WHO AM I

I am born from the bloodline of The Wolastoqiyik, or Maliseet. We are an Algonquian-speaking Native American/First Nations/ Aboriginal people of the Wabanaki Confederacy. We are the Indigenous people of the Saint John River Valley and its tributaries, between New Brunswick, Quebec, and Maine.

In the early days the community spanned both banks of the St. John River, known to the original population of the valley as Wulustuk. We called ourselves Wolastoqiyik after the Wolastoq River at the heart of our territory. (It is now commonly known as the St. John River.) Wolastoq means "Beautiful River."Wolastoqiyik means "People of the Beautiful River," in our language. 

Maliseet is the name by which the Mi'kmaq people referred to my people when speaking about them to early Europeans. Maliseet was a Mi'kmaq word meaning "broken talkers" or "lazy speakers." The Wolastoqiyik and Mi'kmaq languages are closely related, but the name expressed what the Mi'kmaq perceived to be a sufficiently different dialect as to be called a "broken" version of their own language. Maliseet and the Passamaquoddy spoke the same linguistics of the Algonquin Language.

The Maliseet people were the first contact to the French Colonists who set up fur trading post along the St. John River, as early as the late 1500's. We lived and intermarried for over 150 years before the French and Indian War, which was actually the Wabanaki and the French, fighting against the English. At the end of that War the French ceded what is now the Northern part of Maine to the British. Where the Houlton Band of Maliseet are still living today, along with our sister the Passamaquoddy. Our Homeland in Canada, across the imaginary boarder, has never been ceded.

When the British colonized New Brunswick, we were placed on inherited family hunting grounds, as our reserve. My family was one of the 4 founding families of our Nation and since colonization we have been named Malécites or Etchemins by the French, St. Basile reserve #10, Band of Maliseet at Madawaska. Today we are known as the Madawaska Maliseet First Nation.