Daniel N. Paul
Encyclopedia
Dr. Daniel N. Paul, C.M., O.N.S., (1938–present) is a Mi'kmaq Elder, author, columnist, and human rights activist. Paul is perhaps best known as the author of the book We Were Not the Savages. Paul asserts that this book is the first such history ever written by a First Nation citizen. The book is seen as an important contribution to the North American Indian movement
. One editor stated, "It’s a Canadian version of Dee Brown’s best seller Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
and, as such, served a valuable purpose in raising public consciousness about Mi’kmaq history, identity, and culture."
Among his many awards, Paul has been conferred with the Order of Canada
and the Order of Nova Scotia
. He received from Université Sainte-Anne
an honourary Doctor of Letters Degree.
, Nova Scotia
. Paul was born at Indian Brook; the eleventh of fourteen children. During his childhood he earned money through selling the Star Weekly, Liberty Magazine, seeds, greeting cards, and painted the interior of houses. At age 14, he left home for Boston. Eventually returning to Nova Scotia, he married twice and had three children.
In 1971 he began work for the Department of Indian Affairs, and from 1981 to 1986 was the Department's Nova Scotia District Superintendant of Lands, Revenues, Trusts, and Statutory Requirements.
A community activist, he was the founding Executive Director of the Confederacy of Mainland Micmacs (CMM) from 1986 to 1994, and while in this position, initiated fundraising for a new community centre for the Indian Brook Reserve. During his tenure at CMM, Paul also started a trust fund for the Confederacy, which would support financing legal issues for the six Bands associated with the organization. His leadership helped resolve the Afton Band's 170 year old treaty claim to old Summerside property. In addition, he worked to resolve land claims for the Pictou Landing Band. He has also served on Nova Scotia's Human Rights Commission, and on the Nova Scotia Department of Justice's Court Restructuring Task Force, among other provincial commissions, as a Justice of the Peace for the Province. He has also written bi-weekly op-eds for the Halifax Chronicle-Herald newspaper.
On January 14, 2000, he received a millennium award from the city of Halifax for his contributions. In 2001, Paul was involved with a CBC documentary entitled "Growing Up Native", and in Bear Paw Productions' (Eastern Tide’s) "Expulsion and the Bounty Hunter”.
, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Duke University
"We Were Not the Savages is unique, in chronological scope and the story it tells, covering the last three centuries of Mi'kmaq history in detail. Prior to the appearance of this book it was common for historians to downplay or even deny the violence inflicted on the Mi'kmaq people by European and Euro-American colonizers. This work, more than any other piece of scholarly production, has headed off that consensus at a pass. Scalp-bounty prices are now recognized as a historical problem worthy of investigation. Finally, it is important to recognize that we have far too few histories written by Native American authors - very few indeed that cover as extensive a time span as this book does." - Geoffrey Plank, Associate Professor of History, University of Cincinatti.
for negotiating the November 1752 Peace and Friendship Treaty with the British, "in a desperate attempt to prevent the complete annihilation of his people". According to historian William Wickens the only written evidence is Cope signed the Treaty on behalf of ninety Mi’kmaq at Shubenacadie. Further, these historians suggest no other Mi’kmaq leaders would endorse the treaty and that Cope himself destroyed it six months after it was ratified. The British did not formally renounce the Treaty until 1756.
Despite the short-term fate of the 1752 Peace Treaty with hostilities continuing soon afterward, some Nova Scotians continue to celebrate the signing of it annually on Treaty Day. As Paul also notes, in 1985, the Supreme Court of Canada finally affirmed and recognized its validity (See R v. Simon). In his book, Paul cites in extenso a journal entered under oath by eyewitness Anthony Casteel regarding a resumption of hostilities the following spring, and concludes by noting
against aboriginal families in North America, including the Mi'kmaq people. Paul's work has been helpful in highlighting the history of the British bounty proclamations against aboriginal families. In We Were Not the Savages, Paul outlines the history of the New England and Nova Scotia governors' use of scalping proclamations against the Mi'kmaq. He specifically quotes Massachusetts Governor William Shirley
's scalping proclamation of 1744, that of Governor Cornwallis in 1749, and that of Nova Scotia Governor Charles Lawrence in 1756. He also states that there is evidence some Mi'kmaq had even been targeted as early as in the Governor of Massachusetts' scalping proclamation of 1694.
