Passamaquoddy

Passamaquoddy Territory

The Passamaquoddy (Peskotomuhkati or Pestomuhkati in the Passamaquoddy language) are a Native American/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America, primarily in Maine and New Brunswick. The Passamaquoddy lacked a written history before the arrival of Europeans, occupied coastal regions along the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine and along the St. Croix River and its tributaries. They dispersed and hunted inland in the winter; in the summer, they gathered more closely together on the coast and islands, and primarily harvested seafood, including porpoise.^[1] The name "Passamaquoddy" is an Anglicization of the Passamaquoddy word peskotomuhkati, the prenoun form (prenouns being a linguistic feature of Algonquian languages) of Peskotomuhkat (pestəmohkat), the name they applied to themselves. Peskotomuhkat literally means "pollock-spearer" or "those of the place where pollock are plentiful",^[2] reflecting the importance of this fish. ^[3] Their method of fishing was spear-fishing rather than angling.

The Passamaquoddy were moved off their original lands repeatedly by European settlers since the 16th century and were eventually limited in the United States to the current Indian Township Reservation in eastern Washington County, Maine. It has a land area of 96.994 km² (37.450 sq mi) and a 2000 census resident population of 676 persons. There are also Passamaquoddy off-reservation trust lands in five Maine counties; these lands total almost four times the size of the reservation proper. They are located in northern and western Somerset County, northern Franklin County, northeastern Hancock County, western Washington County, and several locations in eastern and western Penobscot County. Their total land area is 373.888 km² (144.359 sq mi). There was no resident population on these trust lands as of the 2000 census. The Passamaquoddy also live in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, and maintain active land claims but have no legal status in Canada as a First Nation. Some Passamaquoddy continue to seek the return of territory now comprised in St. Andrews, New Brunswick which they claim as Qonasqamkuk, a Passamaquoddy ancestral capital and burial ground.

The Passamaquoddy population in Maine is about 2,500 people, with more than half of adults still speaking the Malecite-Passamaquoddy language, shared (other than minor differences in dialect) with the neighboring and related Maliseet people, and which belongs to the Algonquian branch of the Algic language family. The University of Maine published a comprehensive Passamaquoddy Dictionary in 2008.

Passamaquoddy Bay, which straddles the United States-Canada border between New Brunswick and Maine, derives its name from the Passamaquoddy people.

Land claims lawsuit

The Passamaquoddy may be best known outside the region for Passamaquoddy v. Morton, a 1975 land claims lawsuit in the United States which opened the door to successful land claims negotiations for many eastern tribes, giving federal recognition and millions of dollars to purchase trust lands. The Passamaquoddy and the Penobscot tribes were awarded $81.5 million and 300,000 acres (1,200 km²) of designated woodland at the resolution of this case by the Maine Indian Land Claims Act, signed on March 15, 1980, in return for relinquishing their rights to 19,500 square miles (51,000 km²), (12,480,000 acres) which is roughly 60% of the State of Maine.^[4] Most Penobscot live on a reservation at Indian Island, which is near Old Town.

They invested the money well enough that they quickly increased it to $100 million. Their investing strategy was written up as a case study by Harvard Business School. ^[5]

Special political status in Maine

Passamaquoddy tribal flag

The Passamaquoddy, along with the neighboring Penobscot Nation, are given special political status in the U.S. state of Maine. Both groups are allowed to send a nonvoting representative to the Maine House of Representatives. Although these representatives cannot vote, they may sponsor any legislation regarding Native American affairs, and may co-sponsor any other legislation. They are also entitled to serve on House committees.

Notable Passamaquoddy

• Melvin Francis, Tribal Governor
• Mary Mitchell Gabriel, basketmaker, winner of a 1994 National Heritage Fellowship[2]
• Clara Neptune Keezer, basketmaker, winner of a 2002 National Heritage Fellowship[3]
• David Moses Bridges, Master Birch-Bark Canoe Builder. Winner, 2005 First Peoples Fund, Community Spirit Award. 2007, Maine Arts Commission Traditional Arts Fellowship. www.davidmosesbridges.com, www.passamaquoddycanoes.com
• Simon Dumont, freestyle skier
• Donald Soctomah, Tribal state representative, Tribal historic preservation officer

Popular culture references

• Members of the Passamaquoddy tribe appear in the PBS series Colonial House.
• Passamaquoddy is the name of a fictional, turn-of-the-century, seaside fishing village in Maine, presumably near Passamaquoddy Bay, in the Disney movie Pete's Dragon.

Notes

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ Erickson, Vincent O. 1978. "Maliseet-Passamaquoddy". In Northeast, ed. Bruce G. Trigger. Vol. 15 of Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, pg. 135. Cited in Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pg. 401.
3. ^ Maliseet - Passamaquoddy Dictionary
4. ^ The Passamaquoddy: A People Reborn. Dir. Shireen F. Hinckley. 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T46qNOKGmVM>. A ten minute documentary on the Maine Indian Land Claims Case. Written, filmed, narrated and edited by Shireen Hinckley.
5. ^ Frazier, Ian (2001). On the Rez. Picador. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-0312278595. 

References

• Indian Township Reservation and Passamaquoddy Trust Land, Maine United States Census Bureau

Maps

Maps showing the approximate locations of areas occupied by members of the Wabanaki Confederacy (from north to south):

Mi'kmaq

Maliseet, Passamaquoddy

Eastern Abenaki (Penobscot, Kennebec, Arosaguntacook, Pigwacket/Pequawket)

Western Abenaki (Arsigantegok, Missisquoi, Cowasuck, Sokoki, Pennacook

External links

• Passamaquoddy Tribal Government Web Site (Pleasant Point)
• Passamaquoddy Tribal Government Web Site (Indian Township)
• Maliseet-Passamaquoddy online dictionary
• The Boston Globe Magazine, October 27, 1985 issue, article by Peter Anderson
• Contribution to Passamaquoddy Folk-Lore, by J. Walter Fewkes, reprinted from the Journal of American Folk-Lore, October-December, 1890, from Project Gutenberg
• Passamaquoddy Origins