Until further notice, typically mid-August, Penobscot East Trail, Jordan Cliffs Trail, Precipice Trail, and Valley Cove Trail are closed for Peregrine falcon nesting season. Also, as roads reopen, the Precipice Trail parking lot will remain closed. More
Historic carriage roads closed until further notice for "mud season"
Spring thaw has led to temporary closures to protect Acadia's historic carriage roads during "mud season." Walking, bicycling or riding horses in these wet and soft conditions can cause costly ruts and potholes that channel water and exacerbate erosion. More
Since time immemorial, Native American peoples have inhabited the land now called Maine. Acadia National Park continues to be a place of enduring and immeasurable importance to the Wabanaki, People of the Dawnland. Resistant and resilient, Wabanaki people are still here. We gratefully acknowledge the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Mi’kmaq Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahkokmikuk, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik, and the Penobscot Indian Nation on whose ancestral homelands we now gather.
Native American peoples have inhabited the land we now call Maine since time immemorial. Today people from the four tribes—the Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot—collectively known as the Wabanaki, or “People of the Dawnland” live throughout the state of Maine. Tribal governments have a government-to-government relationship with Acadia National Park.
Generations ago, Wabanaki people traveled here overland and in seaworthy birchbark canoes. Setting up temporary camps near places like Somes Sound, they hunted, fished, gathered berries, harvested clams, and traded with other Wabanaki. Some called Mount Desert Island “Pemetic,” meaning “range of mountains.” This 'naming' was documented by the Wabanaki people guiding French colonizer Samuel de Champlain who first came to Mount Desert Island in 1604. Confronted with attempts to displace and erase them by European colonizers starting in the 1500s, Wabanaki people resisted and remained resilient. They shaped the history of their people and the place we now call Acadia National Park in the face of the colonial onslaught of guns, disease, and attempted genocide. Learn more in Ethnography: Asticou's Island Domain: Wabanaki Peoples at Mount Desert Island, Volume 1 and Volume 2
Though Acadia National Park lies in the Wabanaki homeland, for most of the last century, the federal government prohibited Wabanaki people from harvesting sweetgrass within the boundaries of Acadia National Park. Since 2015, the National Park Service has worked toward renewed gathering of certain plants or plant parts by federally recognized Indian tribes. This was a significant development for both national parks and the Tribes with whom they consult. It opened a path for Indigenous people to renew cultural practices and relations with valued places in their homelands.
Abbe Museum
Acadia partners with the nearby Abbe Museum, a museum that is committed to centering Indigenous people in their own histories, stories, and futures, and correcting harmful representations of the past. A Smithsonian affiliate, the museum holds the largest and best documented collection of Maine Indian basketry.
In addition, the park hosts the free, public Cultural Connections in the Park program every Wednesday from late June through September, in partnership with the Abbe Museum (sponsored by Dawnland, LLC, who operates Jordan Pond House and the Cadillac Mountain Gift Shop). Visit the park event calendar to view upcoming Cultural Connections programs.
Native American peoples have inhabited the land we now call Maine for over 12,000 years. Acadia is located in the homeland of the Wabanaki. Explore a brief history of wabanaki life thousands of years ago.
An image and audio description are provided for "Footsteps Before You," an interpretive wayside at Frazer Point on the Schoodic Peninsula in Acadia National Park.
An image and audio description are provided for "Wabanaki Traditions." an interpretive wayside panel near the Sieur de Monts Nature Center in Acadia National Park.
Wabanaki ecologists and archeologists conducting research in Acadia National Park are reframing narratives and reclaiming culture. Park science is all the better for it.
The National Park Service will integrate traditional Indigenous knowledge and climate-smart techniques to remove invasive plants, restore native plants, and enhance a significant Indigenous cultural landscape in Acadia National Park. The project will result in a restored, climate-resilient salt marsh ecosystem and will support traditional harvesting of sweetgrass.
The National Park Service (NPS) presents documentation, in coordination with the five federally recognized tribes of Maine, propose to enter into agreements for the traditional gathering of sweetgrass plants and plant parts at Acadia National Park.
The National Park Service (NPS) presents documentation on the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for traditional gathering of sweetgrass that allows the five federally recognized tribes in Maine into plant gathering agreements with Acadia National Park.
Though Acadia is well known for its landscapes and natural history, it also has many rich layers of significant cultural history. Wabanaki people have lived here for as long as 10,000 years, and many continue to call this place home, or feel connected to it from afar. The "Cultural Connections in the Park" program hosts free public events every Wednesday from late June through September that feature artists and performers from Wabanaki culture.
Sites:Acadia National Park, Saint Croix Island International Historic Site
Dr. Bonnie Newsom, and graduate students Natalie Dana Lolar and Isaac St. John, carefully removed stone pieces, bone splinters, and baked clay fragments from their special archival plastic bags and spread them out on a table. They paused for a moment. Newsom, Lolar, and St. John are trained archaeologists and members of different Wabanaki tribes. They were the first Wabanaki people to see the objects since those who created them more than a thousand years ago.
Sites:Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate, Acadia National Park, Roosevelt Campobello International Park, Saint Croix Island International Historic Site
The National Park Service will protect coastal archaeological sites, collections, landscapes, and ethnographic resources vulnerable to climate change impacts, particularly sea level rise, flooding, and extreme weather events. Building on 15 years of consultation with Wabanaki Tribes, the project utilizes a 'Two-eyed Seeing' approach, merging Indigenous Knowledge with western science, giving the National Park Service and partners the ability to develop models for preservation
Acadia National Park will receive $950,000 in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to create a model for addressing climate change vulnerabilities of coastal archeological sites, collections, landscapes and ethnographic resources using a ‘Two-eyed Seeing’ approach.
Enjoy a video profile produced by David Shaw of Dr. Bonnie Newsom, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Maine, about her work as an indigenous archeologist. Acadia National Park has roughly 24 known indigenous archeological sites. As a Second Century Stewardship Fellow, Newsom worked with two graduate students to examine more closely how the Native peoples of Maine engaged with the area prior to European contact.
Cultural Connections in the Park
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Though Acadia is well known for its landscapes and natural history, it also has many rich layers of significant cultural history. Wabanaki people have lived here for as long as 10,000 years, and many continue to call this place home, or feel connected to it from afar. In partnership with the Abbe Museum, Acadia National Park, and sponsored by Dawnland, LLC, the Cultural Connections in the Park program hosts free public events every Wednesday from late June through September.