In contrast to these scholars, however, Paul asserts that the Mi'kmaq did not employ frontier warfare against families. Paul asserts that Mi’kmaq leaders did not support frontier warfare
against Protestant families in Nova Scotia. He states that the Mi’kmaq people who did participate in these practices were simply mercenaries for the French, "mercenaries acting beyond the authority of their leaders." In keeping with this position, Paul dismisses the British account of the Raid on Dartmouth (1749)
, which asserts the Mi'kmaq attacked six unarmed civilian woodcutters.
Historians Geoffrey Plank and Stephen Patterson, however, offer evidence that indicates some of the Mi’kmaq leadership did support frontier warfare against Protestant families, such as Chief Jean-Baptiste Cope
. Historian John Grenier asserts, along with the British killing Mi'kmaq families, there were numerous Mi'kmaq raids against protestant families during Father Le Loutre's War
. The two most often cited examples of such Mi'kmaq attacks are the Raid on Dartmouth (1751)
and the Raid on Lunenburg (1756). Further, Grenier indicates that frontier warfare against families was the standard practice between New England and New France along with their native allies for over a century before the first Protestant families arrived in Nova Scotia with the founding of Halifax.
Paul asserts that his work is largely responsible for British colonial figures’ names being removed from landmarks because they used frontier warfare against Mi'kmaq families. In We Were Not..., he mentions his participation in a successful 1998 campaign to change the name of a Nova Scotia Highway that had been named after New England Ranger John Gorham
. Paul's efforts have also led to the removal of the name "Cornwallis"
from a junior high in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
American Indian Movement
The American Indian Movement is a Native American activist organization in the United States, founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota by urban Native Americans. The national AIM agenda focuses on spirituality, leadership, and sovereignty...
. One editor stated, "It’s a Canadian version of Dee Brown’s best seller Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by American writer Dee Brown is a history of Native Americans in the American West in the late nineteenth century. He describes the people's displacement through forced relocations and years of warfare waged by the United States federal government...
and, as such, served a valuable purpose in raising public consciousness about Mi’kmaq history, identity, and culture."
Among his many awards, Paul has been conferred with the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
and the Order of Nova Scotia
Order of Nova Scotia
The Order of Nova Scotia is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Instituted on 2 August 2001, when Lieutenant Governor Myra Freeman granted Royal Assent to the Order of Nova Scotia Act, the order is administered by the Governor-in-Council and is intended to honour...
. He received from Université Sainte-Anne
Université Sainte-Anne
Université Sainte-Anne is a francophone university located in the seaside town of Pointe-de-l'Église in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is the only French-language university in the province of Nova Scotia and is one of only two such universities in the Maritime Provinces, the other being the Université...
an honourary Doctor of Letters Degree.
Life
Prior to Paul’s birth, his parents Sarah Agnes and William Gabriel were re-located from Saint John, New Brunswick to Indian BrookIndian Brook 14, Nova Scotia
Indian Brook 14 is a Mi'kmaq reserve located in Hants County, Nova Scotia.It is administratively part of the Shubenacadie First Nation....
, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
. Paul was born at Indian Brook; the eleventh of fourteen children. During his childhood he earned money through selling the Star Weekly, Liberty Magazine, seeds, greeting cards, and painted the interior of houses. At age 14, he left home for Boston. Eventually returning to Nova Scotia, he married twice and had three children.
In 1971 he began work for the Department of Indian Affairs, and from 1981 to 1986 was the Department's Nova Scotia District Superintendant of Lands, Revenues, Trusts, and Statutory Requirements.
A community activist, he was the founding Executive Director of the Confederacy of Mainland Micmacs (CMM) from 1986 to 1994, and while in this position, initiated fundraising for a new community centre for the Indian Brook Reserve. During his tenure at CMM, Paul also started a trust fund for the Confederacy, which would support financing legal issues for the six Bands associated with the organization. His leadership helped resolve the Afton Band's 170 year old treaty claim to old Summerside property. In addition, he worked to resolve land claims for the Pictou Landing Band. He has also served on Nova Scotia's Human Rights Commission, and on the Nova Scotia Department of Justice's Court Restructuring Task Force, among other provincial commissions, as a Justice of the Peace for the Province. He has also written bi-weekly op-eds for the Halifax Chronicle-Herald newspaper.
