The next group of people the Frenchmen met are noted as being different than the ones they had previously encountered, but doesn’t explain very well how they were different except they have shaved heads save but a tuff of hair the top of their head. According to the footnotes this hairstyle is called a “scalp lock” and is worn by the Huron. Looking up the Huron I find them also referred to as the Wyandot people or Wendat. It also mentions that these people flip over their boats to use as shelter much as a group mentioned by Viking explorers called the Skraelings (which according to what I found simply means not like us, barbarians). Cartier traded knives, paternosters, glass, hair combs, and other things he considered very little worth but that’s the Huron seemed very happy with. The manuscript goes on to say that they traveled further in to where the Huron were and were greeted well by the men but most the women were frightened and ran into the woods. The few women that stayed were given hair combs and bells, and eventually the other woman returned our also gifted with little tin bells which the women were very pleased with. Some of his comments after this confused me, he mentions the Huron sharing all this food with them but then calls them thieves without any explanation of why. There was a bit of fuss a few days later when the Frenchman planted a cross on the land, but with a bit of diplomacy and some more iron trade goods, that was all smoothed over. Cartier even manages to convince one of the Huron leaders to leave his sons on the visitor’s boat with the promise they would return soon. There was no mention whether the explorer planned to keep his promise, but somehow I doubt it. Even after meeting more Huron on their journey no mention was made of the men they had taken captive. And all month after they sailed for home, marking the end of their first voyage.
The second voyage is listed as occurring between 1535 and 1536, and starts off much as the first one did with a visit to the Isle of Birds. I don’t know if this is a sign that he’s taking the same path or and it’s just the easiest way into that area. Cartier does make a note of moving off to the West to explore the other islands where at a harbor they named St Nicholas they planted another cross. He make some mention about “ by the savages we had we were told this was the beginning of the Saguenay, and inhabited land, and from it came the red copper…” which to me sounds like he had some of the First Nations folks with them, the Huron men taken during the first voyage giving him information. Since his last voyage had they in that year been converted and were now serving Cartier as guides? He does make reference later on to his “two men of the country of Canada” and the Footnote at this point simply calls them Cartier’s Indians. He doesn’t calls them by name nor talks about them as if they were equals as part of the crew, but he certainly used them later on to lore other Huron on board the ship. There is no mention on what happened with that encounter, if it was trading, if the other Huron left the ship, but I’m assuming they did since it sound like it was more than just a couple of them.
When Cartier encounters the next group of people they are afraid of the Frenchmen until the two Huron with Cartier talk to them. At this point their names are mentioned as Taigoagny and Dom Agaya and when they introduce themselves to the people everyone is happy and no longer afraid. As before items the Frenchmen consider worthless are traded to the people who seem very pleased with them. At this point a couple names crop up. There is someone Cartier refers to as the Lord of Canada named Donnacona this title seems to be Agohanna. According to the footnote these too are Huron. At this time Taigoagny and Dom Agaya share with Agohanna the things they seen during her time in France and according to Cartier told the Huron leader how well they have been treated. Reading on this appears to be where they leave the Huron territory since the next group according to the footnote is a new group of people, but the rest will have to wait for tomorrow. I did learn the public and campus library have a great deal on the Huron/Wendat so plenty of good research stuff there for further on this tribe.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
A Memoir of Jacques Cartier cont...The Micmac
It was quite awhile before they mentioned meeting anyone
else, but the next time he did it was a group of boats, about 40 or 50, who
this time did not seem pleased the strangers were in their territory. Seeing they were outnumbered at the time Cartier
and his men tried to leave, but a couple of the boats followed them. The
Frenchmen came to discover that the people in the boats actually wanted to be
friends. Of course the Frenchman got nervous, started shooting a bunch of
warning shots, and that was about it for that interaction. It seems however these people showed up later
at the big ship and some trading occurred now that Cartier felt less outnumbered.
