Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing was a pictographic writing scheme and memory aid used by Mi'kmaq people both before and after European contact.
There is some controversy over to what extent hieroglyphs were used as a true writing system before European contact. Father Chrestien Le Clercq, a Roman Catholic missionary on the Gaspé peninsula in the mid-1600s, claimed that he had seen some Mi'kmaq children writing symbols on birchbark as a memory aid. He adapted those symbols to writing prayers, developing new symbols as necessary. This writing system proved popular among Mi'kmaq and was still in use in the 19th century.
External links
References
Mi'kmaq Hieroglyphic Prayers: Readings in North America's First Indigenous Script. David Schmidt and Murdena Marshall. Nimbus Publishing, 1995. ISBN 1551090694
