Maritimes - History

History

Following the northerly retreat of glaciers at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation over ten thousand years ago, human settlement by Native Americans or First Nations began in the Maritimes with Paleo-Indians during the Early Period, ending around six thousand years ago.

The Middle Period, starting six thousand years ago, and ending three thousand years ago, was dominated by rising sea levels from the melting glaciers in polar regions. This is also when what is called the Laurentian tradition started among Archaic Indians, existing First Nations peoples of the time. Evidence of Archaic Indian burial mounds and other ceremonial sites existing in the St. John River valley has been uncovered.

The Late Period extended from three thousand years ago until first contact with European settlers and was dominated by the organization of First Nations peoples into the Algonquian-influenced Abenaki Nation which existed largely in present-day interior Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, and the Mi'kmaq Nation which inhabited all of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, eastern New Brunswick and the southern Gaspé. The primarily agrarian Maliseet Nation settled throughout the St. John River and Allagash River valleys of present-day New Brunswick and Maine. The Passamaquoddy Nation inhabited the northwestern coastal regions of the present-day Bay of Fundy. The Mi'kmaq Nation is also assumed to have crossed the present-day Cabot Strait at around this time to settle on the south coast of Newfoundland but were in a minority position compared to the Beothuk Nation.