HOMELAND
Field crops at the Turner Farm on Fish Point, North Haven, circa 1900.
Everything in US history is about the land -- who oversaw and cultivated it, fished its waters, maintained its wildlife; who invaded and stole it; how it became a commodity (“real estate”) broken into pieces to be bought and sold on the market.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, 2014
North Haven is the homeland of the Wabanaki, the indigenous people of Maine. Known as the People of the Dawnland, today’s Wabanaki include the Abenaki, Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Nations. Their ancestors lived on North Haven both year round and seasonally for thousands of generations.
When Europeans came to Maine in the 16th and 17th centuries many changes befell Native communities. Diseases, carried by European traders and settlers, caused the first recorded epidemics among the Wabanaki in 1616 and 1633. Those epidemics, known by the Wabanaki as “The Great Dying,” killed 75 to 90% of Native peoples in Maine, whose population before the arrival of Europeans was estimated to be 20,000.
As more and more Europeans came to Maine in the 18th century, they made claims to land and natural resources, believing it their destiny to control and cultivate the land. Increasingly, Europeans sought to eliminate Wabanaki from their traditional homeland. The colonial government supported these efforts with proclamations like one in 1755 from Massachusetts lieutenant governor Spencer Phips who ordered colonists in Maine to destroy the “Penobscot Tribe of Indians” of all ages and offered a bounty for their scalps or bodies. Over 50 such genocidal proclamations were issued in New England during the 17th and 18th centuries, rewarding settlers both land and money for slaughtering Native peoples.
At the same time, British and French fought continuously over Wabanaki homeland on the coast of Maine. In 1763, when France surrendered all claims to land in Canada and eastern Maine, a flood of English settlers spread rapidly eastward along the Maine coast. They sought more and more land for farming and logging, as well as access to rivers and streams for mill operations.
On North Haven, settlers from Massachusetts began arriving to the island in the 1760s. By the time of the United States first census in 1790, nearly 578 settlers were recorded living here and on nearby Vinalhaven.
With strong agrarian traditions, settlers relied heavily on the ability to grow crops and graze livestock. As they claimed land for farming, they chose sites not only for the soil but also for good sun exposure, protection from winds, and access to freshwater springs and to nearby harbors for shipping.
With each wave of newcomers, Native peoples encountered increasing threats. Facing disease, genocide, and disruption to their hunting and fishing grounds, Native communities were forced to leave their homelands on the coast. Fighting for their survival, they left the islands of Penobscot Bay and moved farther inland. Through it all, Wabanaki people endured to survive today despite the decades of violence acted against them.
The history of farming on North Haven relied not only the island’s fertile soil and exporting products along Maine’s coastal shipping highway, but also involved land hungry settlers forcing indigenous people from their homeland. Comprehending the history of farming here cannot be done without recognizing the painful historical events that occurred such that Wabanaki people no longer live on this land.
You are living on my ancestor's homelands. Native people may not be living next door to you now,
but, we have never left and the history of this soil is forever registered in our native DNA.
Barry Dana, 2019, former Penobscot Nation Chief and Native artist, educator, consultant, and environmentalist
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, 2014
North Haven is the homeland of the Wabanaki, the indigenous people of Maine. Known as the People of the Dawnland, today’s Wabanaki include the Abenaki, Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Nations. Their ancestors lived on North Haven both year round and seasonally for thousands of generations.
When Europeans came to Maine in the 16th and 17th centuries many changes befell Native communities. Diseases, carried by European traders and settlers, caused the first recorded epidemics among the Wabanaki in 1616 and 1633. Those epidemics, known by the Wabanaki as “The Great Dying,” killed 75 to 90% of Native peoples in Maine, whose population before the arrival of Europeans was estimated to be 20,000.
As more and more Europeans came to Maine in the 18th century, they made claims to land and natural resources, believing it their destiny to control and cultivate the land. Increasingly, Europeans sought to eliminate Wabanaki from their traditional homeland. The colonial government supported these efforts with proclamations like one in 1755 from Massachusetts lieutenant governor Spencer Phips who ordered colonists in Maine to destroy the “Penobscot Tribe of Indians” of all ages and offered a bounty for their scalps or bodies. Over 50 such genocidal proclamations were issued in New England during the 17th and 18th centuries, rewarding settlers both land and money for slaughtering Native peoples.
At the same time, British and French fought continuously over Wabanaki homeland on the coast of Maine. In 1763, when France surrendered all claims to land in Canada and eastern Maine, a flood of English settlers spread rapidly eastward along the Maine coast. They sought more and more land for farming and logging, as well as access to rivers and streams for mill operations.
On North Haven, settlers from Massachusetts began arriving to the island in the 1760s. By the time of the United States first census in 1790, nearly 578 settlers were recorded living here and on nearby Vinalhaven.
With strong agrarian traditions, settlers relied heavily on the ability to grow crops and graze livestock. As they claimed land for farming, they chose sites not only for the soil but also for good sun exposure, protection from winds, and access to freshwater springs and to nearby harbors for shipping.
With each wave of newcomers, Native peoples encountered increasing threats. Facing disease, genocide, and disruption to their hunting and fishing grounds, Native communities were forced to leave their homelands on the coast. Fighting for their survival, they left the islands of Penobscot Bay and moved farther inland. Through it all, Wabanaki people endured to survive today despite the decades of violence acted against them.
The history of farming on North Haven relied not only the island’s fertile soil and exporting products along Maine’s coastal shipping highway, but also involved land hungry settlers forcing indigenous people from their homeland. Comprehending the history of farming here cannot be done without recognizing the painful historical events that occurred such that Wabanaki people no longer live on this land.
You are living on my ancestor's homelands. Native people may not be living next door to you now,
but, we have never left and the history of this soil is forever registered in our native DNA.
Barry Dana, 2019, former Penobscot Nation Chief and Native artist, educator, consultant, and environmentalist