page_title: Miꞌkmaq
section_title: Treaty Day
hierarchical_section_title: Miꞌkmaq / History / 20th and 21st centuries / Treaty Day
caption_attribution_description: English: Monument Peace Treaty 1752, Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia
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: Gabriel Sylliboy was the first Miꞌkmaq elected as Grand Chief (1919) and the first to fight for treaty recognition - specifically, the Treaty of 1752 -  in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia (1929).
  In 1986, the first Treaty Day was celebrated by Nova Scotians on October 1 in recognition of the Treaties signed between the British Empire and the Miꞌkmaq people.  The first treaty was signed in 1725 after Father Rale's War.  The final treaties of 1760-61, marked the end of 75 years of regular warfare between the Miꞌkmaq and the British (see the four French and Indian Wars as well as Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War). The treaty-making process of 1760-61, ended with the Burying the Hatchet ceremony (1761).
  The treaties were only formally recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada once they were enshrined in Section 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982. The first Treaty Day occurred the year after the Supreme Court upheld the Peace Treaty of 1752 signed by Jean-Baptiste Cope and Governor Peregrine Hopson. Since that time there have been numerous judicial decisions that have upheld the other treaties in the Supreme Court, the most recognized being the Donald Marshall case.
caption: Monument to the Treaty of 1752, Shubenacadie First Nation, Nova Scotia
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