Today John Nick Jeddore returns with his column “Traditional Voice”, this time telling the story of a community’s struggle for recognition. “My father created the sign in the accompanying photo as a welcome for those who visited our reserve. It once read “Nike’ piskwa’n pask pkesikn l’nu’-maqmikew tel-nenasik awsami-apje’jik Miawpukek” which roughly meant that you were entering only a small part of Mi’kmaw land known to us as Miawpukek. As you can see, the sign is a bit old and has since been taken down, hopefully to be replaced by a sign much like this one. I am using this photo because as some of you may not know, at one time this land was not recognized as a reserve by the government, nor were we even recognized as ‘Indians’, either!” Learn more by clicking here.
