Carissa Julian, a member of the Sipkne'katik band of the Mi'kmaw, broke down during a class for Indigenous women to get their license to lobster as she recounted the tensions she and her boyfriend have experienced. Last year, when the Sipekne'katik, began to assert their treaty right to fish weeks before the federally sanctioned lobster season started in late November, there was an intense backlash from commercial lobstermen.
James Nevin held onto the rope attached to a heavy drag, akin to a grappling hook, that he had thrown overboard, to snare the trawl line attached to his family's lobster traps, allowing him to haul up their illegal bounty - scores of lobsters - in Saulnierville, Nova Scotia.
Sipekne'katik Fisheries Guardian Ivan Knockwood stood inside of a trailer that overlooked the harbor where the Indigenous group's boats are kept as he kept a watchful eye on the parking lot and the boats below.
Sipekne'katik Fisheries Department guardians placed themselves between a Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada patrol boat and a Sipekne'katik lobster fishing boat in Saulnierville, Nova Scotia, on Aug. 26.
Riley Howe, 20, used a pair of binoculars to search for federal patrol boats as his family fished their treaty traps on St. Mary's Bay in Nova Scotia.
Council members and Sipekne'katik Chief Michael Sack (right) discuss how to proceed in Indian Brook, Nova Scotia, on Aug. 25 after Sack was pulled over by an unmarked black truck and told by fisheries officers that he was being arrested "for promoting an illegal fishery."
Indigenous fisherman gathered in the wharf parking lot at Saulnierville on Aug. 26.
Maine 
