PRINT SOURCE: Thomas Raddall Fonds, Correspondence. From Thomas Raddall to K. K. Tudor, 21 March 1949. MS-2-202 48.26.
Subject HeadingsWhen a Sir George Williams College student, K. Tudor, writes to ask him for information about the Mi'kmaq, T. H. Raddall details what type of documentation he has gathered over the years and gives citations for relevant books and articles that would be available in Montreal libraries.
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March 21st,1949 Mr. K.K.Tudor,Sir George Williams College, Montreal,Que. Dear Mr. Tudor, The newspapers sometimes describe me as an authority on the Micmacs, but I should hesitate to call myself anything like that. About twenty-six years ago I formed a friendship with some Micmac people living near a country town in Nova Scotia, and since then I have been trying to find out from them, and from other sources, something about the tribe. I soon discovered that the Micmac is a sort of "forgotten man" amongst the learned folk who deal in anthropology, archaeology and so on in North America. A few scientists have given him a passing glance, so to speak, and have written what they saw; but there is still no thorough account of the Micmac, his history and culture. The information I have gathered over the years is in the form of a mass of notes and a collection of relics; unfortunately neither of these can be of use to you at this distance. I suggest that you obtain or consult Bulletin No.47 of the Canadian Department of Mines. It is entitled "Some Shell-Heaps in Nova Scotia" and it represents the work of two archaeologists of the National Museum, who dug into Nova Scotia shell-heaps and photographed their finds. From these they compiled a brief but good account of prehistoric Micmac culture -- the best that has been done to date.1 The best accounts of the Micmac as the first white men found him are contained in: "Nova Francia", by Marc Lescarbot.2 "Description Geographique et Historique des Costes de l'Amerique", by Nicholas Denys.3 Translations of both these works have been published by the Champlain Society and should be available in Montreal.4 The best account of the Micmac mythology is that of S.T.Rand, "Legends of the Micmacs", published by Longmans, Green in 1894. I can recommend also, " A Brief Account of the Micmac Indians of Nova Scotia and Their Remains", by Harry Piers, published in Transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science, Vol.13, Part 2.5 In this paper Piers compares the modern Micmac with his ancestor, and for the purposes of a brief essay it would give you all you want with the exception of mythology, which you can get from Rand's book. Off-prints of Piers' paper were put out in pamphlet form in 1912, and should be available in one or other of the Montreal libraries. |
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