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