Mi'kmaq Language

The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the northeastern region of Maine. The traditional national territory of the Mi'kmaq is named Miꞌkmaꞌki (or Miꞌgmaꞌgi).

There are 170,000 Mi'kmaq people in the region, (including 18,044 members in the recently formed Qalipu First Nation in Newfoundland.) Nearly 11,000 members speak Miꞌkmaq, an Eastern Algonquian language. Once written in Miꞌkmaw hieroglyphic writing, it is now written using most letters of the Latin alphabet.

The Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, and Pasamaquoddy nations signed a series of treaties known as the Covenant Chain of Peace and Friendship Treaties with the British Crown throughout the eighteenth 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 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 Miꞌkmaw 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 ''Santé Mawiómi'', or Grand Council, which was made up of chiefs of the district councils of ''Miꞌkmaꞌki'', was the traditional senior level of government for the Miꞌkmaw 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.

Grand Council ''Santé Mawiómi''

On August 30, 2010, the Miꞌkmaw Nation and the Nova Scotia provincial government reached an historic agreement, affirming that the Miꞌkmaw 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 ''Santé Mawiómi'', or Grand Council, which was made up of chiefs of the district councils of ''Miꞌkmaꞌki'', was the traditional senior level of government for the Miꞌkmaw 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 Mꞌikmaq have been traditionally governed by a Grand Council or ''Santé Mawiómi''. 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 Miꞌkmaw 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 Mi'kmaq 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 Unamaꞌkik territory. (Later the large island was organized as a separate district in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.)

Miꞌkmaq language

According to the 2016 census, of the total population of 168,420 Miꞌkmaq, 7,140 or 4% identified as speakers of the Miꞌkmaq language.

Hieroglyphic writing

The Mi'kmaq language was written using Miꞌkmaq hieroglyphic writing. 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 Mi'kmaw", include written hieroglyphics, human figures, Mi'kmaq houses and lodges, decorations including crosses, sailing vessels, and animals, etched into slate rocks. These are attributed to the Mi'kmaw, 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, Mi'kmaq) is considered the "ethnographer of the Micmac 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 Mi'kmaq 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 hieroglyphics made by a young Mi'kmaq using charcoal on birchbark. Leclercq adopted the use of Mi'kmaq hieroglyphs to teach Catholic prayers and hymns to the people in their own form of language.

Christian Kauder was a missionary in ''Miꞌkmaꞌki'' from 1856 to 1871. He included samples of Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing, such as the Holy Mary Rosary prayer and the Lord's Prayer, in his German Christian catechism published 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 Mi'kmaq developed these hieroglyphs. French Jesuit missionaries adopted their use to teach Catholic prayers and religion to the Mi'kmaw. 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