Description
The Passamaquoddy traditionally lived on Passamaquoddy Bay, the St. Croix River, and Schoodic Lake, on the boundary between what are now Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick. They belonged to the alliance of tribes called the Abenaki and spoke an Algonquian language that was closely related to that of another Abenaki people, the Malecite. Their name in their language is Peskotomuhkatiyik, which means “people who spear pollock”. The Passamaquoddy have an oral history supported with visual imagery, such as birchbark etching and petrographs prior to European contact.
Language
Maliseet–Passamaquoddy is an endangered Algonquian language spoken by the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy peoples
Culture
They traditionally planted corn, hunted, and fished for food. They built cone-shaped houses by covering a frame of wooden poles with birch bark. Sometimes they constructed a palisade, or tall fence, around a village for protection. A tribal council consisting of a war chief, a civil chief, and representatives of each family decided most important matters. A general council of the entire tribe decided war matters. hey had seasonal patterns of settlement. In the winter, they dispersed and hunted inland. In the summer, they gathered more closely together on the coast and islands, and primarily harvested seafood, including marine mammals, mollusks, crustaceans, and fish.