Nova Scotia Archives

Mi'kmaw Teaching and Learning Resources

Letter from Thomas Crawley to Sir R. George regarding the surveying of Mi'kmaq reserves in Cape Breton to allow the Mi'kmaq to better preserve and defend their lands.
view page 1 2 3 4 view transcript 1 2 3 4

close

note: transcription publicly contributed - please contact us with comments, errors or omisions

(178
Dear Sir
I acknowledge the receipt of your note dated 14th. March with the Commission for examining Plots. Also that of the 23rd. March announcing His Excellency's decision in favor of the Widow [?Brian], with which she has [good] [reason] to be satisfied.

I am right glad that my [illegible] of the Reservations for Indians have had the good fortune to attract your attention. With much regret I had given up all hopes of anything being done for our unfortunate and Brethren _ [Though] sorry for their disappointment, I have been more [concerned] on account of the [impression] which [an] apparent want of faith must [make] on their minds _ I should be ashamed to [meet] any of their old men to whom I understood the most [unrestrained] promise of a Grant was made _ The promise however not being performed. I wrote to our friend [?Hill] the 21st, Decr. and begged him to [propose] to His Excellency that the boundary lines of the Indians Reservations should be traced by a Surveyor to [?reserve], at least some [pretext] for [?plundering] their [?Timbers]; to which I do not find any


Date: 1831

Retrieval no.: Commissioner of Public Records — Mi'kmaq and Government Relations series Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 430 number 178

Questions to Consider

  • When do you think the document was written?



  • Who do you think wrote the document?



  • Why do you think the document was written



  • Who do you think received the document?



  • Who do you think this document was written for?



  • What information do you think this document provides? What do you think it tells us about the past?



  • How do you think the document reflects the attitudes and values of the time period in which it was written?



  • What impact do you think the document had at the time it was written?



    • Do you think those were different impacts for different people?



               

Nova Scotia Archives — https://archives.novascotia.ca/teaching-learning/mikmaq/archives/?ID=207

Crown copyright © 2026, Province of Nova Scotia.