Publisher's Synopsis
Introduction The meltdown and subsequent retreat of the last glaciations of the North continent, 12,000BP, deposited tons of glacial debris and changed the topography of the land. The pre-glacial landmarks disappeared without a trace. At Grand Falls, in northern New Brunswick, the glaciers' terminus dumped end-moraine across the St. John River and formed a huge dam, backing the waters of the river as far back as LacTemiscouata in the province of Quebec. The expansive lake resulted and is known as Glacial Lake Madawaska. When the dam burst it redirected the course of the river. The unconsolidated debris filled the original river channel with rocks, coarse gravel, sand and silt. The mixture of water and debris fractured and gouged out a new channel from calcareous slate rock. It started to excavate a mile long gorge and a seventy-five foot high cataract that continued to widen and deepen with each spring freshet. The paleo-Indians were the first to see the tortured land in its pristine state and to look upon the mile high glaciers. In Nova Scotia a recent excavation site uncovered a large nomad campsite dating back 10,600BP. It is also estimated that 13,000BP no one could have lived in the Maritime Peninsula, the land was covered in a thick layer of ice. The Maliseet legends and myths illustrate a minute insight in the history of the native people. Long ago their main village was situated at Medoctic a few miles south of the present town of Woodstock, NB. In this novel they traveled by birch-bark canoe to a temporary fishing village known as the town of Grand Falls. They smoked dried their catch of Atlantic salmon on site for transport of Medoctic. A young Maliseet boy, Crazy Badger, possesses precognitive powers and communicates with the Oracle. The Oracle interprets the illuminations created by the aura surrounding each sentient and solid object. The native people are superstitious and fear the massacred landscape at Grand Falls. Crazy Badger unravels the mysteries surrounding the distorted rock formations. Crazy Badger spends a winter at the roaring-water-place, Grand Falls, and unintentionally locates his wigwam near a small wolf pack where he is accepted by the wolves. He marvels at their social interchange and intelligence. Crazy Badger is accosted by an angry black bear. He is helped and saved by the wolf pack. He shoots two arrows with crystalline, chipped-points into the bear's heart, killing it. The legend of a Maliseet heroine, Malabeam, is a story from the time she was born to her death at a very young age. She guides a flotilla of two hundred and fifty Mohawk warriors and herself over the falls at Grand Falls. Kluskap is her father. The legends of Kluskap and his acts of heroism are unsurpassed in the legends of the First Nation peoples. In a trance Crazy Badger envisions a group of nomads who are the first people to look upon the front edge of a melting, mile-high ice sheet. The calving of the ice is terrorizing to the nomads. They are following a herd of caribou and the need to make a kill is greater then the fear they feel. They witness the dam break open and crumble, emptying Glacial Lake Madawaska. At that period they call the area at Grand Falls Chicanekapeag, the giant destroyer. Eventually the nomads settle down and build a permanent village called Medoctic. The also start experimental agriculture. Settled in a village of wigwams, they have more time to develop new skills rather than roaming the land behind caribou herds. Crazy Badger, a Maliseet Shaman, is a historical novel based on ethological and archeological facts. Literature on the history of the First Nation Peoples is available from many sources. The history of the First Nation people in this novel is a portrayal of facts gathered from theses, personal exploratory reports and a number of books on history not written in school text books. MJA