W'olastiquiyik- the Maliseet:
Before the French arrived in the area of the St. John River Valley, various tribes of Algonquin stock who had moved across the
continent from the west peopled the Northeast. The Algonquin occupied all of the lands east of the Great Lakes, across New
England, and into the maritime regions. They were broken up into bands, which in our area of interest-what is now Maine and the
Canadian Maritimes-included the Mi’kmaq, the Passamaquoddy, and the Penobscot. That tribe who lived along the river we call the
St. John- but which they called variously the "Oagundy" or the "Waloostook"- called themselves the W'olastiquiyik, which
translated to "people of the sparkling water". They were called by the early French and English settlers they were known under
varied titles, as 'Etchimins' or 'Tarrantines', or ‘Souriqouis’. It was, however,their Mi’kmaq neighbors who gave them the name
'Malecit", meaning "those who speak badly". The Mi’kmaq, who spoke an unusual variant of the Algonquin dialect, had a hard time
understanding the language of their neighbors to the west. Despite the language difference, all of these bands were closely related,
spoke a similar dialect, had similar cultural values and practices, intermarried, and acknowledged a common ancestral home
somewhere along the St. John River. They would eventually form the loose confederation we know today as ‘Wabanaki’.
The Maliseets held their territory from the Allagash area, north into Temiscouata to the St. Lawrence, east to Grand Falls, and South
along the St. John River, almost exactly the area that would come to be the Madawaska Territory. In 1699 a French map of the St.
John River indicated nine Indian settlements in the territory. The tribe was nomadic, broken up into smaller bands that moved with
the seasons and their food supply of fish and game. Less like their Southern kin the Abenakis and Penobscot and more like the
Mi’kmaq, the Maliseet spent little time growing food, except for corn. They preferred to hunt and fish, using all of the larger wild
animals and most of the smaller ones as well. Like most Algonquins, they practiced fishing by torchlight at night, attacting fish to
the surface with the a birch torch. They also used nets and weirs. In hunting, moose were considered the most valuable animal,
and every piece of the animal was employed for some use. A young boy was considered a man after he successfully hunted a
moose or a bear. In summer they would congregate on the seashore and dig clams and oysters, which like all other meat they
could dry for future use. Lily roots, ground nuts, berries and maple sap rounded out their diet.
The Maliseet, as most Wabanakis, traveled mainly by river in large but extremely light portable canoes they expertly made out of
birch bark. The entire span of the territories of these bands, was formed out of interconnected watersheds, the rivers and streams
of which made up the main travel routes. For such territory, the birch bark canoe was the perfected means of transport. It is said
that under normal conditions the Maliseets could span the distance from Quebec to St. John, New Brunswick in only 5 days. The
mid-point of such a journey they called 'Matawaskiyak',(pronounced mah-dah-wahs-kee-yah) which was where the St. John River
connected with the stream that would take them to Lake Temiscouata and which meant "place where the river enters another with
watergrass". Some people believe the place name is actually the Maliseet word ‘Matuweskik’ (pronounced mah-doo-wes-keeg) or
the Mi’kmaq word 'Madeouskak ' both which mean "Place of the Porcupine". They held several more villages down the length of
the waterway, most pricipally at Meductic, which was where the St. John connected to the Eel River, and which they called
‘Matawamketook’, meaning "rocky at the mouth of the river". True to the beliefs of most Native Americans, ownership of the land
was non-existent, and triabl boundaries were vague, but generally respected. Natural resources were to be used for the benefit of
all in the band.
With the encroachment of the white man, the Maliseets suffered in the same ways that all American Natives did. Their population
was devastated by European diseases that they had no immunity to. Despite this, and even with a recognition that these new
diseases were coming from the whites, the Maliseets settled into trade relations in order to obtain the iron tools that could be
provided by the Europeans. Eventually, the Maliseet took the same course as their Wabanaki brethren and allied themselves with
the French. The French were good trading partners, and the Natives disliked the English, whom they called 'split tongues', and
considered liars, double dealers and thieves. They felt that while the French came to live among them, the English came only to
take their lands. The English would clear the forest, driving out or killing any animal or human that stood in their way. The French, on
the other hand, lived close to the water and, being more interested in the fur trade, made no inroads against the forest in order to
maintain the habitats of the fur bearing animals. Even the Acadian French who were farming did so in the Coastal Salt Marshes that
were virtually useless to the Natives. Indeed, the Wabanaki became so close to the French Acadian settler that intermarriage was
common, especially among the Acadians and Mi’kmaq. European Frenchmen arriving in the area during the mid 18th century often
referred to the Acadians as 'mulattos', and the Acadian population itself felt threatened whenever the English put bounties on
Indian scalps.
