The Miꞌkmaq ( , ; singular: Miꞌkmaw, also Lꞌnuk and formerly Micmac) see page 418, note 2Sock, S., & Paul-Gould, S. (2011). Best Practices and Challenges in Miꞌkmaq and Maliseet/Wolastoqi Language Immersion Programs. are an Indigenous group of people of the Northeastern Woodlands, native to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces, primarily Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as Native Americans in the northeastern region of Maine. The traditional national territory of the Miꞌkmaq is named Miꞌkmaꞌki (or Mi'gma'gi); it is one of the five confederated Wabanaki (or Dawnland) countries.
As of 2023, there are 66,748 Miꞌkmaq people in the region; this includes 25,182 members in the more recently formed Qalipu First Nation in Newfoundland."Thousands of Qalipu Miꞌkmaq applicants rejected again" , CBC, Dec 08, 2017. According to the Canadian 2021 census, 9,245 people claim to speak Miꞌkmawi'simk, an Eastern Algonquian language. Once written in Miꞌkmaw hieroglyphic writing, it is now written using most letters of the Latin alphabet.
The Miꞌkmaq, Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet), and Pasamaquoddy nations signed a series of treaties known as the Peace and Friendship Treaties with the British Crown throughout the 18th century; the first was signed in 1725, and the last in 1779. The Miꞌkmaq maintain that they did not cede or give up their land title to Miꞌkmaꞌki or other rights through these Peace and Friendship Treaties. The landmark 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision in R v Marshall upheld the 1752 Peace and Friendship Treaty "which promised Indigenous Peoples the right to hunt and fish their lands and establish trade."
The Miꞌkmaq Grand Council is the official authority that engages in consultation with the Canadian federal government and the provincial government of Nova Scotia, as established by the historic August 30, 2010, agreement with the Miꞌkmaq Nation, resulting from the Miꞌkmaq–Nova Scotia–Canada Tripartite Forum. This collaborative agreement, which includes all the First Nations within the province of Nova Scotia, was the first in Canadian history.
Historically, the Santeꞌ Mawioꞌmi, or Grand Council—which was made up of district councils and chiefs, or saqamaq, of Miꞌkmaꞌki—was the traditional senior level of government for the Miꞌkmaq people. The 1876 Indian Act disrupted that authority, by requiring First Nations to establish representative elected governments along the Canadian model, and attempting to limit the Council's role to spiritual guidance.
Etymology Miꞌkmaq (singular: Miꞌkmaw) comes from the word niꞌkmaq meaning "my friends". There exist various spelling conventions resulting in forms like Miꞌgmaq (sing.: Miꞌgmaw) and Míkmaq (sing.: Mígmaw). The singular form (Miꞌkmaw) is also used as the adjectival form, as seen in "Miꞌkmaw Nation". Alternatively, Miꞌkmaq use the terms Lꞌnu (plural: Lꞌnuk, meaning "the people") to describe themselves.
Grand Council Santeꞌ Mawioꞌmi On August 30, 2010, the Miꞌkmaq Nation and the Nova Scotia provincial government reached a historic agreement, affirming that the Miꞌkmaq Grand Council was the official consultative authority that engages with the Canadian federal government and the provincial government of Nova Scotia. The Miꞌkmaq–Nova Scotia–Canada Tripartite Forum preceded the agreement. The August 2010 agreement is the first such collaborative agreement in Canadian history; it includes representation for all the First Nations within the entire province of Nova Scotia.
Historically the Santeꞌ Mawioꞌmi, or Grand Council, which was made up of chiefs of the district councils of Miꞌkmaꞌki, was the traditional senior level of government for the Miꞌkmaq people. The 1876 Indian Act disrupted that authority, by requiring First Nations to establish representative elected governments and attempting to limit the Council's role to that of spiritual guidance.
In addition to the district councils, the Miꞌkmaq have been traditionally governed by a Grand Council or Santeꞌ Mawioꞌmi. The Grand Council was composed of Keptinaq ("captains" in English), who were the district chiefs. There were also elders, the putús (wampum belt readers and historians, who also dealt with the treaties with the non-Natives and other Native tribes), the women's council, and the grand chief. The grand chief was a title given to one of the district chiefs, who was usually from the Miꞌkmaq district of Unamáki or Cape Breton Island. This title was hereditary within a clan and usually passed on to the grand chief's eldest son.
On June 24, 1610, Grand Chief Membertou converted to Catholicism and was baptised. He concluded an alliance with the French Jesuits. The Miꞌkmaq, as trading allies of the French, were amenable to limited French settlement in their midst.
Gabriel Sylliboy (1874–1964), a respected Miꞌkmaq religious leader and traditional Grand Chief of the Council, was elected as the Council's Grand Chief in 1918. Repeatedly re-elected, he held this position for the rest of his life.
In 1927, Grand Chief Sylliboy was charged by Nova Scotia with hunting muskrat pelts out of season. He was the first to use the rights defined in the Treaty of 1752 in his court defence. He lost his case. In 1985, the Supreme Court of Canada finally recognized the 1752 treaty rights for Indigenous hunting and fishing in their ruling on R v Simon. On the 50th anniversary of Sylliboy's death, the Grand Council asked the Nova Scotia government for a pardon for the late Grand Chief. Premier Stephen McNeil granted the posthumous pardon in 2017. Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, John James Grant, McNeil, and the Justice Minister Diana Whalen, pardoned Sylliboy and issued a formal apology: it was the "second posthumous pardon in Nova Scotia's history". His grandson, Andrew Denny, now the Grand Keptin of the Council, said that his grandfather had "commanded respect. Young people who were about to get married would go and ask for his blessing. At the Chapel Island Mission boats would stop if he was crossing."
