Description

There were about three hundred
Micmac Indians on Prince Edward
Island in the early decades of the
nineteenth century. That is, about three
hundred at any one time, for the native
people continued to move freely over
their tribal lands in Cape Breton, Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Gaspe
peninsula. Small quantities of land were
reserved for them in the other colonies,
but none in Prince Edward Island.
Practically the whole island had been
granted to favourites of the British
Crown in 1767. A few Indians lived year
round at Lennox Island, on the sufferance
of one of the proprietors, and there
they gathered for the St. Ann's Day
festivities each July. The colonial government
had almost no Crown lands to
call its own and, even with the best will
in the world, would have been hardpressed
to find a place to establish an
Indian reserve. Not that the best will in
the world was apparent, for conventional
wisdom held that the Indians were
doomed to die out completely and, this
being so, there was little point in making
any exertions to save them.