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CAPE BRETON ADDED TO NOVA SCOTIA: 1821

In 1821, the British Parliament ended the autonomy of Cape Breton and made the Island part of the colony of Nova Scotia. The lands reserved for the Mi'kmaq of Cape Breton prior to its incorporation were as follows:

Eskasoni .................... 2,800 acres
Whycocomagh .......... 2,074 acres
Wagmatcook ............ 4,500 acres
Chapel Island ........... 1,281 acres
Malagawatch ............ 1,500 acres
River Marguerite ........... 50 acres
Total ..............12,205 acres

By 1821 the total acreage set aside for the Mi'kmaq in the entire colony had reached a "princely" total of 20,765 acres. This great estate of swamps, bogs, clay pits, mountains and rock piles, represented a tiny fraction of one percent of Nova Scotia's land base of approximately 13.5 million acres. The arable land in the entire grant was probably less than 200 acres. Once again, encroachments by White squatters upon these lands began, in some cases on the very day the lands were granted. The government made some effort to protect the integrity of the grants, but by no means did it go overboard. In disputes between Mi'kmaq and Whites involving land, the White party's position almost always prevailed.

Thus, by 1821, robbed of their land, freedom, dignity and means of support, and with no access to human or civil rights, the Mi'kmaq were moving slowly but surely to the brink of extinction.

The policies and practices used by the English to persecute and segregate Amerindian people, especially the use of Indian Reserves to separate the Red People from the White, during their colonization of North America later influenced White South Africa in the drafting of its inhuman apartheid policies. In fact, some authorities state that the English, and later Canadians, created the mold that the South Africans copied

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