They traded for knives and other types of iron goods along with a red hat to
give to their leader, in exchange for the skins the people had, including the
skins they were wearing at the time. He mentioned that people plan to return
the next day with more skins, but it doesn’t say they actually returned. It is
noted fortunately in the footnotes that the people Cartier met on this occasion
were the Micmacs. This is useful to
know when start researching possible tribes for the French name persona. I’m not
surprised to see them mentioned since the herald I talked to that had a native
persona with a French name was playing a Micmac.
Reading a bit further on it seems several days later the Micmac people returned in their boats and even hunted up some seals to share and cook as a gift for the visitors. Cartier in exchange gave them hatchets, knives, paternosters (from what I can figure out they are historical versions of prayer beads/rosary), and other goods which made the Micmac very happy. There were women and children there, and Cartier mentions the woman touch them without fear. The Micmac were very friendly and Cartier seem to take this as a sign they would be easily converted. This seems to be the last of the contact with the Micmac people for this voyage. Doing some further research online I found the Micmac referred to as the Mi'kmaq Nation. Our local library didn't seem to have very much on the Mi'kmaq Which was frustrating, though there does seem to be a fair bit at the campus library once I have the time to dig through it all.
Reading a bit further on it seems several days later the Micmac people returned in their boats and even hunted up some seals to share and cook as a gift for the visitors. Cartier in exchange gave them hatchets, knives, paternosters (from what I can figure out they are historical versions of prayer beads/rosary), and other goods which made the Micmac very happy. There were women and children there, and Cartier mentions the woman touch them without fear. The Micmac were very friendly and Cartier seem to take this as a sign they would be easily converted. This seems to be the last of the contact with the Micmac people for this voyage. Doing some further research online I found the Micmac referred to as the Mi'kmaq Nation. Our local library didn't seem to have very much on the Mi'kmaq Which was frustrating, though there does seem to be a fair bit at the campus library once I have the time to dig through it all.
A Memoir of Jacques Cartier...The Beothuk
Knowing I had a good bit to do around the house I decided last night to start going through the pile of books I got from the library. I figure if I can keep track of the books that I’m using for my research, noting which ones were useful (probably leaving out which ones really weren’t in any final biography list I put together), will be easy to gather up in case somebody else needs to know which ones to look for to use in their own research.
The first book I started going through is called “A Memoir of Jacques Cartier” by James Phinney Baxter, A.M., Litt. D. The reason I got this is that it is supposed to contain Cartier’s “Voyage to the St. Lawrence” a manuscript which contains as I understand it information in his own words on the First Nation people he met and observed in his travels to Canada. I’m not sure what to expect in a 1500s Frenchman’s point of view regarding the indigenous people of Canada, but hopefully I can find something useful to take away from it.
The first section is listed “ voyage of 1534”. They mention something about the “Isle of Birds” (which is now called Funk Island not far from Newfoundland Canada). I read for a while after that with no mention of meeting any people at all, just lots of stuff about animals and things they collected, especially birds. Finally about 13 pages in, I found a mention of people. The manuscript mentions they wear leather (skins of beasts), paint their faces with “tawny colors”, and use the bark of birch trees to make their boats for seal “fishing”. He also makes note that he believes this area is not their home but simply where they hunt before they return to warmer lands for shelter. I’m guessing the interaction was friendly because he mentions no battles or conflict of any kind, just that he and his men moved on with their travels. The footnote mentions Beothiks, a word I am not familiar with, and that the people use red ochre to pick themselves. I looked up the word “Beothiks”, and found they are a tribe of Newfoundland that are believed by most scholars to be extinct, but many Micmacs claim to have ancestral links to. It is said that the last known Beothik woman, Shanawdithit, died in 1829 at the age of 20. I have to admit at being tempted to learn as much as I can about the Beothik not only to honor their memory by learning more about them, but in the possibilities of them for my persona.
The footnotes also states that three of these people were earlier captured by someone named Cabot and taken to England, an Italian “explorer” commissioned by Henry VII in the mid-1400s. This is interesting to know since it predates Cartier’s arrival by nearly 100 years. I checked the public library system and found one mention of a book mentioning this tribe, and it's a fiction novel written by a Cree archaeologist called "The Beothuk saga : a novel" by Bernard Assiniwi ; translated by Wayne Grady. I also found mention in the library listing of the Vikings in relation to the Beothik as well which ties back to my first thought while ago on Viking Metis.
