The MMFN reserve is located 1.6 km east of Edmundston in the north-western region of New Brunswick.

At the time of the European encounter, the Maliseet (Wolastoqiyik) were living in walled villages and practicing horticulture (corn, beans, squash and tobacco).

In addition to growing crops they subsisted from fishing, hunting and gathering fruits, berries, nuts and natural produce.

[5] Since time immemorial, the MMFN territory was an essential camping and meeting place for the Maliseet people during seasonal migrations.

A large settler community had formed at Madawaska by the early 1800s, which began with the Acadians' relocation from the lower Saint John River in 1785.

In the late 1880s, Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), expropriated three parcels of reserve land.

Fraser Papers Inc. constructed an above-ground pipeline running from their mill to a tailings pond on the CPR easement.

[6] "People couldn't go from the south to the north side of the pipeline because you know, it was on the ground…it was made of wood staves, 4 feet tall.

By 2012 Madawaska Maliseet First Nation also "negotiated an agreement with Twin Rivers, the new owners of Fraser Papers, allowing the company to continue to operate the pipeline on the reserve.