A fine watercolour depicting a group of thirteen men and women dancing outdoors in a pine forest, one cradling an infant. Identified in the caption to the verso as “Melicent Indians”, this is likely a mis transcription of Malecite or Maliseet, both names used for the Wolastoqiyik Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy.
The caption also describes the scene as a “snake dance”. An 1890 article in the Journal of American Folk-Lore gives some context about a Snake Dance tradition in the neighbouring Passamaquoddy Nation: “The name is said to have been derived from the sinuous course of the chain of dancers and from its resemblance to the motion of a snake. […] The dance is performed at weddings and other festive occasions” (Walter Fewkes). All of the dancers wear brightly coloured clothing with a variety of different headwear, including stovepipe hats, some with feathered plumes, and embroidered peaked hoods, typical of Maliseet dress and often ornately decorated with beadwork.
Philip John Bainbrigge (1817-1881) was a member of the Royal Engineers, deployed to Canada between 1836 and 1842, not long after graduating the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, where he was trained in technical and topographical drawing. He was tasked with surveying fortifications and transportation routes in both Upper and Lower Canada, and when tension between disgruntled settlers and the British army erupted into the Rebellions of 1837 - 1838, Bainbrigge saw action against the rebels along the Richelieu River, at St. Denis, and at St. Eustache.
Alongside his landscape and technical work, Bainbrigge depicted several scenes of First Nations people. These are often river views or incorporate some structure of settlement in the background, making the present example unusual for its focus on a cultural practice.
Library and Archives Canada has a large collection of Bainbrigge’s work, much of which is digitised on The Watercolour World website. There are no other Maliseet scenes quite like this one, making it all the more desirable.
Walter Fewkes, J. “A Contribution to Passamaquoddy Foll-Lore” in The Journal of American Folk-Lore. Vol. III. No. XI. Oct-Dec, 1890, p.261.
