Timeline

Increasing settlement in the Atlantic region, particularly Mi’kma’ki (traditional Mi’kmaq territory), including missionaries from various Christian denominations; no Baptist missionaries yet. 

Also referred to as the “Siege of Port Royale,” the series of English military actions that took place from October 5-13, 1710, led to the English gaining control over mainland Acadia (modern-day Nova Scotia). Following this conquest, the English found themselves in an unfamiliar and “wild” environment alongside the Indigenous Mi’kmaq, whom they “relegated to the peripherals of colonial society.”

Reid, Jennifer. Myth, Symbol, and Colonial Encounter: British and Mi’kmaq in Acadia, 1700-1867. Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa | University of Ottawa Press, 1995, 98–99. 

With this treaty, France ceded Acadia to Britain, and Mi’kmaq land claims were ignored.

Reid, Jennifer. Myth, Symbol, and Colonial Encounter: British and Mi’kmaq in Acadia, 1700-1867. Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa | University of Ottawa Press, 1995, 34. 

This compact was comprised of two treaties, Dummer’s Treaty and Mascarene’s Treaty, treaties that corresponded to Indigenous territories in Maine and Eastern Canada. Dummer’s Treaty concerned the Penobscot peoples and allowed English settlers to return to their own settlements on Indigenous lands in Maine. Meanwhile, Mascarene’s Treaty concerned the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik peoples and required them to respect English settlements in Nova Scotia. Due to the differences in these treaties and their treatment of Indigenous claims to land, the Wabanaki Compact has a contentious history, with both treaties being intentionally ignored when discussing historical treaties in North America.

Costa, Andrew. “Interrelated Treaty Orders across the Generations: Autonomy, Obligation and Confederacy in the ‘Wabanaki Compact’ (1725-26).” The Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 35 (August 2018): 463–85. 

An Acadian named Joseph Broussard led sixty Mi’kmaq and Acadian forces from Chignecto in an attack on the English settlement of Dartmouth on May 13, 1751, resulting in twenty British casualties. The Dartmouth Raid, also known as the Dartmouth Massacre, is the most notorious of the raids carried out against the English during Father Le Loutre’s War (1749-1755).  

Grenier, John. The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607-1814. Cambridge University Press, 2005, 82.

Signed by Governor Peregrine Hopson and Mi’kmaq Chief Jean-Baptiste Cope; later renounced by Cope in 1753. Scholars argue that Maritime treaties should be considered a “work in progress rather than as a work accomplished.”

Patterson, Stephen. “Eighteenth-Century Treaties: The Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, and Passamaquoddy Experience.” Native Studies Review 18, no. 1 (2009): 25–52.

In 1760-61, the British signed several treaties with nine different Mi’kmaq communities in Nova Scotia. These treaties effectively ended the threat of military actions between the two parties and, while another treaty was signed in 1779, that new treaty made no major modifications to the treaties of 1760-61.

Archives, Nova Scotia. “Nova Scotia Archives – Mi’kmaq Holdings Resource Guide.” Nova Scotia Archives, April 20, 2020. https://archives.novascotia.ca

British officials and Mi’kmaq leaders met at Lieutenant-Governor Jonathan Belcher’s farm near Halifax to sign a Treaty of Peace and Friendship on June 25, 1761. Representing the British were Belcher, several councillors, and senior military officers, all dressed in formal attire.  The Mi’kmaq were represented by four chiefs – Jeannot Peguidalouet, Claude Atouach, Joseph Sabecholouet, and Aikon Ashabuc – assisted by French missionary Abbé Pierre-Antoine Maillard, who served as interpreter. Belcher promised that King George III would protect the Mi’kmaq, ensure fair trade, and respect their religion, while the Mi’kmaq pledged loyalty and peace. Gifts and medals bearing the king’s image symbolized the alliance. Chief Peguidalouet expressed gratitude for British mercy and vowed lasting friendship: “As long as the Sun and Moon shall endure… so long will I be your friend and ally.” The ceremony ended with the burial of a hatchet, signifying the end of war and the beginning of peace.

Wicken, William C. Mi’kmaq Treaties on Trial: History, Land, and Donald Marshall Junior. University of Toronto Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442670211, 216–17. 

