Passamaquoddy people

Passamaquoddy

Passamaquoddy men in a canoe
Total population
(3,576 enrolled tribal members Sipayik: 2,005, Motahkomikuk: 1,364, Qonasqamkuk: 206)
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Passamaquoddy, English
Religion
Christianity, Spirituality

The Passamaquoddy (Peskotomuhkati or Pestomuhkati in the Passamaquoddy language) are an American Indian/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America, primarily in Maine, United States and New Brunswick, Canada. They

The Passamaquoddy people in Canada have an organized government but do not have official First Nations status.

The name "Passamaquoddy" is an Anglicization of the Passamaquoddy word peskotomuhkati, the prenoun form (prenouns being a linguistic feature of Algonquian languages) of Peskotomuhkat (pestəmohkat), their autonym or name they used for themselves. Peskotomuhkat literally means "pollock-spearer" or "those of the place where pollock are plentiful", reflecting the importance of this fish in their culture. Their method of fishing was spear-fishing rather than angling or using nets. Passamaquoddy Bay is shared by both New Brunswick and Maine; its name was derived by English settlers from the Passamaquoddy people.

The Passamaquoddy had a purely oral history before the arrival of Europeans. Among the Algonquian-speaking tribes of the loose Wabanaki Confederacy, they occupied coastal regions along the Bay of Fundy, Passamaquoddy Bay and Gulf of Maine, and along the St. Croix River and its tributaries. They 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.