Penobscot Nation

A nation today

Sunrise light on the pink granite summit of Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, the highest point on the U.S. eastern seaboard.
John Manard, via Flickr / Wikimedia Commons (2021) · CC BY-SA 2.0

Background

The Penobscot River runs through the Nation's trust land, and the Nation's fisheries program exists to bring the fish back to it. That program says the alewife, blueback herring, American shad, American eel and Atlantic salmon that once fed a nation are all but gone from the river. Its work for the past ten years has concentrated on trust land in the Mattamiscontis Stream drainage, where more than 20 stream connectivity projects have rebuilt the outlets of Mattamiscontis, South Branch and East Branch lakes. The program also takes part in hydroelectric dam relicensing, pressing for tribal priorities in fish passage studies and for the protection of endangered and threatened fish species. It defines a connected watershed as one where water, nutrients, sediment and fish move freely between habitats, something lake outlet dams, mill dams and undersized road culverts have broken in most New England watersheds for generations. The Nation runs seventeen departments, one of which is titled Water (nə̀pi) Resources.

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Visit and learn

Penobscot Nation's own site

Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.

Parks on its homelands

Sunrise light on the pink granite summit of Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, the highest point on the U.S. eastern seaboard.Acadia National Park

The Nation's fisheries program manages tribal trust lands and the Penobscot River, and says the alewife, blueback herring, American shad, American eel and Atlantic salmon that once fed a nation are all but gone from the river. Its biologists have finished more than 20 stream connectivity projects in the Mattamiscontis Stream drainage, rebuilding the outlets of Mattamiscontis, South Branch and East Branch lakes. Source

Programs

  • Cultural and Historic Preservation Department and Committee

    The department and the committee work together on language, history, education, media, museum work, archaeology and outreach, and the page lists a language coordinator and a tribal historic preservation officer among the staff. It publishes a Penobscot Nation curriculum, a set of Penobscot phrases, language resources and historic preservation material, and it runs a project on the Camden Harbor Indigenous Landscape.

    https://www.penobscotnation.org/departments/cultural-historic-preservation/·preservation

  • Penobscot Tribal Farm

    A tribally owned and operated farm started by the Nation's Agricultural Program in 2022, which the page describes as growing from a vacant wooded lot. Its facilities include a 30 by 50 foot processing and education center, a high-tunnel hoophouse and a plant nursery for starting seeds earlier. It works with St. Ann's Food Pantry, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners and University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and its stated mission is to address food inequity by providing access to local healthy food and to support economic development for the Nation's community.

    https://www.penobscotnation.org/departments/department-of-natural-resources/penobscot-tribal-farms/·land

Affiliations

  • Acadia National Park

    Acadia lists the Penobscot Indian Nation among the Wabanaki tribal governments it acknowledges, and says the government has a government-to-government relationship with the park. The same page describes Wabanaki people arriving on Mount Desert Island overland and by birchbark canoe.

    https://www.nps.gov/acad/learn/historyculture/wabanaki.htm

Sources

Checked September 2026.

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