Chapter One IN THE BEGINNING — THE MICMACS

The first inhabitants of Prince Edward Island were transient bands of Micmac Indians from the mainland. Wintering in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick where game was more plentiful, they migrated to the Island, :which they called Abegweit, each summer for a season of hunting and

:fishing.

As they paddled up the Hillsborough, the Micmacs were evidently ,attracted to a bank of brilliant red clay which stood in marked contrast ito the miles of green marsh grass on either side. Now practically obliter- Z:ated by erosion, Red Bank, located on the farm presently owned by Bruce :Pigot, was the favourite Indian camping ground in the Mount Stewart area. There, during the 1870’s, as many as fifteen wigwams were located. Ridges marking the location-s of the kitchen “middens” or garbage heaps could be seen until 1969, when bulldozing operations connected with the instal- lation of the village sewer system erased that potentially fruitful field for archaeological investigation forever.

. Recollections of the community life at Red Bank are remarkably Scarce. There is the story of "‘Cold Friday” when the temperature dropped 50 low that the Indians forsook their wigwams and sought refuge in the Warmer dwellings at Mount Stewart. There are also stories of the fishing expertise of the Micmacs, of how the white men would fish all day and catch nothing, and, then, at the proper moment, an Indian would emerge from his tent, cast his line, and promptly draw in a fat trout for supper. As to the families which lived there, the April 21, 1948 issue of the Guardian carried the death notice of Peter Scully, a one-time resident of Red .Bank. Abram’s Spring at Red Bank was called after Abram Sappier. His wife presented the late Lane Pigot with a small-scale replica of a birch bark canoe when he was an infant. That was in 1902, and the camp Was abandoned then or shortly thereafter.

Other centres in the Mount Stewart area with Indian associations are St. Andrew’s, Pisquid and Savage Harbour. St. Andrew’s was the site of an Indian camp, while the word “Pisquid” is a corruption of the Micmac “gPesegitk,” meaning “entering at right angles” or “the forks of a river.”

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_ Savage Harbour, the Havre des Sauvages of the French era, takes 1s name from an affair which occurred among the “Savages” probably lng before the coming of the Europeans. Geological evidence points to a eat battle having been fought in the area and the bodies of the dead 1: rown into a common pit, the top of which was only one foot below the 11. The geologist, Abraham Gesner, apparently Visited the spot and in ,5 report on the geology of Prince Edward Island, dated Dec. 31, 1846, h explains that “by the encroachment of the sea on the south side of the

rbour a number of Indian skeletons have been exposed and washed from te bank.” He comments on the great size of the bones, a feature which 1‘4) people of a later period to conclude that they were the remains of a e of giants, eleven or twelve feet tall with heads as big as tea kettles. bones were carefully reburied as soon as they were exposed. The aminer of June 16, 1890 records the death of Mr. Coffin of Canavoy {and 1n Savage Harbour. It is related that the deceased “was one of the segreral who many years ago, collected a cart load of human skulls, shin-

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