A Sense of Home: Mi’kmaq and Relocation Policies in the Early Twentieth Century

Abstract

The Department of Indian Affairs formally enforced its centralization policy from 1942 to 1949 with the goal of removing all Mi’kmaq living in over twenty communities in Nova Scotia to two reserves. This thesis explores Mi’kmaw concepts of home and homeland between the seventeenth and early twentieth centuries to better understand the Mi’kmaw experience of forced relocation. This thesis relies on language, stories and oral histories to unsilence Mi’kmaw voices in the historical narrative. It pays particular attention to the experiences and contributions of Mi’kmaw women to address a gap in the literature. The family was the heart of Mi’kmaw society and the wikuom, or wigwam, provided a home that allowed L’nu’k, The People, to connect to homelands. Mi’kmaw used petitions to assert political sovereignty and express ownership and property rights. Centralization failed but radically altered Mi’kmaw political structure, disrupting kin networks and connections to traditional homelands.