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1 - 1979 - Opening of show at Albert White Gallery features wall hangings by Suzanne Swannie based on Mi'kmaq designs executed by Margaret Johnson, Patricia Dennis, Phyllis Denny, Francis Paul, and Marlene Christmas.
1995 - Over 150 Big Cove residents gather at the local school to participate in World Aids Day.
1918 - DECEMBER 1, SAQAMAW LUPE'N (REUBEN LOUIS) DIED. SAQAMAW NUELL GIETOL (NOEL JEDDORE) WAS APPOINTED CARETAKER SAQAMAW UNTIL SAQAMAW-IN WAITING ANTLE JOE, NEPHEW OF SAQAMAW LUPE'N WAS OLD ENOUGH.
2 - 1986 - Founding First Nations Afton, Acadia, Horton, Millbrook, Pictou Landing, and Shubenacadie attend the first meeting of the Confederacy of Mainland Mi'kmaq at the Halifax District Office of the Department of Indian Affairs.
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6 - 1752 - Treaty Articles of Peace and Friendship renewed in enclosure in letter of Governor Thomas Hopson to the Earl of Holdernesse.
1917 - "Turtle Grove" a Mi'kmaq community at Tuft's Cove is destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. The history of Tuft's Cove remains unknown and the village was never re-built. An oil painting of a Mi'kmaq encampment at Tuft's Cove, circa 1837, still exists, attributable to William Eager (1796-1839).
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8 - 1985 - Micmac News reports Dr. Paul Robinson, speaking at a Mi'kmaq Association of Cultural Studies Conference, says Mi'kmaq should realize their language is being replaced by English.
9 - 1985 - Simon Denny rescues Junior Johnson, who had fallen through the ice at Eskasoni.
10 - 1976 - "No Trespassing" sign erected at 3:15 p.m. at entrance to Membertou is removed 45 minutes later. Discriminatory nature of sign is cited as reason for its removal.
1987 - Premier Brian Peckford of Newfoundland is quoted in the St. John's Evening Telegram, "The Micmac people were no more Aboriginal to the island of Newfoundland than were the Peckfords, who came here in 1791." This attitude led to many problems with recognition of Mi'kmaq land claims on the part of the provincial government.
1991 - Noel Raymond Knockwood receives a Meritorious Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Rights at Province House, Halifax.
1992 - The late Chief Richard McEwan is honoured at the 25th Anniversary Dinner of the Human Rights Commission held at the World Trade and Convention Centre. Daughter Judy McEwan accepts a certificate on behalf of the family. McEwan was chief of Bear River First Nation from 1963 - 1975 and died in 1991 at age 83. He compiled a Mi'kmaq dictionary and published "Memories of a Micmac Life" in 1987.
1997 - Danny Christmas of Membertou First Nation receives the Tom Miller Human Rights Award at City Hall in Sydney.
11 - 1985 - Federal cabinet agrees Miawpukek to be officially recognized as reserve. Province of Newfoundland is reluctant to agree and serious discussions do not begin until November 1986. We are notified officially on Feb 4, 1986. Reserve established June 25, 1987.
12 - 1976 - Fire destroys St. Anne's Church at Chapel Island.
1991 - Judge Graydon Nicholas receives the 1991 Human Rights Award from the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission. Nicholas grew up in Tobique First Nation.
1999 - Horton First Nation hosts its Elders Christmas Tea and honours past chiefs Louis Peters/ Bear River, Michael Francis/ Annapolis Valley Band, Rita Smith/ Horton, and Joseph Peters/Horton.
1999 - Seymour Doucette of Eskasoni represents Canada at the World Bench Press Championships in Vaasa, Finland. The Mi'kmaq flag is raised among the flags of other participating nations.
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14 - 1982- SAQAMAW WILLIAM JOE AND MIAWPUKEK MI'KMAQ FILE COMPLAINT AGAINST NEWFOUNDLAND GOVERNMENT FOR VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
1985 - The film, "Our Lives in Our Hands" produced by Harald Prins and Karen Carter premieres in New York at the Kaufmann Theatre. The film shows traditional basket making among the Aroostook County Mi'kmaq.
1995 - William Julian "Checker" Bernard, age 81, dies in Eskasoni. He was the last surviving WW II veteran in Eskasoni and served for 64 years as Chief of Police for the Grand Council at the St. Anne Mission, Chapel Island.
15 - 1725 - Agreement is signed in Boston ending 3 years of war between Massachusetts, North Hampshire, Nova Scotia, and the Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Mi'kmaq.
1964 - A final Christmas party is held for students of the school at Membertou Reserve. In 1965, students would move to the non-Aboriginal schools in Sydney.
16 - 1971 - The December issue of the Micmac News reports the jackpot at the Eskasoni Parish Bingo is $460. and rising!
17 - 1986 - Nova Scotia Aboriginal Affairs Minister Edmund Morris says the province will oppose Mi'kmaq sovereignty, comparing the Mi'kmaq to Separatists in Quebec.
