Whycocomagh
| Whycocomagh | |||
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 Bilingual entrance sign |
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| Location in Nova Scotia | |||
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| State : |
 Canada
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| Province : | Nova Scotia | ||
| County: | Inverness County | ||
| Coordinates : | 45 ° 59 ′ N , 61 ° 7 ′ W | ||
| Residents : | 854 (as of 2001) | ||
| Time zone : | Atlantic Time ( UTC − 4 ) | ||
Whycocomagh is on the one hand a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia , which in 2001 had exactly 854 inhabitants.
It is located on the eastern edge of Inverness County in the central part of Cape Breton Island , more precisely on the northwest bank of St. Patrick's Channel , the northwest arm of the over 1000 km² Bras d'Or Lake . The name of the place is an Anglicized version of a Mi'kmaq word which means 'source of waters'.
On the other hand, near the village, on the other, on the west side of the Skye River , is the reservation of the eponymous We'koqma'q First Nations , to which 624 people are counted, and of whom 88% spoke their mother tongue in 1998. Their reservation is called Whycocomagh 2 and in 2006 had exactly 623 inhabitants in 182 accommodations, compared with 635 in 2001. The Waycobah First Nation, as the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development still called it at that time, had 936 members in June 2011 822 lived in the reservation. This number increased, now under the name We'koqma'q First Nation, to 1001 by July 2017, of which 886 lived on their own reservation, 33 on other reservations and a further 82 outside.
On the east side, however, there are predominantly descendants of English and Scottish immigrants who lived there from the 18th century and who named the place Hogamagh , founded in 1821 . Local lore may be true that there was a chief named Hogoma'w in the mid-18th century who fought on the side of the French.
history
In the 1820s, many families moved from the Scottish islands of Tiree , Coll and Mull to the west side of the Bras d'Or. With them, the Presbyterianism that prevailed in their homeland came to the region. Tensions arose with the Mi'kmaq, so that in 1834 an area reserved only for them was established. It comprised a total of 12,205 acres and was divided into six districts.
1847 to 1848 there was a year of famine on Cape Breton Island due to a particularly snowy and long winter, as well as a potato disease, and the farmers and justices of the peace in Whycocomagh also asked the government for grain and seed grain. Many animals were starved to death. However, the deliveries were slow to arrive, and the small quantities could hardly keep people alive in June 1848. In the early 1880s, many residents moved west, for example to Manitoba .
Since the beginning of the 19th century some slaves fled from the USA to the region around the place and settled there. They learned Gaelic.
In 1853 the largest Presbyterian meeting that has ever taken place on the island took place in the small town, perhaps even the largest in Canada. 8,000 people came together, 200 boats were in the harbor and 500 horses were docked.
With the Indian Act , non-Indians were largely prohibited from living on Indian reservations. But the squatter - who in their opinion appropriated unused land for no consideration - David McLean disregarded the demands of the Mi'kmaq to leave their land and sued the Indian agent Donald McIsaac , who was appointed in 1879 . McLean demanded compensation for the land improvements he had made over the past 25 years and otherwise did not respond to the demands of the Indians. In 1882 he and his son were arrested. The jury that has now been appointed spoke in favor of the squatter , despite admonitions from the judge in Port Hood . McIsaac turned now to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court , the highest court in the province, which ruled against the squatter in 1885. However, he had delayed the decision for so long that the Indian agent made it possible for him to buy reserve land.
In several places in the province, the Catholic Mi'kmaq regularly celebrated St Anne's Day. In 1923, accordingly, visitors came from far and wide, such as from the towns of Breton Island, but also from Pomkat near Antigonish or from Truro , even from Rocky Point on Prince Edward Island . This year alone there were 75 wigwams around the Presbyterian church .
One of the writers known throughout Canada was the poet Rita Joe, who died in 2007 .
religion
While the Mi'kmaq are Catholic in their reserve village, the families who immigrated early in the neighboring village were all Presbyterians.
traffic
Highway 105 of the Trans-Canada Highway , which runs alongside Bras d'Or Lake , is the main access road to Whycocomagh.
education
The Whycocomagh Education Center , which also houses the Whycocomagh Eco Center, also supports the local elementary school. A historical society, the Whycocomagh Historical Society, deals with the history of the double church, has published a book on the history of the place and is planning a museum.
literature
- Max Basque: Whycocomagh , in: Cape Breton's Magazine 51 (June 1989) 15-29 and 52 (August 1989) 53-65 (collection of Mi'kmaq stories, including from 1909).
- R. Ruggles Gates: The blood groups and other features of the Micmac Indians , in: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 68 (1938) 283-298 (based on blood group tests in the reservation, on Chapel Island).
Web links
Remarks
- ^ NS Community counts
- ^ John R. Edwards: Language in Canada , Cambridge University Press 1998, p. 357.
- ^ Statistics Canada
- ↑ We'koqma'q First Nation , Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada.
- ^ Proceedings and transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science, Volume 4, Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science 1878, p. 278.
- ↑ Lucille H. Campey: After the Hector. The Scottish Pioneers of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, 1773-1852 , Toronto 2004, 2nd ed. 2007, p. 114.
- ^ Harold Franklin McGee: The Native Peoples of Atlantic Canada. A History of Indian-European Relations , Ottawa: Carleton University Press 1983, p. 79.
- ↑ Stephen Hornsby: Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton. A Historical Geography , McGill-Queen's University Press 1992, pp. 113f.
- ^ Robin W. Winks: The Blacks in Canada. A History , McGill-Queen's University Press, 2nd ed. 1997, p. 130.
- ^ Charles HH Scobie, George A. Rawlyk: The Contribution of Presbyterianism to the Maritime Provinces of Canada , McGill-Queen's University Press 1997, p. 94.
- ↑ Sidney L. Harring: White Man's Law. Native People in Nineteenth-Century Canadian Jurisprudence , Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History 1998, pp. 181f.
- ^ Wilson Dallam Wallis and Ruth Sawtell Wallis: The Micmac Indians of Eastern Canada , University of Minnesota 1955, p. 285.