Scots, Settler Colonization and Indigenous Displacement: Mi'kma'ki, 1770–1820, in Comparative Context

Abstract

This article notes that while sophisticated study of Scottish intellectual analyses of global Indigenous societies and their significance has been longstanding among historians, until recently less attention has been given to the implications of Scottish settlement for specific Indigenous peoples. Historians have debated whether there is a distinctly Scottish pattern of dealings with Indigenous populations, or whether such interactions are best understood as a subset of imperial-Indigenous affairs on a global basis. Through exploring the case of Mi'kma'ki, and offering brief comparisons with Scottish-Indigenous relations elsewhere, the chapter will conclude by arguing that, while the question does invite continuing global study, nevertheless no paradigm will be found. The shifting relationships among factors such as land encroachment, intellectual argument, Indigenous displacement, and Indigenous response, ensure that historiographical as well as historical complexity will prevail.