the aroostock war

1838 - 1839

NUMBER OF COMMITTED

AND DEATHS IN SERVICE UNKNOWN.

The so-called "Aroostock War", conducted along the then undefined border between New Brunswick and Maine, occurred during the winter of 1838-1839, at the height of the tensions surrounding the the Aroostock River, where Americans and Britons would later dispatch troops, Maliseet leader Francis Tomah assured New Brunswick Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Harvey that the Aboriginal peoples living in the disputed territories were firm supporters of the British cause, adding that the colony could count, if necessary, on the support of the Malecites. In 1842, however, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty settled this crisis, which had largely affected the right of access to lucrative forest resources and the maintenance of transport and communication routes between adjacent British colonies. Subsequently, a special "Ashburton Treaty Medal" was awarded to the Maliseet and other Eastern Indians in recognition of their contribution as guides and hunters to the surveyors' mission. colonials charged with tracing the newly admitted international boundary.