The last official treaty in the Peace and Friendship series.

Wicken, William C. Mi’kmaq Treaties on Trial: History, Land, and Donald Marshall Junior. University of Toronto Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442670211, 214. 

Over the next decades, Baptists became the largest Protestant denomination in parts of the Maritimes. Baptists viewed faith as an “indispensable prerequisite to baptism” and held that the candidate cannot be properly baptised if they do not identify with Baptist beliefs.

March, Stephen. “Stephen March Fonds.” Textual records. 1890. Acadia University Archives (1986.012/018/012). 

Baptist churches grew across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and P.E.I. Some missionary efforts reached Indigenous communities, though often framed within colonial and assimilationist paradigms. Domestic evangelism sparked new Baptist congregations in rural communities, itinerant preaching circuits that reached isolated settlements, and revival meetings that emphasized conversion and believer’s baptism. The Baptist Home Mission Board, operating under the Maritime Baptist Convention, supported ministers who traveled hundreds of miles on horseback or by boat to preach. Baptist missionaries, often supported by the Convention, undertook work among Indigenous peoples (Mi’kmaq and Maliseet) alongside Anglicans and Catholics (1830’s-1890’s). 

Over time, the Maritime Baptist Convention evolved to become what is now known as the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada, the denomination of Acadia Divinity College.

Cathcart, William. “The Baptist Encyclopedia.” In Historical Sketch of the Baptists in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. 1881. 

After the arrival of Black Loyalists and refugees from the United States following the American Revolution, Baptist preachers worked among Black communities. In 1854, Richard Preston, himself a formerly enslaved man, founded the African Baptist Association, which became a central institution for Black Baptist churches in Nova Scotia. This ministry was an early example of Baptist mission efforts recognizing racial and cultural identity. Silas Rand, a Baptist missionary in Nova Scotia, described Preston’s Baptist efforts as “one of the most extensive revivals that ever swept over Cornwallis [now Kentville].”

Grant, Keith S. “‘He Is Sent to This Place, and Good Will Result to the Cause of God’: Young Richard Preston, Race, and Religion in Early-19th-Century Nova Scotia.” Acadiensis: Journal of the History of the Atlantic Region / Revue d’histoire de La Region Atlantique 53, no. 1 (2024): 8–36. https://doi.org/10.1353/aca.2024.a947469.

In 1894, an amendment to the Indian Act authorized the federal government to enforce compulsory attendance at residential schools. Specifically, it added regulations allowing the Department of Indian Affairs to require school attendance, appoint truant officers, and legally compel parents or guardians to send their children to designated schools.

Smith, Keith Douglas, ed. Strange Visitors: Documents in Indigenous-Settler Relations in Canada from 1876. University of Toronto Press, 2014. 

The 1927 amendments to the Indian Act barred Indigenous nations from hiring lawyers to advance land claims, effectively silencing legal challenges to federal authority and reinforcing colonial control over Indigenous rights and resources.

Smith, Keith Douglas, ed. Strange Visitors: Documents in Indigenous-Settler Relations in Canada from 1876. University of Toronto Press, 2014.

The centralization policy in Nova Scotia, introduced in 1942 under Premier Angus L. Macdonald and continued by his successors, aimed to consolidate small rural schools into larger, centralized institutions. While intended to improve educational quality and efficiency for Indigenous students, it failed due to strong community resistance, cultural loss, and logistical challenges. Many Indigenous residents viewed it as an attack on local identity and autonomy, as children faced long commutes and communities lost key social centres. The policy also struggled with inadequate infrastructure and funding. Ultimately, the social and emotional costs outweighed the intended benefits, leading to widespread dissatisfaction and reform.

“Contemporary Mi’kmaq – Kiskukewaq Mi’kmaq.” Cape Breton University, n. d. Accessed October 14, 2025. https://www.cbu.ca/indigenous-initiatives/lnu-resource-centre/mikmaq-resource-guide/contemporary-mikmaq-kiskukewaq-mikmaq/.  

