Our Lives in Our Hands Transcript
- [Donald] I am very proud to be Indian, especially Mi'kmaq. Indians, I guess, the Mi'kmaqs, now they roam all over this countryside as far back as I could remember. Ever since I've been here, my grandfather, and I guess his father before him all came back across here in Maine. Even before the line was drawn between Maine and New Brunswick. They roamed the whole countryside way back, centuries ago. I live here in West Chapman, not too far from Naples, and we make baskets. All my family made baskets as far as I can remember. Well, I got two brother-in-laws here, and living right now is Harold and Henry. Yeah, which they make baskets too and they help us, we help each other out all winter. I got my children here, two girls with my wife. And I got my daughter, she's living up here a couple of miles. She got two children, a boy and a girl and there's five of them up here so far. I was brought up outside the reserve, never lived in a reserve. And right now I don't think I'd like to live on a reserve. I'm so used to living outside, where I'm in my own way of living. Well, I love the quietness and solitude here. Nobody bothers you, I got a neighbor here probably half a mile, a quarter mile away. I got nice neighbors 'round here, they don't bother you, they don't bother me and we get along pretty good. Once in a while they come up to buy baskets from me. And my job is to haul wood out of swamps and split it up and pound it and make hoops and handles and Mary makes all the weaving on the baskets.
- [Mary] Well, I'm a laborer because I wasn't educated to do anything but making baskets and picking potatoes, working on a farm. I wasn't educated to do any other kind of job, really. Indians did a lot of things in their own way. Their ancestors, they grew corn and they were farmers in their own ways. They had cultures of arts and there's a lot of things Indians started.
- [Donald] Years ago, we used to get four or five hundred orders, four or five hundred baskets for a farmer, big farmers. Nowadays, you're lucky to get about 50 or 60 a year for special farmers still on a handpicking crew. But years ago, I'd say 20 years ago our people used to come over a little early for harvest, like a month or so early and the farmers they were gonna work for or pick for, they used to make baskets for them. Right now, there isn't any much call for baskets like there used to be. Very few farmers buy baskets now. Very few farmers are handpicking and a lot of them going into harvesters. Our economy, I guess, is pretty tight and I think a small farmer can't handle it because I think 40 or 60, 100-acre farmers haven't got the money. It kind of affects us too. When a farmer gets out of business--like a small farmer-- it affects us quite a bit. Small farmers, the ones that hand pick right now, there's very few in Aroostook County. The small farmers, that's the guys take potato baskets. I used to work down potato houses here. Louise down the road and a few farmers I work for, they're all small lot farmers and they went out of business. I worked about 10, 12 years down here for the farmers, working potato houses. It takes a lot to be a farmer.
- We moved when I was 4-years-old. Of course, I don't remember anything about it but mama's told us a little bit. We'd come over during blueberry season to rake berries. And I guess for a couple of years we went back to Canada. A couple of summers. Came back here again for the harvest. But as long as I can remember, I've lived in America. All of this here, at one time, was Indian property. The border's a little less than a mile from here. Runs north to south. And that's what they call the Canadian border. But the American, the North American Indian does not have a border. I have raked berries. I've done construction work. And I have done counseling, alcohol counseling which I hope to back into eventually. I do grading here. Call grade, spitting the fouls out. And I work with these people here probably off and on, for a seasonal job, probably 15 years. I live right here in Alton which is about three miles from here. And this year it's a short distance to travel. Usually it's longer, working a potato house. This year it's quite handy. And today we have a crew of eight in which five are Mi'kmaq Indians. Three brothers, myself and my cousin. For the Indians, of course, it's difficult. Prejudice is something I think all Indians know. There has been times, I guess, when I've applied for jobs and I really think that because I was Indian, I was refused. In my job we don't know one day to the next. Like last night we were just called at 7 o'clock. You know, yesterday it was different altogether. He said he might call at 7 in the morning or anyway before 9. I waited and no call. It's rough. It's a rough way to make a living. But anyone that works a potato house, it's not steady, it's not every day. Right now, three and four days a week. One week we got five days which, which we feel is very good. Five day a week is good. At this time of the year, there's nothing else. We have to take it in order to survive. It's about the only job there is here. Not only for the Indian but for anyone in Aroostook County.
