'Kmaq's Religion Affect The Life Of Mi' Apaq

Jesse Yang
January 4, 2013
Canadian History 11
Good or Bad for Mi 'kmaq Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Native peoples had lived on the continent of North America for thousands of years. Every group evolved their unique societies, beliefs and languages. Among hundreds of the Aboriginal groups, Mi 'kmaq had their distinct way of life. They lived in Newfoundland and Northeast of Maine, owning distinctive culture, language called Micmac, and identity in North America. Their normal life was destroyed gradually as Europeans set their foot on North America. The European languages, cultures, attitude to the Nature, and religions were completely strange to Mi 'kmaq. Mi 'kmaq 's values of sharing and helping ensured that Europeans
Christianity was introduced to Mi 'kmaq by the Jesuits. Because of the increasing reliance on European goods, though they absorbed lots of European advanced techniques and goods, they lost their own traditional skills. Life of Mi 'kmaq was changed dramatically and thoroughly. Overall, the European Contact 's merits did not outweigh its short-comings. Instead of giving Mi 'kmaq good lives, the contact between the Mi 'kmaq and Europeans has negatively altered Mi 'kmaq people 's way of life in society, culture, and religion. One of the most significant things for North America was the introduction of a new religion, Christianity. The new religion that was introduced to North America had fatal impacts on Mi 'kmaq people as the result of European Contact. The major influence was by controlling Mi 'kmaq people 's religion, Europeans could dominate them. After the arrival of first missionaries and the following Jesuits, a lot of Mi 'kmaq people were converted into Catholicism (Benwah, 2003). Although some missionaries converted Mi
In fact, the European Contact was detrimental to Mi 'kmaq people 's society. Fortune was not the only thing that was brought to Mi 'kmaq people in the fur trade. The fur trade also brought diseases like Smallpox and dysentery , which were unknown to Mi 'kmaq people. These diseases brought by Europeans caused depopulation of Mi 'kmaq people. (Bedwell, 2004, New World Encyclopedia, 2007). By the 1700s, three quarters of Mi 'kmaq people had died of the diseases. (Federation of Newfoundland Indians, 2008). This depopulation was a fatal and tremendous disaster for Mi 'kmaq people 's traditional culture, because after many skillful Mi 'kmaq people died, some traditional skills and heritages were lost. Besides the decrease of the population, European Contact also caused the reducing of Mi 'kmaq people 's traditional territories. After the surrendering of New France, the British government encroached upon large areas of Mi 'kmaq hunting territory. Many of Mi 'kmaq people went to southern Newfoundland for their traditional subsistence activities. (Higgins, 2008). The land that Mi 'kmaq people had lived on for hundreds of years were shrinking quickly during the Contact between Mi 'kmaq people and Europeans. They lost their traditional ways of living and therefore their culture. In addition, the