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5 Landscapes in Myths and Legends Landscape:A portion of land or territory which the eye can comprehend in a single view, including mountains, rivers, lakes, and whatever the land contains. Webster’sTwentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language, 1940 The landscapes of Atlantic Canada and the northeastern United States played a significant role in the development of Indian cultures. From Newfoundland on the north to Chesapeake Bay on the south, a very distinct and diverse physiography in this region greatly intersected with Indian lifeways and beliefs. In general, there are two geographic zones in the Northeast:first, a coastal zone consisting of an irregular shoreline, tidal marshes, swamps, and rivers emptying into the ocean, bordered by low forested hills. Second, there is an inland zone with mountains, hills, steep cliffs and valleys, rolling landscapes, major rivers with numerous tributaries and floodplains, swamps, marshes, lakes, and ponds. The entire region has a number of distinct biotic zones as well (Trigger 1978). During the Pleistocene epoch, glacial ice covered Atlantic Canada, all of New England, most of New York State, northern New Jersey, and northeastern Pennsylvania. The last southern advance of the glacial ice sheet, known as theWisconsin,reached its maximum some 21,000 years ago.Areas to the south of the terminal moraine (glacial drift) were spared the ravages of moving ice.The Wisconsin glacier scraped and scarred the mountains and hilltops and covered the rocky landscape with several types of unconsolidated and unsorted rock and soil debris. These unconsolidated deposits are generally thick and continuous in valleys and thin to nonexistent on hilltops .The movement of the ice scoured the ridges,leaving bare rock or a thin mantle of soil while the valleys and side slopes of the ridges were filled with deposits of sand, gravel, and boulders. Some of these debris deposits blocked rivers and streams to form lakes, ponds, and swamps throughout the region. Deglaciation in the Northeast began about 21,000 years ago. As the glacial ice sheet slowly melted and receded northward, a tremendous amount of meltwater flowed southerly from its leading edge and gravels and sediments were deposited throughout the region. By approximately 7,000 years 106 / Chapter 5 ago the ice sheet melted completely from the Northeast. The glacier created many different physical features throughout the region, with its varied types of bedrock and physiography. The underlying bedrock of the Northeast falls into three main groups,igneous , sedimentary, and metamorphic, with many subdivisions within each group. Some of the common types of bedrock present in the region include basalt, diabase, granite, rhyolite, conglomerate, graywacke, argillite, limestone , dolomite, sandstone, quartzite, schist, gneiss, marble, slate, and shale. For the most part, the northeast region was at one time heavily forested with wide variations in topographic relief. The land, numerous lakes, rivers, and the sea supported abundant floral and faunal resources. The region was rich in wildlife and a magnificent forest cover provided for many species of birds and mammals such as deer, caribou, moose, elk, bear, fox, beaver, and smaller animals. The rivers provided fish such as salmon, alewives, shad, and other species, while diverse sea mammals were found in the ocean. Algonquian peoples lived in a physical world that was often harsh and mysterious. Over their long history, they developed a deep spiritual connection with manitous, who inhabited special places on the landscape. The people developed rites,rituals,ceremonies,and traditions in dealing with the vast mystery of existence. Some of their visions and dreams were rendered in stone, and specially chosen physical settings became part of a sacred landscape (Conway 1993:18). Here are several examples of manifestations of sacred and mythological sites in the Northeast. Fanny Hardy Eckstorm (1945:39–42, 1974:229) relates a nineteenthcentury Maine Indian legend of a great battle between two great shamans, Old John Neptune,a Penobscot,and a Mi’kmaq chief,who were represented by monsters, that took place at Boyden’s Lake in Maine. One monster, the Mi’kmaq chief,was known as “Wiwiliamecq,” a horned snail,and the other, Old John Neptune, was a “huge serpent” or eel some 40 feet long. During their fierce combat,they “riled up” the water of the lake.TheWiwiliamecq, the Mi’kmaq shaman, was killed by the serpent or eel.The legend states that the lake has remained disturbed, foul-smelling, and muddy ever since. Eckstorm in her book Indian Place Names of the PenobscotValley and the Maine Coast (1974:6, 27, 200) discusses several other Maine Indian...

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