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Early Maine Citizens
Penobscot Girl

Descendants of Ice Age hunters, the pre-Algonguin or  "Red Paint People" people lived in Maine before the Micmacs and Abanaki Indians. Not much is documented or known of these people. They got their names from the practice of burying their dead in graves lined with ocher which is usually of a red color. Ocher and stone implenements have been found in these early graves that date back to 3000 BC.

Early men of Maine have left behind many signs that they were here. Some of the are the over 500 shell-heaps along the Maine coast. These shell-heaps have been dated as between one and five thousand years old.

When the white man came to what is now known as Maine they found two main branches of the Algonquins, the Abnakis who lived west of the Penobscot River and the Etchimins who lived east of the Penobscot River.

Today there are only two of the dozen of tribes left in Maine, the Passamaquoddies and the Penobscots. The Passamaquoddies live on two reservations, the largest is located at Pleasant Point near Eastport. The Penobscots are on Indian Island near Old Town.

These Indians were peaceable and friendly. They planted crops and fished the ocean and streams of Maine.

Before the white man established "Thanksgiving" as a holiday, these early people had a feast around the same time of year to give thanks for the harvest.


 

Tribes in Maine today:


Aroostook  Band of Micmacs:
PO Box 772
Presque Isle, ME 04769

  Houlton Band of  Maliseet Indians:
  RR 3 Box 450
  Houlton, ME 04730
 http://www.maliseets.com/ (under    construction)
Passamaquoddy Tribe of Indian Township:
PO Box 301
Princeton, ME 04668
http://www.passamaquoddy.com/
Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point:
PO Box 343
Perry, ME 04667
http://www.wabanaki.com/
Penobscot Nation:
Community Building
Old Town, ME 04468
http://www.penobscotnation.org/
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