Family and Friends

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The traditional way of life for the Mi'kmaq was nomadic, dictated by the availability of fish and game. Families moved seasonally along well-established routes from one location to another, following food sources and camping at the same locations year after year. Winter camps consisted of one or two families, and belongings were completely portable. Summer was the time of easiest living, when the greatest number of people could live on the resources of the smallest area. Summer villages, located near the water, often contained up to three hundred Mi'kmaq.

From time immemorial, a central council of chiefs (Mawio'mi) met every mid-summer at Chapel Island (Potlo'tek) in Cape Breton; the council assigned separate fishing and hunting districts to the different bands, and distributed different tasks within each band to ensure that fishing and hunting activities were maintained, food preserved and clothing produced.

In traditional Mi'kmaq communities, gender roles and activities were also divided along resource-based lifestyle lines, as described in the Nova Scotia Department of Education's resource guide, Mi'kmaq Past and Present:

Roles in the Mi'kmaq community were largely determined by sex. Men hunted, fished and made bows, arrows and lances. They also made cradle boards and other articles such as tobacco pipes. Young men were expected to learn how to make bows, arrows, lances, shields, fish-traps and weirs, snowshoes, canoes, axes, and knives. They were also expected to master the basics of hunting, fishing and preparing food, clothing and shelter.... Women and girls carried game back to the camp, transported all camp equipment, and moved and set up the wigwams. They also prepared and preserved the food, made birch-bark dishes, wove mats from rushes, made clothing, corded snowshoes, fetched water, and took care of the children.