Brian Cuthbertson - Stubborn Resistance: New Brunswick Maliseet and Mi Kmaq in Defence of Their Lands

M y purpose in writing this book is to tell the story of New Brunswicks Maliseet and Mikmaw resistance to the loss of lands that had been set aside in good faith as reserves for them. The story begins with the twenty thousand acres Chief John Julian of the North West Miramichi River Tribe received for his loyalty to George III during the American Revolution. It ends in 1974 with the Department of Indian Affairs decision to remove squatters from the Red Bank Reserve on the Little South West Miramichi River instead of insisting on a surrender of the reserve lands for sale to the squatters. The story has contemporary relevance because of the dramatically changing relationship between First Nations and Canada as reflected in the ongoing negotiations over such issues as environmental concerns, education, and governance. Although the paternalistic role of Indian Affairs that so dominated in the past has dramatically changed, I hope the story, as I tell it, reminds our generation that much of present attitudes have historical roots that cannot be ignored.

In the case of New Brunswick, the past is still very much with us because of the 1844 Act to Regulate the Management and Disposal of the Indian Reserves. The act gave the government of the day the legislative authority to auction reserve lands, regardless of opposition by the Maliseet and Mikmaq, who had been occupying these lands for generations. The method chosen was to sell by public auction lots of reserve lands occupied by squatters and other reserve lands, which could then be opened to settlement by non-Aboriginals. The money raised by sales was to create an Indian Fund for their permanent betterment. As I describe it, the act failed on both accounts: as a means of improving the livelihood of the Maliseet and the Mikmaq and of dealing with the squatters who, with few exceptions, refused to purchase the lots they illegally occupied. As a result, the substantial funds predicted by the government for the Indian Fund never materialized, the Maliseet and Mikmaq still on the reserves received no financial benefit from the sales made, and they also lost the lands occupied by squatters.

Even at the time the 1844 act was passed, there were doubts whether the government could sell reserve lands. It is an open question today, in the context of more recent court decisions favourable to Aboriginal peoples, whether the 1844 act could be challenged. Between 1849 and 1867, under the authority of the 1844 act, the government put 20,456 acres up for auction that were lost to eleven New Brunswick reserves of the time. Most of these reserves still exist. If a court challenge proved successful, the compensation could be in the tens of millions of dollars.

The genesis of this book derives from a series of reports that I researched and prepared for the New Brunswick First Nations of Red Bank (now Metepenagiag), Buctouche, and Tobique. Copies of these reports, with their indexed documentation in bound volumes, have been deposited with the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick in Fredericton.

The objective was to submit these reports for Red Bank, Buctouche, and Tobique under the specific claims policy of the Department of Indian Affairs (now Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada). Generally, the term