Gabriel Sylliboy (18 August 1874 – March 4, 1964)[1] was the first Mi'kmaq elected as Grand Chief (1919)[2][3] and the first to fight for the recognition by the state of Canada of the treaties between the government and the First Nations people.

Chief Justice Brian Dickson wrote that "the language used [in the Sylliboy case] reflects the biases and prejudice of another era in [Canada's] history.

"[4] Fourteen years later, in 1999, the R v Marshall ruling stated that the treaties from 1760 and 1761 show the Mi'kmaq can earn a living from hunting and fishing as their ancestors did when they traded with the Europeans.

[11] It was a case brought on by Donald Marshall Jr., wrongfully convicted of murder in the early 1970s and himself the son of a Mi’kmaq grand chief.

"[4] On 16 February 2017, the Office of the Premier of Nova Scotia issued an official apology and pardon statement:We recognize that the treatment of the grand chief was unjust.