On January 14, 2000, he received a millennium award from the city of Halifax for his contributions. In 2001, Paul was involved with a CBC documentary entitled "Growing Up Native", and in Bear Paw Productions' (Eastern Tide’s) "Expulsion and the Bounty Hunter”.
Author
Paul has written numerous articles in both newspapers and academic journals. His most well known work is We Were Not the Savages, which is now in its 3rd edition.Quotes
- "Because of their belief that European civilizations were superior, and therefore all others were inferior or savage, these writers reported the superior human rights practices of Amerindian civilization as if they were abnormal. Later, using these biased records as gospel, many White authors have written works about Mi'kmaq civilization that do not present a true picture. Their efforts were probably taken with sincerity and honesty, but many, if not all, are lacking in two respects: they ignore the Mi'kmaq perspective on civilization and fail to appreciate that the values of the two cultures were in most cases completely opposite... More contemporary authors who have written about Amerindian civilizations have also used European standards to evaluate the relative merits of these cultures. Thus their efforts are flawed." -- We Were Not The Savages, p. 15.
Comments by other academics
"Daniel N. Paul's We Were Not the Savages is a brilliant and painful account of how the Mi'kmaqs were treated by the Europeans. When will Canada and the United States begin paying reparations to Mi'kmaqs and other Tribes for what we did to them over the centuries? Daniel Paul makes a convincing case that the time is now! It is a fact-filled read that will make North Americans of European descent very uncomfortable. I highly recommend it." - Thomas NaylorThomas Naylor
Thomas Naylor, born May 30, 1936, in Jackson, Mississippi, is a Professor Emeritus of Economics at Duke University, the author of thirty books, and a founder of the Second Vermont Republic...
, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Duke University
"We Were Not the Savages is unique, in chronological scope and the story it tells, covering the last three centuries of Mi'kmaq history in detail. Prior to the appearance of this book it was common for historians to downplay or even deny the violence inflicted on the Mi'kmaq people by European and Euro-American colonizers. This work, more than any other piece of scholarly production, has headed off that consensus at a pass. Scalp-bounty prices are now recognized as a historical problem worthy of investigation. Finally, it is important to recognize that we have far too few histories written by Native American authors - very few indeed that cover as extensive a time span as this book does." - Geoffrey Plank, Associate Professor of History, University of Cincinatti.
Treaty of 1752
Paul celebrates Chief Jean-Baptiste CopeJean-Baptiste Cope
Jean Baptiste Cope was also known as Major Cope, a title he was likely given from the French military, the highest rank given to Mi’kmaq. Cope was the sakamaw of the Mi'kmaq people of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia...
for negotiating the November 1752 Peace and Friendship Treaty with the British, "in a desperate attempt to prevent the complete annihilation of his people". According to historian William Wickens the only written evidence is Cope signed the Treaty on behalf of ninety Mi’kmaq at Shubenacadie. Further, these historians suggest no other Mi’kmaq leaders would endorse the treaty and that Cope himself destroyed it six months after it was ratified. The British did not formally renounce the Treaty until 1756.
Despite the short-term fate of the 1752 Peace Treaty with hostilities continuing soon afterward, some Nova Scotians continue to celebrate the signing of it annually on Treaty Day. As Paul also notes, in 1985, the Supreme Court of Canada finally affirmed and recognized its validity (See R v. Simon). In his book, Paul cites in extenso a journal entered under oath by eyewitness Anthony Casteel regarding a resumption of hostilities the following spring, and concludes by noting
- "In the 1980s, descendants of the British colonials [i.e., the CrownCrown attorneyCrown Attorneys or Crown Counsel are the prosecutors in the legal system of Canada.Crown Attorneys represent the Crown and act as prosecutor in proceedings under the Criminal Code of Canada...
] attempted to nullify the Treaty of 1752 in the courts by claiming that Chief Jean Baptist Cope had violated the terms of the treaty during the Casteel incident. But they conveniently overlooked the facts that the English, by their refusal to prosecute two murderers [involved in the Attack at MocodomeAttack at MocodomeThe Attack at Mocodome occurred during Father Le Loutre’s War on February 21, 1753 when allegedly, a Mi’kmaq "militia" attacked a British vessel with four crew members, two of whom were killed and two of whom were taken into captivity...
