Miikan Tig ge Doodemag (Trail Marker Tree with Family Totems)
David Beaucage Johnson
Mississauga Anishinaabe, Curve Lake First Nation
David Beaucage Johnson has been a professional artist for 46 years. He has learned technique and style from artists such as Harold Town, Michael Dumas, Joseph Jacobs, Norval Morrisseau and Norman Knott. Additionally, he has worked with Artists associated with the Whetung Art Gallery where he has exhibited since 1978. His artwork is held in international and national collections and has been showcased in several books, notably, The Royal Ontario Museum, Harper Collins, Addison Wesley publishers.
About Miikan Tig ge Doodemag (Trail Marker Tree with Family Totems)
An aspect of my community-based research while completing my Environmental Studies and Geography degree at Trent University involved the study of old portages and trails such as the portage between Peterborough and Bridgenorth. I found it fascinating that these trail routes, which are over ten thousand years old, have culturally modified marker trees along the way. Of course, the trails may be over ten thousand years old, but they began as paths across a tundra landscape immediately after the last ice age. Trees came later as the glaciers disappeared.
The ones who made these paths and trails were my ancestors. They would have had an established family clan system and so I wanted to incorporate the clan system into my Artwork.
While some Indigenous peoples such as the Sioux or Inuit do not have an animal-based doodemag (totems)/clan systems, the Indigenous people of this historic region of North America do. Many of whom still remember their clan because it is an important part of our social and governance structure. Unfortunately, there are some who have forgotten their clan due to assimilation and colonialism. My own family's clan is the Turtle (surprisingly the Turtle is a member of the fish clan). A friend showed me a document signed by one of my ancestors back around 1850. Other clans from our local community include Pike, Eagle, Bear, Otter, Deer, Wolf, Buffalo, Caribou, Catfish, Sturgeon, Marten, Loon, Crane, Heron, Swan and Lynx.
The wolf is not a Mississauga Clan symbol but must be included here because of intermarriage with the Haudenosaunee People. It is interesting that the Clan system of the Haudensaunee is Matrilineal (passed down from the mother’s side) and the Mississauga is Patrilineal (passed down from the father's side). In the combined system, the children of a mixed marriage could end up with two clans or none (although I still have to do research to see if that is the case).
A modern observer might be surprised to see that Buffalo and Caribou are included since they are not local. Truth is that they used to be local and representation within the clan system is evidence of that. I always thought that our local buffalo were smaller than those of the great plains, but I was surprised to find out that our local Buffalo were a full head larger than the plains Buffalo.
There are also others like Swan, Eagle and Crane that were extirpated last century but are seen to be returning to their former range here. That is good to see.
There is much more I need to learn about the clan system but this is a start.
– David Beaucage Johnson, 2024