There are two mentions at the library on campus of the Beothuk... Pioneers in Canada by Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston and and article called "A historiography of an ahistoricity: on the beothuk indians". Both I am attempting to access for further study and will share later in another post.
The first section is listed “ voyage of 1534”. They mention something about the “Isle of Birds” (which is now called Funk Island not far from Newfoundland Canada). I read for a while after that with no mention of meeting any people at all, just lots of stuff about animals and things they collected, especially birds. Finally about 13 pages in, I found a mention of people. The manuscript mentions they wear leather (skins of beasts), paint their faces with “tawny colors”, and use the bark of birch trees to make their boats for seal “fishing”. He also makes note that he believes this area is not their home but simply where they hunt before they return to warmer lands for shelter. I’m guessing the interaction was friendly because he mentions no battles or conflict of any kind, just that he and his men moved on with their travels. The footnote mentions Beothiks, a word I am not familiar with, and that the people use red ochre to pick themselves. I looked up the word “Beothiks”, and found they are a tribe of Newfoundland that are believed by most scholars to be extinct, but many Micmacs claim to have ancestral links to. It is said that the last known Beothik woman, Shanawdithit, died in 1829 at the age of 20. I have to admit at being tempted to learn as much as I can about the Beothik not only to honor their memory by learning more about them, but in the possibilities of them for my persona.
The footnotes also states that three of these people were earlier captured by someone named Cabot and taken to England, an Italian “explorer” commissioned by Henry VII in the mid-1400s. This is interesting to know since it predates Cartier’s arrival by nearly 100 years. I checked the public library system and found one mention of a book mentioning this tribe, and it's a fiction novel written by a Cree archaeologist called "The Beothuk saga : a novel" by Bernard Assiniwi ; translated by Wayne Grady. I also found mention in the library listing of the Vikings in relation to the Beothik as well which ties back to my first thought while ago on Viking Metis.
There are two mentions at the library on campus of the Beothuk... Pioneers in Canada by Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston and and article called "A historiography of an ahistoricity: on the beothuk indians". Both I am attempting to access for further study and will share later in another post.
Processing... name choices
Okay for several days now I have been working on the challenge of choosing a name for the persona I'm working on that I can live with for the long term. Since as I have been told it is near impossible to get the right documentation for a Native American or First Nations name in the pre 1600 timeframe I've been forced to look into European options. It's not a huge stretch since it was common for European missionaries to baptize the non-christian people they met in an attempt to christianize them. I haven't given up on the idea of finding documentation, especially on Cherokee names, that the SCA heralds would find acceptable, but I figured I would start with the online accessible European name documentation first since a lot of tribal roles are not accessible online.
Because I am comfortable with the name Moon and and so far in the SCA it's pretty much how everyone knows me anyway, I wanted Moon to be someplace in the name that I chose. I also have a deep connection to ravens, so I wanted to have that in there someplace to. Knowing that I couldn't use the English versions of those two words, I started talking to several heralds (including one of our local ones, and others I met through the Facebook Herald chat group) about where I should go for my documentation searches, ideas for names that would fit, in any other resource they can think of. I got some awesome help. Here is what I've been able to document through the SCA accepted sites/places so far as far as the names.
