The Deep Meaning of the Name, Mens Clara Meekis
What Is the Meaning of the Name; Mens (Clara) Meekis?
Who was Mens (Clara) Meekis? Let’s first consider her name. Her parents were very thoughtful to name her Mens Clara. This was discovered from a post made by John Jackson, the son of Rose Jesmer and the grandson of Donald and Clara. He wrote,
“Donald Jesmer he was married to Mens (Clara) Meekis, he died in a car accident in 1962 in the Red Lake area. Date Posted: 2006-04-11. Submitter: John Jackson. E-Mail: johnjackson62@hotmail.com
http://www.geneofun.on.ca/db.php?database=ogwsurnames&template=ogw-surnames-show.html&&index=87
Clara means: Bright; clear (Latin)
These names were not casually chosen. They mean the same thing in Latin.
Read on for more of an explanation.
The Origin of the Meekis Family Name (Pelican Clan)
“By the 19th century, over trapping and changes in the economics of the fur trade had devastating effects on the people of the area. With the boreal forests largely depleted of fur-bearing animals, the Hudson’s Bay Company closed their posts and game remained scarce. Starvation and disease were all too common during this time. When the HBC returned toward the end of the 19th century, they assigned family names to each of the clans. The Pelican clan became the Meekis family after their patriarch Meekis (Shell).”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_Lake_First_Nation
There were the five clans of the Sandy Lake area, Sucker (Fiddler, Goodman, and Harper), Pelican (Meekis), Crane (Kakegamic and Kakepetum), Sturgeon (Mamakeesic), and Caribou (Linklater and Rae). There are stories of when life was good, hardships, the beautiful and harsh environment, contact with the outside world, and other pieces of history and origins of where we come from. These can be found in the book Killing the Shaman.
http://www.sandylake.firstnation.ca/?q=history
Pelican Clan: The Pelican clan was named for the white pelican that arrived in the lakes during the summer months. Members of the Pelican clan today go by the last name Meekis. The first recorded leader of the Pelican clan was a man named “Shell”. The Pelican clan were allies with the Sucker clan.
Bemaangik group (Bird Clans)
The Bemaangik are charged with Internal/Domestic communications. They were often charged with the community’s own council fires and help facilitate dialogue on all internal/domestic issues.
Zhedeg (Pelican)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anishinaabe_clan_system
What is the meaning of Clara’s first name, Mens?
Here is a definition of Mens,
“In Roman mythology, Mens, also known as Mens Bona (Latin for ‘Good Mind’), was the personification of thought, consciousness and the mind, and also of ‘right-thinking’. Her festival was celebrated on June 8. A temple on the Capitoline Hill in Rome was vowed to Mens in 217 BC on advice from the Sibylline Books, and was dedicated in 215 BC. The Latin word mens expresses the idea of ‘mind’”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens
Mens Bona of Roman Times
https://tintajoel.wixsite.com/latine-mp3/single-post/2014/06/08/June-8th-Festival-for-Bona-mens
If her parents called her “Mens” that means that they were really thoughtful about the choosing of her name. Mens is not an Oji Cree name. It is a Roman or Latin name. Clara’s parents may have been learned and well-read people. Or they had a friend who suggested the name to them and they adopted it for their newborn baby girl. I can see Christian missionaries being familiar with a name derived from Roman mythology. Roman history and mythology are part of many Masters of Divinity curriculum. Wherever the name suggestion came from, the name might have reflected Clara’s parent’s hope that their baby girl to grow up a very thoughtful and clear mind woman.
What does her last name tell us about Clara? Meekis is very poplar name in Deer Lake Ontario. The family name was given to a group of Oji-Cree people living in the area. They were from the Pelican Clan.
“By the 19th century, over trapping and changes in the economics of the fur trade had devastating effects on the people of the area. With the boreal forests largely depleted of fur-bearing animals, the Hudson’s Bay Company closed their posts and game remained scarce. Starvation and disease were all too common during this time. When the HBC returned toward the end of the 19th century, they assigned family names to each of the clans. The Pelican clan became the Meekis family after their patriarch Meekis (Shell).”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_Lake_First_Nation
“There were the five clans of the Sandy Lake area, Sucker (Fiddler, Goodman, and Harper), Pelican (Meekis), Crane (Kakegamic and Kakepetum), Sturgeon (Mamakeesic), and Caribou (Linklater and Rae). There are stories of when life was good, hardships, the beautiful and harsh environment, contact with the outside world, and other pieces of history and origins of where we come from. These can be found in the book Killing the Shaman.”
http://www.sandylake.firstnation.ca/?q=history
What About the Name Clara?
Clara (given name)
Gender female
Origin
Word/name Latin
Meaning clear, bright, famous
Related names Clare, Clair/Claire, Clarissa, Klara
Clara or Klara is a female given name. It is the feminine form of the Late Latin name Clarus which meant “clear, bright, famous”. Various early male Christian saints were named Clarus; the feminine form became popular after the 13th-century Saint Clare of Assisi (called Chiara in Italian), one of the followers of Saint Francis, who renounced her privileged background and founded the order of Poor Clares.
Clare was the main English form of the name used in the Middle Ages, but the Latin spelling Clara became more popular in the 19th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_(given_name)
Names of the People Were Not Like We Have Today
p. 12. 50 Years…
An account of names by a teacher in the region. p. 25. 50 years.
Clara didn’t seem to go by an Oji Cree Nick-name. Her name was derived from Latin and was thoughtfully chosen by her parents. Maybe the names were given at birth by the priest or Methodist minister and the parents adopted the name.
50 years with Indians and Settlers on Lake Winnipeg by Brother Fredrick Leach OMI
Here is a free online book about life among the Oji Cree people living on the shores of Lake Winnipeg in and around 1911. Written by a Catholic missionary. An interesting read to learn of the practices of the people.
https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm:2235008#page/9/mode/2up
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