The Old Man Told Us by Ruth Holmes Whitehead

The Old Man Told Us Reviews

• 
  John

  Talk about a tough thing to read...this book was definitely that. It was recommended to me by a Mi'kmaq woman from Cape Sable Island when we were at a workshop together a couple months ago. Through the work of a Nova Scotia historian (Ruth Whitehead), it pulls together all known written or orally transcribed communications related to indigenous peoples that lived in Nova Scotia from a bit before 1500 AD to the late 1900s. Obviously, there were thousands of years before this book picks up that go undocumented simply because there was no written record or oral history had been lost. But what is presented reveals an incredibly dark picture of white European decimation of an ancient culture. The lies, the killing, the deceit, the agreed upon and then ignored treaties, the failure to live up to promises, the intentional spread of killing diseases, the destruction of game and the habitat it and the Mi'kmaq relied on, the willingness to let starving people die...I guess things haven't changed much, but it paints a horrible picture of who we (European descendants) are and what we were willing to do to gain the advantages we now hold.
  
  There are many striking passages, but one imploring speech from Mi'kmaq elders to the Governor of Halifax in 1749 provides a sense of how bad things were already in the mid-1700s when the city of Halifax was first incorporated by the British. While in Halifax, the elders said to the governor, "the place where you are, where you are building dwellings, where you are now building a fort, where you want, as it were, to enthrone yourself, this land of which you wish to make yourself now absolute master, this land belongs to me. I have come from it as certainly as the grass, it is the very place of my birth and of my dwelling, this land belongs to me, the Indian [literally, 'to me, the human person'] yes I swear it is God who has given it to me to be my country forever....Show me where I the Indian will lodge? You drive me out. Where do you want me to take refuge? You have taken almost all this land in all it's extent. Nothing remains to me except Kchibouktouk. You envy me even this morsel. Your residence at Port Royal does not cause me great anger because you see that I have left you there at peace for a long time, but now you force me to speak out by the great theft you have perpetrated against me."
  
  This is tough stuff to read but I believe we will need to teach it in our schools before anything will change. Just today I heard about white lobster fisherman burning out the lobster pound of an indigenous fisher from the south shore of Nova Scotia. This same fisher had his boat burned just a couple months before - likely by the same person(s) but I can only guess. The point is that much remains unchanged despite some modest improvement very recently through efforts towards recognition of past wrongs and reconciliation. Clearly we have a long way to go. If you want to get a sense of how far, read "The Old Man Told Us". Yes, please read this book. And let's get on with making some meaningful changes in recognizing and restoring indigenous rights. It just might save us from ourselves, likely not, but maybe. And god knows we need some serious saving right about now.
• 
  Cassandra Miller

  I really enjoyed this book! It makes you really understand the history of the Mi'kmaq people of the Maritimes and it helps create an understanding and appreciate of these people.
  
  I really enjoyed how Ruth Whitehead included both the journals and newspapers of the white settlers, as well as the stories told by many of then Mi'kmaq elders! I found these stories and tales to be the most interesting parts of the book.
  
  I recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn more about hisoty of the Native peoples of Canada.
• 
  John

  Was all over the place with no real central idea. i found it hard to follow at times.