From My Vantage Point

John Steckley teaches human studies at Hunter College in Toronto.

This collection of story-chaptered reminiscences by Harold Gloade, a
Micmac, tells much about growing up in Nova Scotia from the 1920s to the
early 1940s. However, as a source of information on Micmac life during
this period, the book has major flaws.

Most of the stories, and thus the book itself, would be better
classified as general Nova Scotia history than as Micmac history. Tales
such as my favorites (“The Blue Light,” about a haunted hunt for
rumored Acadian treasure; and “God-father’s Chevrolet,” about
pride of ownership of a truck that was never driven) could have been
experienced and written by a non-Native. When Micmac material is
presented, it is done so with little or no background information. For
example, the chapter on 19th-century porpoise hunting fails to convey a
good sense of how the Micmac became involved (beyond, that is, “I
would guess they were told of the source of oil and they acquired a pot
from somewhere to render the mammal down”), or what this new but
traditional-style, independence-preserving activity meant to the Micmac
at a time when hunting and trapping were sharply declining and the
Micmac were facing increasing discrimination as they competed with
non-Natives for jobs.

More significantly, the federal government’s tragic attempt in the
1940s to force the Micmac from all the Nova Scotia communities onto just
two reserves is not referred to, although its effects are casually
mentioned. “During the winter of 1941–42, there were only two houses
on Horton Reserve that were occupied. . . . The occupants of all the
others had more or less decided on other reserves where there was more
suitable housing available.” The fact is, they were made an offer they
could not refuse.

Finally, the transition of these stories from their original media of
family gatherings and interest articles in the Micmac News to the “big
screen” of a book is less than successful; the stories are often too
short (averaging five pages) to be chapters, and don’t always connect
well with each other.