Most of us have read, Alice Sharples Baldwin's "Metis, wee Scotland of the Gaspé," and her other numerous works on Metis. Perhaps you've read, Samuel Mathewson Baylis', "Enchanting Metis", Seignior John H. Ferguson's many published newspaper articles on Metis, William Stewart Wallace's nine-page, "Sketch of the Early History of Metis", Jessie Forbes' collection, and numerous other pamphlets, booklets, papers and books on Metis history.

Good evening, and thank you for being with us. I notice a few familiar faces, from my earlier maritime history talks in the late 1990's. It's nice to see you all here.

But, how many of you have read, heard or discussed anything on Metis prehistory?

There are numerous works by Prof. Bernard Hétu at UQAR; just the index of publications by the geomorphologist Jean-Claude Dionne is spread over 10 pages, while the archaeologist Jean-Yves Pintal, who worked on the Price archaeology dig, and the Cartier wind-mill complex at Les Boules and Metis, has combed over most of the area during the last 35 years, but none of them covers Metis prehistory, per sé.

This evening, I would like to say a few words on what made Metis what it is today, including the last ice age, its climate, vegetation, land form, our first confirmed visitors, lithic and ceramic evidence of more recent human presence, plus several other subjects, bringing us up into the 20th century, when Prof. William Dawson, Magistrate Peter Francis Leggat, Prof. Armstrong and others, contributed important aspects of Metis prehistory. On these, I'll come back a little later.

The last major ice age drew to a close around 18,000 years ago. During the previous 1.8 million years, all the precipitation that fell on this area, accumulated into a vast ice sheet, several hundred metres high, at least in this area. While most coastal areas, east of St-Anne-des-Monts, were glacier-free, it accumulated progressively westward to as much as 2,500 meters thick, in the Hudson Bay area. All this immense quantity of ice, caused the earth's crust to sink into the mantle by more than 75 metres, below current sea levels in our area, considerably more to the west. As the ice melted, salt water invaded the land, several kilometres inland, creating the Goldthwaite Sea in our area, (James Walter Goldthwaite 1911 [born 1880 - 1947]) the Champlain Sea to the west as far as Ottawa and the Laflamme Sea, northwards, into the Lake St-Jean area. However, this warming trend was by no means continuous, nor linear. For example, the glacier receded several kilometres inland, only to readvance between 12,400 and 12,000 years BP, into the Goldthwaite Sea. Following this invasion, a very slow isostatic, or post-glacial rebound, took place, gradually raising the land mass towards its present level.

Looking at Metis environment, 10,000 years ago, give or take a few hundred years, a well-developed open tundra, covered the land, due to a long, slow, warming trend. By 9,500 years BP, a climatic inversion, or decrease in temperature, occurred for nearly a thousand year.

By 8,000 years BP, the very sparse, open tundra and taiga were back, with a few shrubs, and the odd spruce or sapine growing in valleys, protected from the unrestricted winds covering much of the region, similar to Salluit, what we used to call Sugluk, in the Hudson Strait, Northern Quebec. The climate was dry and cold, with numerous gale and storm-force winds, and frequent brush fires. Maximum temperate peaked 10°C for a short period in summer. With an annual mean temperature of around -4°C, a frost-free season of barely 20 days, the number of growing-degree-days could be counted on your fingers.

By 8,000 years B.P., our first visitors arrived, perhaps, by paddling down, the Mitis River, which, by the way, wasn't the slow-moving, sluggish river, we see as we drive toward Ste-Angèle, but many times the present volume. Exactly where these natives came from remains unanswered. Perhaps they were from the Abanakis Nation of the northeastern States, perhaps further west from the Plano culture of the recent paleoindian period (10,000 - 8,000 years B.P.). They weren't Mi'kmaq, as the northeastern archaeologists, mostly all agree that the earliest evidence of the Mi'kmaq, was around 3,500 years ago. Their visible cultural signature is identified by the shape and size of their tools, their techniques of shaping, quality and finish, and by the lithic flakes and chips they left on site. Unfortunately, the only heritage they left us, in this area, are those artefacts discovered near Price, over a century ago by farmers tilling the land. But these artefacts create more questions.

None of the 10,300 artefacts, found at the Price site, in May and June 2005, came from here, but from several of the dozen or so lithic quarries in Quebec, mainly from Misstassini, Saint-Anne-des-Monts and the Ramah quarry in northern Labrador. Where or by whom these lithics were collected, transported, bartered or exchanged remains vague. And why did they bring pre-forms or block lithic material here.

During the short, few weeks of their visits, they certainly weren't on summer vacation. No, golf hadn't been invented yet. Knapping tirelessly, they worked these pre-forms and blocks, into bi-face knifes, projectile points, scrapers, punches, side-scrapers and a dozen other tools, to replenish their stone hardware. In those days, a broken spear-head or blunt bi-face knife, couldn't be exchanged or replaced, at your local hardware store.

The site at Price consisted of four tepees each used for different purposes; only the main tepee had a fire pit. The men generally sat on one side of the main tepee entrance, when not out hunting, shaping the lithics into bi-face knives, spear points and other tools, while the women, on the other side, created scrapers, side-scrapers, punches and other useful utensils. Even the children had their occupation of making small, unrefined points in quartzite or chert.

