Indigenous resistance to colonialism continues in the present, including Mi’kmaq defence of their hereditary rights against fracking on their traditional territories.
By Tony Seed
On June 24, 1497, the Venetian navigator Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), commissioned by Henry VII of England, landed in Newfoundland. Believing it to be an island off the coast of Asia, he named it New Found Land. Under the commission of this king to “conquer, occupy, and possess” the lands of “heathens and infidels,” Caboto reconnoitred the Newfoundland coast and landed on the northern shore of what is today known as Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Continue reading