- Yeah I watched my father and mother. We didn't have nothing to do. Everything was closed down work. I have to learn, I have to learn to do this. Something to live on. Buy tobacco and everything like that. My father was pretty good at pack baskets. Mother closed baskets. Well, my father was pretty good at everything. Baskets, handles, ax handles, hammer handles, small handles. Everything--he can make. He stayed up north. He stayed up north for 17 years. And that's all he does for a living. He learned by himself, just the same thing, he watched people. How to do it. He learned a pretty good job. Well, time and see--all I done--working woods. That's all I'm educated to. Work in the woods. Blueberrying or potato picking, that's all I do. Well, when I got nothing to do, I gotta do something. And we thought about this. Well, it's right in your blood. Once you get started on anything, you tend to do it. Work at it. When I first started to make baskets, that's potato baskets. It was quite a long time ago, they made baskets. They have to make baskets to pick potatoes. And make a lot of them. They didn't have no tractors, no and harvesters, nothing like that. They have to make a lot of them, lot of pickers out in the field to work. That's when Indians makes the baskets-- when they get started. But Indians made baskets before that though. They learned that. They learned how to pick the wood, to get the wood--cedar, maple. Some of them use yellow birch. Then they found this ash, brown ash, they started on that. Well they have to, they have to make something. When what they find, they have to prove it, see what they could make. So they got after that, baskets. Sometime I don't do nothing, for even a month I don't do a thing. Cruise round, that's all I do, cruise round the woods, that's all I do. When I find the wood that's when I decide to get the wood and to start making baskets again. I ain't got nobody telling me nothing. I ain't got nobody to holler at me. I got nobody paying me unless the guy buying the basket. He's pays me. That's the only way. My own boss. Boss of myself, that's all.
- [Donald] Well, I get customers all over Aroostook County here, even out of state here. Aroostook and local friends around here. There's all kinds of variety of baskets they ask for, the baskets. And nowadays people buy baskets, potato baskets, they don't use them for potato picking, they use them for all kinds of reasons like knitting baskets and stuff like that and shopping baskets, that's what they use for potato baskets right now.
- Hi.
- Morning, Harold.
- Morning. How are you doing? Got you these yesterday, huh?
- Yeah. Was that $200, Mary?
- Yeah. That's about 200.
- Good.
- [Mary] Oh, there was time, you know, way back, when I sold a basket for 50 cents. No one wanted baskets then. So many Indians made baskets that they didn't wanna pay the full price for a basket.
- Thank you, Mary.
- We'll probably have some more for you next week.
- Did you get a moose this fall?
- No.
- A deer? How about a deer?
- That's too easy to kill. Pardon, thank you.
- Thank you, Donald.
- Yeah, we'll see you later.
- Thank you. See you. When should I come back again?
- [Mary] Well, next week.
- Next week?
- We'll have some more.
- Last of the week perhaps.
- Yeah.
- Thank you. How much do I owe you for your baskets?
- Well, this is $15.
- 15?
- Eight and two fives.
- Eight and two fives?
- Yeah.
- That's 18 and 15?
- 18 and 15.
- 18 and 15 okay. One, two, three, right?
- Yeah.
- Those are great baskets, Harold. Nice, thank you.
- Perfect.
- See you next week perhaps.
- Yeah, we'll see you.
- Okay? Bye now.
- [Harold] You'll have some more next week.
- Thank you. Bye now.
- Okay.
- Take care.
- I love it up here 'cause we're way up in the woods here and it's handy to the wood I like to have. Well, when I first moved up here, I think 17, 18 years ago, there used to be lumber yard up here you know? Used to be one, two, three, I think about six or eight camps here used to be all used for lumberjacks. Now it's only about two camps standing here and I guess the rest of them in the hard winters snow caved all our camps down and nobody bothered shoveling snow off the roof. You go on in and close down here.
- [Harold] Close, close, close, close.
- [Paul] Well, we go in the woods and we look the tree over and make sure the wood, before you cut it down, is not brittle. You cut the limbs, make sure you haven't got any dry limbs up there, if you do have a lot of dry limbs you're gonna have brittle wood, so, you've gotta be 100% healthy. Some trees right ahead of you here, Harold.
- They need more money to make them.
- [Interviewer] So does everyone in Canada order these kinds of baskets?
- No, when they do come in I always tell them we like to have this, we would buy it, you know? And we're trying our hardest to be strict in buying them and we did refuse a little but not that much. And also the bean baskets, all the beans, they really liked those baskets, but I think that we can't make those. And they want like 24, and we only have a few that makes those. We just have two basket makers and they have their own business to do. And I think that something like that, we might have to explain to them, how beans we cannot carry. I know they're good customers, though.
- How much time would they be able to give you when they give an order?
- One month's time.
- One month.
- [Interviewer] They give you a month to do it?
- [Marline] Yeah, and they know our policy's 60 days and we already delayed on one order because we can't get those [Indistinct] baskets and the picnic baskets.
- What if they made a contract with you?
- Inside the contract, I mean, they've given us-
- I mean the people.
- Oh, with the people?
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] You think you could hire one family to make these picnic baskets, just the picnic baskets?
- Well, I gave orders out to three families.
- [Interviewer] If you were offered a little higher price, a little better price for these?
- Okay, $10, is that fair for a picnic basket? Or do you think more?
- Well, depends what kind of picnic basket, cover or no cover.
- No cover's the one we make.
