The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-05-05
Newfoundland Indians, I

The head of the tribe was old Abra-
ham Joe, fine specimen of his race, an
active, upright man, standing about six
feet two inches in his moccasins, and
broad and strong in proportion. He has
spent nearly all his life in Newfound-
land, and knew the interior of the island
better than any man living He was
good hunter, trapper and guide, but he
had-well he is dead, and L will put in
mildly-he had the bump of acquisitive-
ness highly developed. They had, I
should imagine, a very pleasant life,
these Indians and if one can Judge by
the independence OF the men, and the
nature and quality of the clothing worn
by the girls, they must have been very
well off in this worlds goods. They had
comfortable little cabins in which they
spent the winter in comparative idle
ness, earning little or nothing. The
single exception to this rule was in the
case of one of old Abraham Joe's sons,
who carried the mail during the winter
and spring months between st. Johns
and the copper mines at the entrance of
the bay. He was well paid, and deserv-
edly so, for his was an arduous task
Travelling on snowshoes backward and
forward over distance of some hun
dreds of long, weary, desolate, monoto-
nous miles, over bare wind-swept bar
rens, through dense pine forests and
thick alder swamps, without mark to
guide or q hut to shelter the traveller
tramping on alone with no companion
to cheer one on the lonely way, without
the chance even of seeing human be-
ing from one end of the journey to the
other; struggling along from dawn to
dark of the short, wintry days against
snow, storm, OF sleet, or in the bitter
cold ofhard frosty weather; crouchlng
through the long nights by a solitary
fire with few bushes stuck in the snow
for shelter; caught perhaps in some
sudden thaw, when the softened snow
clogs and sticks in the netting of the
snowshoes, and progress is almost i'm
possible; exposed to NAL de re1uetSe
snow blindness, and all the chances oI
forest life-such au occupation is one
that fully deserves to be well paid
However, the activity of this particular
"Joe" was abnormal the rest of the
family spent their winters loungine
about the beach, making perhaps a few
or sitting by the stove indoors, smoking
their pipes and doing nothing. In tn,
summer they fished little, and in the
autumn the whole community went NJ
Indian brook and spent the months il
the interior or the island, shooting ant
trapping beavers and offers. Fur was
pretty plentiful in those days, and {
man could make good income out of {
couple of months hard work, Turing il
the fall. These 'Joes" appeared to en-
tertain, to a limited extent communis
tic principles, while partially recogniz
ing at the same time the right Of privat,
ownership in land and chattels. The,
would use each others boats, canoes
etc, without hesitation, but spoke o
them nevertheless as belonging to som,
individual member of the spet. The,
wandered about the island in an appa
rently haphazard, aimless, happy-go
lucky way, and some member or othe
of the family was always turning up a
odd times in unexpected places. Some
times we would meet a Joe stliding owe
some barren OF crossing a lake in hi
canoe occasionally Joe would drol
into our camp, miles away from any
where, unprovided with boat, canoe
provisions OF baggage of any kind an,
furnished only with a pipe, tobacco,
rusty gun and some powder and lead
He would sit down quietly by the fir
and chat little and smoke a little, an
after while accept, with apparent ii,
Souciance, an invitation to eat and drink
and after consuming enough good foo
for three men and swallowing a fey
quarts of tea, would say, "Well, [ SUI
pose L shall be going now. Adieu, gen
tleman, adieu. Yes, guess 1 was pref
ty hungry; most starved, L expect
LORD Dulrdren.