Québec, 21 January, 2003
Mr. Phil Jeddore
Conne River
Newfoundland
SUBJECT: Chief Juan Chou [Wanju ?]
Hi Phil,
Not long ago I saw one of your texts on the Internet. It is entitled “History of the Saqmawaq of Ktaqmkuk (Chiefs of Newfoundland)” (Jeddore n.d.). Among other things it contains on p.3 a reference to “the son of one Iwanchou (We’jitu), a Savage Captain [Mi’kmaq] well known to the French”. I happen to have some notes on this Chief Iwanchou whose name was variously spelled by the French as Juan Chou, Jouanchou, Jouenchou, Iouan Chou, Iuan Chou, I8ach8, and Ioanch8 (Martijn 1998:2-5). Other references to him can be found in Campeau (1989: 797). Incidentally, thus far I have not come across any document linking Chief Iwanchou with Newfoundland.
Although you have translated Iwanchou as We’jitu (meaning: “I found it”), citing Ruth Holmes Whitehead as your authority, this seems to be a mistake. If you check Whitehead (1991:42), she remarks about him: “Juan Chou [possibly Wanju, from French ‘Anjou’, and the Mimac ‘w’ prefix; a nickname meaning loosely “The Frenchman”]”. I’m not an expert on Mi’kmaq nicknames and it might perhaps be wise to run this past Mi’kmq linguists such as Bernie Francis or Manny Metallic for comment.
The Mi’kmaq families who frequented the region of the Bay of Gaspé and Percé (eastern tip of the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec) during the early historic period did not inhabit sedentary villages there, but exploited available marine and land resources in accordance with a seasonal cycle, moving around within a given territory which appears to have included parts of New Brunswick. They inhabited temporary camp-sites, often returning to the same places year after year.
The territory which they exploited seems to have been distinct from that of the Listuguj (Restigouche) Mi’kmaq. Around 1647, Father André Richard mentioned seasonal migrations between Nepisiguit [New Brunswick] and Percé ([Québec] (Thwaites 1959, 30:132, 136, 138). Another Jesuit missionary, Father Jérôme Lalement affirmed in 1659 that among the regions of Acadia “the district of Miscou is the most populous and the best disposed, and contains most Christians. It comprises the Savages of Gaspé, of Miramichy, and of Nepigigouit……” (Thwaites 1959, 45:59). In 1662, Father Lalement likewise stated that “on entering the great Gulf of Saint Lawrence on the way to Kebec, one encounters three places, towards the South, whither French Vessels go in quest of Codfish. These Harbors or ports are very near one another, and bear the names of Isle Percée, Bonaventure, and Gaspé….. Father Richard gives us the following account of an expedition undertaken by Savages whom we call the Savages of Gaspé, because they come and camp with considerable frequency near the Bay or Port bearing that name” (Thwaites 1959, 47:221).
The case of Chief Juanchou (Wanju) provides a good illustration of the link between the Mi’kmaq of the Bay of Gaspé area and Miscou. In 1629, Samuel de Champlain, worried by a lack of food supplies at Quebec City with which to nourish his men, sent an aide, Thierry Desdames, in a shallop to Gaspé in order to ensure the eventual evacuation of some 30 persons from there to France. According to the instructions given to Desdames:
“…… if he did not meet with any vessels subject to the King, he should look for some savage of credit, friendly to the French, and ask him in our name to receive some of our companions, and let them winter with him, if no vessels came; and in the spring we should give him a barrel of biscuit and two beaver skins for each man. On the seventeenth of the month of May they set off. These things having been dispatched, I [Champlain] hurried on the repairing of our pinnace…… We hoped to be able to put thirty people on board this small pinnace, and send them to Gaspé, or somewhere else, to find vessels on which they might obtain passage to France, according to the instructions given to Desdames; failing which he was to leave part of our men with the Indian chief, Juan Chou. And if they could get any salt in those places, they were to fish for cod at Gaspé or at Bonaventure Island……”.
(Biggar 1922-1936, V:324-325).
Upon his return to Quebec City from Gaspé, on April 25th, 1630, Desdames reported that:
“…… neither he nor the savages had seen any ships, nor heard of any…… that Juan Chou, the Indian chief, and his Canadians [i.e. Mi’kmaq], had done their best to welcome the French, promising that if the Sieur du Pont wanted to go to their country, in case our vessels did not arrive, he should want nothing that their chase could provide; and that he should get a small house built for himself in some place. Moreover, he would take twenty of our companions and distribute them among his own people to spend the winter where they would be secure against hunger at a cost of two beaver skins per man. It was not a small thing to find so much courtesy and kindness with an assured asylum amongst them, under much better conditions than among our own savages. They brought us a barrel and a half of salt, apart from what those in the boat bestowed upon the friars, which things at that time were more prized than gold. The same chief confirmed the report that the English had burned all the provisions that the Jesuit Fathers had saved, and that they had given some six barrels of flour to the savages, partly of their own free will, but partly because they were obliged to do so”.