- [Marline] Yeah, we're trying to go with no covers because-
- Two handles?
- No, just one.
- One handle.
- Oh, that's fair.
- Well maybe we could make up some workshops, and train even basket makers to learn, to do it top quality.
- More craftsmanship.
- That's what you need, you need quality baskets. Teach the quality baskets, not just small things. We're gonna take these splints, we're gonna break them apart. Give you one each. Now. Some of them will be thick enough and some of them will be too thick. The ones that are thick, we're gonna split them in half. We need a lot more weavers. We have people getting hash, pounders, and shavers, and nailers, but we ain't got enough weavers. And to make any business on baskets, you gotta have more weavers. We're gonna put an even pull on each side of this wood. If not, you're gonna break it. You have to have an even pull. In the other way, it will not split good. Even pull, see? Okay, this is what we're gonna do in our next class. We're gonna learn to make bottoms. And this is the way it's gonna look when it's made. That's what you'll learn on your next class. Then we're gonna build them up like this one here. See how they build them up? And we may use rough wood and we may not. Depends on where they're going. Now, David is gonna put a hoop and a handle on that one. David, you want to put a handle and hoop on that?
- Okay.
- Just show them how it goes on.
- What we're gonna do now is we're gonna put the handle on the basket. This is the handle. What we're gonna do is loosen up the wood in here first. If we take the wood right now and try to bend it, it's not gonna bend in the right shape of the basket or it will crack when it bends. So to bend it, we usually bend it on our knee and bend it down slowly so it's big enough for your basket. Take it on this side, do the same thing on this side. Measure your basket, that's just about the right size right there. So we're gonna put in on the basket now. What we're gonna do is get this center splint. We're gonna put it second split down from the inside so it's in this one. And this point here is gonna go in here. So. So, that's in there, we're gonna put the inside hoop in now. This is the inside hoop. Remember, make sure it's pretty well tapered down so this point here has gotta be sharp 'cause it's gonna go into this point here. So, this is the fun part, getting it in here. Don't hit your head. Right. Make sure you lock that first hoop down or it's gonna come out at you. So. Make sure that's in and we don't have a clamp here, do we? Usually you wanna put a clamp on that. Clamp your basket down so that split won't keep coming out. Make sure your handles are touching the top of the hoop so when someone does use the potato basket, if you put it down too far it's gonna move back and forth and you don't want that, you wanna make sure that's tight. So when you pick up the basket, it'll be weight on the hoop not the basket itself. And we take the outside hoop. Put this down for now. It's right here somewhere. The outside hoop. This is the outside? Yes it is. And you make sure that's the same. Make sure that's pretty well flexible so you can put it on your basket. To finish up your last basket now, you wanna make sure this is pretty well even to the end of it, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna cut it off. You wanna make sure you don't go down through the other wood. Just make it look good. Like so. And there's your finished product.
- [Sarah] Now, Dave, do you wanna pass it round? Show it to each one.
- Okay.
- [Sarah] So they know how it's done. You notice that the handle is just a little high for the basket? Yeah, the handle should be just about a couple inches down a little more.
- How many hours does this take you, Sarah?
- [Sarah] Well, it'll take you about an hour if you got the wood.
- If you have the wood.
- [Harold] Yeah, regular shaving horse. It's just made out of ordinary planks you carve out yourself. And it's made, we got two or three of them here. The reason why we got two or three shaving horses here, sometimes we get a big order and then they all work the same project, you know. Henry and I will grab one,and one horse apiece and I'll make handles, he'll make hoops on the other. And sometimes I'll shave out the sticks that I wanna pound and he'll shave out hoops and handles. I'll get some to pound out and he'll get some handles ready. For 30, 40 baskets. Potato baskets or something like that.
- Better watch your step there.
- Go for it.
- Got a little grip down there.
- Yeah, okay. Get the top. Hold it. Get that off, too.
- Makes funny noises.
- It's soft wood. It's not like hitting the corner. Put some snow on there, slippery.
- The handle's nice and big though.
- Not bad.
- Yeah. Shoulda cut it off.
- Henry's in there.
- The handle's nice and big, anyway.
- Yeah, good grip on it.
- [Donald] I don't know how long, as Indians, we can keep our traditions going 'cause time is changing, modernization is changing, you know. Cycles are changing every year. And for Indians modernization is very slow. We are, I think, behind a couple hundred years, you know? It's not the Indians' fault. From the beginning the white man hasn't given the Indians a chance to grow up with modern times, they were putting down all the time. Someday I hope we'll see it before I go, I hope to see something done about it. Not only the white people have to do something about it it's the Indians and the white people get together and come up with something, some kind of solutions. And I hope in future that the Indians will look stronger and these efforts continue. We strive for better living for Mi'kmaq people in Aroostook County. And like I said, I want to thank all the people who made this film, made it possible for us to show what we're doing and what we do for our living.
