Maliseet People - Notable Maliseet

Notable Maliseet

• Sandra Lovelace Nicholas, a Maliseet activist, is known for challenging discriminatory provisions of the Indian Act in Canada, which deprived Aboriginal or Indigenous women of their status when they married non-Aboriginals. It imposed a patriarchal idea of descent and identity on peoples who traditionally had matrilineal systems, whereby children belonged to the mother's people. Nicholas was instrumental in bringing the case before the United Nations Human Rights Commission and lobbying for the 1985 legislation which reinstated some rights of First Nation women and their children in Canada via Bill C31. Retaining status for future generations is still an issue for Maliseet and all Aboriginal groups. Nicholas was appointed to the Canadian Senate September 21, 2005

• Graydon Nicholas was named the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, Canada, in September 2009, a Viceregal position in which he acts as the Queen's representative in the province.

• Peter Lewis Paul was a Maliseet oral historian (1902-1989) who lived on the Woodstock Reserve (N.B.) on the banks of the St. John River. Raised by his grandfather Newell Polchies, and known as Wapeyit piyel, he became a fountain of traditional knowledge and generously shared information with numerous professional linguists, ethnohistorians, and anthropologists. The recipient of many honors, he was awarded a Centennial Medal in 1969, received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of New Brunswick, and the Order of Canada in 1987.

• Gabriel Acquin was the founder of the Reserve created in 1867, which is now part of St. Mary's First Nation.