Pre-contact

At the time of European contact, the Mi'kmaq people inhabited Miꞌkmaꞌki, which covered modern-day Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, northeastern New Brunswick, and the Gaspé Peninsula.

By the 17th century, the Mi'kmaq would often visit the island they called Taqamkuk (present-day Newfoundland) by crossing the Cabot Strait in shallops that they adopted from European traders.^[4] They visited the island and hunted along the south coast as far east as Placentia Bay before returning to Unamaki^{[citation needed]}. They gradually made Taqamkuk among their "domain of islands".^[4] Some ^[who?] Mi'kmaq have argued^{[citation needed]} that in addition, a group of Mi'kmaq lived on the island for hundreds of years. The island's Indigenous population, the Beothuk, are said to have gone extinct in the early 1800s.

Permanent settlement in Newfoundland

During the colonial period, when the French and British competed for claims to land in North America, the Mi'kmaq became allied with France with whom they traded. Together they raided settlements of the English in New England and in the Maritime provinces of the future Canada. In 1763, after France was defeated by Britain in the Seven Years' War, it ceded all its land east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain, including the Mi'kmaq's traditional land. After this, numerous British colonists entered that territory and tried to settle.

Newfoundland, however, was still sparsely populated, and most Europeans lived on the eastern portion of the island and only in small isolated coastal settlements. The Mi'kmaq living on the island were essentially able to continue their traditional way of life on the island's west coast and in the interior. After the Beothuk people declined in the 1800s, the Mi'kmaq no longer shared Newfoundland's interior with anyone. In 1857, a colonial census of Newfoundland recorded Mi'kmaq settlements at St. George's Bay, Codroy Valley, Bay d'Espoir, and the Bay of Exploits.^[4]

The English and other Europeans had little knowledge of the interior and relied on the Mi'kmaq as guides^{[citation needed]}. In 1822, explorer William Cormack traversed Newfoundland's interior from Trinity Bay to St. George's Bay. He was guided by a Mi'kmaw man named Sylvester Joe. In the 1860s, the British hired some Mi'kmaq men to deliver the mail overland through a network of trails reaching the northern communities.

Membership

The Government of Canada had expected band membership to be similar to the membership of the Federation of Newfoundland Indians, around 5,000 people. Instead, around 100,000 people, or the equivalent of one-fifth of the population of Newfoundland, applied to become band members.

After the first round of enrollment, 23,000 of 30,000 applicants were accepted. Although not yet functional, the band became the second largest by membership in Canada.^[10] This put the enrolment process to a halt and a supplemental agreement between the Federation of Newfoundland Indians and Canada was formed in 2013.^[11][12] The rest of the outstanding applications were put in indefinite storage. In 2013 applicants organized a new group, the Mi’kmaq First Nations Assembly of Newfoundland to lobby to continue the enrollment process. They began to prepare for a legal action regarding the enrollment process should lobbying fail.^[13] In 2014, parliament passed Bill C-25, authorizing it to review all applications and retroactively reject some, based on criteria similar to those used in the R v Powley case that defined rights for the Métis people.^[14][15] The 2013 agreement tightened rules and criteria thus leaving 80,000+ applicants rejected in its wake.^{[16][17][11][12]} In 2017, only 18,044 were eligible for membership.^[12][18] In 2018, the Qalipu First Nation announced that the updated Founding Members List for the Band was adopted by way of an Order in Council which came into effect on June 25, 2018. The 2018 Band list included 18,575 members.^[19] By 2021, nearly 24,000 people were recognized as founding members, in 67 Newfoundland communities and abroad.^[20]

Questions of legitimacy

In 2013, Chiefs Terrance Paul and Gerard Julian, co-chairs of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Chiefs, sent a joint letter to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. They presented their concerns regarding the legitimacy of the Qalipu band, and asked for further clarification and explanation by the federal government. They disputed the authority of the federal government to determine who qualifies as Mi’kmaq. They said that, while the government of Canada may have jurisdiction over who is an Indian, they do not have the constitutional right to determine who is a Mi’kmaw.^[21]

Later in 2013, the Mi’kmaq Grand Council, the traditional government of the Mi'kmaq people, issued a statement to the United Nations denouncing the Qalipu band as illegitimate. The letter stated, "These new Qalipu members we simply do not know and do not recognize as Mi’kmaq."^[22] The Mi'kmaq Rights Initiative assert that the Qalipu were created as an entity by the federal government, and they do not consider them as part of the broader Mi'kmaq nation.^[23] The Friends of Qalipu Advocacy Association is currently taking Qalipu First Nation (and its precursor) to court over the enrolment process.^[24]

Council

Members of the Qalipu Mi'kmaq First Nation elect a Chief (currently Jenny Brake), 2 Vice Chiefs, and councillors representing a total of 9 wards.^[26]