Again, what brought them here in the first place. Was it strictly as a meeting place, a major maritime traffic artery, or perhaps somewhere to change their eating habits. The salmon run from the Goldthwaite Sea to Lake Mitis, seems a very plausible reason, since it was an abundant source of protein and an important food staple. Seal, sea-cow and numerous other species, were, no doubt, included in their diet. But our natives ended their visits, a visit that lasted possibly more than a thousand years with the falling levels of the Goldthwaite Sea, creating the Mitis falls at Price, over which the salmon, were unable to jump.

By 6,000 year B.P., the Goldthwaite Sea had receded considerably, the land had regained a good portion of its earlier form, although the tides continued to rise well into the lower reaches of the river.

While we can't go back in time, to see what the land looked like 10,000 years ago, we do have several geomorphological, or land form examples, around us. The Mi'kmaq Terrace, a major coastal landform, that follows from below Quebec City down as far as Saint-Anne-des-Monts, was formed during the sangamonian era, an interglacial period, between 80,000 and 220,000 years ago. In most places, it appears as a fallen cliff, while other places, it remains practically perpendicular. Generally, it sits back from the shore by a few metres to several hundred metres, as you have no doubt noticed practically everywhere as you drive along the coast. Averaging between 15 to 25 metres above sea level, this cliff originates, partly from the cambro-ordovician bedrock, (542 to 488Ma) of some 500 million years ago, and partly clay, and rocky deposits of more recent periods.

The Mitis terrace has been with us a bit over 2,000 years, according to several dozen recent radiocarbon dates, rising 2 to 5 metres above current high-tide levels, sloping gently towards the river. It sits between the bottom of the former cliffs, and the intertidal shoreline, covering roughly the same distance along the coast as the Mi'kmaq Terrace. This terrace was created, mainly by deposits from the Goldthwaite Sea, forming generally rich land for agriculture, inexpensive road construction, and considerable human occupation. The varying width of the Metis terrace, can be quickly seen, between the Metis school, and the east side of Turriff's beach, becoming quite narrow below the yellow church.

With the departure of our native visitors, little is known of the area, with the exception of several artefacts, discovered during the last 150 years. In 1932, Professor Henry Armstrong found a mallet or maul, while George H. Matthewson picked up a highly polished, fully grooved, gouge; and also located two celts or axes, of mudstone. Peter Francis Leggatt, found a large retouched Ramah quartzite knife. Sir William Dawson, found two large chert bi-faces, perhaps from the Price archaeological site. The former New Brunswick archaeologist, Christopher Turnbull and his wife, Susan, found a tempered pottery sherd, at the mouth of the Grand Metis River in 1972, including a stone end scraper, made on a flake, from the Late Woodland era, about 1000 AD, possibly from Tobique River, Northern New Brunswick (Perth-Andover). More recently, a man, working near where the Grand Metis wharf used to be, found a notched point, made of Ramah chert, originating from the furthest reaches of northern Labrador, dating around 3,500 years. As many of you have already noticed, I put up 6 or 7 images of those artefacts on the interior walls.

Continuing with our artefactual history, numerous letters were exchanged between George Sims and William John Wintemberg between 1932 to 1936 on Metis archaeology. From these few artefacts, we can conclude there was a considerable native traffic coming from surprisingly distant locations; ranging from the quartzite lithics from Misstassini, north of Lac St-Jean, chert (cryptocrystalline quartz) from the St-Anne-des-Monts complex, an end scraper from northern New Brunswick and several Ramah chert artefacts from Ramah Bay, Northern Labrador. This morning, while checking out a reference on internet, I came across the archaeologist Christien Gates Saint-Pierre, who has just published « Les collections archéologiques préhistoriques de la Gaspésie au Musée McCord », a 15-page article that should enlighten us further on the artefacts I mentioned earlier.

Apart from that, our knowledge on Mitis is limited, until the Comte de Frontenac, in 1675, granted the Depieras or Mitis seigniory, to Jean-Baptiste Depieras, at that time, a retiring member of the Sovereign Council. It's seigniorial deed is the earliest document we have on Mitis. A conformation to that concession was published in 1677, but, it seems to have a mind all of its own, and does not want to be found. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll talk about early Metis, at least, up to 1854, when the Seigniorial Tenure was abolished, in my next talk in a couple of weeks.

A bit about what the Metis History project is all about. Back in 1994, I published "Metis 1814 - 1900", which identified practically all the Protestants, living in the Metis seigniory, from the Mitis River to the Macnider Road, and 2 leagues inland. Civil acts, Church land acquisitions, missionaries and ministers, graves stones and markers, surveyors acts and concessions deeds gave us a vague idea what life was like back then. More recently, I've found numerous papers, documents and deeds covering education, road construction, schools, censes, the Metis light-house, shipwrecks, personalities and a host of other subjects, plus several other documents, from the Surveyor General of Québec. On completing our maritime history up to 1900; I'm presently up to 1870 in 7,000 pages or so, most of the Metis research will have been completed, hopefully. Next step will be to edit, format, and publish our Metis history, probably in 1,500 or 2,000 pages on CD-ROM.

Unless something unforeseen turns up, my next talk will be on Wednesday, July 25th at 7:30PM here at "Au Coin de la Baie", covering early Metis history, between 1675 and 1854, when the seigniorial tenure was abolished. It's quite surprising how much early Metis history does exists, but, is certainly, not easily accessible.

Now, it's your turn. However, I'm deeply interested in our distant, and not so-distant past, having picked up a few fundamental concepts on archaeology, geomorphology, meteorology and a sprinkle of geology over the years. My answers won't be very technical nor particularly precise. I just try to describe, as best I can, the way I understand those periods.

Thank you again, and now I'll take your questions.