Wabanaki Homelands

Homelands are special places, and people across the world consider them sacred in various ways. When the Penobscot activist and lawyer Sherri Mitchell describes her Penobscot River home, she explains, “We are deeply entwined–me, the land, and those waters, and I am tied to the generations of others who have their roots embedded in that land, past, present, and future.”

Indigenous people have lived within what is now called Maine for thousands of years. Collectively they refer to themselves as “Waponahki” or “Wabanaki,” which we use here as it is the most common spelling. The name translates as “People of the Dawnland.” Wabanaki homelands include the area now known as northern New England and southeastern Canada.

There are now five distinct groups: Abenaki, Mi’kmaq, Maliseet (or Wolastoqiyik), Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot. The last four of these tribes have federally recognized communities in the State of Maine. In Canada there are federally recognized Abenaki, Mi’kmaq, and Wolastoqiyik communities and reserves. A Passamaquoddy community is also in the process of obtaining federal recognition in Canada.

The People of the Dawnland have survived 450 years of colonial war and dispossession. They have endured the violation of treaties and sacred sites and the forced assimilation through boarding school policies. Despite these challenges, Wabanaki persist and maintain their distinct culture and connection to the land.

Today, each nation maintains its own tribal government. In addition to questions of citizenship, they oversee tribal lands and waters. Through political activism, educational initiatives, and partnerships, Wabanki to this day are fighting for rights, sovereignty, self governance, and access to traditional harvesting sites. Although the closest reservation to the Pejepscot portage is 120 miles to the northeast, and although the lands and waters have changed dramatically in the last 500 years, the region around the portage continues to serve as a vibrant place of trade, travel, gathering, hunting, fishing, and healing for Wabanaki.

This research was compiled as part of the Pejepscot Portage Walk, which took place in Brunswick on October 6, 2024. 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 posters below for educational use, please contact where@atlanticblackbox.com.

This walk was a collaboration between the Pejepscot Portage Mapping Project and Atlantic Black Box.