(Biggar 1922-1936, VI:26-27).
The allusion to Jesuit food supplies at Percé finds its explication in a letter addressed on November 2th, 1628, by Father Mutius Vitelleschi to Father Jean Filleau. That year, the Jesuit missionary Philibert Noyrot, who was following the fleet of Admiral De Roquemont at some distance in another ship, had managed to escape capture by the English during a naval battle:
“When he heard the noise of the cannons, he judged correctly that a decisive combat was being engaged in. Unable to participate, the small ship turned around and the Jesuit took advantage of this to go and visit the cache of provisions which he hadcaused to be transported to Gaspé the preceding year [1627] by a fishing vessel. The Indians, undoubtedly Mi’kmaq, had faithfully respected it, only taking the peas, a foodstuff which they liked. The [provision] packets were loaded on board, at the cost of a small charge and a compensation claimed by the Indians”.
(Campeau 1979:202).
It should be added that on June 26th, 1629, Champlain also had given orders to his brother-in-law, Eustache Boullé, “to go with the sailors and try to find passage [to France] at no matter what price, and directing him to leave at Gaspé with Juan Chou and the savages, his companions, all those who wished to remain there……” (Biggar 1922-1936, VI.39). However, before arriving at Gaspé, Boullé and his crew were captured by the Kirke Brothers.
These accounts by Champlain give the impression that Wanju (Juan Chou) was the chief of the Mi’kmaq in the Bay of Gaspé area. Indeed, this is the conclusion reached at by Hamelin (1966:271). However, other sources tend to associate him with Miscou. In a brief biographical note, Campeau (1989:774) avoids taking a stand on this and simply describes “Juan Chou” as being a “Gaspesian or Mi’kmaq captain”, adding however that “his band was without doubt the one which had the most frequent connections with Miscou” (Ibid., p.267/n.3). He states erroneously that this personage “doesn’t make an appearance in the sources until 1639”. Elsewhere he proposes that this chief “might be the same Gaspesian Captain who in 1646 made amends for the murders committed by his men against the Oumamiois [Innu group] of the North Shore” (Cf. Thwaites 1959, 30:139, 141, 143). Champlain himself related in June 1626 how his associate, Raymond de La Ralde “decided to go to Miscou to recover certain debts that the savages owed him, and see in what condition the goods were that he had left, the year before [1625], in the charge of an Indian named Iouan Chou……” (Biggar 1922-1936, V:193-194). Furthermore, on September 2nd, 1639, in a letter addressed to her superior in Dieppe to describe her crossing from France, the Ursuline Sister Cécile de Saint-Croix, related that “the first time we saw any natives took place a few leagues from Tadoussac. It was a Captain named Jouenchou, who is known to the French and happens to be the father of the savage who went to greet the King in France in the name of his entire nation…… These savages are from Miscou and are somewhat more civilized than those in this country here” (Cited in Campeau 1989:747; Le Ber 1939:30).
We also learn from Father Paul Lejeune, in 1639, that:
“Last year [1638], a Canadian Savage [Mi’kmaq], the son of one Iwanchou [I8ach8/Wanju], a Savage Captain well-known to the French, went to France, and was very well received by His Majesty, at whose feet he laid his Crown of Porcelein beads…… The King & the Queen…… made him a present of 6 suits of clothing truly royal…… When this young Savage returned to his own country, he came up to Quebec City with a party of his Countrymen, and went to see monsieur the Chevalier de Montmagny, our Governor, to whom these gifts were brought…… three splendid suits were given to this young Savage – one for himself, another for his son, and a third for his Father [Wanju]”.
(Thwaites 1959, 15:223, 225).
On this same occasion in Quebec City, Father Le Jeune invited Chief Wanju to come and settle at Sillery a nearby village newly established for sedentary Amerindian converts. In his words, “at the same time Ioanchou, and his son who had been in France, were asked if they would not join the others. They replied that they would go and consult their people [at the Bay of Gaspé and Miscou], and, if they wished to come up here, they would bring them” (Thwaites 1959, 15:233). Whether such a move was ever made remains unknown. It should be noted, incidentally, that this son of Chief Wanju was accompanied on his voyage to France by Father Nicolas Gondouin, a missionary at Miscou (Campeau 1989:747/n.13; Thwaites 1959, 71:142-143).
To sum up then, Wanju (Juan Chou) appears to have been an early 17th century Mi’kmaq chief at Miscou whose territory also included the Bay of Gaspé/Percé area. The name Outer Bay of Chaleur could therefore be applied to this region, as contrasted with the Inner Bay of Chaleur or Listuguj region. This subject merits further study and analysis.
I will mail you some extracts from Hoffman (1955) and Nietfeld (1981:612-615) in which these authors provide biographical data on various other Mi’kmaq chiefs. In addition to my own, I’ve added their sources to the bibliography below.
