TENASS, JOHN P. (1849-1928)

TENASS, JOHN P., first elected chief, Red Bank Indian band; b. near Richibucto, N.B., 12 Sep 1849, s/o Peter Tenass and Mary Glinn (or Green); brother of Peter Tenass; m. 1st, 1869, Ann Ward, and 2nd, 1915, Christine (Jones) Peter-Paul; d. Red Bank, 24 Dec 1928.

The Red Bank reserve lost its standing with the provincial government when Barnaby Julian was chief in the 1840s and was in a depressed condition economically, socially, and politically when John P. Tenass settled there, following his marriage to Ann Ward in 1869. Unlike the occupants of most other reserves in the province the Indians at Red Bank did not gain recognition as an independent band until nearly thirty years after Confederation.

It was only after the vexing Red Bank land issues of the 1890s were settled by the Department of Indian Affairs, in collaboration with Chief Peter N. Julian of Eel Ground, that the federal government extended the band recognition as a distinct entity and authorized the holding of an election for the chiefship. The victor in the contest, which was held on 24 August 1896, was John P. Tenass, the most popular member of the band, who took all but two of the votes cast.

Unlike the first elected chiefs at Eel Ground the chief at Red Bank enjoyed harmonious relations with almost everyone. His concerns were practical rather than political, having to do with timber rights and permits, the acquisition of farm implements, and the establishment of a day school on the reserve. His efforts were brought to a halt in 1905, however, when he lost an election by a single vote, and he subsequently spent a period of time in the political wilderness. He was chief again in 1914 when elementary education classes were first taught on the reserve, and in 1917 when a new one-room schoolhouse was finally built. He was past seventy years of age when he completed his last term as chief in 1920.

When the anthropologist Wilson D. Wallis began his study of Micmac culture in 1911, Tenass became his principal informant at Red Bank, and several folktales and traditions which he related are contained in Wilson D. Wallis and Ruth S. Wallis's book, The Micmac Indians of Eastern Canada.

There were at least seven children born of Tenass's marriage to Ann Ward. A son, Mitchell Tenass, succeeded him as chief at Red Bank in 1920. A daughter, Mary Jane Tenass, was the wife of John Augustine of Big Cove and Red Bank and the mother of Joseph M. Augustine, the discoverer of the ancient Red Bank burial site known as the Augustine Mound.