The Past, Present, and Promise of the Peace and Friendship Treaties

The eighteenth-century Peace and Friendship Treaties between the Wabanaki Confederacy and the British Crown were nation-to-nation agreements grounded in respect, reciprocity, peace, and friendship – not subjugation. Yet the British violated their treaty commitments, as they did others across Turtle Island. Successive Canadian governments entrenched policies that further eroded Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.

Unequivocal and forceful, this collection confronts this legacy, arguing that the treaties remain living agreements and are foundational to any just relationship between Indigenous and settler peoples. Formed around 1680, the Wabanaki Confederacy united five northeastern nations – the Mi'kmaq, Wolastoqey (Maliseet), Peskotomuhkati (Passamaquoddy), Abenaki, and Penobscot. The British sought, through the treaties, to make these nations allies in wars against the French, shaping the early balance of power in North America. This deep history frames contemporary struggles over law, land, and reconciliation. The Past, Present, and Promise of the Peace and Friendship Treaties begins by tracing the history of Crown-Indigenous relations in the Maritimes and examines the inherent and treaty rights of the Wabanaki nations, including Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqey land rights, which form a legal basis for Indigenous title in the Maritimes today. Finally, the book explores what reconciliation requires, challenging educational institutions in particular to confront their role in marginalizing Indigenous Peoples while proposing to foster relational justice.

Bringing together established and emerging scholars as well as respected practitioners of Aboriginal law and Crown-Indigenous relations, both Indigenous and ally, this collection charts a path toward genuine reconciliation, beginning with the recognition that we are all treaty people.