Nova Scotia Archives

Mi'kmaw Teaching and Learning Resources

Petition of James Paul, Mi'kmaq Chief, and others, to the House of Assembly requesting aid for the Mi'kmaq to build a schoolhouse at Shubenacadie. Partially certified by Rev. John M. MacLeod.
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

121
To the Honorable, the Representatives of the Province of Nova Scotia, in General Assembly convened.

The Petition of the undersigned, James Paul, a chief of the Micmac Indians, and others, humbly showeth
That your Petitiners have seen with greef [grief] the gradual extinction of our game, and our former means of subsistance, by the clearing up of the country by the white people, while no adequate means of support have been supplied to us in return. In the United States and Canada provision has been made by the government for educating and civilizing the Indians, and in those countries they are rapidly adopting the habits, and practicing the trades and employments of the whites, while the condition of the Micmacs of this country is becoming worse and worse every


Date: 1861

Retrieval no.: Commissioner of Public Records — Mi'kmaq and Government Relations series Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 431 number 121

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=357

Crown copyright © 2026, Province of Nova Scotia.