heritage, general, hbc, highlands, hudsons bay company, metis, michif, msgc, northeast woodlands, northwest company, patriarchs, red river settlement, selkirk settlement, settlements, traveller, voyageur, west asia

Also see Acadien Cajun Basque heritage not French

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To rabble dot ca : It was not a 'rebellion'

Even rabble dot ca? One more time, it was not a 'rebellion'

It was not a 'rebellion', even less a pair of 'rebellions' (the Riel Rebellions? hunh??) well not unless you are of the same school of thought as Cornwallis during the ethnic cleansing and genocide known as "The Great Upheaval" or the Acadian diaspora, who wrote of the Indigenous peoples of the maritimes being "Banditti Ruffians, or Rebels, to His Majesty's Government" whilst at the same time laws covering the scalping of the Original people were written, where Indigenous people in their own homeland were treated as so many animals whose "pelts" could be handed in for a bounty. The scalping only stopped when too many scalps with hair that resembled that of Europeans were being handed in for payment. The "scalp laws" are still on the books. The attitude that people in their own homeland who resist the use of force and violence by foreigners from another continent against their own are some kind of "rebel" also remains.

Okay I am really not only offended by all this repeated mention of a so-called "rebellion" but now have moved to a feeling of total disgust at this Krystalline Kraus person's words (her opinion?), supposedly writing on "Indigenous issues" in of all things the rabble dot ca -- which formerly was the home of activists -- using the same exact label of "rebels" that Cornwallis used.

Many of the families who ended up at the Red River who are now known as Métis, originated in Acadia (La Cadie, Lnue'gati) and left during the first wave of genocide by the British Crown. They didn't drop out of the sky and land where the city of Winnipeg now is, they moved from where the terror had been first unleashed on them, the terror known as Le Grand Dérangement.

That's why the corporate entity of Canada was so ready to refer to the people as rebels: it was a label already pinned on them by Cornwallis more than a hundred years before. They had settled far away from the British Crown occupied territories, and made themselves a new homeland, Assiniboia. They married into Indigenous families and created alliances through such relationships as well as through peaceful (and truly free) trade. They created their lives anew in that Red River valley known as Assiniboia, having escaped with their lives from the horrors meted out in Acadia.

The Crown (church state empire) followed them. Like some abusive spouse stalking "his" other who managed to escape, like some psychopathic serial killer. Like some gigantic bloated parasite lumbering its way from east to west, searching for a host to latch on to to suck dry. New lands to pillage and destroy in the name of "development". New peoples to enslave in the name of "human resources".

Hudson's Bay Company never owned the land. All they got from the Northwest Company is the same thing the french had, which was monopoly trading rights on Indigenous territory, with respect to others foreign to North America (they still needed to consult Indigenous peoples about that). The British Crown and its various corporate entities never owned the land. The Métis never were part of "Canada", their nation pre-existed the Dominion of Canada (a corporate entity whose agents squat here and there on Indigenous land) by more than 100 years. And that's in their new Red River homeland; in North America their nations' time can be counted in thousands of years.

Yeh right, the "new" activists, who apparently are akin to old Edward Cornwallis and that ilk use the word "rebellion" too.

Activist Communique: Metis court case to re-open the rebellion
By Krystalline Kraus | December 16, 2011

No one "rebels" against something they have never been a part of!

It was a resistance. It's deeply offensive that the "scalp laws" are still on the books, and it's deeply offensive that a resistance is mislabelled a rebellion. Really.

-- Kisikewiskw
17 Dec 2011

More about the scalp laws here.
Make & read comments on the Kisikew Forum.

Also see
It was not a rebellion and the Metis were not insurgents
Governor Edward Cornwallis - Crimes Against Humanity and About Rename Sites Petition at Daniel N. Paul dot com

Wolf Lake Metis

Wolf Lake Métis Settlement
1940 - 1960

(LA COREY AB)

Pre-Settlement: Métis trappers and their families start to move into the region in the late 1880s to the early 1900s, though some may have been there earlier, before the last Bison was hunted ca 1879. In 1911 some Acadien Souriquois L'nu and intermarried Abenaki Aln8bak families from N'dakina, Abenaki Territory (some of them francophone), encouraged by the Oblates at St Paul des Métis to move there, arrive to join them and establish a trading post known as La Corey in the Wolf Lake Métis community, which is at the northernmost point of the Old Buffalo Trail. By the 1930s the community at now La Corey is Wolf Lake Métis colony. (Alberta Métis Colonies). It is worth noting that the Abenaki Aln8bak peoples collectively were known at one time as the Wolf Nation (Natio Luporum) in their original northeast homeland.

Wolf Lake (Cree Mahikan Sakhahegan) Métis Settlement ... was created ca 1940 to provide the Métis trappers around Wolf Lake / La Corey a central area in which to live "... near [their] traditional trapping grounds as well as local villages and schools". (Atlas of Alberta Lakes | Wolf Lake). Wolf Lake Métis Settlement, created 1940, was rescinded in 1960. Partly due to the efforts of the assimilationist residential and day school teachers (Roman Catholic) and partly to avoid discrimination and racism against Indigenous peoples, some of the people began to identify themselves as Franco-Albertans.

