Language and Group Maintenance

Basque fishers and fur traders left their mark on Canadian toponymy. The outports of Port au Port and Port à Choix in Newfoundland take their names from the Basque Ophor-Portu and Portuchoa. In Quebec, place names with Basque origins include Escuminac and Les Meschins as well as L’Anse-aux-Basques. There were also language exchanges, as aboriginal people quickly learned to speak the language of their visitors. Linguists have found Basque words in a lexicon of the Iroquois language drawn up by Jacques Cartier. The Micmacs, who traded extensively with Europeans, adopted the word orignac (“horse of the forest”) from the Basque language; the French term for moose, orignal, is derived from this word. The Algonkian word for friend, adesquidex, is derived directly from the Basque adesquide. French has also adopted the word barachois, from the Basque baratxoa, to designate a sandbar formed at the mouth of a river flowing into the Gulf of St Lawrence.

The exchange of influences between Basques and aboriginal people can also be seen in the use of the Basque national symbol, the curved cross known as the Lauburu, on both sides of the Atlantic. Micmacs used the Lauburu extensively in art objects made with porcupine quills. In the nineteenth century it made its way as far as the Northwest Territories, and the paintings of Frances Ann Hopkins show the Lauburu on the prows of bark canoes used by Cree and by voyageurs employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Basque immigrants who settled in the St Lawrence valley became absorbed into the colonial community. A number of factors contributed to their rapid integration. Coming as fishers, with few women among them, Basque immigrants married native-born Canadiennes. In addition, laws in force in New France, based on the Coutume de Paris, imposed the French language on provincials from the first generation on. Secular and religious archives and notaries’ records show that Basques adopted French without difficulty, although sources indicate that they continued to use their own language in their interpersonal relations. There were local language peculiarities in some Gaspé communities where Basque fishers settled, but all descendants of Basque immigrants are now integrated into the francophone community of Quebec.

Religious practice did not pose any problems when Basques came to Canada, since New France was Roman Catholic. On the other hand, Basques had to give up some of their most distinctive cultural practices, especially the extended household, which could no longer be justified in North America. Their sense of solidarity did remain entrenched in their way of life, entering colonial society through the make-up of work crews and surviving in the family ties that Basques developed. Today, however, these traits have dissipated.

Because Basques are a small group scattered from one end of Canada to the other, it is unlikely that they will revive their special customs. Even if there is some concentration of Basque immigrants in Quebec, significant numbers have gone elsewhere: 25 percent to Ontario and others to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and British Columbia. The cultural potential of these new Canadians is fragmented, and so that it is difficult for them to form associations and perpetuate the group spirit that characterizes the society from which they came.

Through contact with Canadian society, cultural exchange, and settlement in North America, the Basque community has made a significant contribution to the formation of a national identity in Canada. Coming from a seafaring people, Basque immigrants settled primarily in the Atlantic region, and their influence has been felt there more than in any other part of the country. More recently, new forms of work have brought them to other parts of Canada. In the east, they became absorbed into the mass of French and English pioneers. In the west, they are taking their place among aboriginal, European, and Asian founding peoples, contributing to existing economic activities and helping to open up new ones.