Bilijk
A Documentary History of Kingsclear First Nation, 1780–1950
The head of tide of the Wəlastəkw, known as Ekwpahak in Wəlastəkwey, has long been a gathering place for the Wəlastəkokewiyik and was reserved for them by colonial authorities in the mid-18th century. However, when 11,000 Loyalists invaded unceded Wəlastəkwey territory after the American Revolution, and the influential Judge Isaac Allen purchased Ekwpahak in a highly questionable dealing, the Wəlastəkokewiyik were deprived of their land, with some forced to settle a few miles upriver at Kingsclear.
In this long-awaited volume, Andrea Bear Nicholas assembles Oral Traditions, archival documents, paintings, maps, and photographs to document the history of the Kingsclear First Nation community, from its establishment in the late-18th century to the disastrous mid-20th century attempt to centralize the Wəlastəkwey Nation at Kingsclear.These documents demonstrate the destructive impact of colonialism upon the Wəlastəkokewiyik, from their dispossession by Loyalists and the establishment of the Sussex Vale Indian School in the late 18th century, to the increasing restrictions on traditional life that both impoverished and oppressed them.
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Andrea Bear Nicholas is a Wəlastəkwew (Maliseet) from Nekwətkok (Tobique First Nation) and Professor Emerita at St. Thomas University, where she held the Chair in Native Studies for twenty years and developed the first university-based Indigenous Language Immersion Teacher Training Program in North America. She has published widely on Indigenous history, Oral Traditions, linguistic rights, and revitalization.
