A Mi'kmaq Tale

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Whenever I go to a new place, I am always curious about the original people who first inhabited the land. In Nova Scotia, the first people were the Mi'kmaq. Their creator god was the sun, Niscaminou, who created the Mi'kmaq by mingling his light with the light of the moon. The mixture was allowed to settle into the Earth, from which the M'kmaq people emerged red-brown as the soil.

In the following tale, the Mi'kmaq explain the origin of the squirrel, but they also show wisdom in knowing their place in the world. For reference, the Great White Spirit Road is the Milky Way. I could find no explanation for Culloo, but contextually it seems to be an eclipse.

Niscaminou and the Squirrels of the Blue Mountain

In the old days a great chief of the Mi'kmaq lived on Blue Mountain, near Kemptville on the Tusket River. When he was very old and had been a chief for many winters, Niscaminou came to his wigwam.

"Chief," said Niscaminou, "in this land of great chiefs I have found no one greater than you, nor have I found any [people] greater than your people. Because you are a great chief and because you have led your people with courage through good times and hard times I want to honor you. Whatever you wish, that I will grant.

The old chief was pleased that the Great Creator wished to honor him and he sat in long silence and thought of the things he might ask of Niscaminou.

He thought of Earthquake who shook the land until a man could not stand, and he fell quivering to the broken earth. He would ask Niscaminou never to let Earthquake walk again in the land of the Mi'kmaq. But as long as he could remember, Earthquake had not walked in their land, shaking the earth so hard a man could not stand. Earthquake was far away. He would not ask Niscaminou to keep him from their land forever.

He thought of the Great Thunderer and how his bright light sometimes killed a man. But in all his days he had never feared the Great Thunderer. He would not ask Niscaminou to keep Big Thunder always in his hills and away from the land of the Mi'kmaq.

He recalled the old tales of the mighty Culloo whose wings covered the earth in darkness, and the [people] crept into the caves and hid in the thick woods. But he had never seen the mighty Culloo, nor had he known anyone who had. Culloo was only in the old tales.

He remembered the winters when Ukwtakun, the hungry one stalked the bare land and there was nothing for the [people] to eat. But if a man ate the inner bark of trees and the lichens on the rocks he could live.

Then he remembered Death and that he was old. With a rush of joy he thought he would ask Niscaminou to let him live forever and ever. If he lived forever he would never lie on a scaffold of poles in the wind and the rain and the cold; he would never go into the earth. He would live with no thought of death; sleep and always wake. But when he looked up into the sky he knew he was not afraid for his spirit to go the way of the Great White Spirit Road.

It was then a squirrel came over the hills of Blue Mountain and the old chief scowled. (In the old days the squirrels were monstrous animals, stronger than the [people] who could not drive them from their wigwams when they came thieving in the villages; and nowhere in all the land of the Mi'kmaq were the squirrels a greater nuisance than in the hills of the Blue Mountain near the Tusket River.) Now he knew what he would ask of the Great Creator.

"Niscaminou, make the squirrels so little they will never again be a pest to the Mi'kmaq." Niscaminou looked at the mighty squirrel; and he was a tiny animal, small like the squirrels now on Blue Mountain and in all the land of the old Mi'kmaq.

~ From Red Earth: Tales of the Mi'kmaq, by Marion Robertson; Nimbus Publishing.

tag: Nova Scotia, Canada, Cape Breton Island, Mi'kmaq, folklore, mythology