], were in clear violation of the treaty, and that Chief Cope had had very little involvement in the affair."
Controversy
Paul’s assertions in his publications have caused controversy with numerous scholars of colonial history. Along with Paul, most contemporary scholars of the colonial period in Nova Scotia document the illegal means in which local British authorities confiscated native land. The work of these scholars has been used to address issues of legal reparation. There is also agreement that the British engaged in a long history of frontier warfareScalping
Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...
against aboriginal families in North America, including the Mi'kmaq people. Paul's work has been helpful in highlighting the history of the British bounty proclamations against aboriginal families. In We Were Not the Savages, Paul outlines the history of the New England and Nova Scotia governors' use of scalping proclamations against the Mi'kmaq. He specifically quotes Massachusetts Governor William Shirley
William Shirley
William Shirley was a British colonial administrator who served twice as Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and as Governor of the Bahamas in the 1760s...
's scalping proclamation of 1744, that of Governor Cornwallis in 1749, and that of Nova Scotia Governor Charles Lawrence in 1756. He also states that there is evidence some Mi'kmaq had even been targeted as early as in the Governor of Massachusetts' scalping proclamation of 1694.
In contrast to these scholars, however, Paul asserts that the Mi'kmaq did not employ frontier warfare against families. Paul asserts that Mi’kmaq leaders did not support frontier warfare
Scalping
Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...
against Protestant families in Nova Scotia. He states that the Mi’kmaq people who did participate in these practices were simply mercenaries for the French, "mercenaries acting beyond the authority of their leaders." In keeping with this position, Paul dismisses the British account of the Raid on Dartmouth (1749)
Raid on Dartmouth (1749)
The Raid on Dartmouth occurred during Father Le Loutre’s War on September 30, 1749 when a Mi’kmaq militia from Chignecto raided at sawmill at present-day Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, killing four workers and wounding two...
, which asserts the Mi'kmaq attacked six unarmed civilian woodcutters.
Historians Geoffrey Plank and Stephen Patterson, however, offer evidence that indicates some of the Mi’kmaq leadership did support frontier warfare against Protestant families, such as Chief Jean-Baptiste Cope
Jean-Baptiste Cope
Jean Baptiste Cope was also known as Major Cope, a title he was likely given from the French military, the highest rank given to Mi’kmaq. Cope was the sakamaw of the Mi'kmaq people of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia...
. Historian John Grenier asserts, along with the British killing Mi'kmaq families, there were numerous Mi'kmaq raids against protestant families during Father Le Loutre's War
Father Le Loutre's War
Father Le Loutre’s War , also known as the Indian War, the Micmac War and the Anglo-Micmac War, took place between King George's War and the French and Indian War in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On one side of the conflict, the British and New England colonists were led by British Officer Charles...
. The two most often cited examples of such Mi'kmaq attacks are the Raid on Dartmouth (1751)
Raid on Dartmouth (1751)
The Raid on Dartmouth occurred during Father Le Loutre’s War on May 13, 1751 when an Acadian and Mi’kmaq militia from Chignecto, under the command of Acadian Joseph Broussard, raided Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, destroying the town and killing twenty British villagers...
and the Raid on Lunenburg (1756). Further, Grenier indicates that frontier warfare against families was the standard practice between New England and New France along with their native allies for over a century before the first Protestant families arrived in Nova Scotia with the founding of Halifax.
Paul asserts that his work is largely responsible for British colonial figures’ names being removed from landmarks because they used frontier warfare against Mi'kmaq families. In We Were Not..., he mentions his participation in a successful 1998 campaign to change the name of a Nova Scotia Highway that had been named after New England Ranger John Gorham
John Gorham (military officer)
John Gorham was a New England Ranger and was the first significant British military presence on the frontier of Nova Scotia and Acadia to remain in the region for a substantial period of time after the Conquest of Acadia . He established the famous "Gorham's Rangers". Gorham was commissioned a...
. Paul's efforts have also led to the removal of the name "Cornwallis"
Edward Cornwallis
Lieutenant General Edward Cornwallis was a British military officer who founded Halifax, Nova Scotia with 2500 settlers and later served as the Governor of Gibraltar.-Early life:...
from a junior high in Halifax, Nova Scotia.