The purchase of Pine Island by the native tribe Passamaquoddy for $355,000 is the latest one in the series of successful campaigns of indigenous people in the US to get their lands back.
According to the real estate agent’s advert, you could purchase 143 acres of forest with views of the shoreline of Big Lake in Maine on the east of the US.
This unique property is steeped in history and it’s only had two owners in the last 95 years.
Small Native American Tribe Trying to Get Back What Is Theirs
Kuwesuwi Monihq or the Pine Island has one true caretaker, i.e. the Passamaquoddy. This small tribe of 3700 Native Americans have lived there for at least 10,000 years.
The tribe explains this island is a spiritually important place for them and it’s full of graves of people who died from cholera, measles, and smallpox caused by the white settlers.
In 1794, the island was granted to the tribe by Massachusetts for their service in the revolutionary war. However, after 1820, when Maine became an independent state, the colonialists changed the title and avoided the treaty.
20 Passamaquoddy lived there in 1851 whereas there were none in 1861. By this day, they’ve not only lost all of their 130,000 acres of the original 3m, but have also not stepped foot on Pine Island for 160 years.
Chief William Nicholas, 51 and leader of the tribe’s Indian township reservation for the past 11 years who saw the advert on July 4 last year said that this land was stolen from them so it’s been their main goal to get it back.
Indigenous Tribe Passamaquoddy Gets Back Pine Island
In March, using a grant from conservation charities, the tribe succeeded in raising $355,000 and used them to buy their island back.
The historic preservation officer of the tribe, Donald Soctomah said that their concept of land ownership is that no one is an owner of a land, but we all have a sacred duty to keep it safe, similar to as if you were to find a lost relative.
The return of Pine Island is one of the latest land back tries by the US indigenous groups after the loss of 1.5bn acres since 1776 that caused poverty, cultural apartheid, and violence.
In July 2020, the Esselen tribe that was previously landless managed to buy 1200 acres in Big Sur, California for $4.5m, funds donated by conservationists, 250 years after they were forced into Christian missions.
Moreover, the Wiyot tribe succeeded in getting back the Duluwat Island in California in 2019 when the Eureka city returned it to them free of charge, 159 years after a massacre.
Numerous public and private institutions are trying to increase their transparency today more than ever. You can even look at the Native Land app to see what territory your house is on.
Although critics consider land acknowledgments to be empty gestures, others say it creates a path for legal wins.
For the Professor in American Indian Studies at the University of California Los Angeles and a member of the Tonawanda Band of Seneca tribe of New York, Mishuana Goeman, these acknowledgments are an awesome start, but notes that a major catalyst was the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd.
She said that people seemed to have woken up to the centuries of atrocities done against black and indigenous communities and are more open to dialogue.
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