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Mi'kmaq Holdings Resource Guide

Copy of a letter from the Rev. Mr. Trotter relative to the claims of Mi'kmaq to lands granted to McWhinnie and others at Pomquet. Describes creation of reservation, relations with adjoining non-Mi'kmaq land owners, improvements by Mi'kmaq upon the disputed lands, exception from the reservation for the Pomquet ferry, etc.
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(160a
Copy
Dorchester 24th Feby 1824

Gentlemen,
Having occasion during the last
week to visit the settlements of Pomquet and Little River
I took the opportunity of collecting all the information
that I could obtain respecting the Indians and have
reason to believe that the Statements contained in
Mr Cunninghams letter to His Excellency the Governor
are in general correct excepting as they refer to lands
granted to Mr. McWhinnie and now owned and occupied
by James Grant; The Indians appear from what
I learned to have been settled and to have made
some improvements upwards of Thirty Years ago
upon those parts of the public on [Navy?] Reserve which
ly upon the waters of Pomquet and form the front of
lands since granted to Mr McWhinnie , Colonel Campbell
and H. H. Cogswell Esqr which I shall distinguish
by the names of McWhinnie's, Campbell's and Cogswell's
Grants; Having been disturbed by different people they
applied for protection to His Excellency Lieut. Governor Sir
John Wentworth about Twenty five years ago and obtained
a letter under his hand authorising them to settle and plant
Gardens upon any part of the Reserve they might choose
with the exception of the point or neck of land on the
front of McWhinnie's Grant on which they had already
made some improvements; This point [?Contains] about
Fifty Acres and the reason asigned [assigned] for excepting it was
that it was to be reserved for the benefit of the Pomquet
Ferry.. There was a plan of the Reserve annexed to the
latter and in that plan the fifty acres in question was
marked off by red lines and connected with a lot of a
hundred acres adjoining it which was appropriated
to the same purpose namely the support of the Pomquet
Ferry


Date: 1824

Retrieval no.: Commissioner of Public Records — Mi'kmaq and Government Relations series Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 430 number 160a

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