Lnu

The Mi'kmaq, who call themselves L'nu, are the people of Mi'kma'ki, the Atlantic coastlands of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and the Gaspé Peninsula. Organized in districts under a Grand Council, they lived by seasonal coastal fishing and hunting inland. They spoke an Eastern Algonquian language later recorded in a hieroglyphic mnemonic script.

European fishermen dried cod on their shores from the 1520s, opening the fur trade. In 1610 Grand Chief Membertou and his family accepted baptism, beginning a long alliance with the French and Acadians.

The Mi'kmaq joined the Wabanaki Confederacy and fought six colonial wars against the British, who claimed Acadia by the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 without their consent. Their raids on Halifax and Lunenburg continued until Louisbourg fell in 1758 and the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The Peace and Friendship Treaties of 1725 to 1779 fixed their relationship with the British Crown.