page_title: Miꞌkmaq
section_title: Treaties
hierarchical_section_title: Miꞌkmaq / History / 17th and 18th centuries / Treaties
context_page_description: The Miꞌkmaq or Miꞌgmaq 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. The nation has a population of about 170,000, of whom nearly 11,000 speak Miꞌkmaq, an Eastern Algonquian language. Once written in Miꞌkmaq hieroglyphic writing, it is now written using most letters of the Latin alphabet.
  The Santé Mawiómi, or Grand Council, was the traditional senior level of government for the Miꞌkmaq people until Canada passed the Indian Act to require First Nations to establish representative elected governments. After implementation of the Indian Act, the Grand Council took on a more spiritual function. The Grand Council was made up of chiefs of the seven district councils of Miꞌkmaꞌki.
  In 2011, the Government of Canada announced recognition to a group in Newfoundland and Labrador called the Qalipu First Nation. The new band, which is landless, had accepted 25,000 applications to become part of the band by October 2012.
context_section_description: The Míꞌkmaq signed a series of peace and friendship treaties with Great Britain. The first was after Father Rale's War (1725). In 1725 the British signed a treaty (or "agreement") with the Miꞌkmaq, but the rights of the Miꞌkmaq defined in it to hunt and fish on their lands have often been disputed by the authorities.
  The nation historically consisted of seven districts, which was later expanded to eight with the ceremonial addition of Great Britain at the time of the 1749 treaty.
  Chief Jean-Baptiste Cope signed a Peace Treaty in 1752 on behalf of the Shubenacadie Miꞌkmaq.  With the signing of various treaties, the 75 years of regular warfare ended in 1761 with the Halifax Treaties.  According to Historian Stephen Patterson, the British imposed the treaties on the Miꞌkmaq to confirm the British conquest of Miꞌkmaꞌki.
  According to historian John G. Reid, although the treaties of 1760-61 contain statements of Miꞌkmaw submission to the British crown, he believes that the Miꞌkmaw intended a friendly and reciprocal relationship. This assertion, Reid proposes, is based on what is known of the surrounding discussions, combined with the strong evidence of later Miꞌkmaw statements. Reid suggests that the Miꞌkmaw fighters negotiated the Treaties from a position of power (The census data indicates there were about 300 Miꞌkmaw fighters in the region compared to thousands of British soldiers).  Reid asserts the Miꞌkmaw leaders who represented their people in the Halifax negotiations in 1760 had clear goals: to make peace, establish secure and well-regulated trade in commodities such as furs, and begin an ongoing friendship with the British crown.  In return, Reid suggests they offered their own friendship and a tolerance of limited British settlement, although without any formal land surrender. To fulfill the reciprocity intended by the Miꞌkmaq, Reid reports that any additional British settlement of land would have to be negotiated, and accompanied by giving presents to the Miꞌkmaq.  (There was a long history of the French giving Miꞌkmaq people presents to be accommodated on their land, starting with the first colonial contact.) The documents summarizing the peace agreements failed to establish specific territorial limits on the expansion of British settlements, but assured the Miꞌkmaq of access to the natural resources that had long sustained them along the regions' coasts and in the woods. Their conceptions of land use were quite different. The Miꞌkmaq believed they could share the land, with the British growing crops, and their people hunting as usual and getting to the coast for seafood.
  The arrival of the New England Planters and United Empire Loyalists in greater number put pressure on land use and the treaties. This migration into the region created significant economic, environmental and cultural pressures on the Miꞌkmaq. The Miꞌkmaq tried to enforce the treaties through threat of force. At the beginning of the American Revolution, many Miꞌkmaq and Maliseet tribes supported the Americans against the British. They participated in the Maugerville Rebellion and the Battle of Fort Cumberland in 1776.  (Míꞌkmaq delegates concluded the first international treaty, the Treaty of Watertown, with the United States soon after it declared its independence in July 1776. These delegates did not officially represent the Miꞌkmaq government, although many individual Miꞌkmaq did privately join the Continental army as a result.)  In June 1779, Miꞌkmaq in the Miramichi valley of New Brunswick attacked and plundered some of the British in the area. The following month, British Captain Augustus Harvey, in command of HMS Viper, arrived and battled with the Miꞌkmaq. One Miꞌkmaq was killed and 16 were taken prisoner to Quebec. The prisoners were eventually taken to Halifax. They were released on 28 July 1779 after signing the Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown.
  As their military power waned in the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Miꞌkmaq people made explicit appeals to the British to honour the treaties and reminded them of their duty to 
caption: Miꞌkmaq People (1873)
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