Mi’kmaq Treaty Encounters with the British Crown – A Chronological List

Posted on August 30, 2026

The “Peace and Friendship Treaties” were negotiated with a broader Wabanaki Confederacy alliance – Mi’kmaq, Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet), Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Abenaki/Norridgewock – not with the Mi’kmaq alone. Some entries below (1725, 1727, 1754) are technically ratifications by Penobscot, Norridgewock, or St. John’s (Maliseet) delegates rather than Mi’kmaq delegates specifically. Most originals and transcripts are held by Nova Scotia Archives, whose central hub for these documents is here: Nova Scotia Archives – Peace and Friendship Treaties.

1. Treaty of Boston (Articles of Submission and Agreement) – 15 December 1725

Signed at Boston by J. Willard (Secretary, Massachusetts General Court) and delegates of the Penobscot, Norridgewock, St. John’s (Maliseet), and Cape Sable (Mi’kmaq) – ending Father Rale’s War. This is the founding document of the whole treaty series; it explicitly required ratification at Annapolis Royal (below) to bind the Mi’kmaq and Nova Scotia peoples.

2. Ratification at Annapolis Royal (“Articles of Peace and Agreement” + “Reciprocal Promises”) – 4 June 1726

The actual Mi’kmaq/Maliseet/Passamaquoddy ratification – 77 Indigenous delegates signed the Articles of Peace and Agreement; Lieutenant-Governor Lawrence Armstrong and Captain John Doucett signed the reciprocal British promises. Often called Mascarene’s Treaty.

3. Ratification at Casco Bay – 25 July 1727

Signed near present-day Portland, Maine, by the Lieutenant Governors of New Hampshire and Massachusetts Bay, Paul Mascarene (for Nova Scotia), and representatives of the Arresaguntacook, Wawenock, Norridgewock, and Penobscot. Not a Mi’kmaq signing, but part of the same treaty family and referenced in later Mi’kmaq treaty renewals.

4. Ratification at Annapolis Royal – 13 May 1728

Signed by “Chiefs & others of the St. Johns, Cape Sables & other Tribes… inhabiting Nova Scotia or Acadie” – this one does include Cape Sable Mi’kmaq signatories. Written on the reverse of the original 1725 treaty document.

5. Renewal at Chebucto – 15 August 1749

Signed aboard HMS Beaufort in Halifax Harbour, renewing the 1725/26 treaty in the wake of the founding of Halifax. Signed by Joannes Pedousaghtigh (“Chief of the Tribe of Chignecto Indians”) and deputies from the St. John’s (Maliseet) chiefs.

6. Ratification at St. John – 4 September 1749

Signed on the reverse of the Chebucto renewal by the chief and representatives of the St. John’s River communities (Maliseet).

7. Treaty of 1752 – 22 November 1752

Signed at Halifax between Governor Peregrine Thomas Hopson and Major Jean-Baptiste Cope, “Chief Sachem of the Tribe of the MickMack Indians inhabiting the Eastern Coast,” with delegates Andrew Hadley Martin, Gabriel Martin, and Francis Jeremiah. This is the treaty at issue in R. v. Simon (1985) and famously renounced by Cope himself six months after signing.

8. Ratification by the Norridgewolk – 2 July 1754

Signed at Falmouth, Casco Bay (Maine) – Abenaki/Norridgewock, not Mi’kmaq, but part of the same renewal cycle of the 1725 treaty.

9. Ratification by the Penobscot – 6 July 1754

Signed at Falmouth, Casco Bay – Penobscot, not Mi’kmaq.

10. Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Paul Laurent (LaHave) – March 1760

Signed at Halifax by Governor Charles Lawrence and Paul Laurent, Chief of the LaHave Mi’kmaq – the first of the “Halifax Treaties” and the one containing the “trade clause” central to the 1999 R. v. Marshall decision.

11. The Halifax Treaties – 1760–1761

A series of individual, nearly identical treaties signed through this period between Governor Charles Lawrence (and, after his death, Jonathan Belcher) and the chiefs of separate Mi’kmaq districts (Chignecto, Miramichi, Shubenacadie, Richibucto, Pictou, and others), plus the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy. These are the treaties underlying the 1999 Marshall decision’s “moderate livelihood” ruling.

12. Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Francis Muis (LaHave) – 9 November 1761

Signed at Halifax by Jonathan Belcher (President of Council) and Francis Muis, Chief of the LaHave, witnessed by the missionary Pierre Maillard.

13. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 – 7 October 1763

Not a Mi’kmaq-specific treaty, but a Crown proclamation recognizing Indigenous title to unceded land and reserving land negotiation to the Crown; it frames all subsequent treaty and land relationships and is treated as part of this constitutional record.

14. Treaty of Windsor – 22 September 1779

The last major treaty negotiation in this series: signed at Windsor, NS, between Michael Francklin (King’s Superintendent of Indian Affairs) and John Julien, Chief, together with representatives from Miramichi, Pogmousche, Restigouche, Richibucto, and Shediac – effectively a ratification by the Mi’kmaq of Cape Tormentine to the Bay of Chaleur of the terms of the earlier treaties.