-48- INDJANS .-~- WINTER CAMPS

A winter event of more than passing interest to the community was the annual arrival of a dozen or more Indians from the settlement at Rocky . Point. About the middle of December, they trekked up the West River ice and pitched camp in Johnny Hector's woods. By authority of the Federal Government, they had the right to cut a specified amount of lumber to build their tepees and to provide fuel for heat and cooking» They were also permitted to cut wood “for: the production of: various arti facts:.which: they would sell to householders in the community and to stores in the city. They wove baskets of different capacities; the bushel, half-bushel, and peck sizes were always in demand on the farms for potato- and fruit= harvesting. Smaller baskets were fashioned in a variety of shapes and decorated in vivid colors; these were popular as parlor ornaments and as souvenir items.

Their style of living was similar to that of their ancestors before the advent of the white settlers. They fished through the ice on the brooks and on the river. They snared rabbits, shot partridge and other small game; they trapped foxes, mink, and muskrats. They built their fires on the ground in the center of the teppe; a hole in the top of the structure permitted the smoke to escape. For sleeping facilities, they laid blankets over tiers of spruce boughs topped with dried grass. |

Those Indians were of the Micmac tribe. Their chief was an old squaw by the name of Alice Mitchell, the only child of the late chief, Louie Mitchell. At his death, in accordance with tribal custom, She had«= succeeded him as chief. In the camp, there were several middle-aged women and an elderly man named Jim Louie. Michael Paul, a rangy man in his twenties; Julia, also in her twenties; a ‘teen-age girl, Cobann; and four or five small children made up the remainder of the group. Later, Mike Paul gained

some fame as a long-distance runner.