The Mousam River: Ancestral Wabanaki Waterways
Contributed by Bill Grabin (the Just History Project) and Savannah Mirisola-Sullivan (WHERE Education Coordinator)
Postcard of “Great Hill, Kennebunk Beach, Me”
Wabanaki peoples have paddled the waterways of Wαpánahkik, the Dawnland, since time immemorial, relying on its rivers as “life-giving places” that shaped every aspect of culture.
Across the Dawnland, Wabanaki place names reflect this view from the river. Mousam is thought to mean “ponds at the head,” referring to the three ponds joined at the headwaters of the river. Kennebunk, meaning “long cut bank,” likely describes Great Hill, a striking glacial moraine beside the mouth of the Mousam River which used to be much steeper. Great Hill served as a coastal landmark guiding Wabanaki canoe routes to the rich waters of the Mousam.
“Wabanaki place names reflect this view from the river. Kennebunk, meaning “long cut bank,” likely describes Great Hill beside the mouth of the Mousam River.”
Arrowheads found at “Riverhurst” 1909–1910, on site of sunken garden
For thousands of years, Wabanaki families followed seasonal migration routes, maintaining ecological balance by harvesting resources in rhythm with nature. In summer, they camped in wigwams along the Mousam and Kennebunk coasts to hunt, fish, spear, harvest clams, forage, trade and rendezvous, often building weirs to catch bass and shad. In winter, many traveled inland to Pequawket on the Saco River, Norridgewock on the Kennebec, or farther north into present-day Canada.
The Mousam River, depicted by Native Land Digital
Kennebunk remained a significant seasonal site into the 1700s. Great Hill was part of the Wabanaki territory known as Nampscoscoke, stretching between the Naguncoth (Ogunquit) and the Kennebunk River. Historic records note Ramanascho, mother of Sagamore Thomas Chabinock, living on Great Hill in 1649, and around 1720, Abenaki Sagamore Wahaunay led an encampment of about 160 people along the Mousam before settlers drove them north by 1752.
While explorer Samuel de Champlain called Indigenous peoples south of the Penobscot “Almouchiquois,” we use Wabanaki to honor the distinct yet interconnected nations whose relationships, diplomacy, and resilience persist despite displacement, war, European disease, and broken treaties that devastated the Dawnland during the 1600s and beyond.
Cottages at Great Hill, Kennebunk Beach, ME
Reflection Questions
What is your relationship to the river?
What is your relationship to the place we call Kennebunk?
How do you conceptualize and make sense of “Time Immemorial”?
This research was compiled as part of the Just History Walk: Lives Between Two Rivers which took place on November 8, 2025. For more information about this walk, click here. For more research related to this area, click on the tags below. To download a hi-res version of the poster below for educational use, please contact where@atlanticblackbox.com.
Poster by Meadow Dibble