Trades and Livelihoods

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The large-scale slaughter of game which accompanied the influx of European settlers in the late 1700s seriously depleted traditional supplies of food and skins; nevertheless, a number of Mi'kmaq still continued to make a livelihood from the fur trade well into the 1800s. Subsequent generations of Mi'kmaq, however, relied on the sale of artefacts and handcrafts, rather than provisions, to support themselves. In summer, Mi'kmaq families camped near non-native communities; the women produced brooms, baskets and quill boxes for sale, while the men sold barrels, ax handles and butter tubs. Men also did carpentry-related work.

In time, the superb hunting and tracking skills of the Mi'kmaq were diverted into another channel–from the mid-1800s and well into the 1900s, they were employed as renowned guides for wealthy sportsmen and adventurers. In fact the canoe, snowshoe and toboggan–three major items indigenous to the Mi'kmaq and other First Nations–were quickly adopted by non-natives and fully integrated into everyday means of transportation and outdoor sport in North America. A typical example of Mi'kmaq interaction with the sporting life was the visit of the young Prince Arthur–later the Duke of Connaught–to Nova Scotia in 1870, when he was introduced to the provincial woods and entrusted to the care of three Mi'kmaq guides–Peter Joe Cope, John Williams and Jim Glode.