Long before any European sail touched this shore, the Mi'kmaq knew it, and named it for what it is: Kespoogwitk — "land's end." The island sits in Kespukwitk, one of the traditional districts of Mi'kma'ki, a name place-name scholars render "the last flow of water" — the final district, where the land runs out into the Atlantic. Mi'kmaq families lived, fished, and planted along this coast for generations beyond counting, and they were still here, on their own ground, when the settlers' records begin: in 1802, Mi'kmaq families at Cape Sable petitioned the province because newcomers claiming the land were blocking the brooks with nets set clear across the streams, cutting off the fish runs the families depended on. The petition describes a sober, industrious people who planted and fished for their living — on land their ancestors had occupied, in their words, for many years. Every other story on this map happened, in some way, on top of this one.
Known / not known
The name, its meaning, and the 1802 petition are published and documented. The deeper history — thousands of years of it — is Mi'kmaq history, held by the Mi'kmaq; this map points to it with respect and does not pretend to tell it.
Sources: Mi'kmaw place-name scholarship (Ta'n Weji-sqalia'tiek / Mi'kmaw Place Names project); Nova Scotia Archives, Mi'kmaq Holdings Resource Guide, RG 1 vol. 430 no. 117 (1802 petition).