Description
Etchemin is what they used to call the Indians who occupied the border country between Maine and New Brunswick. Today we speak of Malecite and Passamaquoddy. Linguistically and culturally they belong to the Eastern or Wabanaki group of that great Algonkian stock that once, except for the Iroquois in New York and the upper St. Lawrence valley, covered the entire Northeast. Most of the present day Malecite (less than a thousand strong) live in several small reserves and settlements along New Brunswick’s St. John River.
Language
Etchemin was a language of the Algonquian language family, spoken in early colonial times on the coast of Maine.
Culture
They were nomadic hunters and fishermen, living in conical covered wigwams, traveling after the game on snowshoes or in birchbark canoes. The basic political unit seems to have been they were a loosely organized group of related families that traveled and lived together. There seems to have been very little organization beyond that; in politics, society, and religion these Indians can best be described as individualist.