#LandBack: Passamaquoddy Tribe Reacquires Culturally Significant 140-Acres of Island in Kci Monosakom (Big Lake), Maine
May 17, 2021
Donald Soctomah, Cultural and Historical Preservation Officer for the Passamaquoddy Tribe, Corey Hinton, Esq., Passamaquoddy Tribal Citizen at Sipayik and Head of the Tribal Nations Practice Group at Drummond Woodsum
Motahkomikuk (Indian Township), Maine – On March 12, 2021, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahkomikuk (Indian Township) reacquired 140 acres of their unceded Ancestral territory – the largest island in Kci Monosakom, (Big Lake) Maine. 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 Indian Township reservation in the 1794 Treaty, as well as the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980.
The history of Kuwesuwi Monihq goes back to time immemorial, but the island has recent memories attached to it as well. It was a place where food was stored in root cellars, where life was sustained through fishing and the passage of culture from one generation to the next. During the smallpox epidemic brought by the French and English settlers, community members would deliver food from Kuwesuwi Monihq to sick relatives quarantined nearby.