Ristigouche

 

To get there, the Mi’kmaqs would have walked in the direction of the rising sun, from dawn to the twilight during 77 days. That is what determines their starting place.

 

They named the Ristigouche Bay, Gtan Nemetjoie. This meant water full of fish.

 

And the region Papisi genatg, place to celebrate and of gathering in peacetime.

 

From their capital, Tchigouk (Atholville), they ruled over the groups of Miscou, Pokemouche, Nipisiguit, Miramichi and Percé.

 

Father Pacifique says that Ristigouche would have been given to the whole region, by a Mi’kmaq chief, who, defying the authority of his father would have given the signal to wipe out a group of Iroquoians by screaming : «listo gotj» meaning: disobey to your father.

 

This place still means a hand with five fingers, of which Ristigouche would be the thumb since four rivers are feeding it. 

 

And according to a legend, God would have created the Man at the mouth of the Ristigouche, then would have given Gaspésie as a gift to the newborn.

 

Listu guj: Ula wegewas’g’p tan Hiatew ugjet Pilei Wanjuagine tujiw 1760. Ristigouche: It is here that the fate of New France was sealed in 1760.

 

With the naval battle of the Ristigouche.

 

Where the Marquis de Malauze fired his last red cannonballs.

 

But Lévis in Montreal had burned his flags, New France didn’t exist anymore.

 

However, the French banner was still flying on the mast of the Acadians pirates in mid-July 1760, near the end of the second hand of the moon when the birds lose their feathers.

 

Ristigouche, place of memory with, close by, the hamlet of the Petite Rochelle, the island cemetery guarded by impressive herons and the fossil treasures at the Pointe Miguasha.

 

Ristigouche, kingdom of the salmon who wriggles.

 

Where the American presidents tease the king of the river.

 

As for the others, heroine and to the obscure heroes worn out by the labour and proof of our survival, their history is not made yet.

 

We should commemorate with a feast between September 19th, day of the moon when the deer is looking for his roe and the beginning of October, mating season for the moose.

 

Mythical rivers, tourist jewel with Pain de Sucre and fiddleheads, warm bay, bluish mountains of the Gaspésie.

 

Don’t tell anyone!