The Wabanaki were/are deeply religious and spiritual people. Their beliefs are far too complicated to be explained properly in
these short paragraphs. Very generally, they believed in a Great Spirit or 'Manitou'; but such is only the manifestation of the mystery
of the universe. They were polytheistic, believing in protector gods-one for each tribe- theirs being known as 'Glooskap'. Glooskap
created the lands for the Maliseets and other Wabanaki. He had since left the earth but had promised he would return. With this
background the natives had no trouble indulging the insistence of Catholic missionaries who told them a very similar story of God
and Jesus. In fact, the missionaries often said that once converted, the Mi’kmaq and the Maliseets were more devout Catholics
than the Acadians. However, in the minds of many natives, the acceptance of Catholicism did not mean replacing their own beliefs.
Instead, rather than reject the white man's religion outright, they consciously combined the two into a unique new set of beliefs and
practices.
The Maliseet were fierce warriors, and before the arrival of the white men, they engaged in numerous wars with their hated
enemies to the west, the Mohawk. Many said that when the Maliseets weren't hunting for food, they were engaging in their favorite
past time, chasing the Mohawk. One of the Maliseets' most enduring oral traditions is of Malobiannah, daughter-in-law to the great
chief Pennyhaouet. After a Mohawk surprise attack on a Maliseet encampment at Matawaskiyak in which Pennyhaouet died along
with most of the band, Malobiannah, under the ruse of guiding the Mohawk in further conquest of other Maliseet bands in exchange
for her life, instead led the force down the St. John and over the Grand Falls. She had sacrificed herself to save her nation.
As the Maliseet grew closer to the French, they proved to be loyal allies and, along with the rest of the Wabanaki, the bane of the
New England pioneers. They could war either on land or at sea. Their specialty was early morning amphibious raids, which they
consistently practiced against English attempts to encroach on their lands along the Maine coasts. They would also occasionally
attack well-established settlements as far south as Massachusetts. So violent were the attacks on New England’s attempts to
settle northward that Maine remained virtually an unsettled no man's land from 1635 to 1735. During that time any farmhouse or
hamlet East of Wells, Maine went up in flames, and the three major towns- Wells, York, and Kittery- were attacked so many times
that they were soon all but desolate.
However, in the first 50 years of the 18th century, as the authority and military presence of France was slowly defeated and
removed by the British, the Maliseets often found themselves caught up in the same predicaments as the rest of France’s Indian
allies. Overtures of peace were often made by the Natives, often at times when they were in a position of strength. The British, as
they had done to the Western bands of the Abenakis, resorted to the confusing terms of English law and had the Mi’kmaq and
Maliseet sign treaties which incorporated language that the Natives did not understand. These treaties effectively-under English
law at least- ceded Wabanaki territories to English rule. In fact one treaty was written in two separate documents, one listing the
promises made by the Mi’kmaq and Maliseet, the other listing the promises made by the English. The document of English
concessions was convienently ‘lost’ by the authorities. The Natives did not appreciate English deception during peace negotiations,
and often would repudiate the treaties once they had been fully explained to them, and the fighting would resume.
Thus the Natives of the Maritimes were almost constantly at war with the English during this time, and realized they were fighting
for their lands and their own way of life. The Acadians, tied into the various tribes through intermarriage and proximity, supported
the Natives as well as they could. Finally, this became the downfall of Acadia, as New England came to believe the Indians would not
be able to fight without Acadian support, and sought to weaken the Indian threat by removing the Acadians. Those Acadians who
fought back did so in guerrilla bands that also had large numbers of Natives. As France was completely defeated on the American
Continent in the Seven-Year’s War, so ended any Acadian or Native hope of keeping their lands.