Commonly called the “Sixties Scoop” despite spreading across almost three decades; from 1951-1984, thousands of Indigenous children, including many Mi’kmaq, were forcibly removed from their families by child welfare authorities. These children were placed in non-Indigenous foster or adoptive homes across Canada, the United States, and even overseas, often losing connection to their families, language, and culture. For the Mi’kmaq, this disrupted intergenerational knowledge and community continuity, deepening the effects of colonization and residential schools. Many survivors experienced identity loss, cultural alienation, and long-term trauma. Communities were left grieving stolen generations and weakened family structures. The legacy of the Sixties Scoop continues to affect Mi’kmaq people today, fueling movements for cultural reclamation, healing, and justice. Modern-day efforts such as language revitalization, survivor advocacy, and the federal settlement of 2017 represent important steps toward recognizing and addressing this profound historical injustice.

Read, Geoff, and Kristin Burnett. Aboriginal History: A Reader. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2016. 

Until 1960, Indigenous people in Canada were unable to vote unless they ceded their so-called “Indian” status through the process of enfranchisement, which stripped Indigenous people of their Indigenous rights to grant them citizenship rights instead. In 1960, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s government helped amend Section 14 of the Canada Elections Act, removing federal voting restrictions on status-holding Indigenous persons.  This amendment enabled Indigenous persons to vote in federal elections without being required to give up their Indian status.

“Indigenous Voting Rights | The Brian Mulroney Institute of Government.” Accessed October 14, 2025. https://www.mulroneyinstitute.ca/node/5521. 

Nova Scotian Baptists played a significant role in advancing civil rights, particularly through their emphasis on equality, education, and social justice. Centred in the belief that all people are equal before God, many Baptist leaders supported movements challenging racial discrimination and promoting the rights of Black Nova Scotians and Indigenous peoples. Baptist churches often provided safe spaces for dialogue and community organization, while institutions like Acadia University fostered inclusive education. Figures such as Richard Preston, a Black Baptist minister, were central to early abolition and civil rights efforts. Collectively, Baptists helped shape a moral foundation for social reform in Nova Scotia. By the late 1960s, Baptist representatives participated in interdenominational working groups addressing Indigenous education and welfare. Baptist colleges, like Acadia University, began offering courses on cross-cultural ministry that challenged paternalistic assumptions and provided access to library and archival collections that embodied this change. By the 1970s, some Baptist congregations supported Indigenous-led initiatives to reclaim land and language rights and advocate for better housing and education.

Twooden. “Richard Preston and a Moment of Choice for Nova Scotia Baptists.” ACBAS, March 25, 2022. https://acadiadiv.ca/acbas/2022/richard-preston/. 

Backus, Isaac. Baptists in Early North America. First edition. Edited by William H. Brackney, Charles K. Hartman, J. Stanley Lemons, et al. Mercer University Press, 2013.

In 2024, ADC established the Peter J. Paris Collection of African Canadian, American, Caribbean, and African Studies, underscoring the College’s unwavering commitment to fostering academic excellence and social justice. https://acadiadiv.ca/peter-paris-collection/

In 1969, the federal government assumed full control of residential schools from the churches, continuing the system’s harmful legacy even as public oversight increased and criticism of the schools intensified.

Read, Geoff, and Kristin Burnett. Aboriginal History: A Reader. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2016. 

R v. Simon was a landmark Supreme Court of Canada case in which the Court affirmed that the Mi’kmaq had a continuing treaty right to hunt for food under the 1752 Treaty. It established that historical treaties must be interpreted liberally and in favour of Indigenous peoples, strengthening the legal recognition of Mi’kmaq treaty rights.

Wicken, William C. Mi’kmaq Treaties on Trial: History, Land, and Donald Marshall Junior. University of Toronto Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442670211.

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada began its Indigenous relations work by listening to Indigenous Christian leaders through a gathering on the traditional lands of Treaty One Nations in southern Manitoba and by participating in the 1995 Sacred Assembly, which led to the Reconciliation Proclamation. This early period also saw the creation of the Aboriginal Task Force (later the Aboriginal Ministries Council), which worked for over a decade to build relationships, educate churches, and address the findings of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

“EFC – Indigenous Relations.” Accessed December 15, 2025. https://www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/IndigenousRelations?details=true. 

