Maine Memory Network

Joshua Scottow was the principle landed proprietor and garrison commander at Black Point, in the Wabanaki homeland of Owascoag (Scarborough). This first-hand account of the Treaty at Pemaquid provides a snapshot of the diplomacy that ended the First Indian War, also known as the northern front of King Philip’s War.

Scottow arrived at Pemaquid by ship, with a cargo hold of Wabanaki captives. Kennebec leader Madoasquarbet sought to reclaim relations from the ship’s hold, as well as the final return of the captives at the end of the treaty negotiations.

Scottow documented the large number of Wabanaki diplomats who attended the Pemaquid Treaty, arriving in thirteen large canoes. The treaty was negotiated through the diplomacy of Wabanaki leaders from the Kennebec River, and the intervention of colonial leaders from New York colony, empowered by the British crown, in part, to protect their own claims against the French to the land at Pemaquid.

The female Wabanaki leader Warrabitta, also known as Joane or Jane, belonged to a web of leadership families on the Maine coast. English settlers were often unsettled by Wabanaki female governance.

In 1666, Warrabitta and Nannatconett signed a deed allowing George Munjoy to settle land “on the other side of Amancongan River at the great Falls the upper part of them called Sacarabigg” (Saccarappa Falls in Westbrook) where there was another planting ground, “and so down the River Side unto the lowermost planting Ground,” a considerable tract on the Presumpscot River.

Early deeds were often the result of longer councils and negotiations, but unlike later treaties, which included long speeches by Wabanaki leaders, here, only the deed survives. It is important to note that deeds like this one do not represent a relinquishment of vital planting grounds and fishing falls, but an agreement to share space, and to allow a settler like Munjoy to also inhabit this space.

Tribes in Maine have always been sovereign, working diplomatically on agreements with other nations. William Lithgow wrote this letter to Massachusetts lieutenant governor, Spencer Phips, to tell him Wabanaki leaders carried a wampum belt to Canada for political negotiations with the French, who were longstanding allies and trade partners with the English. It was not uncommon for English documents to portray other Europeans, like the French, as “enemies” during times of war. The “friendship” to which they refer is the diplomatic relationship formed through treaty negotiations.

It is greatly to be feared by what I can learn from him, that the Norridgewalk Tribe and the Penobscots will soon joyn with those of our enemies…[and] that the Norridgewalks have a mind to break friendships with us”.

Phips later signed proclamations that declared Wabanaki people enemies, and put lucrative bounties upon their capture and murders.

For centuries, Wabanaki people have resisted encroachments on their homelands. While the English were settling along the southern coast of Maine, English and French settlers were making similar advancement on Wabanaki land downeast and in the Maritimes.

During treaty negotiations between the English and the Americans in 1798, the "true" location of the St. Croix River was in dispute. Because it defined the northeast boundary between the United States and Canada, British Commissioner Thomas Barclay sent representatives to gather information from the Wabanaki. Francis Joseph Neptune, from the Passamaquoddy Nation, created this map of the river networks in the region for Barclay.

The fixing of this international boundary had major implications, splitting the Maliseet, Micmac, and Passamaquoddy communities.

The Plymouth Company recorded increasing English settlements in Wabanaki territory, and mapped land grants including both sides of the Kennebec River, and English settlements in Brunswick, Falmouth and North Yarmouth and Norridgewock.

The cartouche shows two Indigenous men saying, "God hath Planted us here, God deeded this land to us." Using Native imagery made sense because settlers were vying with each other over claims to Maine lands, and some of those claims rested on earlier deeds with Wabanaki people.

Wabanaki leaders Wiwurna (Warumbee), Darumkin, Nimbanizett, Neonongansket, WeconDomhegon, and Wihikermett deeded lands in the Merrymeeting Bay, Androscoggin, and Kennebec river areas to Richard Wharton for settlement in 1684.

Deeds like this one read more like treaties rather than land transactions, with some of the negotiations over borders, land use, and jurisdiction included in the written document. Even as they appear to grant Richard Wharton,
‘ye Sole propriety Benefitt and advantage of ye salmon & sturgeon fishing within ye Bounds & Limits aforesaid…
Wabanaki leaders also insisted on the preservation of sovereignty and subsistence:
Provided Nevertheless [that] nothing in this Deed be Construed to deprive us ye Saggamores Successessors or People from Improving our Ancient Planting grounds nor from Hunting in any of s’d Lands being not Inclosed nor from fishing or fowling for our own Provission Soe Long as noe Damage Shall be to ye English fisherys.

Despite Wiwurna’s demands that the English cease building forts, this plan of the Kennebec River made by the Plymouth Company shows forts at Brunswick, Woolwich, and Richmond Fort. Houses dot the mouth of the Sagadahoc River and Merrymeeting Bay, near present-day Bath.

The traditional planting ground at the confluence with “Amosequanty River” (Sandy River) and the Wabanaki/French mission fort at Norridgewock are shown on the very top of this map.

The language of this map contextualizes the differences in worldviews between settlers and Wabanaki people.

Wabanaki place names often reflect the landscape and what you could do in there, like fish for salmon or portage a canoe. This English map documents the history of land ownership, the incorporation of towns, and narratives about fighting between the Wabanaki people and the settlers.

This map shows the Kennebec River from Merrymeeting Bay upwards, as of Nov. 1763.

Fort Richmond and Fort Brunswick are shown. Also written on the map is a description of Wabanaki use of the land around Merrymeeting Bay.