Burying the Hatchet ceremony (Nova Scotia)

The Burying the Hatchet ceremony (also known as the Governor's Farm ceremony) happened in Nova Scotia on June 25, 1761 and was one of many such ceremonies in which the Halifax Treaties[1] were signed. The treaties ended a protracted period of warfare which had lasted more than 75 years and encompassed six wars between the Mi'kmaq people and the British. The Burying the Hatchet ceremonies and the treaties that they commemorated created an enduring peace and a commitment to obey the rule of law.

Many of British commitments were not delivered despite the intentions of the British dignitaries who attended the ceremony and helped draft the treaty such as the right afforded to the Mi'kmaq to become British subjects. The treaties were enshrined into the Canadian Constitution in 1982, and there have since been numerous judicial decisions that have upheld them in the Canadian Supreme Court, the most recognized On being the Donald Marshall case. Nova Scotians celebrate the Treaties of 1760-1761 every year on Treaty Day (October 1).

  1. ^ Patterson, Stephen (2009). "Eighteenth-Century Treaties:The Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, and Passamaquoddy Experience" (PDF). Native Studies Review. 18 (1).