The Wabanaki Tribes are descendants of these early inhabitants of Downeast Maine and western New Brunswick . According to oral histories , the Wabanaki have lived in this area since time immemorial . The Wabanaki Confederacy includes 5 Tribes : Passamaquoddy , Penobscot , Maliseet , Micmac and Abenaki . Wabanaki translates to “ People of the Dawn ”. The Wabanaki have many creation stories that preserve the history of people in the Dawnland . Some historic
Wabanaki Homeland , 19th Century . Image by Stephen Bicknell . and cultural information about the Passamaquoddy people is recorded in petroglyphs created on rock outcrops around Machias Bay . The region is home to possibly the largest concentration of petroglyphs on the east coast of North America . The oldest are about 3,500 years old and were still being created when the first European ships arrived . Petroglyphs are physically fragile and culturally important . Although the existence of these petrogylphs is well-known , their location is not and access is restricted .
The Wabanaki Tribes , although not fully eradicated from their homeland , are now mainly relegated to living on Indian Reservations . Many Penobscot people occupy Indian Island in the Penobscot River . The Passamaquoddy are divided between Pleasant Point on Passamaquoddy and Cobscook Bays and Indian Township near the St . Croix River and Grand Lake system . The Aroostook Band of Micmac are located in Presque Isle , and the Maliseet Reservation is located in Houlton . These four tribes are Federally Recognized . The Abenaki , who are not , live on lands in Quebec as well as in Maine , New Hampshire , and Vermont . The Passamaquoddy Tribes on the Pleasant Point and Indian Township Reservations are the primary Tribal group highlighted in this Feasibility Study , as they still reside in the area referred to as the Downeast National Heritage Area .
Abundant Natural Resources
The Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated and advanced several times over thousands of years , eroding earth and stone and carrying sediments over thousands of miles . Ice grinding over the land stripped away soils , revealing great swaths of granite bedrock . Sediments that dropped from the melting ice created deltas , moraines , eskers , and clay beds . Kettle ponds formed by deposits damming water outlets . Rivers were carved by meltwater . Deep sand and gravel deposits created enormous aquifers . Warming of the climate enabled northward migration of the forest .
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