Mi’kmaq and McNabs Island – Indian Point

Pre-European Settlement – Indian Point

Not long after the last ice age, the first Mi’kmaq began to arrive in Nova Scotia, approximately 13,000 years before present. The family groups began to settle on the many river systems in the region. One popular stopping place for the Mi’kmaq along the Atlantic coast was located just opposite McNabs Island in what is now Dartmouth. We believe the Mi’kmaq had long used Mniku’j (the Mi’kmaq name for McNabs Island meaning ‘little island’) for fishing and hunting, given the discovery of a large shell midden, mounds of shells, found on the island dating to about 1600 before present, which provides archeological evidence of their presence on the island.

Sieur de Diereville, in the account of his 1699 voyage to Port Royal includes a description of his visit to Chibuctou, (a French name for Halifax) and the fishing station on McNabs Island. The account tells of Father Louis-Pierre Thury, the first recorded missionary who worked among the Mi’kmaq at Chibuctou. Following Thury’s death about 1699, the Mi’kmaq buried Father Thury on the shore of Chibuctou, possibly on McNabs Island. During his stay in Chibuctou, Diereville was taken to visit Thury’s grave by the Mi’kmaq he met on the island.

The continued arrival of Europeans in Nova Scotia created many challenges for the Mi’kmaq, including being forced from many of their traditional camping and hunting grounds.

The growth of European settlements near Halifax (founded 1749) resulted in increasing conflicts and hostilities between the Mi’kmaq and the settlers. About 1760, the British government in Halifax forced the Mi’kmaq settlement on the Dartmouth shore to move to McNabs Island (known as Cornwallis Island at that time) in an effort to prevent the hostilities from worsening. On the Island the Mi’kmaq camped on the north-easterly point of land, known today as Indian Point.