-- Kisikewiskw
13 Dec 2011

map showing bonnyville, durlingville, fort kent and la corey

tags: abenaki, abenaki territory, aboriginal, acadien, acadienne, alberta, aln8bak, assimilation, autochtone, bonnyville, canada, canadian, canadian river, cold lake, colony, community, first peoples, fort kent, francophone, homeland, indigenous, la corey, lacory, metis, metisse, n'dakina, original, original canadians, original peoples, rive sud, riviere canadienne, riviere st laurent, settlement, souriquois, st lawrence river, st louis de moose lake, south shore, wabanaki, wolf lake

Cold Lake Metis

Cold Lake Métis Settlement
1940 - 1956

(ST LOUIS DE MOOSE LAKE - BONNYVILLE AB)

Cold Lake Métis community was on the Old Buffalo Trail. Métis peoples as well as francophone Abenaki Aln8bak and Acadien Souriquois L'nu displaced from their own homeland N'dakina, Abenaki Territory (rive sud / south shore of the original Canadian now St Lawrence River / aujourd'hui la Rivière St Laurent originalement la Rivière Canadienne), started arriving in the area forming the Cold Lake Métis community in the early 1900s. By the 1930s the community near St Louis de Moose Lake now Bonnyville had become Cold Lake Métis colony. (Alberta Métis Colonies). Some of the families moved further north to the Wolf Lake Métis community which became the Wolf Lake Métis colony. Cold Lake Métis Settlement was established in 1940 and rescinded in 1956. Partly due to the efforts of the assimilationist residential and day school teachers (Roman Catholic) and partly to avoid discrimination and racism against Indigenous peoples, some of the people began to identify themselves as Franco-Albertans.

-- Kisikewiskw
13 Dec 2011

tags: abenaki, abenaki territory, aboriginal, acadien, acadienne, alberta, aln8bak, assimilation, autochtone, bonnyville, canada, canadian, canadian river, cold lake, colony, community, first peoples, francophone, homeland, indigenous, metis, metisse, n'dakina, original, original canadians, original peoples, rive sud, riviere canadienne, riviere st laurent, settlement, souriquois, st lawrence river, st louis de moose lake, south shore, wabanaki

It was not a rebellion and Metis were not insurgents

Kwe

Wonder are they (mainstream media) deliberately trying to be offensive? I refer to the recent news articles (e.g. The last battle of Red River CP) about the pending Supreme Court of Canada decision about their own never honouring the agreements they made with reference to the Red River Métis children, where the mainstream media repeatedly use the word "rebellion" instead of resistance, and try to falsely label Métis as "insurgents".

It wasn't a "rebellion". The Métis were not "insurgents". They never were subjects of the British Crown, no one "rebels" against something they have never been a part of to begin with. They were free human beings living on their own land as the Creator / creation intended. Their ancestors (up to seven generations before them) had once been engagés (laborers with short term contracts) of the french, but the french (who only had monopoly trading rights in Indigenous territories) had long since returned to europe. I emphasize they were (are) free human beings. They never were slaves of the french and the people could never have been transferred to another "owner" when they never had been owned to begin with. Not that owning slaves was ever moral or acceptable, human beings are not property.

What they did was "resist", they resisted being locked up on reserves or settlements aka concentration camps, they resisted theft of not only their homeland, but their personal property and trade items that were stolen from them such as pemmican they had worked hard and long to prepare, and furs they had also worked long and hard to prepare as trade items. I am pretty sure a lot of the labour of the women went into preparation of those furs, hides, and pemmican too.

The thieves would wait until all the work had been done, and it's not like pemmican was prepared in a snap in those (or any) days, nor were furs and hides prepared for market overnight, it represented long hard hours of physical work of many people ... after things had been made ready as trade items, the thieves would break in and steal them, not only stealing the trade items, but the hard labour put into those items.

In between times there was wave after wave of smallpox that killed many people.

Doesn't take much digging into history to discover who the thieves were, and it wasn't "white (sic) settlers from Ontario". Nor was it the peoples displaced from their highland and island homelands who quickly had gone "wild" and whose descendants had become Métis as well.

As for the resistance being relabelled a "rebellion", that's offensive and obnoxious to me. It's not just a falsification of history, it's total bull$hit, as it tries to make it appear -- retroactively -- that the Indigenous peoples had been "rebellious subjects" of a foreign (european based) ruler when the fact was many of them had been engagés of the Northwest Company that employed them and traded with them, that is, they were free people who worked for and traded with a trading company. That company never had title to any of their homelands but simply monopoly trading rights in relation to others foreign to the North American continent just as they were.

Of course the Métis resisted those thieves! I suspect if Indigenous North Americans ever turned up on a european (or any foreign) shore with murder, bio-terrorism (smallpox blankets), rape, pillage, looting, kidnapping, child sex slavery, and adult work slavery, and theft the only thing on their mind, europeans (or anyone else) would resist as well! The fact is Indigenous North Americans were happy where they were, and had no desire to invade and disturb other people around the globe for "riches" and illusory "power over".

An insurgent is not someone who resists terrorists, and tries to defend themselves, their own livelihoods and that of their children, their own property and means of subsistence, and their own homeland!

Yes I think the constant use of the word "rebellion" and labelling the people as "insurgents" is extremely offensive. I'm not sure if the mainstream media intends to be offensive, but to me they are offensive, and disgustingly so.

Look at the opposite, for them not to be defined as "insurgents" (part of the "Indian problem") according to the mainstream media, they had to what? submit to slavery and imprisonment? give up everything to those who never earned it by their own work, blood, sweat, and tears? or just simply die off and disappear? Oh really?

Surely no one sane and of a sound mind would ever believe that.

Kisikewiskw
12 Dec 2011

Tiny url http://tinyurl.com/7jwp92z

Read more and comment on the Kisikew Forum | Metis News

tags: aboriginal, assiniboia, assiniboine, british, canada, crown, engage, ethnocide, free people, fur trade, genocide, hbc, hudsons bay company, human beings, human rights, insurgents, manitoba, mainstream media, metis, northwest company, offensive, ottawa, pemmican, rebellion, red river, red river metis, resistance, smallpox blankets, winnipeg

Also see To rabble dot ca : It was not a rebellion