PETITIONS AND THE RECONFIGURATION OF HOMELAND: PERSISTENCE AND TRADITION AMONG WABANAKI PEOPLES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

PETITIONS AND THE RECONFIGURATION OF HOMELAND:

PERSISTENCE AND TRADITION AMONG WABANAKI PEOPLES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

By Micah Abell Pawling

Thesis Advisor: Dr. Jacques Ferland

A Lay Abstract of the Thesis Presented

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

(in History)

May, 2010

            The Penobscots, the Passamaquoddies, and the Maliseets are three Native American groups whose traditional territory includes present-day eastern Maine, western New Brunswick, and the southern shore of Quebec.  In the nineteenth century, these three Wabanaki tribes adopted the practice of submitting petitions or written requests to government officials.  For Native people, petitions were an extension of diplomatic negotiation.  The establishment of the international border through the region had a different impact on Native communities. Wabanaki petitions helped to maintain family ties across the border.  As Euro-American settlers cleared the land and dam construction altered the rivers, Native leaders negotiated treaties and petitioned governments to retain rights and a land base called reservations in Maine and reserves in New Brunswick and Quebec.  Often these places held a cultural significance for them.

When Penobscot homeland was no longer a Euro-American borderland, tribal leaders entered into treaties with Massachusetts officials who aggressively sought Indian land.  Cultural misunderstandings and different interpretations of the treaties prompted Penobscot leaders to petition for redress.  The Passamaquoddies experienced the direct impact of the Canadian-American border through their territory.  After securing reservation lands and rights in Maine, Native leaders assisted boundary commissioners.  Passamaquoddies maintained connections to their eastern homeland in New Brunswick by petitioning the province to create reserves that came and went.  The international border often superseded tribal rights and settlers on both sides of the border encroached on Indian land.  Further east, Maliseet petitions to New Brunswick created reserves along the Saint John River.  North of Fredericton, the distribution of reserves reflected family band values.  Along the lower river valley were Loyalist settlement was concentrated, Maliseets camped on private property, rented camp sites, experimented with land ownership.  In Quebec, Maliseet families struggled to remain connected to the northern portion of their homeland by petitioning for a reserve and practicing mobility.  As Euro-American settlers in both provinces encroached on reserve lands, Native petitions used the law to protect their lands.  Reserve families made decisions to shape their own communities and to maintain their cultural identity.