Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England

Lindsay Marshall

90 Lindsay Marshall (b. 1960) Lindsay Marshall has served as chief at the Potlotek (Chapel Island) First Nation in Nova Scotia, principal of the Unama’ki College at Cape Breton University, and as a Mi’kmaw poet laureate. In 1997 he published a book of poems, Clay Pots and Bones, from which the following selections are taken. Clay Pots and Bones Dear successive fathers: Explain to me please, when did the change take place, from owners to wards of the selfish state? Write down the reasons why the land under our feet became foreign soil in perpetuity. Say again how the signers of 1752 lost as much as they gained while the ink from a quill pen rested in its blackened Royal well. What justification exists that allowed our mounds to be desecrated, clay pots and bones. Rock glyphs painted over by cfc-propelled paint. Our songs and stories protected by copyright and law, not in the bosom of our grandmothers or grandfathers of yesterday. The cost of keeping us does not reflect the real cost. How many ghostly sails with Lindsay Marshall 91 reeking holds did English ports comfort in early fog? Have you much experience in the destruction of people, besides us? Mainkewin? (Are You Going to Maine?) Do you remember Maine? Do you remember telling everyone who would listen that you were going to Vacation Land picking blueberries? Do you remember the taste of your first submarine washed down with a cool Bud from the first store you saw after you crossed the border? Do you remember the cool mornings that enabled you to get fifty plus boxes that first day at work there in the barrens? Do you remember where you went swimming to cool off in the afternoons? Was it Schoodic Lake or Columbia Falls? Do you remember going back to the camp after picking blueberries and seeing the filth on your body? Do you remember waking up the next day and being unable to move without pain? Do you remember working in the hot August sun not worrying about the uv index? Do you remember being up half the night treating your badly burned red back and asking yourself, “What am I doing here?” 92 mi’kmaq Do you remember the excitement of getting your first pay and spending it in Cherryfield, Millbridge or Ellsworth? Do you remember the Bay Rum Pirates, Canned Heat Gang behind Grant’s General Store? Do you remember staying until the frost killed the best berries of the season, the ones that were promised to you by the leaseholder? Do you remember hurrying to get home so the kids could go to school? Do you remember the trip home and someone asking at the border, “All Indians?” Progress Handshakes, smiles all around, the suits come in the band office carrying their pens Fast polite chatter, wet palms hiding papers piled like a pyre inside leather boxes with brass locks. Minions of the queen mentioning her thorny hat, this and that and the act words spoken with no ahs or ays The counselled Council listens to the Concord pitch, its pros and cons weighing each grain against each rock Four plaque-like walls holding their eyes Seeing nothing, new or different since the last time Mouthpiece spinning spiels, nods of non-comprehension feathers combed not ruffled, patted nor struck sign here, initial there, witness here 93 more handshakes dry palms wet again. Saunter out the old Indian Day School now band office, boxes go out with white blisterless hands clutching pens like Cornwallis trophies Black ink slowly drying with red splatters here, there . . . Jaime Battiste (b. 1979) Jaime Battiste has a bachelor of arts in Mi’kmaw studies and bachelor of law from Dalhousie Law School. He is a First Nations and Mi’kmaq advisor, a constitutional and human rights advocate, and an advocate for First Nations youth. He has been on the national executive council of Assembly of First Nations and an assistant professor of Mi’kmaq studies at Cape Breton University and is now the legal advisor of the Grand Council of the Mi’kmaw Nation. He has published law review articles about Mi’kmaq law and Aboriginal and treaty rights and a book looking at the four-hundred-year history of Mi’kmaq diplomacy titled Honoring 400 years: Kepmite’tmnej. He was honored as a national role model by the National Aboriginal Health Organization. The...