Now for the Cherokee persona, I am looking at a Spanish name since those are the ones my tribe had 1st contact with, even though it was a minimal contact with a large amount of time after that there was no contact at all. I really like the idea of my persona being connected to my own people so honoring my own heritage, not only because I know the most about them compared to other tribes, others out but there is an element of pride there for me. Now in this case I have two documentable by names that can be used together; de Luna and Corva. Together the two names translate into basically raven of the moon which I really like. De Luna I found on a marriage certificate in 1589 from Mexico belonging to a man married to a woman who had a name that sounded very Aztec in origin, as well as belonging to a woman christened in 1559 in Spain whose father also carried the same by name. Corva I found belonging to a man christened in 1557 in Spain whose mother carried the name. I struggled a bit finding a given name from the proper time range in Spanish, in fact I did about two days of searching before I ran across name Mencia (the "e" is accented but I don't know how to type that) which in the article I read related to magical insight, prophecy, empathic ability, and a whole lot of other things I kind of like being related to the persona I am going to do. I found the name Mencia in the marriage certificate from Mexico in 1597 belonging to a woman married to a man who both also had very Aztec sounding last names. I am still looking at options for the given name, but I wouldn't be unhappy using Mencia if I can't find anything else I like better. As far as the by name, I am very happy with Corva de Luna. I have noticed that the "de" is always capitalize on the documentation site in names but I rarely have ever seen it capitalized when used as a locator name in by names anyplace else. It's a question I might want to ask on the herald group I think, or from a local Herald outside of the one I am working who said she knows armory better than naming.
On the French end of things, since if I do the Metis persona the baptized name would be French, for Raven the by name is Corbeau. I really like the sound of it, and I was able to find a woman christened in Belgium in 1606 (which at the time as I understand it was occupied by the Dutch in the French) who not only had the name Corbeau, but whose father carried it as well which documents the name before the 1600s. As far as the Moon end of things I haven't had much luck in French as far as by names go. The name de Lune was suggested, but I can't find documentation for anyone from France or from someplace occupied by the French, though I did find a couple Spanish versions of that by name. I did look for Luna as a given name, and found it on marriage certificate from 1562 in England. According to the SCA naming rules it is acceptable to mix French and English names so I might end up going with that. The ending result would be Luna Corbeau, loosely translated as I understand it to Moon Raven.
Because I am comfortable with the name Moon and and so far in the SCA it's pretty much how everyone knows me anyway, I wanted Moon to be someplace in the name that I chose. I also have a deep connection to ravens, so I wanted to have that in there someplace to. Knowing that I couldn't use the English versions of those two words, I started talking to several heralds (including one of our local ones, and others I met through the Facebook Herald chat group) about where I should go for my documentation searches, ideas for names that would fit, in any other resource they can think of. I got some awesome help. Here is what I've been able to document through the SCA accepted sites/places so far as far as the names.
Now for the Cherokee persona, I am looking at a Spanish name since those are the ones my tribe had 1st contact with, even though it was a minimal contact with a large amount of time after that there was no contact at all. I really like the idea of my persona being connected to my own people so honoring my own heritage, not only because I know the most about them compared to other tribes, others out but there is an element of pride there for me. Now in this case I have two documentable by names that can be used together; de Luna and Corva. Together the two names translate into basically raven of the moon which I really like. De Luna I found on a marriage certificate in 1589 from Mexico belonging to a man married to a woman who had a name that sounded very Aztec in origin, as well as belonging to a woman christened in 1559 in Spain whose father also carried the same by name. Corva I found belonging to a man christened in 1557 in Spain whose mother carried the name. I struggled a bit finding a given name from the proper time range in Spanish, in fact I did about two days of searching before I ran across name Mencia (the "e" is accented but I don't know how to type that) which in the article I read related to magical insight, prophecy, empathic ability, and a whole lot of other things I kind of like being related to the persona I am going to do. I found the name Mencia in the marriage certificate from Mexico in 1597 belonging to a woman married to a man who both also had very Aztec sounding last names. I am still looking at options for the given name, but I wouldn't be unhappy using Mencia if I can't find anything else I like better. As far as the by name, I am very happy with Corva de Luna. I have noticed that the "de" is always capitalize on the documentation site in names but I rarely have ever seen it capitalized when used as a locator name in by names anyplace else. It's a question I might want to ask on the herald group I think, or from a local Herald outside of the one I am working who said she knows armory better than naming.