After the end of the war, the Maliseet moved away from the mouth of the St. John and further upstream Aukpaq became their new
principle village. The English were slow in colonizing this area, and many Acadians returning from exile, finding no place for them
on the Nova Scotian mainland moved to a village at St. Anne, close to the Indians. The Maliseet had come to distrust and hate the
English so much that a sizable portion of the band supported the Americans during the War of Independence. Some went so far as
to take part in Jonathan Eddy’s 1776 attack on Ft. Cumberland and John Allan’s expedition to the St. John River in 1777. Others saw
that the Americans were the same New Englanders they had been fighting for almost 200 years over Wabanaki lands and
distrusted both sides. This group took an Oath of Allegiance to the English Crown, with a proviso to remain neutral. Without the
active support of the natives, the British were unable to wrest the eastern portion of Maine from the colonies. The Americans
promised to invade the area to completely force out the British, but at the end of the War in 1781 the area's vague boundaries were
maintained and the British, at least for the moment, remained as the colonial authority over Maliseet territory.
With the end of the war, the influx of American Loyalist refugees into Southern New Brunswick and their subsequent expropriation
of the lands proved too hard to bear. The Maliseets abandoned the area and moved back inland toward Matawaskiyak. Many of the
Acadians at St. Anne soon followed them. The Maliseets welcomed the Acadians to their home along the upper St. John, and
helped the new colony survive the rigors of establishment.
They were not so kind to the English. The English had established themselves up the St. John as far North as Woodstock. The
encroachment by the Loyalists on their lands and the disturbing of traditional hunting grounds created tremendous tension that
often spilled over into violence. Facing the same situation with the Mi’kmaq, the British government began a program to forcibly
settle and 'educate' the natives. For the Western Wabanaki bands-the Passamaquoddy, the Penobscot and other Abenakis- the
United States proved to be no more fair, selling the Natives lands without permission to lumber speculators, and gaining huge
concessions from the Natives (and confining them to small ‘townships’) for yearly rations of blankets, gunpowder, shot and flint.
The hope of both governments was to make the Natives sedentary farmers, and thus see them lose their need for large tracts of
land for hunting and fishing. By 1787 Maliseets up and down the St. John had been convinced to settle down at Medutic, the former
principal village which had been made into a school ground by group of Anglican missionaries. The enticements included a regular
supply of food and goods. The Maliseets were also attracted to Medutic because the English Loyalists who had been granted land
there had failed to take up their claims.
Gradually, the Maliseets abandoned the Matawaskiyak area to the Acadians they had welcomed there in 1784. A continuous influx
of French settlers from Quebec had seriously depleted the stock of game in the area (the Caribou disappeared entirely), and the
Maliseets could find little meat to eat or furs to trade. The promise of supply made settling at Medutic a powerful pull. By 1841 A
report by a Mr. Perley published by the English Command found only 27 Maliseets remaining at Matawaskiyak. These natives, led by
Louis Bernard, were farming in cooperation with their Acadian neighbor, and their farm was reported to be in a "promising state."
They had "sown ninety bushels of oats and wheat, as well as thirty bushels of potatoes, besides peas, beans and flax… The
Frenchman reaps and delivers to them half of the crop and also half of the grass from their meadow, which he cuts and makes into
hay." However, many of the natives were weaving baskets to try and peddle for money, and-according to Perley- many of the men
still there were devoting "themselves almost entirely to the (hunt), and, whenever they obtain money they spend it in drink."
Over the next 100 years the Maliseets and their Wabanaki brethren would suffer myriad indignities. Extreme poverty, an inability
to remove themselves from their situation and racism against them created an intolerable environment. By the early 1800’s, the
idea of educating the Maliseet at Medutic had been abandoned and replaced with a plan to place individuals- mostly children- with
English families to ‘apprentice’ as farm help or domestic servants. Each family that bound out their children received an annual
allowance of three yards of blue cloth, a blanket, and enough flannel for one shirt, in what basically amounted to indentured
servitude. The Maliseet sent into the program were looked on as inferiors and compelled to do every kind of drudgery, rather than
learn a trade. The working children received little schooling if male, none if female. There were, however, attempts to convert them
to the Anglican Religion. Upon the end of their servitude at the age of 21, most seemed fated to live their lives by begging, as other
children took up their positions and they left with no skills. The consequences came in the form of large ratios of alcoholism, poor
health and suicide. The Natives tried to survive as best they could- peddling baskets, working as hunting guides for rich "sports",
and working the farm and berry fields of white farmer, but all the while never giving up their right to their own cultures and
traditions.. Over the next 150 years nothing was ever done by governments to improve the Natives’ lot. Indeed, Natives living in
either Maine or Canada found the governments often made the situation worse, resorting to tactics such as pressuring the Natives
to sell the lots that they had received for farming, and taxing their homes if they dared to live off the reservations.
