Nova Scotia Museum
Mi'kmaq Portraits Collection

IMAGE CITATION


Date: 1944

Subject:

Orignal Work:

Place: Shubenacadie, N.S.

Source: Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management

Reference Number: 1987.178.14.120/ Helen Creighton Collection


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

IMAGE INFORMATION


William Peminuit Paul was born 19 July 1858 at South Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Joseph Peminuit Paul. He was elected chief at Shubenacadie on 26 July 1921. [Harry Piers Notes, Nova Scotia Museum Printed Matter File.] The late Dr. Helen Creighton lent a number of her photographs of Mi'kmaq to the Nova Scotia Museum for copying into the collection. Her distinct recollection of this particular one was that she had taken it in 1944, and had been accompanied to Shubenacadie by the famous Sergeant Henry Larsen, captain of the St. Roch, in Halifax after successfully navigating the Northwest Passage. Larsen's stay in Halifax lasted from about October 1942 to April or May 1944. On the other hand, her scrapbook with the original photographs (now in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia) gives this a date of 1948. Dr. Creighton said that Chief Paul was 87 years old at the time, he had been chief for 35 years, had worked as a lumberjack and had married an Acadian woman, surnamed Comeau, from Weymouth. Dr. Creighton could not remember the names of the two men on the right, but they have been identified by Louis Morris as his grandfather and uncle. [Louis Morris to R. H. Whitehead, personal communication, 20 July 1990.] Isabelle Knockwood Toney-Shay says that the pine tree in the background was very important to the people on this reserve, and thought to have curative powers. A priest found this out and had it cut down. [Isabelle Knockwood to R. H. Whitehead, personal communication, April 1992.]

KEYWORDS


Paul, William Peminuit, Chief; Knockwood, Ben; Knockwood, John; Sack, Martin; Shubenacadie; Nova Scotia; automobiles; trees, pine; folklore


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