The Mi'kmaq are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces, primarily Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as Native Americans in the northeastern region of Maine. The traditional national territory of the Mi'kmaq is named Miꞌkmaꞌki.
Michael Francklin or Franklin served as Nova Scotia's Lieutenant Governor from 1766 to 1772. He is buried in the crypt of St. Paul's Church (Halifax).
Shubenacadie is a village located in Hants County, in central Nova Scotia, Canada. As of 2021, the population was 411.
The Shubenacadie Valley is a Canadian rural region in central Nova Scotia.
William Walsh,, was an archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax. He was born in Waterford, County Waterford, Republic of Ireland and died in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Indian Brook 14 is a Mi'kmaq reserve located in Hants County, Nova Scotia. In the 2016 Census, the reserve has 1,089 residents.
Nora Bernard was a Canadian Mi'kmaq activist who sought compensation for survivors of the Canadian Indian residential school system. She was directly responsible for what became the largest class-action lawsuit in Canadian history, representing an estimated 79,000 survivors; the Canadian government settled the lawsuit in 2005 for upwards of C$5 billion.
Abbé Jean-Louis Le Loutre was a Catholic priest and missionary for the Paris Foreign Missions Society. Le Loutre became the leader of the French forces and the Acadian and Mi'kmaq militias during King George's War and Father Le Loutre's War in the eighteenth-century struggle for power between the French, Acadians, and Miꞌkmaq against the British over Acadia.
Father Le Loutre's War (1749–1755), also known as the Indian War, the Mi'kmaq War and the Anglo-Mi'kmaq War, took place between King George's War and the French and Indian War in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On one side of the conflict, the British and New England colonists were led by British officer Charles Lawrence and New England Ranger John Gorham. On the other side, Father Jean-Louis Le Loutre led the Mi'kmaq and the Acadia militia in guerrilla warfare against settlers and British forces. At the outbreak of the war there were an estimated 2500 Mi'kmaq and 12,000 Acadians in the region.
The Sipekne'katik First Nation is composed of four Mi'kmaq First Nation reserves located in central Nova Scotia. As of 2012, the Mi'kmaq population is 1,195 on-Reserve, and approximately 1,190 off-Reserve. The First Nation includes Indian Brook 14, Nova Scotia, near Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia. The band was known as the Shubenacadie First Nation until 2014 when the traditional spelling and pronunciation of its name was officially adopted.
Jean Baptiste Cope was also known as Major Cope, a title he was probably given from the French military, the highest rank given to Mi’kmaq. Cope was the sakamaw (chief) of the Mi'kmaq people of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia. He maintained close ties with the Acadians along the Bay of Fundy, speaking French and being Catholic. During Father Le Loutre’s War, Cope participated in both military efforts to resist the British and also efforts to create peace with the British. During the French and Indian War he was at Miramichi, New Brunswick, where he is presumed to have died during the war. Cope is perhaps best known for signing the Treaty of 1752 with the British, which was upheld in the Supreme Court of Canada in 1985 and is celebrated every year along with other treaties on Treaty Day.
Daniel Nicholas Paul,, was a Canadian Miꞌkmaq elder, author, columnist, and human rights activist. Paul was perhaps best known as the author of the book We Were Not the Savages. Paul asserts that this book is the first such history ever written by a First Nations citizen. The book is seen as an important contribution to the North American Indian movement. One writer stated, "It's a Canadian version of Dee Brown's bestseller Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and, as such, served a valuable purpose in raising public consciousness about Miꞌkmaq history, identity, and culture."
The Burying the Hatchet ceremony happened in Nova Scotia on June 25, 1761 and was one of many such ceremonies in which the Halifax Treaties were signed. The treaties ended a protracted period of warfare which had lasted more than 75 years and encompassed six wars between the Mi'kmaq people and the British. The Burying the Hatchet ceremonies and the treaties that they commemorated created an enduring peace and a commitment to obey the rule of law.
