Date Published:
October 2004

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Passamaquoddy

[This text was originally published in 1907 by the Bureau of American Ethnology as part of its Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. It was later reproduced, in 1913, by the Geographic Board of Canada. The work done by the American Bureau was monumental, well informed and incorporated the most advanced scholarship available at the time. In many respects, the information is still useful today, although prudence should be exercised and the reader should consult some of the contemporary texts on the history and the anthropology of the North American Indians suggested in the bibliographic introduction to this section. The articles were not completely devoid of the paternalism and the prejudices prevalent at the time. While some of the terminology used would not pass the test of our "politically correct" era, most terms have been left unchanged by the editor. If a change in the original text has been effected it will be found between brackets [.] The original work contained long bibliographies that have not been reproduced for this web edition. For the full citation, see the end of the text.]

Passamaquoddy Peskedemakâdi, 'plenty of Pollock.' - Gatschet). A small tribe belonging to the Abnaki confederacy, but speaking nearly the same dialect as the Malecite. They formerly occupied all the region about Passamaquoddy bay and on St. Croix r. and Schoodic lake, on the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick. Their principal village was Gunasquamekook, on the site of St. Andrews, N. B. They were restricted by the pressure of the white settlements, and in 1886 were settled chiefly at Sebaik, near Perry, on the S. side of the bay, and on Lewis id. They had other villages at Calais, on Schoodic lake in Washington co,Me., and on St. Croix r. in New Brunswick. They were estimated at about 150 in 1726, 130 in 1804, 379 in 1825, and from 400 to 500 in 1859. The Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes send to the Maine legislature a representative who is permitted to speak only on matters connected with the affairs of the Indian reservations (Prince in Proc. Am. Philos. Soc ., XXXVI, 481, 1897).

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Source: James WHITE, ed., Handbook of Indians of Canada, Published as an Appendix to the Tenth Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, Ottawa, 1913, 632p., p. 383.