Carved Picnic Basket

Gallery:

Image Gallery

Carved Picnic Basket
(birchbark)
Sabbatis Tomah
circa 1886
© York Sunbury Museum, Fredericton, New Brunswick

In 1884 young Sabbatis Tomah of Pleasant Point Reserve was in trouble with the law (he was wrongly accused). He went into hiding with the Whidden family of St. Stephen until his innocence was proven. During his two year stay, the daughter of the family, Beryla, was seriously ill with diphtheria. Sabbatis sat with her and told her legends of his people. After she recovered and Sabbatis was able to leave, he brought her this basket as a gift. Illustrated on the basket are legends, scenes of hunts, and events which occurred during Sabbatis’s stay with the Whidden family. MIKWIDHAMIN means "remember me".

Biographies

Read biographies of several individuals who featured prominently in the land debate in New Brunswick.

Gabriel Acquin

Considered to be the founder of the St. Mary’s First Nation, Gabriel Acquin travelled to England several times forming friendships with royalty, but continued to serve as a hunter, guide, and interpreter in New Brunswick.

Jared Tozer, Jr.

Born into an influential family in 1798, Jared Tozer Jr. was a lumber contractor and public figure on the Miramichi. His father, Jared Tozer Sr., was a native of Connecticut, who had fought as a Patriot in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) before being drawn to New Brunswick in 1789 by the economic opportunities of the new province.

John Julian

John Julian and his family successfully petitioned the colonial government to continue living on their traditional homeland along New Brunswick’s Miramichi River.

Moses Perley

As Commissioner of Indian Affairs for New Brunswick in the 1840s Moses Perley advanced the cause of Aboriginal rights in the province.

Noel Bear

Like all members of the Wabanaki Confederacy, Noel Bear inherited a vast hunting range, stretching from New Brunswick southward to Maine and westward to the St. Lawrence River. By the time of his death, his inheritance had shrunk to a few acres of land.

Noel John (Gohn)

Noel John, chief of the Buctouche-Richibucto Mi’kmaq, petitioned the New Brunswick government to maintain his people’s land. He later sold some of that land to non-Aboriginal settlers.