Since Time Immemorial, “Our Story” - Canadian Archaeological ...

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Since Time Immemorial/Algonquin Traditional Culture • 333 sity, has been involved in the Golden Lake land claim process for many years as a researcher, archivist and negotiator. McGregor’s passions are writing and storytelling, including radio, screenplays, novels and community exhibitions. He also participated in archaeological excavations undertaken by the community of Kitigan Zibi at Kabeshinàn at the mouth of the Gatineau River in 2001 and 2002, learning firsthand about traditional material culture from the Middle Woodland period. Both authors are committed to producing useful sources of information about their heritage and communities to be shared with the larger public. While both would immediately acknowledge the absolutely critical role of the knowledge held by their elders, they also accept that other valid and important sources of information about the past exist in the form of written records kept in archives, old photographs, travelers’ narratives, and similar sources. These two books also demonstrate the willingness of the respective communities to endorse these projects. In both instances, the publications were made possible through the financial support and assistance of the band councils. These organizations have many issues to deal with on a daily basis and the decision to divert funds towards the publication of a book about history cannot be an easy one. That they did (and it must be pointed out that neither author was chief at the time) is, in my opinion, very much to their credit. Whiteduck’s objective in undertaking the research and publication of Algonquin Traditional Culture was to bring together pertinent and useful information about his Nation for anyone intent on studying the Algonquin of the early contact period. His book facilitates and encourages further research and demonstrates the wealth of information that exists and is accessible to scholars. In this way, he takes up the challenge put forward by Daniel Clément (1996: 4) in The Algonquins, where he stated that the “Algonquin should never again be considered as one of the most unknown Native groups in the literature.” For some time now, the chronicles sent to France from Canada by the Jesuit priests during the 17 th and 18 th centuries have been available via the internet. At the Library and Archives Canada website, one can consult images of every page of the original French language documents or their late-19 th /early-20 th century English translations (http:// www.collectionscanada.ca/jesuit-relations/index-e.html). A fully searchable text version of Reuben Gold Thwaites’ translation, The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, can also be accessed online (http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/ relations/). Scholars thus have much flexibility in their research approach. Whiteduck’s book is essentially a compilation of references to things Algonquin found within the Jesuit Relations and other relevant publications (Champlain’s and Sagard’s narratives, for example). These have been grouped into a number of chapters that reflect the categories of data available: Social Structure and Customs, Subsistence Patterns and Economic Customs, Material Culture, Political Structure and Customs, Spiritual Beliefs and Religious Customs, Medicines, Legends and Tales. These chapters are prefaced by a synthesis of the general archaeological view of the region’s ancient history. Although archaeologists will not find new information in this section, its very presence is heartening and suggests that Whiteduck views archaeology as Journal Canadien d’Archéologie 30 (2006)
334 • Pilon capable of providing useful information, and that it is not the sole domain of Euro-Canadians. In his presentation of the data, Whiteduck makes extensive use of lengthy quotations from the English translations of the historic texts, which he usually prefaces with commentary intended to shed light on the context of the observation. He also provides syntheses of the customs being detailed because the language of the original can be somewhat obtuse and may reflect the original observers’ unfamiliarity with the cultural context, a situation sometimes compounded by the translation process. Whiteduck recognizes that these early observers carried a lot of cultural and philosophical baggage during their travels in the Ottawa Valley–lower Great Lakes region, and he cautions the reader against being too harsh in evaluating their work. The background of the writers and the context within which they were recording this information imposed very real limits on their ability to comprehend particular customs and practices, and greatly colored their reporting: When one reads the Jesuit descriptions of the Algonquins and other aboriginal nations as pagans, heathens, savages, infidels, filthy, arrogant and surly, one must be mindful that they are the descriptions and writings of people who were from a different country that had a vastly different culture and a Christian worldview with concrete opinions as to who is superior and right in God’s opinion. Since their intent was to eliminate and abolish the aboriginal way of life and to replace it with a Christian and civilized one, then their descriptions and opinions of the Indians and their aboriginal way of life were rarely favourable (p. 5). Given that the Internet now makes all of this material readily available and the extensive documents easily searchable, a legitimate question would be to ask whether it was worthwhile publishing such a book. In response, I would argue that by collating this information, contextualizing it, and providing critical commentary, Whiteduck has added much that simply finding this information electronically could not have offered. As such, this work is a valuable contribution to research on the first inhabitants of the Ottawa Valley. Since Time Immemorial, “Our Story” is a different kind of book entirely. The research presented in this volume was actually begun in 1975 by Pauline Decontie, a Kitigan Zibi schoolteacher, picked up again by Ernest McGregor in 1980, and finally completed by Stephen McGregor, assisted by Sandra Diabo- Decontie and James Odjick as researchers. This is the history of the Kitigan Zibi community. The book is divided into two parts, consisting of nine units with a total of 23 chapters. Part One begins with creation and first peopling, and ends with the experiences of Ottawa Valley Anishinàbeg under European colonial regimes. The first unit attempts to set the stage whereby the place of the Anishinàbeg as the legitimate heirs of Native history in this region is established. It begins with a recounting of traditional stories of creation, not solely the Anishinàbeg one, recognizing that there are multiple accounts that crosscut cultural boundaries. This is a tacit recognition that the current membership of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinàbeg can trace connections to Canadian Journal of Archaeology 30 (2006)
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Since Time Immemorial, “Our Story” - Canadian Archaeological ...

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