On the French end of things, since if I do the Metis persona the baptized name would be French, for Raven the by name is Corbeau. I really like the sound of it, and I was able to find a woman christened in Belgium in 1606 (which at the time as I understand it was occupied by the Dutch in the French) who not only had the name Corbeau, but whose father carried it as well which documents the name before the 1600s. As far as the Moon end of things I haven't had much luck in French as far as by names go. The name de Lune was suggested, but I can't find documentation for anyone from France or from someplace occupied by the French, though I did find a couple Spanish versions of that by name. I did look for Luna as a given name, and found it on marriage certificate from 1562 in England. According to the SCA naming rules it is acceptable to mix French and English names so I might end up going with that. The ending result would be Luna Corbeau, loosely translated as I understand it to Moon Raven.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Thrown Weapons... Beginnings
Okay, like I promised, I'm going to talk a bit about the thrown weapons get together that happened yesterday night. First off it was frikken fun! I knew I wanted to try it, but I had no idea I would like it so much. I'm hoping to try it with different sizes and different weights knives, and I definitely want to have another go with the axes since I only got to that once. I seem to do okay though, in general throwing in the right direction and hitting the target about 50% of the time. I did start to get better once I began throwing from the tip (holding the knife by the tip rather than by the handle), so that's a good sign that that's were I can comfortably hold for good accuracy. I'm hoping once I get a good idea of what size, length, and weight works best for me in knives and axes I can learn to make my own. I came home so excited that I right away went to dig up some instructional videos on knife throwing. I figured this would be a good place share them. Note that because I got them off of his upload list if you do not stop at the end of the video it will keep playing the next one or something else.
Choosing Knives
How to Throw Knives
Consistency and Distance
Choosing Knives
How to Throw Knives
Consistency and Distance
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Thoughts About Weapon Use ... Archery
Okay spent the evening hanging with some new friends in the park and trying my hand as knife and axe throwing. I need a lot more practice but I really liked it. It got me thinking (dangerous, huh?) about the persona I am thinking about and how the thrown weapons and the archery I am beginning to learn fits into that.
Now the Cherokee did use bows, one of the reasons I want a longbow (the one I have now is a recurve). My own one got stolen from my car after a women's retreat I went to years back, and a few years ago some of the ladies with some of my family pitched in and bought me a new one. Its 50"in length, 27# bow with a 24" draw length. Now after finding I struggle a bit with the bow when I tried it for the first time yesterday I decided to do a bit of research on how to tell if its the best bow for me right now.
The first thing I looked into was proper draw length. There are two methods I've found for doing this. One (calculated draw length) involved measuring your arm span and then dividing by 2.5. Using the second draw length measuring method (called ATA Draw Length Standard) would have required getting my bow out and restringing it which at 11pm at nite was not ready to do.
My arm span is about 60"/2.5 giving me a draw length of about 24" This is the same as my bow. Also since I need to also get a bow for my daughter... Her arm span is 58/2.5 = Which is just over 23" (as fast as she is growing she is likely to pass that up soon)
Second thing I have to figure out is bow size.... according to the one site I found the bow size is based on your draw length, so for us its either 22" to 24" = 62" bow... so accourding to this my 50" bow is way to small. Well that's a surprise. Not sure what affect having the bow be 14" to small for me has...
Okay last thing to check is to determine the draw weight...they have a chart I found at the same site as the rest that says Beginner recurve draw weight is Adult Women 16 - 26 pounds (for my daughter it is Youth (Age 11 to 13) 10 - 14 pounds) So at #27 my bow weight isn't right either. Looks like come school cash time to shop for a new bow. It's odd cause it look like the bow itself isn't sized right all around which is odd since the guy that made it is supposed to know his stuff. (Randy Dehnel of Saxon Archery)
Going to talk a bit tomorrow about the knife and axe throwing I did, but bed is calling me. Sending a quick note to the archery marshal from yesterday about the bow sizing to see what he thinks. Now sure the best places to look for bows for my daughter and I that we can afford, but maybe he will have some thoughts to share. I did read that longbows are different that recurve so I might need a slightly smaller longbow than the recurve chart lists. Likely closer to a 58". We'll see.
