No Need of a Chief for This Band: The Maritime Mi'kmag and Federal Election Legislation, 1899-1951

Indian agent Charles Hudson, responding to a call for an elected chief at Eel River Bar, 5 November 1932

"Walls's book deepens our understanding not only of Mi'kmaw history but also of the entire complex process of the negotiation of authority between Aboriginal communities and the Canadian state. Hers is a very considerable scholarly achievement." John Reid, co-editor of the Atlantic Region to Confederation: A History

"This important, compelling study reveals the creativity and persistence of the Mi'kmaq in responding to the federal assimilation campaign. By demonstrating the flexibility with which the Mi'kmaq resisted, accommodated, and adapted the triennial elective band council system, Walls contributes significantly to a more nuanced understanding of Mi'kmaw cultural change, political engagement, and interaction with government." Robin Jarvis Brownlie, author of A Fatherly Eye: Indian Agents, Government Power, and Aboriginal Resistance in Ontario, 1918-1939

In 1899 the Canadian government passed legislation to replace the community appointment of Mi'kmaw leaders and Mi'kmaw political practices with the triennial system, a Euro-Canadian system of democratic band council elections. Officials in Ottawa assumed the federally mandated and supervised system would redefine Mi'kmaw politics. They were wrong. Many Mi'kmaw communities rejected or amended the legislation, while others accepted it only sporadically to meet specific community needs and goals. This timely book supports Aboriginal claims to self-governance and complicates understandings of state power by showing that the Mi'kmaq, rather than succumbing to imposed political models, retained political practices that distinguished them from their Euro-Canadian neighbours.

Martha Elizabeth Walls teaches Canadian, Atlantic Canadian, and First Nations history.

Martha Elizabeth Walls teaches Canadian, Atlantic Canadian, and First Nations history.