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LORD GLENELG: 1838

In a letter dated August 22, 1838, to the colonial Governor, Lord Glenelg seems, in the usual British way, to be asking for an accounting:

I have to request, that you will, at your early convenience, furnish me with a report
on the state of any of the Aboriginal Inhabitants who may still exist in the Province
under your Government, showing their numbers and present condition, increase or
decrease, which has, during the last few years, occurred among them, their moral
state, and any efforts which have been made for their Civilization.

The proportion settled on the land and cultivating it, and the numbers who still
adhere to the habits of Savage life, the amount, if any, of property belonging to
them, and the effect of any local Statutes which may have been passed for their
Government. I would request you add to this report any other information which
you may consider important, and more especially to favour me with any suggestions
as to the measures which would be best calculated to ameliorate the condition of
these people.

To comply with Lord Glenelg's request, the Lords of Trade commissioned a study late in 1838 to ascertain the social and economic conditions of the surviving Mi'kmaq. The results were shocking. It was found that they now numbered only 1,425, that a large number were living in various stages of starvation, and that their sole means of support was begging and what could be got from harvesting scarce wildlife and some fishing. The original Mi'kmaq population at the onset of European colonization, estimated by some to have been in the neighbourhood of 200,000, or perhaps considerably more, had been almost wiped out.

These findings did not spur the government on to ease the plight of the Mi'kmaq. Perhaps it was the government's intention to wait for another several years in the hope that the "Indian problem" in Nova Scotia would by then be solved for all time with the extinction of the People by starvation

Click to read about American Indian Genocide

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