#kuwesuwimonihq — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #kuwesuwimonihq, aggregated by home.social.
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#Kihtahkomikumon (Our Land) – Is #LandBack in #Passamaquoddy Territory
Sunlight Media Collective October 21, 2021
"In 2021, by an act of humanism, solidarity, and reparation, the #Passamaquoddy tribe has been reunited with 140 acres of their unceded Ancestral territory – part of the largest island in Kci Monosakom, (Big Lake) Maine. To the Passamaquoddy people, it’s more than land return; it is the return of a stolen family member. In this short film, we join Passamaquoddy community members who are finally able to reunite with their non-human Relative.
"Originally known as Kuwesuwi Monihq (Pine Island), and renamed 'White’s Island' by settlers, this place has deep historical and cultural significance to the Passamaquoddy community.
"The island was included as part of the Tribe’s #Modahkomikuk (Indian Township) reservation in the 1794 Treaty with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980. Despite treaty agreements, #KuwesuwiMonihq, or Pine Island, was stolen from the people at some point during the mid-1800s and renamed White’s Island. In fact, it seems to have been stolen by renaming it…once it became White’s Island on the map, it no longer matched the language of the 1794 treaty, which identifies Pine Island as protected, reserved land. The island fell out of Tribal stewardship quietly as colonizers bought up parcels. Once the island was considered privately owned, the Passamaquoddy people were denied access.
"Land dispossession is a barrier to #Wabanaki people who are practicing their culture and connecting with their homelands. As Tribal Nations, we are endowed with the Sacred responsibility to protect the lands we come from. In return, these lands protect us. This understanding is at the heart of the #LandBack movement, which has taken off across Turtle Island. Passamaquoddy people can now visit Kuwesuwi Monihq safely, enjoy their kinship connection to the island, and know that they will not be asked to leave.
"In efforts to heal the Earth and the damaged relationship between Indigenous & colonizing peoples, the #LandBack movement has already seen the return of millions of acres to tribes. For the Passamaquoddy, the return of their relative, Kuwesuwi Monihq, will help them fulfill those Sacred responsibilities and heal along with the land & water. All our Relations. P’site Elakumukik. #IsLandBack."
A Sunlight Media Collective production.
Watch: https://vimeo.com/537535470
#WabanakiAlliance #Maine #FirstNations #PassamaquoddyNation #StolenLand #IndigenousSovereignty #Landback #Rewilding #IndigenousKnowledge
#RestoreNature
#Wabanaki #IndigenousPeoplesDay -
From 2021:
#NativeAmerican tribe in #Maine buys back island taken 160 years ago
The #Passamaquoddy’s purchase of #PineIsland for $355,000 is the latest in a series of successful ‘#LandBack’ campaigns for #IndigenousPeoples in the US
by Alice Hutton
Fri 4 Jun 2021"The advert painted an idyllic picture of White’s Island.
"For $449,000 you could buy 143 acres of forests with sweeping views of the rugged shoreline of Big Lake in Maine, on the east coast of the United States. “[It’s] a unique property … steeped in history … with only two owners in the last 95 years,” wrote the real estate agent from privateislandsonline.com.
"In fact, #KuwesuwiMonihq, or #PineIsland, is its original name, and it technically has just one true 'caretaker'; the Passamaquoddy: a small tribe of 3,700 Native Americans who had lived there for at least 10,000 years.
"It’s a spiritually important place for the tribe, filled with graves from devastating #smallpox, #cholera and #measles outbreaks caused by #WhiteSettlers.
"In 1794 it was officially granted to the tribe by Massachusetts for their service during the revolutionary war. But after 1820, when Maine became its own state, colonialists changed its title, voiding the treaty. In the 1851 census there were 20 Passamaquoddy living there, in 1861 there were none.
"By 2021, they had not only lost all but 130,000 acres of their original 3m. They hadn’t stepped foot on Pine Island in 160 years.
“'The land was stolen from us and it’s been every chief’s goal ever since to return it,' said chief William Nicholas, 51, leader of the tribe’s Indian township reservation for the last 11 years, who spotted the advert on a shop noticeboard on 4 July last year.
"In March, with a grant from conservation charities, the tribe raised $355,000, and finally bought the island back."
Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/04/native-american-tribe-maine-buys-back-pine-island
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/04/native-american-tribe-maine-buys-back-pine-island#PassamaquoddyTribe #Wabanaki #MaineTribes #IndigenousPeople #FirstNations