The Míkmaw Concordat: Rethinking Treaty Making between Indigenous Peoples and Settlers

Abstract

In 1610, the Míkmaq formed a treaty with French representatives of the Holy See. James (Sákéj) Youngblood Henderson argues in The Míkmaw Concordat (1997) that through this treaty the Míkmaq enfolded settlers into their existing international political order by extending to settlers their concept of sacred kinship. In the more than 25 years since the publication of The Míkmaw Concordat, it has received no attention from scholars of political science. This omission is unsurprising as political science struggles to account for Indigenous politics because of its traditional focus on the “Westphalian state.” This framework excludes many aspects of Indigenous political traditions, particularly their approaches to international politics, which are not reducible to state-centric frameworks. The Concordat, as a treaty between two nonstate entities, is an example of Indigenous treaty making that can illuminate both the history of settler colonialism and how contemporary social movements are resisting the settler state.