Mi'kmaq in the Halifax Explosion of 1917: Leadership, Transience, and the Struggle for Land Rights

Abstract

When a ship explosion in Halifax Harbor destroyed much of the surrounding area, among the devastated places was Kebeceque, an informal Mi'kmaw settlement in Dartmouth that had been under non-Native pressure for decades. The white owner of the land had long insisted that the Department of Indian Affairs remove the Mi'kmaq who camped on his property; the Mi'kmaq resisted these demands by relying on traditional practices of seasonal transience and innovative forms of leadership. Showman and Native doctor Jerry Lone Cloud led the struggle to stay in Kebeceque. Among a generation of informal leaders, he was emblematic of multiple Mi'kmaw cultural and economic survival strategies.