Tammy MacDonald, Research Director, MCPEI
Mi'kmaq Presence on Prince Edward Island: a 12,000 year history
Mi'kmaq oral history tells the story of the world being covered with water and Sebanees
arriving on Prince Edward Island in his boat of ice, carrying all the animals and fish his
Mi'kmaq family would need to survive. Archaeological campsites containing fragments
of fish, seal, bear, beaver and stone tools, dating from 300 to 10,000 years ago, have been found
in a number of places throughout PEI, including Rustico Island, Greenwich, and Hog Island.
Shell middens, containing oysters, clams, other shellfish, were first remarked upon by PEI’s
British settlers in the early 1800’s. So, both Mi'kmaq oral history and archeological records
clearly agree: the ancestors of the Mi'kmaq arrived in Mi'kma’ki, including PEI, at least 12,000
years ago, most likely following the caribou, and other large land mammals, as well as the plants
growing on the edges of the retreating ice of the last Ice Age.
Before Contact, the Mi'kmaq people based their lives on where different foods were available at
different times of the year, returning again and again each season to the same area. They lived in
wigwams (wigoun) which could accommodate one to several families. In spring, there were large
gatherings along lower rivers; summer, smaller gatherings, along the bays and coasts. Fall
brought large gatherings of Mi'kmaq families along upper rivers and, in winter, small familytype groups went inland to hunt large game. This cyclical round of land and resource use is still
carried out today, as shown by the extensive PEI Mi'kmaq interviews and mapped evidence
compiled by the MCPEI Traditional (“living memory”) Land Use program. If a map were
generated illustrating the entire inventory of this gathered information, it would cover the land
and waterways of Prince Edward Island, as well as along its coastlines and out into the
Northumberland Strait and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Contact with Europeans brought about many changes to the Mi'kmaq people of the Island. Life
became one of feast and famine. Besides the radical and rapid decline of population due to
diseases, the majority of the Mi'kmaq now oriented their lives towards the collection and
exchanging of furs for an ever-expanding assortment of European goods, some of which made
the Mi'kmaq lives easier – copper pots instead of tree stumps and heated rocks, iron knives
instead of flaked stone; some of which made life harder – liquor.
The French considered the Mi'kmaq to be Allies of their Nation; treating the Mi'kmaq, for the
most part, on a Nation-to-Nation basis. Early Isle St. Jean commandants were urged to treat the
Mi'kmaq of the area with respect and kindness. The French military outpost of Port La Joye was
the scene of annual celebrations and giving of presents between the French and the Mi'kmaq
celebrating their alliance.
The small population of Acadians, with no big attempts to colonize Isle St. Jean until the mid1700’s, ensured the Mi'kmaq were able to maintain their traditional way of life. Furthermore,
there are many oral stories, as well as some documents, in both the Island Acadian and Mi'kmaq
communities, that talk about the interaction between these two cultures. One can almost picture
the Acadians arriving on Isle St Jean, confronted with a seemingly endless amount of
backbreaking work to even produce enough food to live – being befriended by the Mi'kmaq and
helped to survive.
However, with the fall of Louisburg and the subsequent loss of Isle St. Jean to Britain, the British
turned their eyes towards the re-named Island of Saint John and began to colonize it. The unique
method of carving the Island into 67 lots and awarding them during a Land Lottery process,
without consulting either the resident Mi'kmaq or Acadians, created a bleak landscape for its
10 Nov 2010
Tammy MacDonald, Research Director, MCPEI
original occupants. The resultant British population explosion threatened the Mi'kmaq way of
life. Game became scarce, access to traditional areas, where they had for thousands of years
freely hunted, fished, camped and gathered, were now blocked off by the new English
settlements.
Concerned citizens on the newly named Prince Edward Island began writing letters to their
government in the early 1800’s urging compassion for the “abject poverty of the Indians” and
predicting their imminent extinction. This prompted a government official to state, “…their
numbers are rapidly decreasing and, with few exceptions, they are sunk to the most abject and
degraded state to which I should conceive it possible for human beings to arrive…”
Despite these dire predictions, Mi'kmaq communities on Prince Edward Island maintained a
small but steady population of between 250 and 300 “souls” during the 1800’s and into the early
1900’s, sustaining their traditional livelihood by hunting game, as well using fish weirs and
spears for catching eels.
Many Mi'kmaq of this time chose not to live on the four PEI reserves, Morell (1859), Lennox
Island (created 1870), Scotchfort (pre-Confederation), and Rocky Point (1913). Instead, as
Indian Agent Theophilus Stewart stated in 1875, “Old fashioned camps, and structures of an
improved character form the rest of the habitation, numbering about fifty-six, embracing
different Indian localities throughout Prince Edward Island.”
Continuing on to agricultural and craftsmanship pursuits in response to the time period, Mi'kmaq
life changed and evolved along with the era. By mid-19th century, only a handful of families
lived year round on Lennox Island. The majority of Mi’kmaq hunted and fished and earned
money selling firewood and handcrafted goods. The men fashioned barrels, furniture, ship
fittings, brooms, axe handles, snowshoes, and canoes. The women made beaded cloth goods,
birch bark utensils embroidered with animal hair, and wood splint baskets. Baskets, wooden
items, mayflowers, and other goods were, in many cases sold from door-to-door with the
Mi'kmaq extensively using the PEI railway system to travel to different harvesting campsites and
to sell their goods.
Making campsites in farmer’s fields and in the wooded areas all over PEI throughout the early
part of the 20th century, many Mi'kmaq families continued to hunt, fish and trap, as well as
gathering the materials necessary to make baskets and other wooden items. In the words of one
local resident: “Each summer, until the 1930’s, they came to this community and camped along
the shores of Cascumpec Bay and Mill River…Some of the shores in this area where the Indians
camped each year were: Thomas’, Gamble’s, Rayner’s, Gordon’s, Meggison’s, Dominic
Arsenault’s, and Hudson’s.” Another resident states, “…there were Native families living in the
Ashton, Naufrage, and Selkirk area until the 1960’s…”
The Mi'kmaq emerged from this time period as a strong and vibrant community, fully engaged in
this changing world we live in. Despite being denied the rights and privileges as “citizens” of
Canada, the Mi'kmaq of PEI were proud to fight for the freedom of all Canadians. The outbreak
of World War I led the Mi'kmaq to enlist more recruits per capita than any other group on Prince
Edward Island. World War II and the Korean War brought a similar response from the Mi'kmaq
population. It was not until 1956 that an amendment to the Citizenship Act allowed the Mi'kmaq
to become citizens of Canada, and, in 1960, they were finally given the right to vote in federal
and provincial elections, without any loss of their Status under the Indian Act.
10 Nov 2010
Tammy MacDonald, Research Director, MCPEI
The 1970’s saw the creation of the Abegweit Band, encompassing the Morell, Scotchfort and
Rocky Point Reserves members, with Lennox Island Reserve remaining as the center of the
Lennox Island Band. The 1970’s also saw the beginning of a series of movements on PEI, each
bringing with it a resurgence of identity. Mi'kmaq basket and craft making associations were
created. PEI chapters of Aboriginal organizations were formed, such as the Native Council of
PEI and the PEI Aboriginal Women’s Association. As well, the Mi'kmaq Confederacy of PEI
was formed in 2002, creating a forum with a common voice for the common interests of the two
Mi'kmaq First Nations of PEI.
10 Nov 2010