Finally, as you undoubtely know, Richard Denny of Eskasoni (Tomma Denny Research Society) has also been collecting information on Mi’kmaq saqamaws.
Cheers,
CHARLES A. MARTIJN
BIGGAR, Henry Percifal (ed.), 1922-1936: “The Works of Samuel de Champlain”. 6 Vol. & map portfolio, The Champlain Society, Toronto.
BOCK, Philip K., 1966: “The Micmac Indians of Restigouche: History and Contemporary Description”. Bulletin 213, National Museum of Canada, Ottawa.
CAMPEAU, Lucien, 1967: “Monumenta Novae Franciae I, La première mission d’Acadie (1602-1616)’’. Les Presses de l’Université Laval, Québec.
CAMPEAU, Lucien, 1979: “Monumenta Novae Franciae II, Établissement à Québec (1616-1634)’’. Les Presses de l’Université Laval, Québec.
CAMPEAU, Lucien, 1989: “Monumenta Novae Franciae IV. Les grandes épreuves (1638-1640). Les Éditions Bellarmin, Montreal.
COONEY, Robert, 1832 : ‘’A Compendious History of the Northern Part of the Province of New Brunswick, and the District of Gaspé in Lower Canada’’. Joseph Howe, Halifax.
FRYE, Colonel, 1809 : ‘’Indians in Acadie, A.D. 1760’’. Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, Series 1,Vol.10, pp.115-116, Boston.
GANONG, William F., 1905: “Historical-Geographical Documents Relating to New Brunswick No.3”. Collections of the New Brunswick Historical Society, Vol.2, No.6, pp.358-390, Saint John, N.B.
GANONG, William F. (ed.), 1910: “The New Relation of Gaspésia, with the Customs and Religion of the Gaspésian Indians, by Chrestien LeClercq”. The Champlain Society, Toronto.
GRANT, W.L. (ed.), 1907-1914: “The History of New France, by Marc Lescarbot [1618]”. 3 Vol., The Champlain Society, Toronto.
HAMELIN, Marc, 1966 : ‘’Desdames, Thierry’’. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol.I, p.263, University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
HOFFMAN, Bernard G., 1955: „The Historical Ethnography of the Micmac of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries“. Ph.D. dissertation, 839 pp., Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.
JEDDORE, Philip, n.d.: “History of the Saqmawaq of Ktaqmkuk (Chiefs of Newfoundland)”. Ms., 14 pp., http://www.oocities.org/pilip/saqamaq.htm, Conne River, Newfoundland.
LE BER, Joseph, 1939: “Départ pour le Canada en 1639. Lettre inédite d’une Ursuline’’. Imprimerie de ‘La Vigie de Dieppe’, Dieppe, France.
LECLERCQ, Chrétien [see W.F. Ganong 1910]
LESCARBOT, Marc [see W.L. Grant]
MAILLARD, Antoine S., 1863 : ‘’Lettre de M. l’abbé Maillard sur les missionsde l’Acadie et particulièrement sur les missions micmaques’’. Les Soirées Canadiennes, No.3, pp.289-426, Brousseau Frères, Québec.
MARTIJN, Charles A., 1998 : ‘’Aperçu chronologique : Les Mi’kmaqs de la région de Gaspé et de Percé, Péninsule gaspésienne, Québec’’. Ms., 68 pp., 13 annexes (illustrations and maps), in possession of the author, Québec.
MECHLING, William H., 1914: “Malecite Tales”. Anthropological Series No.4, Memoirs of the Canadian Geological Survey No.49, Ottawa.
NIETFELD, Patricia L., 1981: “Determinants of Aboriginal Micmac Political Structure”. Ph.D. dissertation, 674 pp., Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
PACIFIQUE DE VALIGNY, Père, 1934 : ‘’Le pays des Micmacs (fin)’’. Études Historiques et Géographiques, chapter 14, Bonaventure, Québec.
PIERS, Harry, 1912 : ‘’Brief Account of the Micmac Indians of Nova Scotia and Their Remains”. Proceedings and Transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science, Vol.13, pp.99-125, Halifax.
RAND, Silas T., 1894: “Legends of the Micmacs”. Longmans, Green, London.
SPECK, Frank G., 1922: “Beothuk and Micmac”. Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, Indian Notes and Monographs, Miscellaneous Series No.22, New York.
THWAITES, Reuben Gold, 1959: “The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents”, 73 Vol., Pageant Book Company, New York.
UPTON, Leslie F. S., 1979 : ‘’Micmacs and Colonists : Indian-White Relations in the Maritimes, 1713-1867’’. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver.
WHITEHEAD, Ruth Holmes, 1991: “The Old Man Told Us. Excerpts from Micmac History 1500-1950”. Nimbus Publishing Ltd., Halifax.