Wabanaki Nations

 

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.

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Photo © Alan Nyiri, used with permission.

 

Since Time Immemorial

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

Sweetgrass Gathering

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.

Culural Connections

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.

 

 

 

 

Duration:

9 minutes, 39 seconds

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.

 

Duration:

4 minutes, 8 seconds

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.