Our Stories

In the storied history of Wagmatcook First Nation, but one chief is regarded as being heroic.

Frank Bernard was 45 years old when he was first elected in 1958 as the first Indian Act Chief of Wagmatcook Indian Reservation. Frank took on his newly-elected position with great pride, as he pushed forward and opted for a brighter and healthier Wagmatcook.

Before becoming Chief, Frank was already well known throughout Mi’kma’ki for his chanting and singing, taking his talent and traveling to funerals to sing and chant in Mi’kmaq. His sons followed suit with their dad and were also known for their talent with musical instruments and singing. In 1944, Frank was recorded by the prominent Canadian folklorist, Helen Creighton, the results of which can be found at the Nova Scotia Archives.

Frank had many conquests when he was Chief. One of them was that the children of Wagmatcook had a chance of obtaining a proper education. Another was his regard for their safety and well-being. Married to the late Mary Susan Bernard, they had 11 children of their own; a family of seven boys and four girls. He was able to successfully create the first by-laws of Wagmatcook, one of which was the setting of a curfew for school children in the community. Every school night, Frank would be seen driving through Wagmatcook, ensuring that children were either sent home or had a ride home before the nightly curfew deadline.

Between the 1940’s to the 1950’s, the federal Department of Indian Affairs had forced all Mi’kmaq communities of Mi’kma’ki into centralization. Their lives were to be traumatically uprooted, destined to reside in either one of the two isolated communities of Eskasoni on Cape Breton Island, or in Shubenacadie, in central Nova Scotia. Like their brethren across the province, the people of Wagmatcook Indian Reservation did not want to leave their settlement.

But it was Chief Bernard who assumed the challenge of opposing the centralization plan.

Acting alone, he set out by foot from Wagmatcook to visit the government offices and their bureaucrats in Amherst, N.S., a daunting distance of 340 km. He had help along the way, stopping at many of the other Indian reservations along his journey, where he was accommodated with shelter, food, and other necessities.

The rest of this story, and Chief Bernard, became legendary. The centralization scheme was halted, and the people of Wagmatcook retained the sanctity of their community, and their lives, to this day.