From Sovereignty to Servitude ~ Reclaiming Indigenous Rights

COTE - COTY - CODY - COSTE
of Turtle Island ("Canada", "North America")

The first person in North America to be given the surname Côté was Jean Côté (Jehan dit Coste).

His ancestors were the Original people of Anticosti Island. The Island located at the outlet of the St. Lawrence River had been part of their traditional territory for thousands of years before the invasion by Europeans. The original names for the Island are Notiskuan (Innu), meaning "where bears are hunted" and Natigostec (Mi'kmaq) meaning "forward land". In the early 1600s the Island was seized at the behest of the French Empire, and cleared of its Original inhabitants. Jehan of Natigostec (his Original name is unknown) was either kidnaped, his parents and other Island inhabitants having fled, or perhaps he had been left an orphan, after his family had been slaughtered by the invaders. He is believed to have been a very young child at the time, his birth date is thought to be about 1603.

He was put on a ship to be sent to France, along with other Mi'kmaq and Huron (Wyandot) "orphans", to be forcibly assimilated and returned to become peasant farmers and servants of the French Crown (Church and State), after having been enculturated with alien European ways of living.

His education in France seems to have included being named Jean or Jehan Côté dit Coste. No record of any baptism has ever been found, but it is thought that he was baptised, dit Coste is an indication of his origin, from Nantigostec. He was probably educated by being temporarily adopted by a French family whose name has been lost to the historical record. When it was thought that he had learned enough and could be trusted to remain an obedient servant, he was permitted to return to North America, his homeland.

But he did not return as one of the Original and sovereign people of the land. He was returned to live his life under the ever watchful eye of the Roman Catholic Church. He was returned to the Île d'Orléans where the Jesuits were administering a colony from c. 1625 for Huron (Wyandot) "orphans" and other newly enculturated Original people. These Original people had been sent to France to be forcibly assimilated and then returned to spend their lives working for the benefit of the Empire's Church and State. In later centuries, this same "education" (forced assimilation) would be accomplished by kidnapping children of Original people and sending them to Residential Schools.

On 11 November 1635 he was married to Anne Martin, who was the sister of Abraham Martin, for whom the Plains of Abraham were named. The couple were permitted to settle on the Île d'Orléans, where the Jesuits had set up a work colony for their enculturated Huron "orphans" c. 1625.

"His was one of the first families to settle on Île d'Orléans of present St. Pierre parish."

Their descendants have spread to the four quarters of Turtle Island. Jehan of Nantigostec, Mi'kmaq, and Anne Martin (Matchonon), who was Huron-Wyandot, are the ancestors of many people who consider themselves to be French in Canada to this day, due primarily to the act of forced enculturation, cultural genocide, and assimilation by destruction of Original rights and birthrights by the Empires of Europe.

It is time for the Reclamation of Indigenous Rights to begin. In 2007, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the world; only four countries voted against the Declaration, Canada, the USA, Australia, and New Zealand.

The Reclamation must begin with each individual recognising and affirming who and what they are as Original people of Turtle Island; as is written, "you don't know where you're going unless you know from whence you came."

Annie, Tiotiake
7 December 2007

(version français - traducteur Simon Raven)

===

References:

Anticosti Island
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticosti_Island

13 September 2007 UN Adopts Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples
un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23794&Cr=indigenous&Cr1

Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples
wc3.worldcrossing.com/webx/Indigenous_Rights

Sakamowit - Seven Hills - Mi'kmaq Traditional Territory
Mi'kmaq National Flag
crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ca_micmc.html#prop

Mi'kmaq Lexicon

Mi'kmaq Resources

(Website with info about the Residential Schools)
Hidden From History - The Canadian Holocaust
hiddenfromhistory.org

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