Fort Ellis was a British fort or blockhouse built during the French and Indian War, located at the junction of the Shubenacadie and Stewiacke Rivers, close to Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, Canada. The location was labelled Ville Pierre Hebert by Charles Morris. The 14 Acadian families in the area vacated with the Acadian Exodus. Charles Morris recommended a Fort on the Shubenacadie River in 1753. Governor Lawrence first considered the fort in 1754 as a means to protect Halifax from Mi'kmaq raids. Lawrence decided the fort would not be effective until after the Battle of Fort Beauséjour. The fort was completed on October 18, 1761, shortly after the Halifax Treaties were signed. The fort was to guard the new road built to connect Truro and Halifax against Mi'kmaq raids. The fort was called Fort Ellis after Governor Henry Ellis, who was appointed governor weeks after the forts completion. The fort was never garrisoned and eventually abandoned in 1767. Fort Belcher, named after Governor Jonathan Belcher, was built on Salmon River in Lower Onslow, Nova Scotia (1761–67). Fort Franklin was built at Tatamagouche in 1768, named after Michael Francklin and lasted only a year. Fort Morris was named after Charles Morris.
The military history of the Mi'kmaq consisted primarily of Mi'kmaq warriors (smáknisk) who participated in wars against the English independently as well as in coordination with the Acadian militia and French royal forces. The Mi'kmaq militias remained an effective force for over 75 years before the Halifax Treaties were signed (1760–1761). In the nineteenth century, the Mi'kmaq "boasted" that, in their contest with the British, the Mi'kmaq "killed more men than they lost". In 1753, Charles Morris stated that the Mi'kmaq have the advantage of "no settlement or place of abode, but wandering from place to place in unknown and, therefore, inaccessible woods, is so great that it has hitherto rendered all attempts to surprise them ineffectual". Leadership on both sides of the conflict employed standard colonial warfare, which included scalping non-combatants. After some engagements against the British during the American Revolutionary War, the militias were dormant throughout the nineteenth century, while the Mi'kmaq people used diplomatic efforts to have the local authorities honour the treaties. After confederation, Mi'kmaq warriors eventually joined Canada's war efforts in World War I and World War II. The most well-known colonial leaders of these militias were Chief (Sakamaw) Jean-Baptiste Cope and Chief Étienne Bâtard.
The Treaty of 1752 was a treaty signed between the Mi'kmaq people of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia and the governor of Nova Scotia on 22 November 1752 during Father Le Loutre's War. The treaty was created by Edward Cornwallis and later signed by Jean-Baptiste Cope and Governor Peregrine Hopson. Cornwallis was at the signing at Cope's request.
St. Aspinquid's Chapel was established by Priest Louis-Pierre Thury at Chebucto in the late 17th century. The chapel is a natural stone amphitheatre located by Chain Rock Battery on the Northwest Arm at Point Pleasant Park. There are numerous notable people interred in the burial grounds around the chapel and it is also the location of the Mi’kmaq celebration of the Feast of St. Aspinquid, which was conducted through much of the 18th century. During the French and Indian War two Mi'kmaw chiefs fought each other in a battle near the chapel (1760).
Paul Laurent was a Chief of the La Have Mi’kmaq tribe. He was aligned with Father Le Loutre throughout Father Le Loutre’s War. The British killed his father when he was younger, which he tried to avenge by killing one of Jean-Baptiste Cope’s prisoners.
The Shubenacadie Indian Residential School operated as part of Canadian Indian residential school system in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia between 1930 and 1967. It was the only one in the Maritimes. The schools were funded by the federal Department of Indian Affairs. The derelict building was destroyed by fire in 1986 and subsequently demolished.
The Peace and Friendship Treaties were a series of written documents that Britain signed bearing the Authority of Great Britain between 1725 and 1779 with various Mi’kmaq, Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet), Abenaki, Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy peoples living in parts of what are now the Maritimes and Gaspé region in Canada and the northeastern United States. Primarily negotiated to reaffirm the peace after periods of war and to facilitate trade, these treaties remain in effect to this day.
