DID YOU KNOW?

DID YOU KNOW?

Language: The Mi'kmaq language, Míkmawísimk, is an Algonquian language spoken by 8000 Indians in the Canadian Maritimes (particularly Nova Scotia) and a few US communities. The Mi'kmaq dialect spoken in Quebec is called Restigouche (or Listuguj) and can be hard for other native speakers to understand. Mi'kmaq is written alphabetically today, but in the past it was written in pictographs. Though these pictographs were modified by Jesuit missionaries, who used them to teach Christian prayers to Micmac people, they probably predated European contact. Micmac hieroglyphics do not resemble Ancient Egyptian or Mayan hieroglyphs; see here for an explanation of these different writing systems. Mi'kmaq is not linguistically related to Ancient Egyptian or any other semitic languages. The Mi'kmaq language is entirely native to the New World and is related to other major North American Indian languages like Lenape, Ojibwe, and Cree. Although Mi'kmaq is one of the healthier American Indian languages, the number of children learning the language has been in decline since the 1970's. The Mi'kmaq people are working to reverse this trend before their language, like so many others, is threatened with extinction. Mi'kmaq is a polysynthetic language with complex verb morphology and fairly free word order.

Charles Hankinson (Eagle Tail), a Native American from the Micmac tribe of Canada, dances in full traditional regalia at the Healing Horse Spirit PowWow. His face paint was "gifted" to him by his grandfather.

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