Echemin

Echemin, em Algonquian nation formerly powerful in New Brunswick and Lower Canada, where their name still survives in Lake Echemin and its emissary the Echemin river, which flows to the St. Lawrence a little above Quebec. A few half-breeds crossed with early Scottish, English, and especially French settlers, are still found in the St. John river basin, where they live mostly by fishing and hunting, though some cultivate a little ground round about their log-huts. They are distinguished by their squat figures, thick lips, prominent cheek-bones, small eyes, and lank, black hair, altogether resembling the Eskimo more closely than the ordinary Algonquin type. [Algonquin.] These half-blood Echemins (properly Eteminquois) suffer much from pulmonary affections: they age prematurely, and, as infant mortality is excessive, they are evidently dying out, like their Mic-Mac and Abenaki neighbours. They were evangelised two centuries ago by the French missionaries, and now pass for Roman Catholics. Their Algonquian dialect is also largely affected by French and English influences. This language has been studied by Pere L. E. Demillier (MS. Dictionary) and by Dr. Joseph Barratt, who shows that it is the same as that of the Passamaquoddy Indians of New England. (Key to the Indian Language, etc.. Middleton, Connecticut, 1850, and other writings.)