Mitakuye Oyasin

Anonymous asked:

I believe ka'kwet's father and the rest of the mi'kmaq villagers are wearing european attire due to some sort of forced assimilation. An entire community of people wouldn't just abandon their meticulously crafted and culturally resonant clothing for a different set of clothes that likely aren't as functional.

o-daintyduck answered:

The Mi'kmaq people in 3.01

This is them in 3.08

Considering there’s atleast 3 months between these events, you’re right that an entire community won’t just give up their attires. The men I can understand because they have to do business outside, but the women and children too! There is an absolute possibility of forced assimilation. (I’m not in anyway capable of commenting on the historical accuracy of it) But, I think that they themselves are abandoning some part of their identity so that white people don’t look down upon them any more than they already do. Like to coerce people into doing something you want, deliberately or not, is forced in my opinion.

Also, most Mi'kmaq children of age are enrolled in the school system, as of now, that could also have “encouraged” them. Like Ka'kwet’s mom said herself that, “Maybe learning their ways would help the community.” So that no more interference is done in their way of life.

neechees

Hello!! I like history & came to be annoying, so if this is just too much tell me & I'll promptly delete! But I wanted to give an alternative option for the possible reason behind the costuming due to the time era: while forced assimilation & colonization definitely played a role in influencing how Natives dressed (including things like dressing in more European styled clothing to be taken more seriously by settlers for things like business, politics, or trade, just like you sughest) at this time, by this era (1896 onward, which is the year AWAE begins) Native people had already started wearing European clothing because of access to them via trade, and incorporated bits of them into their traditional clothing. In fact, a lot of Western & "Cowboy" fashion is influenced by Indigenous fashion because of Natives doing this & then white cowboys copying our style. This also happened with Fur traders in Canada who married Native women (as encouraged to in the beginning), who then made clothing for them with the furs and skins they had hunted, traded their crafts, and started utilizing traded white goods themselves like metal needles, cloth, and wool.

Of course these Native beaders, quillworkers, and seamstresses would naturally incorporate their traditional styles into their husband's clothing, or the things they traded. Then Natives traded with each other. Then fashion trends start occurring IN ADDITION to everything else. Here are some examples from the late 1800s-: (note the cloth shirts, scarf, coat, & white brim hat). Things like wide brim hats, colorful & patterned skirts/dresses/shirts, & blankets were popular with Natives & were worn sometimes simply because Native people liked them.

I haven't watched AWAE but based on what I can see already, it looks like the Mi'kmaw characters, even in their traditional attire in the first examples given, were already incorporating European & traded clothing into their attire (such as the cotton button up shirt, skirts, shawls, & the scarf & hat Kakwet's lil bro is wearing). In the first episode, we also see Kakwet & her father wearing more European attire under their traditional clothing. Being a more Eastern situated peoples, it's pretty likely they had already started trading with White Canadians and/or traded with other Mi'kmaw & other tribes who did for a while now. (Here's the example of Kakwet's father, note the vest, scarf, & hat)

& you can see this onward of again, Native peoples still wearing their traditional clothing as well as European ones, or a combination of both. Here's a photo of Mi'maq in 1870 (left) & 1865 (right: both years earlier than AWAE, an example of Mi'kmaq wearing European clothing, & the other with traditional attire)

Here's a photo of some Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw in 1930 (left), wearing very similar clothing to the charas in AWAE, and then again more traditional clothing in 1910 (right: so we have two cases of Mi'kmaq still wearing traditional clothing years AFTER AWAE takes place)

Jesuits observing Mi'kmaq (circa 1610-1616) had this to say about their clothing, after describing their traditional attire made from animal skins:

"in Summer they often wear our capes, and in Winter our bed-blankets, which they improve with trimming and wear double. [page 75] They are also quite willing to make use of our hats, shoes, caps, woolens and shirts, and of our linen to clean their infants, for we trade them all these commodities for their furs."

So in conclusion I don't think/know that the AWAE Mi'kmaq had already started assimilating themselves or started dressing more "white" as a conscious decision themselves (or at least on its own, unless there's a scene that directly states otherwise?), but in the very least it's just historically accurate costuming of the characters because this is what a lot of Natives had already started dressing like in the late 1800s especially, even when we were resisting colonization & ignoring assimilationist laws. But then Kakwet's storyline also has to do with colonization & forced assimilation, so it could very likely be intentionally there too.

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Native American Historical Events of March

Mitakuye Oyasin

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

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Native American Historical Events of March