Mic-Mac hockey stick
The Mic-Mac hockey stick was made originally by the Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia that dominated the international hockey market in the early twentieth century. The Mi'kmaq practice of playing hockey appeared in recorded colonial histories from as early as the 18th century. Since the nineteenth century, the Mi'kmaq were credited with inventing the ice hockey stick.[1] The oldest known hockey stick was made around 1830. In 2015, the Canadian Museum of History acquired the world's oldest hockey stick and paid $300K to a Nova Scotia man for the Mic Mac hockey stick.[2][3] (An unauthenticated hockey stick was made between 1852 and 1856. Recently, it was appraised at $4 million US and sold for $2.2 million US. The stick was carved by Mi’kmaq from Nova Scotia, who made it from hornbeam, also known as ironwood.[4])
In 1863, the Starr Manufacturing Company in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia began to sell the Mic-Mac hockey sticks nationally and internationally.[6] Hockey became a popular sport in Canada in the 1890s.[7] Throughout the first decade of the twentieth century, the Mic-Mac Hockey Stick was the best-selling hockey stick in Canada. By 1903, apart from farming, the principal occupation of the Mi'kmaq on reserves throughout Nova Scotia, and particularly on the Shubenacadie, Indian Brook and Millbrook Reserves, was producing the Mic-Mac Hockey Stick.[6] The department of Indian Affairs for Nova Scotia noted in 1927, that the Mi'kmaq remained the "experts" at making hockey sticks.[8] The Mi'kmaq continued to make hockey sticks until the 1930s, when the product was industrialized.[9][10]
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References[edit]
- ^ Brian Cutherbertson, "The Starr Manufacturing Company: Skate Exporter to the World", Journal of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society, Vol. 8, 2005, p. 60
- ^ Canadian Museum of History acquires world's oldest hockey stick. CBC.Jan 09, 2015.
- ^ ( Globe and Mail newspaper and other Canadian media January 10 2015 )
- ^ The Slingshot
- ^ Cuthbertson, p. 61 Note Cuthbertson erroneously states the photo was taken im 1888 - rather than the correct date, 1889
- ^ a b Brian Cutherbertson The Starr Manufacturing Company: Skate Exporter to the World. Journal of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society, Vol. 8, 2005, p. 61. The date 1863 presumes that the Company started to sell hockey sticks the same year they began selling hockey skates.
- ^ Cutherbertson, p. 58
- ^ Cutherbertson (2005), "The Starr Manufacturing Company", p. 73
- ^ Cutherbertson (2005), "The Starr Manufacturing Company", p. 63
- ^ Chronicle Herald December 13, 2014