18 - Saqamaw Noel Jeddore, our traditional Saqamaw, who was forced into exile by Fr. Saint Croix, was born this day in 1865 at the Indian Point in Head of Baie d' Espoir. His father Nicholas Jeddore and family owned the land in that flat area below Foodland.
] 1918 - Conn River, Newfoundland SAQAMAW LUPE'N (REUBEN LOUIS) DIED. SAQAMAW NUELL GIETOL (NOEL JEDDORE) WAS APPOINTED CARETAKER SAQAMAW UNTIL SAQAMAW-IN WAITING ANTLE JOE, NEPHEW OF SAQAMAW LUPE'N WAS OLD ENOUGH.
19 - 1995 - Halifax District School Board passes a motion to implement the first Aboriginal, Black, and Visible Ethnocultural Anti-Racism Policy in Nova Scotia.
20 - 1985 - Micmac News celebrates its 15th Anniversary at a party for past and present employees.
21 - 1878 - Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper features a drawing rendered by H.A. Ogden depicting the presentation of Mi'kmaq men to the Marquis of Lorne in the Council Chamber of the Provincial Building in Halifax, November 26, 1878.
22 - 1955 - Mrs. Sally Sark of Pictou Landing, upon returning from a selling trip in Amherst, loses her footpath in a blinding snowstorm and perishes. Known as "Old Sally", Mrs. Sack was 101 years old. When asked about her health Old Sally said, "I am an old tree. I withstood the storms almost 100 winters, but my eyes are a little dim and my hands are becoming lazy, and if God calls me, I will go like a wind."
23 - 1982- SAQAMAW WILLIAM JOE AND ELDER MARTIN JEDDORE KILLED IN AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT. MARTIN JEDDORE WAS ONE OF THE FIRST ORGANIZERS OF THE MIAWPUKEK MI'KMAQ
1973- NANL AND CONNE RIVER PROTESTED THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PROVINCIAL PARK AT JIPU'JI'J KUEU QOSPEMK.
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25 - Nipialasutmamk - Christmas Day.
1975 - Boston Globe reports the 250 year old remains of an Aboriginal child currently on display at the Phillips Academy's Peabody Museum will be buried in a Waponoag graveyard. This was largely due to the lobbying of Mi'kmaw Gill Gallant who said, "Speaking as an Indian for Indian people, we're not extinct and we don't like being treated as though we were."
26 - Poqtamkiaq Pestie'wa'taqatimk - Boxing Day.
27 - 1824 - The Halifax Journal reports that Chief Andrew Meuse of Bear River had journeyed to England to request a land grant from the British government so his family and friends could farm in Nova Scotia.
1978 - Peter Wilmot dies at age 106. He is estimated to have killed over 300 moose in his lifetime, the last when he was 98. He also served as chief at Pictou Landing.
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31 - 1784 - Cape Breton is a separate colony. Mi'kmaq on the island give assistance to the settlers to help them through the cold winter months.
1993 - Native women's rights activist Helen Martin passes away on New Year's Eve. Mrs. Martin, aged 71, was the daughter of Chief Ben Christmas and Jane (Denny) Christmas. Mrs. Martin served as the first president of the Native Women's Association of Nova Scotia, and Vice President of the National Native Women's Association. A ribbon cutting the following month at the Millbrook Family Treatment Centre was dedicated to her memory.
Acknowledgements/Sources
Mi'kmaq Resource Centre Book of Days for the Mi'kmaq Year
Micmac News 1970-1991
Micmac Maliseet Nations News 1992 - 2002
Mi'kmaq Past and Present: A Resource Guide N.S. Dept. of Education
Nova Scotia Virtual Archives Mi'kmaq Photo Collection On-Line
Mac Leod, Heather.
Past Nature: Public Accounts of Nova Scotia's Landscape, 1600-1900
1995 St. Mary's University Ph.D. Thesis.
Mi'kmaq Association of Cultural Studies.
Micmac Hymnal 1984.
Newton, Pamela.
The Cape Breton Book of Days 1984 Sydney: University College of Cape Breton Press.
Paul, Daniel M.
We Were Not the Savages: 21st Century Edition 2000 Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
Paul-Martin, Patsy.
Mi'kmaq Months of the Year From a series of posters produced for the Millbrook Literacy Center by Eastern Woodlands Publishing.
Reid, Jennifer.
No Man's Land: British and Mi'kmaq in 18th and 19th Century Acadia
1994 Ph.D. Thesis University of Ottawa.
Ricker, Darlene A.
L'sitkuk: the Story of the Bear River Mi'kmaw Community 1997
Lockport, N.S.: Roseway Publishing Co. Ltd.
Wicken, William.
Mi'kmaq Treaties on Trial 2002 Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Benwah, Jasen Sylvester, St. George's Bay Mi'kmaq Bay St. George Mi'kmaw Researcher, Stephenville, NL.
Renee Jeddore, http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/2772/ Conn River, NL.
Copyright webpage © 2002-2004 Jasen Sylvester Benwah