Nova Scotia Museum
Mi'kmaq Portraits Collection

IMAGE CITATION


Date: 1856 ca

Subject:

Orignal Work:

Place: Halifax, N.S.

Source: Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management

Reference Number: N-5488


Please contact Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management for use of this image.

IMAGE INFORMATION


The man at left is not known; beside him stands Judge Christopher Peminuit Paul, with white hair and goatee, son of Louis Paul. Third from left is Paul's cousin, Chief Jacques-Pierre Peminuit Paul of Shubenacadie, known to the Mi'kmaq as Saq Pie'l Sakmaw, and to the English as James Peter Paul. Next to him is his adopted son, John Noel, child of his second wife by her first marriage. The occasion is probably the installation of Peminuit Paul as Chief, at St. Mary's Cathedral, Halifax, 15 September 1856. At this time he was presented with Pope Pius IX's gift of a medal, which he wears in this and subsequent photos. Jacques-Pierre was born 5 January 1800, at Rocky Lake, and died 10 January 1895 at Shubenacadie. He was succeeded as chief by John Noel. The ladies are not identified, but the one at left wears a skirt known to have been made for the woman who later became John Noel's second wife (Marie Antoinette Thomas, at this point still the wife of Peter Sack). The woman's skirt at far right appears in later photographs on Mary Babaire, wife of Christopher Peminuit Paul; on Marie Antoinette's sister Madeleine Thomas, wife of John Williams; and on Marie Antoinette's daughter, Catherine Sack, wife of Stephen Maloney. These elaborate skirts seem to have been lent out among this extended family for photographic or ceremonial occasions, and appear in photographs as late as 1930, so positive identification of the wearer is difficult. The Marie Antoinette Thomas Sack Noel skirt is now in the collections of the Nova Scotia Museum.

KEYWORDS


men; women; chiefs, installation of; coats; caps, women's; peaked caps; skirts; jackets, women's; beadwork; ribbon appliqué; captains; Peminuit Paul, Jacques-Pierre, Chief; Peminuit Paul, Christopher, Judge; Sack, Marie Antoinette Thomas; Noel, John; Saq Pie'l Sakmaw; kinapaq; medals, Pope Pius IX; Paul, James Peter, Chief; Halifax, Nova Scotia


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