The Miꞌkmaq (also Mi’gmaq, Micmac, Lnu, Miꞌkmaw or Miꞌgmaw; English: /ˈmɪɡmɑː/; Miꞌkmaq: [miːɡmaɣ])[3][4][5] are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas now known as Canada’s Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the northeastern region of Maine. They call their national territory Miꞌkmaꞌki (or Miꞌgmaꞌgi). The nation has a population of about 170,000 (including 18,044 members in the recently formed Qalipu First Nation in Newfoundland), of whom nearly 11,000 speak Miꞌkmaq, an Eastern Algonquian language. Once written in Miꞌkmaw hieroglyphic writing, it is now written using most letters of the Latin alphabet.

The Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, and Pasamaquoddy Nations, whose traditional lands are in the Atlantic region of what is now Canada, signed a series of treaties known as the Covenant Chain of Peace and Friendship Treaties with the British Crown throughout the eighteenth century; the first was signed in 1725, and the last in 1779. The Peace and Friendship Treaties did not cede or give up their land title or other rights. The landmark 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision in R v Marshall upheld the 1752 Peace and Friendship Treaty “which promised Indigenous Peoples the right to hunt and fish their lands and establish trade.”

The Miꞌkmaw Grand Council is the official consultative authority that engages with the Canadian federal government and the provincial government of Nova Scotia as established by the historic August 30, 2020 agreement with the Miꞌkmaq Nation, resulting from the Miꞌkmaq–Nova Scotia–Canada Tripartite Forum. This collaborative agreement, which includes all the First Nations within the entire province of Nova Scotia, was the first in Canadian history. Historically the Santé Mawiómi, or Grand Council, which was made up of chiefs of the district councils of Miꞌkmaꞌki, was the traditional senior level of government for the Miꞌkmaw people. The 1876 Indian Act disrupted that authority, by requiring First Nations to establish representative elected governments and attempting to limit the Council’s role to that of spiritual guidance.

On August 30, 2020 the Miꞌkmaw Nation and the Nova Scotia provincial government reached an historic agreement, be affirming that the Miꞌkmaw Grand Council was the official consultative authority that engages with the Canadian federal government and the provincial government of Nova Scotia. The Miꞌkmaq–Nova Scotia–Canada Tripartite Forum preceded the agreement. The August 2020 agreement made Canadian history as the first such collaborative agreement, which included all the First Nations within the entire province of Nova Scotia.

Historically the Santé Mawiómi, or Grand Council, which was made up of chiefs of the district councils of Miꞌkmaꞌki, was the traditional senior level of government for the Miꞌkmaw people. The 1876 Indian Act disrupted that authority, by requiring First Nations to establish representative elected governments and attempting to limit the Council’s role to that of spiritual guidance.

In addition to the district councils, the Mꞌikmaq have been traditionally governed by a Grand Council or Santé Mawiómi. The Grand Council was composed of Keptinaq (“captains” in English), who were the district chiefs. There were also elders, the putús (wampum belt readers and historians, who also dealt with the treaties with the non-natives and other Native tribes), the women’s council, and the grand chief. The grand chief was a title given to one of the district chiefs, who was usually from the Miꞌkmaw district of Unamáki or Cape Breton Island. This title was hereditary within a clan and usually passed on to the grand chief’s eldest son.

On June 24, 1610, Grand Chief Membertou converted to Catholicism and was baptised. He concluded an alliance with the French Jesuits. The Miꞌkmaq, as trading allies with the French, were amenable to limited French settlement in their midst.

Gabriel Sylliboy (1874 – 1964) a respected Mi’kmaq religious leader and traditional Grand Chief of the Council—became the Council’s first elected Grand Chief in 1918, a position he held all his life. In 1927, Grand Chief Sylliboy was charged with hunting muskrat pelts out of season. He was the first to use the rights defined in the Treaty of 1752 in his court defence. He lost his case. In 1985, the 1752 treaty rights were finally recognized following the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R. v. Simon. On the 50th anniversary of his death, the Grand Council approached the Nova Scotia government to request a pardon. It was granted by Premier Stephen McNeil in 2017. Then Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, John James Grant, McNeil, and the Justice Minister Diana Whalen, pardoned Sylliboy and issued a formal apology”—the “second posthumous pardon in Nova Scotia’s history”. His grandson, Andrew Denny, who is now the Grand Keptin of the Council, said that his grandfather had “commanded respect. Young people who were about to get married would go and ask for his blessing. At the Chapel Island Mission boats would stop if he was crossing.”

Traditionally, the Grand Council met on a little island on the Bras d’Or lake in Cape Breton called Mniku. Today the site is within the reserve called Chapel Island or Potlotek. To this day, the Grand Council still meets at Mniku to discuss current issues within the Miꞌkmaq Nation. Taqamkuk was defined as part of Unamaꞌkik historically and became a separate district at an unknown point in time.

Mi-kmaq Author Prize Winner, 2020

Originally posted 2020-09-24 10:53:27.