But as with other Native American tribes, a determination exists among the Maliseet to resist assimilation, reject despair and fight
back. The weapon of choice has become the court systems of the very nations that persecuted the natives. The natives have
insisted on the rights guaranteed them by treaty. In 1960 the Maliseets of Maine (The Canadian Maliseets were excluded) joined
with the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy in a court case against the State of Maine, claiming that treaties signed were void due to
violations of the Indian Non-Intercourse act of 1790. The case was eventually settled out of court for land and monetary damages.
The Maliseets of Maine purchased land for themselves just outside of Houlton, and are now attempting to provide services to their
band, as well as well as re-establish their culture and their language.
The Canadian band of Maliseets are mostly around the area of Tobique, their new capital. There is still a small reservation directly
east of the confluence of the Madawaska and St. John Rivers that belongs to the Maliseets. Here the descendants have kept
themselves in their old capital grounds, and in Tobique they have been licensed to operate a small casino. The way of life is
different, however, and the pressures to assimilate into the general society are great. It is a tribute to these great people that they
cling to their culture and language, reminding us all that we are all better for our differences.
Before the French arrived in the area of the St. John River Valley, various tribes of Algonquin stock who had moved across the
continent from the west peopled the Northeast. The Algonquin occupied all of the lands east of the Great Lakes, across New
England, and into the maritime regions. They were broken up into bands, which in our area of interest-what is now Maine and the
Canadian Maritimes-included the Mi’kmaq, the Passamaquoddy, and the Penobscot. That tribe who lived along the river we call the
St. John- but which they called variously the "Oagundy" or the "Waloostook"- called themselves the W'olastiquiyik, which
translated to "people of the sparkling water". They were called by the early French and English settlers they were known under
varied titles, as 'Etchimins' or 'Tarrantines', or ‘Souriqouis’. It was, however,their Mi’kmaq neighbors who gave them the name
'Malecit", meaning "those who speak badly". The Mi’kmaq, who spoke an unusual variant of the Algonquin dialect, had a hard time
understanding the language of their neighbors to the west. Despite the language difference, all of these bands were closely related,
spoke a similar dialect, had similar cultural values and practices, intermarried, and acknowledged a common ancestral home
somewhere along the St. John River. They would eventually form the loose confederation we know today as ‘Wabanaki’.
The Maliseets held their territory from the Allagash area, north into Temiscouata to the St. Lawrence, east to Grand Falls, and South
along the St. John River, almost exactly the area that would come to be the Madawaska Territory. In 1699 a French map of the St.
John River indicated nine Indian settlements in the territory. The tribe was nomadic, broken up into smaller bands that moved with
the seasons and their food supply of fish and game. Less like their Southern kin the Abenakis and Penobscot and more like the
Mi’kmaq, the Maliseet spent little time growing food, except for corn. They preferred to hunt and fish, using all of the larger wild
animals and most of the smaller ones as well. Like most Algonquins, they practiced fishing by torchlight at night, attacting fish to
the surface with the a birch torch. They also used nets and weirs. In hunting, moose were considered the most valuable animal,
and every piece of the animal was employed for some use. A young boy was considered a man after he successfully hunted a
moose or a bear. In summer they would congregate on the seashore and dig clams and oysters, which like all other meat they
could dry for future use. Lily roots, ground nuts, berries and maple sap rounded out their diet.
The Maliseet, as most Wabanakis, traveled mainly by river in large but extremely light portable canoes they expertly made out of
birch bark. The entire span of the territories of these bands, was formed out of interconnected watersheds, the rivers and streams
of which made up the main travel routes. For such territory, the birch bark canoe was the perfected means of transport. It is said
that under normal conditions the Maliseets could span the distance from Quebec to St. John, New Brunswick in only 5 days. The
mid-point of such a journey they called 'Matawaskiyak',(pronounced mah-dah-wahs-kee-yah) which was where the St. John River
connected with the stream that would take them to Lake Temiscouata and which meant "place where the river enters another with
watergrass". Some people believe the place name is actually the Maliseet word ‘Matuweskik’ (pronounced mah-doo-wes-keeg) or
the Mi’kmaq word 'Madeouskak ' both which mean "Place of the Porcupine". They held several more villages down the length of
the waterway, most pricipally at Meductic, which was where the St. John connected to the Eel River, and which they called
‘Matawamketook’, meaning "rocky at the mouth of the river". True to the beliefs of most Native Americans, ownership of the land
was non-existent, and triabl boundaries were vague, but generally respected. Natural resources were to be used for the benefit of
all in the band.
