A Brief Account of the Struggle over Newfoundland

Throughout the 1600s France and Britain fought for control of Newfoundland. Both countries wanted the cod stocks. France also wanted to protect the route from southern Newfoundland to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. That river led to the French colonies in Quebec. The French and the British attacked each other's fishing ships. They set fire to the tiny settlements of their enemies. In 1713 the French gave up control of Newfoundland. They signed the Treaty of Utrecht. Newfoundland became a British colony.

France and Britain continued to fight for control of the rest of North America. In 1763 the British won that war. France signed the Treaty of Paris. The French lost everything in Canada except the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon.

Where were the Mi'kmaq? The written history shows they fought with the French against the English in Cape Breton and Newfoundland. In the 1 700s, at least 200 Mi'kmaq people moved from Cape Breton to Newfoundland. They left Nova Scotia in search of better hunting and trapping.

Mi'kmaq oral history says the Cape Breton Mi'kmaq went to join their relatives and friends along the southwest coast and in the interior of the island. The French and the British had not used those parts of the island before the 1700s. The French fished in the Placentia and Fortune Bay areas. The British fished the Southern Shore, Conception Bay, and Trinity areas. The Europeans were not interested in the interior of the island. Mi'kmaq oral history says the Europeans just assumed all the Mi'kmaq came from Cape Breton.

What did the Mi'kmaq think about the British control of Newfoundland? What did they say to each other about the loss of their hunting grounds in Cape Breton? Were they sorry they had become friends with the French? Many Mi'kmaq people died of diseases like tuberculosis. They caught these diseases from the French and the British. Were they shocked when their traditional medicines could not cure these new diseases?

There are some written accounts of the Mi'kmaq in the mainland Atlantic provinces. We know they traded furs to the French for guns and other supplies. But there is very little written about the Mi'kmaq people in Newfoundland. No one set out to study them. The British government did not try to get to know them. When Mi'kmaq people do show up in government reports and other written documents it is as part of someone else's history.