The Mi’kmaw Nation
Part Two

Place Names Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia Shubenacadie

The arrival of Europeans in Mi’kma’ki, the home of the Mi’kmaq, changed the lives of these First Nations people forever. The early French who settled on Cape Breton Island traded with the Mi’kmaq and made friends with them. By 1610, the Mi’kmaq realized many more French would be coming to live in their land. The Mi’kmaq wanted to get along with them so they changed their religion and became Catholic. But by the 1700s, the English in Mi’kma’ki were growing in number. At first, the Mi’kmaq fought the English to help their friends the French. The Mi’kmaq were not defeated and they did not surrender. They ended the fighting by signing a treaty of friendship with the English in 1725.

The treaty said the Mi’kmaq could still have all the land that was not yet taken by the English, which, in 1725, was nearly all of it. The treaty also said the Mi’kmaq could still trade, hunt, fish, and use the land as they always had. More treaties were signed in 1726, 1749 and 1752. They repeated the promise by the English that the Mi’kmaq would not lose any of their rights or land.