With the encroachment of the white man, the Maliseets suffered in the same ways that all American Natives did. Their population
was devastated by European diseases that they had no immunity to. Despite this, and even with a recognition that these new
diseases were coming from the whites, the Maliseets settled into trade relations in order to obtain the iron tools that could be
provided by the Europeans. Eventually, the Maliseet took the same course as their Wabanaki brethren and allied themselves with
the French. The French were good trading partners, and the Natives disliked the English, whom they called 'split tongues', and
considered liars, double dealers and thieves. They felt that while the French came to live among them, the English came only to
take their lands. The English would clear the forest, driving out or killing any animal or human that stood in their way. The French, on
the other hand, lived close to the water and, being more interested in the fur trade, made no inroads against the forest in order to
maintain the habitats of the fur bearing animals. Even the Acadian French who were farming did so in the Coastal Salt Marshes that
were virtually useless to the Natives. Indeed, the Wabanaki became so close to the French Acadian settler that intermarriage was
common, especially among the Acadians and Mi’kmaq. European Frenchmen arriving in the area during the mid 18th century often
referred to the Acadians as 'mulattos', and the Acadian population itself felt threatened whenever the English put bounties on
Indian scalps.
The Wabanaki were/are deeply religious and spiritual people. Their beliefs are far too complicated to be explained properly in
these short paragraphs. Very generally, they believed in a Great Spirit or 'Manitou'; but such is only the manifestation of the mystery
of the universe. They were polytheistic, believing in protector gods-one for each tribe- theirs being known as 'Glooskap'. Glooskap
created the lands for the Maliseets and other Wabanaki. He had since left the earth but had promised he would return. With this
background the natives had no trouble indulging the insistence of Catholic missionaries who told them a very similar story of God
and Jesus. In fact, the missionaries often said that once converted, the Mi’kmaq and the Maliseets were more devout Catholics
than the Acadians. However, in the minds of many natives, the acceptance of Catholicism did not mean replacing their own beliefs.
Instead, rather than reject the white man's religion outright, they consciously combined the two into a unique new set of beliefs and
practices.
The Maliseet were fierce warriors, and before the arrival of the white men, they engaged in numerous wars with their hated
enemies to the west, the Mohawk. Many said that when the Maliseets weren't hunting for food, they were engaging in their favorite
past time, chasing the Mohawk. One of the Maliseets' most enduring oral traditions is of Malobiannah, daughter-in-law to the great
chief Pennyhaouet. After a Mohawk surprise attack on a Maliseet encampment at Matawaskiyak in which Pennyhaouet died along
with most of the band, Malobiannah, under the ruse of guiding the Mohawk in further conquest of other Maliseet bands in exchange
for her life, instead led the force down the St. John and over the Grand Falls. She had sacrificed herself to save her nation.
As the Maliseet grew closer to the French, they proved to be loyal allies and, along with the rest of the Wabanaki, the bane of the
New England pioneers. They could war either on land or at sea. Their specialty was early morning amphibious raids, which they
consistently practiced against English attempts to encroach on their lands along the Maine coasts. They would also occasionally
attack well-established settlements as far south as Massachusetts. So violent were the attacks on New England’s attempts to
settle northward that Maine remained virtually an unsettled no man's land from 1635 to 1735. During that time any farmhouse or
hamlet East of Wells, Maine went up in flames, and the three major towns- Wells, York, and Kittery- were attacked so many times
that they were soon all but desolate.
However, in the first 50 years of the 18th century, as the authority and military presence of France was slowly defeated and
removed by the British, the Maliseets often found themselves caught up in the same predicaments as the rest of France’s Indian
allies. Overtures of peace were often made by the Natives, often at times when they were in a position of strength. The British, as
they had done to the Western bands of the Abenakis, resorted to the confusing terms of English law and had the Mi’kmaq and
Maliseet sign treaties which incorporated language that the Natives did not understand. These treaties effectively-under English
law at least- ceded Wabanaki territories to English rule. In fact one treaty was written in two separate documents, one listing the
promises made by the Mi’kmaq and Maliseet, the other listing the promises made by the English. The document of English
concessions was convienently ‘lost’ by the authorities. The Natives did not appreciate English deception during peace negotiations,
and often would repudiate the treaties once they had been fully explained to them, and the fighting would resume.
