Mi’kmaq Elder Dr. Daniel N. Paul, C.M., O.N.S.

Dear Editor:
In view of the revelations of the horrors suffered by children in Catholic run Indian Residential School I believe the time has come for the Mi’kmaq Nation to have a distinctive Mi’kmaq flag and drop the one designed by a Catholic priest. The new one raised must be of truly Mi’kmaq origin and designed by Mi’kmaw artists. To this end and in support of the proposal I offer the following opinion piece I wrote for this paper in 2010.

Submitted to the MMNN on November 16, 2010

“What we the citizens of the First Nations of the Americas need to do, in order to achieve effective self government, is what other marginalized and oppressed people have done throughout history, chart a course built on our cultural heritage, which would return to us the solid effective self-government procedures that our Peoples had developed, implemented and enjoyed before the European invasion.

European Invasion and Colonization

The summer of 2010 saw an event happen in Nova Scotia that happens far too often throughout the Americas, Indigenous Peoples celebrating with European institutions, in particular European royalty and European Christianity, the invasion of the two Continents by Europeans. In July of last summer, such a celebration occurred in the Maritimes, the Mi’kmaq feted the English (British) Crown, as represented by Queen Elizabeth II, and representatives of the Roman Catholic Church. During colonial times the ...