Wabanaki

A group of nations

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

Acadia works with five tribal governments and counts four peoples as the Wabanaki. The four are the Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot, whose members live throughout the state of Maine and are collectively known as the Wabanaki, or People of the Dawnland. The fifth is a second Passamaquoddy government: the park counts the Passamaquoddy at Motahkokmikuk and the Passamaquoddy at Sipayik separately. Wabanaki people reached Mount Desert Island overland and in seaworthy birchbark canoes, and set up temporary camps near places like Somes Sound to hunt, fish, gather berries, harvest clams and trade with other Wabanaki. Some called Mount Desert Island Pemetic, meaning range of mountains, and that name was written down by the people who guided Samuel de Champlain there in 1604. Wabanaki people are still here.

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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

NPS Acadia counts four tribes as the Wabanaki, the Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot, and works with five tribal governments, counting the Passamaquoddy at Motahkokmikuk and at Sipayik separately. Some Wabanaki people called Mount Desert Island Pemetic, meaning range of mountains, and the name was recorded when they guided Samuel de Champlain there in 1604. Source

Sources

Checked September 2026.

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