Thus the Natives of the Maritimes were almost constantly at war with the English during this time, and realized they were fighting
for their lands and their own way of life. The Acadians, tied into the various tribes through intermarriage and proximity, supported
the Natives as well as they could. Finally, this became the downfall of Acadia, as New England came to believe the Indians would not
be able to fight without Acadian support, and sought to weaken the Indian threat by removing the Acadians. Those Acadians who
fought back did so in guerrilla bands that also had large numbers of Natives. As France was completely defeated on the American
Continent in the Seven-Year’s War, so ended any Acadian or Native hope of keeping their lands.
After the end of the war, the Maliseet moved away from the mouth of the St. John and further upstream Aukpaq became their new
principle village. The English were slow in colonizing this area, and many Acadians returning from exile, finding no place for them
on the Nova Scotian mainland moved to a village at St. Anne, close to the Indians. The Maliseet had come to distrust and hate the
English so much that a sizable portion of the band supported the Americans during the War of Independence. Some went so far as
to take part in Jonathan Eddy’s 1776 attack on Ft. Cumberland and John Allan’s expedition to the St. John River in 1777. Others saw
that the Americans were the same New Englanders they had been fighting for almost 200 years over Wabanaki lands and
distrusted both sides. This group took an Oath of Allegiance to the English Crown, with a proviso to remain neutral. Without the
active support of the natives, the British were unable to wrest the eastern portion of Maine from the colonies. The Americans
promised to invade the area to completely force out the British, but at the end of the War in 1781 the area's vague boundaries were
maintained and the British, at least for the moment, remained as the colonial authority over Maliseet territory.
With the end of the war, the influx of American Loyalist refugees into Southern New Brunswick and their subsequent expropriation
of the lands proved too hard to bear. The Maliseets abandoned the area and moved back inland toward Matawaskiyak. Many of the
Acadians at St. Anne soon followed them. The Maliseets welcomed the Acadians to their home along the upper St. John, and
helped the new colony survive the rigors of establishment.
They were not so kind to the English. The English had established themselves up the St. John as far North as Woodstock. The
encroachment by the Loyalists on their lands and the disturbing of traditional hunting grounds created tremendous tension that
often spilled over into violence. Facing the same situation with the Mi’kmaq, the British government began a program to forcibly
settle and 'educate' the natives. For the Western Wabanaki bands-the Passamaquoddy, the Penobscot and other Abenakis- the
United States proved to be no more fair, selling the Natives lands without permission to lumber speculators, and gaining huge
concessions from the Natives (and confining them to small ‘townships’) for yearly rations of blankets, gunpowder, shot and flint.
The hope of both governments was to make the Natives sedentary farmers, and thus see them lose their need for large tracts of
land for hunting and fishing. By 1787 Maliseets up and down the St. John had been convinced to settle down at Medutic, the former
principal village which had been made into a school ground by group of Anglican missionaries. The enticements included a regular
supply of food and goods. The Maliseets were also attracted to Medutic because the English Loyalists who had been granted land
there had failed to take up their claims.
Gradually, the Maliseets abandoned the Matawaskiyak area to the Acadians they had welcomed there in 1784. A continuous influx
of French settlers from Quebec had seriously depleted the stock of game in the area (the Caribou disappeared entirely), and the
Maliseets could find little meat to eat or furs to trade. The promise of supply made settling at Medutic a powerful pull. By 1841 A
report by a Mr. Perley published by the English Command found only 27 Maliseets remaining at Matawaskiyak. These natives, led by
Louis Bernard, were farming in cooperation with their Acadian neighbor, and their farm was reported to be in a "promising state."
They had "sown ninety bushels of oats and wheat, as well as thirty bushels of potatoes, besides peas, beans and flax… The
Frenchman reaps and delivers to them half of the crop and also half of the grass from their meadow, which he cuts and makes into
hay." However, many of the natives were weaving baskets to try and peddle for money, and-according to Perley- many of the men
still there were devoting "themselves almost entirely to the (hunt), and, whenever they obtain money they spend it in drink."
