history & culture
Mi'kmaq Legends
The native Mi'kmaq, who first knew the tides of the Bay of Fundy
better than any, acknowledged and honoured this uniqueness by creating
and passing on colourful legends to explain its mysteries.
Their simple, but vivid, stories show that the unusual rock
formations and turbulent tides have made the Hopewell Rocks a place of
profound significance.
The Tide
Glooscap, the great native god, wanted to take a bath. He commanded
Beaver to build a dam across the mouth of the bay to trap the high
water so that he could bathe. Beaver did as he commanded, but this
made Whale unhappy.
Whale demanded to know what caused the flow of water to stop.
Glooscap, not wishing to anger Whale, instructed Beaver to break the
dam, but Whale was impatient and began to break the dam apart with his
great tale.
This caused the water to slosh back and forth with such power that
it continues today.
The Rock Formations
In ancient times, there were unfortunate Mi'kmaq who were enslaved
by angry Whales living in the Bay. There came a time when some tried
to escape their captors. They managed to flee as far as the beach, but
were captured by the angry Whales, and turned to stone.
Their images remain today, encased in rock.
The Chocolate Waters of the Petitcodiac River
In the beginning, the waters of Pet-koat-kwee-ak were clear
and sparkling. But one day Eel swam down from the headwaters, his
great body pushing everything before him into the cold of the great
bay. Turtle told Glooscap that something had to be done about Eel. So
Glooscap instructed Lobster to fight Eel. Lobster drove Eel out into
the bay, but so great was the struggle that the once-clear water was
disturbed and muddied forever.
Early Settlers
It was the tribes of the Mi'kmaq and the Malecite who first
regularly traveled the waterways of the Bay of Fundy, fishing along
coastal areas during the summer months, moving inland towards the
Saint John River during the cold winter season to trap.
 The Acadians were the next to arrive in 1698, lured by the ease of
farming these wide salt marshes. They dyked the marshes to
prevent the salt water from flooding the lowlands every high
tide. Built into these dykes were a one-way door, called "aboiteau",
that allowed drainage of the marshes during low tide, but prevented
the salt water from entering at high tide.
Next came German settlers from
Pennsylvania and the Irish and Scottish settlers. The United Empire
Loyalists arrived after the American Revolution. Each contributed
cultural traditions and religious differences to the new land. Like
mismatched pieces of quilt these differences were distinct and
separate, sometimes clashing, but once knitted and stitched together
over time, they blended into our uniquely Maritime pattern of life.
Visit the nearby Albert
County Museum for a glimpse of what life was like in early Albert
County.
Additional Information:
History of the Area's villages: http://www.deborahcarr.ca/fundycoast/villages.htm
Native People and the Bay of Fundy - http://www.bofep.org/native_resource.htm
Glimpses of Atlantic Canada's past http://www.civilization.ca/academ/articles/keen1_1e.html
Early Maritime Culture - http://www.civilisations.ca/archeo/hnpc/npvol05e.html |
