Nova Scotia Archives

Mi'kmaw Teaching and Learning Resources

Letter from James Sparling to William Ross regarding white encroachers on Mi'kmaq land at Wagmatcook. Asks government to do something.
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

130
[illegible] 20th[July] 1861
Dear sir
As the Representatives of [?therein]
County _ The people residing on the Indian
reserves have requested me to inform
You and Mr. [?Gemmall] of their [present]
position You doubtless are aware that
Mr. Hendry an agent of the Gov has
[Given] them notice to quit their [possessions]

These people I believe about [fourteen]
in number being [with] one or two exceptions
Your warm and zealous supporters [?consider]
they have a peculiar claim upon Your
sympathy _ Can you do nothing for
them in their [pursuit] emerging for I
must say their case is peculiarly a [most]
[painful] one to contemplate Fourteen
men with their [helpless] Families cast
out upon [the] [?Winter] after labouring
hard several Years and enduring every
privation to make a Home in this
Wilderness. About three years ago Mr.
Fairbanks


Date: 1861

Retrieval no.: Commissioner of Public Records — Mi'kmaq and Government Relations series Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 431 number 130

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=366

Crown copyright © 2026, Province of Nova Scotia.