Over the next 100 years the Maliseets and their Wabanaki brethren would suffer myriad indignities. Extreme poverty, an inability
to remove themselves from their situation and racism against them created an intolerable environment. By the early 1800’s, the
idea of educating the Maliseet at Medutic had been abandoned and replaced with a plan to place individuals- mostly children- with
English families to ‘apprentice’ as farm help or domestic servants. Each family that bound out their children received an annual
allowance of three yards of blue cloth, a blanket, and enough flannel for one shirt, in what basically amounted to indentured
servitude. The Maliseet sent into the program were looked on as inferiors and compelled to do every kind of drudgery, rather than
learn a trade. The working children received little schooling if male, none if female. There were, however, attempts to convert them
to the Anglican Religion. Upon the end of their servitude at the age of 21, most seemed fated to live their lives by begging, as other
children took up their positions and they left with no skills. The consequences came in the form of large ratios of alcoholism, poor
health and suicide. The Natives tried to survive as best they could- peddling baskets, working as hunting guides for rich "sports",
and working the farm and berry fields of white farmer, but all the while never giving up their right to their own cultures and
traditions.. Over the next 150 years nothing was ever done by governments to improve the Natives’ lot. Indeed, Natives living in
either Maine or Canada found the governments often made the situation worse, resorting to tactics such as pressuring the Natives
to sell the lots that they had received for farming, and taxing their homes if they dared to live off the reservations.
But as with other Native American tribes, a determination exists among the Maliseet to resist assimilation, reject despair and fight
back. The weapon of choice has become the court systems of the very nations that persecuted the natives. The natives have
insisted on the rights guaranteed them by treaty. In 1960 the Maliseets of Maine (The Canadian Maliseets were excluded) joined
with the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy in a court case against the State of Maine, claiming that treaties signed were void due to
violations of the Indian Non-Intercourse act of 1790. The case was eventually settled out of court for land and monetary damages.
The Maliseets of Maine purchased land for themselves just outside of Houlton, and are now attempting to provide services to their
band, as well as well as re-establish their culture and their language.
The Canadian band of Maliseets are mostly around the area of Tobique, their new capital. There is still a small reservation directly
east of the confluence of the Madawaska and St. John Rivers that belongs to the Maliseets. Here the descendants have kept
themselves in their old capital grounds, and in Tobique they have been licensed to operate a small casino. The way of life is
different, however, and the pressures to assimilate into the general society are great. It is a tribute to these great people that they
cling to their culture and language, reminding us all that we are all better for our differences.
| Madawaska Historical Society History of the Madawaska Territory Part 2. W'olastiquiyuk. The Original Inhabitants. |
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| Maliseet leaders and Canadian officials revealing the Wolastoq Heritage Poster. From left: Minister Brad Green; Anne Bardou of Parks Canada; Chief Robert Atwin of the Kingsclear First Nation; Acting Chief Ken Perley of the Tobique First Nation, and Chief Jean-Guy Cimon of the Madawaska Maliseet First Nation. (click to enlarge) |
| Wolastoq Heritage Poster. Rivers of Maliseet Territory resemble a tree. (click to enlarge) |
| Maliseet Territory Source:Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 15, p.124. (Click to enlarge) |
| Early Wabanaki Warrior by Jacques Grassett Credit: Library and Archives Canada / Bibilothèque et Archives Canada ( Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana Copyright: expired/périmé |
| Maliseet spearfishing by torchlight Credit: Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (click to enlarge) |
| Interior of Maliseet cabin by R. Peltry. Credit: Library and Archives Canada, Copyright: Expired (click to enlarge) |
| Maliseet guides on the Tobique Credit: New Brunswick Public Archives (click to enlarge) |
| Interior of Maliseet Catholic church at Tobique Nation. Note the mixture of Native and Catholic Traditions. (click to enlarge) |
| William, Arthur, Mrs. William and Anne Polchies. The men are wearing the traditional head dress of the Maliseets, with feathers standing on end rather than flowing down as in western native head dress. (click to enlarge) |
| Captive New Englanders being taken to Quebec for sale to the French, who in turn would ransom them back to the English Colonials. Courtesy of the New York Public Library (click to enlarge) |
| Maliseet moose hunting encampment. Courtesy of the New York Public Library (click to enlarge) |
| Maliseets building a birchbark canoe, c. 1905. Courtesy of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. (Click to enlarge) |
| Cutting birchbark. Courtesy of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. (click to enlarge) |
| Maliseet women peddling baskets. Credit: New Brunswick Museum Collection New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, N.B. #5179-2 |
