Navigating a New Way of Life

“He is not just sure what his mother’s original name was. He has always known her by the name of [Mary] Brown. She sells baskets and so does he and in the summer they take in the beaches. He says that the woman is a full-fledged Micmac. She came to this city [Lowell] from Barthurst, N. B. [New Brunswick, Canada], and her father was at one time chief of the Micmac reservation at Burnt church, a reservation situated a few miles from the Miramichi bay in New Brunswick.

Marlow says that his mother-in-law is not in the habit of getting drunk. She left home, 32 Bridge street, this morning with an armful of baskets and it was evident that she exchanged them for firewater [alcohol]. He does not know anything about the white man going away with her daughter and he believes she used that as a subterfuge to talk with the officers.”