The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), established in 1991, was a major inquiry into the relationships between Indigenous peoples, the Canadian government, and society. Its 1996 final report called for recognizing Indigenous self-government, land rights, and cultural renewal. For the Mi’kmaq people, RCAP validated long-standing demands for sovereignty, treaty recognition, and control over education, land, and resources. The Commission’s findings strengthened Mi’kmaq efforts toward self-determination and led to initiatives like the Mi’kmaq Education Act and the development of governance frameworks in Atlantic Canada, empowering Mi’kmaq communities to preserve their language, traditions, and political autonomy within modern Canada.

People to People, Nation to Nation: A Consultation Document Summarizing the Main Findings and Recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 1997. 

The outcome of this case affirmed Mi’kmaq treaty rights to fish and earn a moderate livelihood under 18th-century treaties, reshaping fisheries policy and Indigenous–Crown relations.

Wicken, William C. Mi’kmaq Treaties on Trial: History, Land, and Donald Marshall Junior. University of Toronto Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442670211, 214. 

The 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement created Canada’s largest class-action settlement, providing compensation, establishing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and formally acknowledging the widespread harms inflicted on Indigenous children and communities.

Canada, “Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.” Reynaud, Emotions, Remembering and Feeling Better

This document affirms the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples to self-determination, lands, cultures, and governance, setting a global standard for justice, dignity, and reconciliation.

“The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.” n. d. Accessed November 20, 2025. https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf.

The TRC Report spurred renewed reflection within Baptist denominations, including those in Atlantic Canada. It documents the main church signatories to the Settlement Agreement (2007), which did not include Baptist groups. However, the TRC emphasized that all churches in Canada contributed in some measure to colonial attitudes and harms.

In the Maritimes, Baptists have been part of denominational reflection and reconciliation work to acknowledge this broader history. For example, the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada (CBAC) have encouraged churches to engage in truth-telling and relationship-building with Mi’kmaq and other Indigenous peoples. Baptist colleges (including Acadia Divinity College) have incorporated courses and events focused on the impacts of colonial missions and goals for reconciliation and right relations.

TRCtalk – Talking Truth and Reconciliation. n. d. Accessed October 14, 2025. https://courseware.acadiau.ca/trctalk/.

In early 2016, the EFC brought together Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders from its affiliate community to prepare a response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, especially Call to Action #48, which urges churches and faith communities to formally repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery and related concepts like terra nullius, and to develop teachings that support Indigenous rights, spiritual sovereignty, and reconciliation. The EFC committed to a process of learning and collaboration to explore what adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as a framework for reconciliation would mean for its community.

“EFC – Indigenous Relations.” Accessed December 15, 2025. https://www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/IndigenousRelations?details=true.

This was class-action agreement between the Government of Canada and Indigenous survivors who, as children, were removed from their families and communities and placed in non-Indigenous foster or adoptive homes, often without consent, from the 1950s through the 1980s. 

The settlement provided individual financial compensation (generally $25,000 per eligible survivor), formally acknowledged the harm caused by the loss of culture, identity, and family, and included funding for the Indigenous Healing Foundation to support healing, commemoration, and language and cultural revitalization, though it did not address broader child-welfare reform or land claims.

Canada, Government of Canada; Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs. “Are You Part of the Sixties Scoop Class Litigation?” Fact sheet. December 1, 2018. https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1517425414802/1559830290668

The resolution commits CBAC to concrete measures toward reconciliation, endorses the 2016 apology by Terry Smith, and pledges to respond to TRC Calls to Action #48, 49, 59, and 60. The resolution frames these steps not as token gestures but as genuine efforts to repair relations with Indigenous neighbours and pursue justice.

Communications, CBAC. “CBAC’s Resolution in Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” CBAC, January 31, 2020. https://atlanticbaptist.ca/news/indigenous-peoples-apology/.

In 2023, Lilly Endowment Inc. funded a collaborative partnership between NAIITS, ADC, Tyndale Seminary (Toronto), and Ambrose Seminary (Calgary) known as the Canadian Learning Community for Decolonization and Innovation in Theological Education (CLC). Together, the schools continue seeking to understand the histories of their relationships with Indigenous communities and how best to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action for schools and churches. Acadia Divinity College welcomes Indigenous students and hopes to shape faithful ministers who serve in multiple contexts, including those on ancestral Indigenous lands. This timeline project was funded by the CLC.