Jerry Lonecloud (July 4, 1854 – April 16, 1930)
Biographi.ca was an entertainer,

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

and medicine man for the

Mi'kmaq people The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations in Canada, First Nations people of the Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. His oral memoirs, recorded from 1923 to 1929, which included Mi'kmaw oral histories and legends, were compiled into a 2002 book—''Tracking Dr. Lonecloud: Showman to Legend Keeper''—by ethnographer and historian, Ruth Holmes Whitehead at the

Nova Scotia Museum Nova Scotia Museum (NSM) is the corporate name for the 28 museums across Nova Scotia, Canada, and is part of the province's tourism infrastructure. The organization manages more than 200 historic buildings, living history sites, vessels, and speci ...

in Halifax. Because these recordings form the basis of the 2002 biography, it is considered to be the first Mi'kmaq

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

Whitehead wrote that, "ethnographer of the Micmac nation could rightly have been his epitaph, his final honour."

Early life

Jerry Lonecloud's Mi'kmaw parents, who were originally from Nova Scotia, were living in

Belfast, Maine Belfast is a city in Waldo County, Maine, Waldo County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city population was 6,938. Located at the mouth of the Passagassawakeag River estuary on Belfast Bay (Main ...

when he was born on 4 July 1852. His parents shared their knowledge of traditional medicine with him when he was young. He kept his birth name—Germain Bartlett Alexis—until he began his career as a showman in the 1880s, when he was in his thirties. He lived for awhile in

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. By 1868, when he was 14 years-old, after both his parents had died, he began a two-year search to find his brother and his two sisters to return with them to Nova Scotia.

Dr. Lonecloud

He adopted the name Dr. Lonecloud in the 1890s while working in

Medicine Show Medicine shows were touring acts (traveling by truck, horse, or wagon teams) that peddled "miracle cure" patent medicines and other products between various entertainments. They developed from European Charlatan, mountebank shows and were common i ...

s and

Wild West shows Wild West shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe that existed around 1870–1920. The shows began as theatrical stage productions and evolved into open-air shows that depicted romanticized stereotypes of co ...

, including John Healy and Charles Bigelow's Kickapoo Indian medicine,

Buffalo Bill William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, Bison hunting, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa, Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but ...

Cody's

Wild West Show Wild West shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe that existed around 1870–1920. The shows began as theatrical stage productions and evolved into open-air shows that depicted romanticized stereotypes of c ...

and the Kiowa Medicine Show.

Ethnographer

Lonechild's work as ethnographer and archivist has been recorded in his biography, co-authored by ethnographer and historian Ruth Holmes Whitehead, journalist Clara Dennis, and Lonechild. Dennis's interviews with Lonecloud, recorded between 1923 and 1929—near the end of his life—form the basis of the biography. All three are credited as co-authors. The 1920s recordings with Dennis include Mi'kmaw legends, oral histories, jokes and social customs" many of which had not been published prior to the 2002 biography. As an ethnographer he worked extensively with historian and archivist

Harry Piers Harry Piers (1870–1940) was a Canadian historian. He was a long-serving and influential historian and curator at the Nova Scotia Museum in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Piers was born on February 12, 1870, in Halifax. He became the second curator of ...

Personal life

He and his family were living at Tufts Cove in Dartmouth during the

Halifax Explosion On the morning of 6 December 1917, the French cargo ship collided with the Norwegian vessel in the waters of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The ''Mont-Blanc'', laden with high explosives, caught fire and exploded, devastating the Richmond ...

on December 6, 1917. Two of his daughters were killed and he lost an eye.Jennifer Burke, “Turtle Grove: Dartmouth’s Lost Mi’kmaq Community”, ''Ground Zero: A Reassessment of the 1917 Explosion in Halifax Harbour'', Nimbus Publishing (1994), pp. 50-51. He died in Halifax on April 16, 1930.

Legacy

* Namesake of musical group Lone Cloud * Namesake of Lone Cloud Island (site of former Scouts Camp) in

Fall River, Nova Scotia Fall River is a suburban community located in Nova Scotia, Canada within the Halifax Regional Municipality. It is located north-northeast of the Bedford Basin, northeast of Bedford and Lower Sackville and north of Waverley. Fall River's name i ...

*Namesake o
Jerry Lonecloud Trail
in

Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia Cole Harbour is a former village and current community located in Nova Scotia, Canada that is part of the Halifax Regional Municipality. Geography It is situated 6 kilometres east of the central business district of Dartmouth and takes its ...

* A display in the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History

External links

Jason Price. ‘The best remedy ever offered to the public’:Representation and Resistance in the American Medicine Show. Popular Entertainment Studies, Vol 2, No 2 (2011)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lonecloud, Jerry 1854 births 1930 deaths 19th-century First Nations people 20th-century First Nations people Canadian people with disabilities Folk healers Indigenous leaders in Atlantic Canada Mi'kmaq people People from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia