Research Guides: Aboriginal Law & Indigenous Laws: Mi'kmaq Laws and Legal Orders

Mi'kmaq Laws and Legal Orders

Living treaties : narrating Mi'kmaw treaty relations by Marie Ann Battiste
Call Number: KIC5300.5 L588 2016
Publication Date: 2016
Living Treaties aims to reveal another side of the treaties and their histories, focusing on stories from contemporary perspectives, both Mi'kmaw and their non-Mi'kmaw allies, who have worked with, experienced and indeed lived with the treaties at various times over the last fifty years.
Mi'kmaq Treaties on Trial by William C. Wicken
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 2018
In 1725-26 the British colonial government of Nova Scotia signed a treaty of friendship and peace with the local Mi'kmaq people. This treaty explicitly acknowledged the co-existence of Mi'kmaq and British law - but much of its meaning stemmed from its complex negotiation, which was influenced by the history of aboriginal-European relations in Acadia prior to 1726.
Wabanaki Compact : the foundation of treaty federalism in North America, 1621-1728 by James Youngblood Henderson
Call Number: KIC5300.5 A33 1725 LAW
Publication Date: 2020
This book is written from the traditions and perspectives of the Mi’kmaw Nation, one of the nations of the Wabanaki Confederacy, and attempts to unravel the neglected structure and meaning of various trans-Atlantic treaties made between the Confederacy and the British from a trans-systemic perspective that incorporates both Indigenous and British law.
The Mi'kmaw Concordat by James (Sekej) Youngblood Henderson
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 1997
This book covers intellectual history, law, political science, religious studies, and Mi'kmaw legends, oral history and perceptions from the arrival in America by Columbus and other Europeans in the fifteenth century to the Mi'kmaw Concordat in the early seventeenth century.
Elikewake Compact : the Mi’kmaw, Wolastoqey, and Passamaquoddy Nations’ confederation with Great Britain, 1725-1779 by James Youngblood Henderson
Call Number: KIC5300.5.A33 1725 H46 2021 LAW
Publication Date: 2021
This two set volume provides a legal history of the development of the Mi’kmaw, Wolastoqey and Passamaquoddy Nations confederation with Great Britain through treaties that established the foundation of Atlantic Canada.

Understanding the progression of Mi'kmaw law by Jaime Battiste
This article focuses on the progression of Mi'kmaw law, drawing on the original teachings of the Mawio'mi embedded in Netukulimk and then shifting to the current legal strategy to create constitutional reconciliation with the Mawiomi in Atlantic Canada.
L'nuwita'simk: a foundational worldview for a L'nuwey justice system by Tuma Young
In this article, Young illustrates the L'nu worldview and its primary modes of expression. The L'nuwey Tplutaqan (M'ikmaq legal principles) that come from L'nu worldviews are explained and integrated into a model that could be used to develop L'nuwey justice institutions.
We Story the Land: Exploring Mi'kmaq food sovereignty, Indigenous law and treaty relations by Martha Stiegman and Sherry Pictou
This article explores the relationship between Indigenous Food Sovereignty and the resurgence of Indigenous law through an examination of the Mi'kmaq concept of Netukulimk. The authors present a case study of L'sɨtkuk First Nation's exploration of the original spirit and intent of the eighteenth-century Peace and Friendship Treaties and their enactment of the Mi'kmaq always those treaties are anchored in.