Written in April 1764 to King George III, British sea captain wrote that he’d renewed treaty
NationTalk: SALTWIRE – Back in 1725, there were treaties signed between Britain and the Mi’kmaq nation known as the Peace and Friendship treaties.
These treaties allowed the British and the Mi’kmaq to live and work side by side, explained Keith Cormier, former western vice-chief of Qalipu First Nation and the provincial coordinator for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The treaties were later removed in the 1750s.
However, the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia had been saying for years that the Ktaqmkuk district, which is Newfoundland, had renewed its treaty in 1763 off Codroy Island.
“The federal government and the province have said, ‘You have no treaty, that there’s no proof that was ever signed.’ Well, in the summer, a young researcher found a letter from Samuel Thompson, who was the skipper of the boat, the Lark,” he explained.
“Sometimes people call it the Lark Treaty.”
The letter
The letter was written in April of 1764 to King George III. In the letter, Thompson wrote that he had two chiefs from Cape Breton on his boat off Codroy Island to renew the treaty with King George.
“It’s beautifully written,” said Cormier.
There is also a list of gifts that the Mi’kmaq chiefs wanted in return for signing the treaty, he continued.
“(Captain Thompson) was going to bring the stuff back to Newfoundland in 1764,” Cormier said.
“I’ve made government aware of that document. So we’ll go from there in the discussions.
“We haven’t had any further discussions with the minister’s office on the finding of that particular document and I’m sure there’s going to be questions.”
– Avery VelezThe researcher
Avery Velez, a PhD student at Memorial University’s Grenfell Campus in a program called Transdisciplinary Sustainability, is the researcher who located the letter in England in June.
“My research is on the Mi’kmaw eel fishery in Flat Bay,” explained Velez. “That’s relevant to treaties because, as you probably know, Mi’kmaq in Newfoundland don’t have any recognized rights under treaties, and most of us don’t have recognized aboriginal rights either, which is really frustrating.”
Velez is a research assistant on a project called Marine Biomass Innovation, which funded his trip to England to look through the archives for anything relevant to Mi’kmaq history in relation to the fisheries.
“I was specifically looking for stuff about treaties,” he said. “I knew that this letter that I found existed because two other authors had referred to it in their works.
“I knew it existed, but I didn’t know what it said because neither of them reproduced the letter in its entirety; they just kind of summarized it, and they didn’t refer to where exactly it was. So I spent about 12 days in the archive looking for it, and I did finally find it.”
‘Implies the existence of treaty rights’
Velez took a picture and shared the letter with a couple of people on Facebook and over text, as he felt it was important for people to know what it said.
“I think it’s really cool, and it definitely implies the existence of treaty rights and relationships in Newfoundland in a way that people still deny quite a bit, and so it could be really helpful in the future if we can find a bit more to go with it,” he said.
Finding the letter could have a lot of meaning in getting recognition of the Mi’kmaq people’s long-standing relationships with the land, he added
.
“It could have a big significance for protecting our rights to hunt and fish and harvest from the land in a way that’s not protected at all right now,” he explained. “Specifically from my research on the eel fishery, right now, it’s literally illegal to teach your kids how to fish for eels, and that’s a really important cultural fishery, and so it could change everything for that.”
The letter was found in a binder called ‘Captain’s Letters’. – Avery Velez/ContributedCovered by treaty
Cormier explained that a man from Nova Scotia was previously charged with selling eels, but the government said he wasn’t covered by the treaties.
“The Mi’kmaq Grand Council and the Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia took it all the way to the Supreme Court and, yes, the Peace and Friendship treaty was upheld as a right,” he said.
“The rights in that treaty are upheld by the Mi’kmaq in Mi’kma’ki, which is most of New Brunswick, Gaspé, Nova Scotia, PEI, I think the Magdalen Islands and most of Newfoundland.”
Cormier emphasized that people need to know that they’re covered by the same Peace and Friendship Treaty as the Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia, as the Grand Council has been saying for decades.
More evidence needed
In terms of the letter’s implication on treaty rights, Velez said he doesn’t believe it’s the right time to fight on this just yet.
“I think we need more evidence and we need more work on how it’s going to be governed before we get ahead of ourselves,” he said.
“An acknowledgement from the government of Newfoundland and Labrador that we’ve always been here is not something that they’ve done yet.
“Acknowledging that there could be treaty rights here would be really cool, but I don’t really have any hope that that would happen based on how the government has responded to things like this in the past.”
Anasophie Vallee · Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Anasophie Vallée is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering Indigenous and rural issues.
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