Now the Cherokee did use bows, one of the reasons I want a longbow (the one I have now is a recurve). My own one got stolen from my car after a women's retreat I went to years back, and a few years ago some of the ladies with some of my family pitched in and bought me a new one. Its 50"in length, 27# bow with a 24" draw length. Now after finding I struggle a bit with the bow when I tried it for the first time yesterday I decided to do a bit of research on how to tell if its the best bow for me right now.
The first thing I looked into was proper draw length. There are two methods I've found for doing this. One (calculated draw length) involved measuring your arm span and then dividing by 2.5. Using the second draw length measuring method (called ATA Draw Length Standard) would have required getting my bow out and restringing it which at 11pm at nite was not ready to do.
My arm span is about 60"/2.5 giving me a draw length of about 24" This is the same as my bow. Also since I need to also get a bow for my daughter... Her arm span is 58/2.5 = Which is just over 23" (as fast as she is growing she is likely to pass that up soon)
Second thing I have to figure out is bow size.... according to the one site I found the bow size is based on your draw length, so for us its either 22" to 24" = 62" bow... so accourding to this my 50" bow is way to small. Well that's a surprise. Not sure what affect having the bow be 14" to small for me has...
Okay last thing to check is to determine the draw weight...they have a chart I found at the same site as the rest that says Beginner recurve draw weight is Adult Women 16 - 26 pounds (for my daughter it is Youth (Age 11 to 13) 10 - 14 pounds) So at #27 my bow weight isn't right either. Looks like come school cash time to shop for a new bow. It's odd cause it look like the bow itself isn't sized right all around which is odd since the guy that made it is supposed to know his stuff. (Randy Dehnel of Saxon Archery)
Going to talk a bit tomorrow about the knife and axe throwing I did, but bed is calling me. Sending a quick note to the archery marshal from yesterday about the bow sizing to see what he thinks. Now sure the best places to look for bows for my daughter and I that we can afford, but maybe he will have some thoughts to share. I did read that longbows are different that recurve so I might need a slightly smaller longbow than the recurve chart lists. Likely closer to a 58". We'll see.
Research and Personas... An Introduction
Because I am doing non traditional personas outside the typical Eurocentric cultures most often used in the SCA, I have been advised to keep detailed records of my notes and resources to share with others that may be interested in following my lead. As I mention in the blog intro, I am mainly focused at the moment in building a Native persona either #1 from my own tribe who had contact with Hernando de Soto in 1540 or #2 a Canadian Metis persona, likely Cree, who are one of many of the First Nations people Jacques Cartier write about in the mid 1500s.
Now I know a decent bit about Metis as a culture and the Cree, even more about my own tribe, so a lot of the harder work and research involved has to do with how to find my notch with SCA which is mostly Western Europe centered. A lot of folks have been very supportive of my choice in persona, even excited about it, but others seem unsure... for this and many other reasons I have a large hill to climb n the way of detailed documentation and pictorial record keeping. The past few month the task has seem daunting, between the work needing to be done and the concept of the expensive supplies I will need to create my garb and tools, as well as the camping stuff I will need to do event with my kids.
For this reason and my sanity I am starting slow, playing around with other garb style and learning all I can over all which I work on my main persona and plans. I hope folks like the info I collect on this blog, and feel free to share idea, resources, feedback. Collaboration is half the fun.
Now I know a decent bit about Metis as a culture and the Cree, even more about my own tribe, so a lot of the harder work and research involved has to do with how to find my notch with SCA which is mostly Western Europe centered. A lot of folks have been very supportive of my choice in persona, even excited about it, but others seem unsure... for this and many other reasons I have a large hill to climb n the way of detailed documentation and pictorial record keeping. The past few month the task has seem daunting, between the work needing to be done and the concept of the expensive supplies I will need to create my garb and tools, as well as the camping stuff I will need to do event with my kids.
For this reason and my sanity I am starting slow, playing around with other garb style and learning all I can over all which I work on my main persona and plans. I hope folks like the info I collect on this blog, and feel free to share idea, resources, feedback. Collaboration is half the fun.
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