Overview:
A tribe in Maine makes its second land acquisition this year.
The Mi’kmaq Nation has added 83 acres to its land base on its northernmost reservation in Maine. The land is adjacent to a community center and tribal housing where 48 residents live.
According to a press release, the parcel’s former owner offered to sell the land to the Nation before listing it for sale. The Tribe partnered with land conservation nonprofit Trust for Public Land. TPL raised the required funds to meet the landowner’s acquisition timeline so the land could be transferred to Mi’kmaq Nation as soon as possible.
The acquisition — called Pugweliget, or “living together in a group” — is the Nation’s second this year. In June, it obtained the title to 3,400 acres in Aroostook County, Maine, doubling its land holdings.
While the latest acquisition immediately benefits the residents of the housing center, Shannon Hill, Environmental Health Director for the Mi’kmaq Nation, said all tribal members will have access to land for foraging, hunting, fishing, and cultural practices.
“The Mi’kmaq Nation is honored to have been entrusted with another land return this year. Although this property has much fewer acres than the 3,400-acre land return earlier this summer, each land return is unique and meaningful in its own way,” Hill said in a press release. “The ability to take a walk and connect with the land as we did thousands of years ago without fear of trespassing is of far greater importance here than the number of acres.”
Pugweliget is the latest milestone in an effort dubbed the Tributary Land Returns, a collaboration between the five federally recognized Wabanaki Tribes and seven non-native organizations, to return over 50,000 acres to Wabanaki communities across 11 different projects. Once completed, the TLR will be the largest return of private lands in U.S. history. Seven of the projects have been completed since 2019.
