Military history of the Mi'kmaq people

Mi’kmaq militias were made up of Mi’kmaq warriors (Smáknisk) who worked independently as well as in coordination with the Wabanaki Confederacy, French and Acadian forces throughout the colonial period to defend their homeland Mi’kma’ki against the English (the British after 1707). The Mi'kmaq militias deployed effective resistance for over 75 years before treaties were created and the Burial of the Hatchet Ceremony took place (1761). In the nineteenth century, the Mi'kmaq "boasted" that, in their contest with the British, the Mi'kmaq "killed more men than they lost". In 1753, Charles Morris stated that the Mi'kmaq have the advantage of "no settlement or place of abode, but wandering from place to place in unknown and, therefore, inaccessible woods, is so great that it has hitherto rendered all attempts to surprise them ineffectual". Leadership on both sides of the conflict employed standard colonial warfare, which included scalping non-combatants (e.g., families). After some engagements against the British during the American Revolution, the militias were dormant throughout the nineteenth century, while the Mi'kmaq people used diplomatic efforts to have the local authorities honour the treaties. After confederation, Mi’kmaq warriors eventually joined the Canadian war efforts in World War I and World War II. The most well-known colonial leaders of these militias were Chief (sakamaw) Jean-Baptiste Cope and Chief Étienne Bâtard.

According to Jacques Cartier, the Battle at Bae de Bic happened in the spring of 1534, 100 Iroquois warriors massacred a group of 200 Mi’kmaq camped on Massacre Island in the St. Lawrence River. Bae de Bic was an annual gather place for the Mi’kmaq along the St. Lawrence. Mi’kmaq scouting parties notified the village that the Iroquois attack the evening before the morning attack. They evacuated 30 of the infirm and elderly and about 200 Mi’kmaq vacated their encampment on the shore and retreated to an island in the bay. They took cover in a cave on the island and covered the entrance with branches. The Iroquois arrived at the vacate village in the morning. Finding it vacated, they divided into search parties but failed to find the Mi’kmaq until the morning of the next day.

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