Traditionally, the Grand Council met on a small island, Mniku, on the Bras d'Or Lake in Cape Breton. In the early 21st century, this site is now within the reserve known as Chapel Island or Potlotek. The Grand Council continues to meet at Mniku to discuss current issues within the Miꞌkmaq Nation.
Taqamkuk (Newfoundland) was historically defined as part of Unama'kik territory. (Later the large island was organized as a separate district in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.)
Miꞌkmaq language
According to the 2021 census, 9,245 people identified as speakers of the Miꞌkmaq language. 4,910 of which said it was their mother tongue, and 2,595 reported it to be their most often spoken language at home.
Hieroglyphic writing The Miꞌkmaq language was written using Miꞌkmaq hieroglyphic writing using a hieroglyphic system created in 1677 by French Catholic missionary Chrestien Le Clerq. Le Clerq noted that the Miꞌkmaq children were memorizing prayers utilizing the counting of marks, but did not claim to have incorporated any of this system into the hieroglyphs he created. It is likely that this pre-Le Clerq writing system was part of a writing tradition by the Miꞌkmaq similar to that observed in 1651 amongst the Eastern Abenaki of Maine. Today, it is written mainly using letters of the Latin alphabet.
At the Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site, petroglyphs of "life-ways of the Miꞌkmaq", include written hieroglyphics, human figures, Miꞌkmaq houses and lodges, decorations including crosses, sailing vessels, and animals, etched into slate rocks. These are attributed to the Miꞌkmaq, who have continuously inhabited the area since prehistoric times. The petroglyphs date from the late prehistoric period through the nineteenth century.
Jerry Lonecloud (1854 – 1930, Miꞌkmaq) is considered the "ethnographer of the Miꞌkmaq nation". In 1912, he transcribed some of the Kejimkujik petroglyphs, and donated his works to the Nova Scotia Museum. He is credited with the first Miꞌkmaq memoir, which was recorded from his oral history in the 1920s.
In the late 1670s, French missionary Chrestien Le Clercq, who was working in the Gaspé Peninsula, was inspired by marks made by a young Miꞌkmaq using charcoal on birchbark. Leclercq created what is now known as Miꞌkmaq hieroglyphic writing to teach Catholic prayers and hymns to the people in their own unique form of language. After Le Clerq's returned to France in 1687, the script had to be taught to other groups of Miꞌkmaq by other missionaries, indicating it was not a script that the Indigenous peoples already knew.
Christian Kauder was a Luxembourg missionary in Miꞌkmaꞌki from 1856 to 1871. He included samples of Miꞌkmaq hieroglyphic writing, such as the Holy Mary Rosary prayer and the Lord's Prayer, in his German Christian catechism published in Vienna in 1866.
David L. Schmidt and Murdena Marshall published some of the prayers, narratives, and liturgies represented in hieroglyphs—pictographic symbols in a 1995 book. As noted, the pre-contact Miꞌkmaq utilized some form of writing, but Le Clerq indicated that the hieroglyphs were "formed" by him. French Jesuit missionaries adopted their use to teach Catholic prayers and religion to the Miꞌkmaq. Schmidt and Marshall showed that these hieroglyphics served as a fully functional writing system. They assert it is the oldest writing system for an Indigenous language in North America north of Mexico.
Etymology of the word Miꞌkmaq By the 1980s, the spelling of the ethnonym Miꞌkmaq, which is preferred by the Miꞌkmaw people, was widely adopted by scholarly publications and the media. It replaced the previous spelling Micmac.Anne-Christine Hornbord is a Lund University professor of history of religions; she conducted fieldwork on reservations of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, and Canada in 1992–1993, 1996 and 2000. Although this older spelling is still in use, the Miꞌkmaq consider the spelling "Micmac" to be "tainted" by colonialism. The "q" ending is used in the plural form of the noun, and Miꞌkmaw is used as singular of Miꞌkmaq. It is also used as an adjective, for example, "the Miꞌkmaw nation".
The Miꞌkmaq prefer to use one of the three current Miꞌkmaq orthographies when writing the language."It is now the preferred choice of our People." See Paul:2000. Spellings used by Miꞌkmaq people include Miꞌkmaq (singular Miꞌkmaw) in Prince Edward Island (Epekw'itk), Nova Scotia (Miꞌkmaꞌki-Unama'ki), and Newfoundland (K'taqamkuk); Miigmaq (Miigmao) in New Brunswick (Sipekni'katik); Mi'gmaq by the Listuguj Council in Quebec (Kespek); and Mìgmaq (Mìgmaw) in some Native literature.
Lnu (the adjectival and singular noun, previously spelled "Lꞌnu"; the plural is Lnúk, Lnuꞌk, Lnuꞌg, or Lnùg) is the term the Miꞌkmaq use for themselves, their autonym, meaning "human being" or "the people". Members of the Miꞌkmaq historically referred to themselves as Lnu, but used the term níkmaq (my kin) as a greeting.
The French initially referred to the Miꞌkmaq as Souriquois and later as Gaspesiens. Adopting a term from the English, they referred to them as Mickmakis. The British originally referred to the people as Tarrantines, which appears to have a French basis.