When New Brunswick became its own colony in 1784, the government concluded several peace treaties with the Mi’kmaq and Maliseet in the territory that protected First Nations lands. But as settlers, loyalists, and disbanded soldiers moved into New Brunswick, they moved onto the reserves, often without official sanction. This squatter problem led the New Brunswick government to pass an act in 1844 that allowed them to sell reserve land. Author Brian Cuthbertson explores the history of the defense of reserve lands by the Maliseet and Mi’kmaq of New Brunswick, from eighteenth-century peace treaties to the present. With reference to the 1844 act, Cuthbertson examines the legality of the sale of reserve lands using specific cases from Buctouche, Red Bank, Tobique, and Burnt Church and Eel Ground. Includes 60 images, including maps and contemporary paintings and sketches.

BRIAN CUTHBERTSON is a leading historian of Nova Scotia. He has worked as an archivist for the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, is the former published and editor of the Nova Scotia Historical Review and is the former Head of Heritage for Nova Scotia. He has been writing on Nova Scotia history since he first published a biography in 1978 of Richard John Uniacke, entitled The Old Attorney General. Since his retirement in 1995 he has devoted much of his time to research and writing, and is the author of several books on Nova Scotia history, including illustrated histories of the towns of Lunenburg and Wolfville, John Cabot and the Voyage of the Matthew, Johnny Bluenose at the Polls: Epic Nova Scotian Election Battles 1758-1848, and The Halifax Citadel: Portrait of a Military Fortress.

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