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The Passamaquoddy: Peskotomuhkati

Passamaquoddy have lived and flourished within our ancestral homeland at the least since the time when the Laurentide Ice Glaciers melted away from this part of North America, about 10 to 14 thousand years ago.

Passamaquoddy Bay and neighboring West Isles Archipelago also provided an abundance of salt-water food fish due to the productivity of the deep, cold, strong upwelling currents. The productivity and diversity of fish within the Passamaquoddy Bay region was truly magnificent, fitting the description of a Garden of Eden. Nature provided everything the Passamaquoddy people needed to thrive. In this environment we developed a vibrant Indigenous Economy.

The Pleasant Point peninsula (Sipayik) is a traditional seasonal fishing village to the Passamaquoddy. Because of its unique location at the confluence of the Passamaquoddy and Cobscook Bays it was (and remains today) the unique location providing safe harbor, quick access to inland and ocean waterways, and access to abundant marine resources for sustenance such as shell fish, marine mamals and other fish, etc.

For millennia the Passamaquoddy way-of-life was to hunt, fish, trap and gather food and medicine and to employ the natural resources of the environment to sustain our communities. Over the past 400 years the encroachment and degradation of the resources in our homeland forced Passamaquoddies to adapt, forcing a shift away from our traditional indigenous economy. We had to find alternative ways to survive and to feed our families.

Today there are over 3,000 Passamaquoddy citizens.

There are three distinct self-governing Passamaquoddy communities within the tribes ancestral homeland. Two communities are located in Maine. Pleasant Point and Indian Township and the third is located at St. Andrews New, Brunswick. Each community is separated by geography but the people continue to maintain close political, social and kinship ties.