Mi'kmaq Food
The Mi'kmaq people fed on fish, shellfish, seals, walrus, smelt, dolphins, small whales, and eels for seafood. These food were dried. The eggs of the great auk was boiled in water by hot rocks. Red meat was eaten, such as beaver, moose, caribou, and bear.
Fishing
A fence of wood was put on the narrowest river to stop the fish from going on. Weir men inserted wood pickets vertically in the river each one meter apart. Then the men wove branches into the pickets to finish making the fence. After the fence was done, they hung a bag net in the middle so the fish would run into it. The bag-net would be raised two to three times a day. Strips of basswood or Indian hemp, was used to make the bag-nets. They also speared fish by using leisters; a sharpened bone on a long stick. A trick where birchbark torches were lighted at night, lured many salmon. The fishers speared salmon and trout but harpoons were used to hunt seals, small whales and large fish.
Salmon
Hunting
The hunted animals were used for food, clothing, house covering, tools, and utensils. Puoins also used the dewclaws for their rattles and used animal glands for medicine. Caribou, bear, beaver, moose, and porcupines were hunted. The porcupines were hunted for their quills, which could be used for clothing fashion. Carcasses from animals and birds were cleaned by the women. The children caught grouses and birds by snares or clubbing them. Eggs were also gathered by children for extra food.
Caribou
Mi'kmaq Clothing
The men of the Mi'kmaq wore leggings made from caribou or moose. They also wore breechcloths that hung from their waists. Fur robes were wrapped around like a blanket in the winter. Women wore robes that went around their upper body. Babies were just wrapped in fox, swan or goose furs. The clothing was decorated with geometric designs. They used red and yellow ochres to design the clothing. White shells were grinded to use as dyes and so were bird egg yolks. Animal fat was used for paint. The women dyed porcupine quills with roots, bark, leaves, and flowers. Then the porcupine quills were attached to the clothing for decorations. Animal teeth, claws, bones and feathers were also used to design clothing.
Mi'kmaq Clothing
Mi'kmaq Shelter
The Mi'kmaq people used Wikuoms for homes. Wikuom means dwelling and were also used for nomadic houses. The Wikuoms were seasonal dwellings that held up to twenty-five people. These temporary houses were covered in sheets of birchbark or animal hides. Rush mats were spread onto the floor for permanent Wikuoms.
A Wikuom
Packing and building the Wikuom
Once the animals and fish deplete in one area, the Mi'kmaqs moved 75-100km away. The women carried the Wikuom, dishes, bags, skins, robes and many more but the men carried absolutley nothing. After the group had settled to a new area, the women then had to build the camp. Couple women went out for poles and branches of fir. The mistress, or the first lady to borne the boy, was in charge of building the Wikuoms. She had to then build the Wikuom when all the other materials were gathered. Little girls carried the branches. Five to ten branches of spruce were made into poles, which was then brought up into a dome-shape. Bent sapling was tightened around the poles near the top. Then the birchbark sheets were sewn on the frame for covering, overlapping each other to make it waterproof and wind resistant. The bone awl punctured holes in to the sheet, so the sheets could be sewn together. The mistress lined the inside with carpet for beds and pillows and left the middle area for firepit. At the end, more poles were put on the outside of the Wikuom and used animal hides for a door. The round Wikuoms held ten to twelve people and the long ones held twenty to twenty-four people with two firepits.
Frames of a Wikuom
Important Item of the Mi'kmaq
The birchbark was a useful resource that could be easily cut and sewn without snapping. It was very light and flexible too. The bark had a wax solution that had the ability to be waterproof and didn't have much bugs. It could be sliced into sheets as well. They gathered the bark by peeling off the bark with a sharp stone blade, when the sap flowed in the tree because this was when the birchbark was at its toughest. After they peeled off the bark, they had to use short sticks around the tree to pry it loose. Then the peeled off birchbarks were sent to the camps where it was heated to make them more flexible. When the bark was not in use, it was kept damp. The birchbark was used for Wikuoms, canoes, bowls, boxes, rainscapes, cooking pots, dippers, sap-collecters, canoe-bailers, wrappings, kindling, torches and the tobbacco pipes. The birchbark was domesticated.