This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since March 2007.

The Maliseet (also known as Wolastoqiyik and Malecite and in French also as Malécites or Étchemins (the latter collectively referring to the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy)) are a Native American/First Nations people who inhabit the Saint John River valley and its tributaries, roughly overlapping the International Boundary between New Brunswick and Quebec in Canada, and Maine in the United States. Wolastoqiyik is the proper name for the people and their language; Maliseet is the name by which the Mi'kmaq described the Wolastoqiyik to early Europeans. "Maliseet" was a Mi'kmaq word meaning "broken talkers" or "lazy speakers";^[1] the Wolastoqiyik and Mi'kmaq languages are fairly closely related, but the name reflected what the Mi'kmaq perceived to be a sufficiently different dialect to be a "broken" version of their own language. The Wolastoqiyik so named themselves because their territory and existence centered on a river they called the Wolastoq, which simply meant "good river" or "beautiful river"; "woli" = good or beautiful, shortened to "wol-" when used as modifier; "astoq" = river; "-iyik" = people of, equivalent e.g. of "-ians" or "-ites". Wolastoqiyik therefore means simply People of the Beautiful River, in their own language. The Wolastoq River is now more commonly known as the St. John River. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Passamaquoddy Territory The Passamaquoddy (Peskotomuhkati or Pestomuhkati in the Passamaquoddy language) are a Native American/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America, primarily in Maine and New Brunswick. ... A Hupa man. ... First Nations is a term of ethnicity used in Canada. ... The Saint John River is a river, approximately 418 mi (673 km) long, located in the U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick. ... ... Motto: Spem reduxit (Hope restored) BC AB SK MB ON QC NB PE NS NL YT NT NU Capital Fredericton Largest city Saint John Official languages English, French (the only constitutionally bilingual province in the country) Government - Lieutenant-Governor Herménégilde Chiasson - Premier Shawn Graham (Liberal) Federal representation in... Motto: Je me souviens (French: I remember) Capital Quebec City Largest city Montreal Official languages French Government - Lieutenant-Governor Lise Thibault - Premier Jean Charest (PLQ) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 75 - Senate seats 24 Confederation July 1, 1867 (1st) Area Ranked 2nd - Total 1,542,056 km² - Water... Official language(s) None (English de facto; French is also an administrative language) Capital Augusta Largest city Portland Area  Ranked 39th  - Total 33,414 sq mi (86,542 km²)  - Width 210 miles (338 km)  - Length 320 miles (515 km)  - % water 13. ... The Mikmaq The Mikmaq (; also spelled Míkmaq, Migmaq, Micmac or MicMac) are a First Nations people, indigenous to northeastern New England, Canadas Atlantic Provinces, and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec. ... The Saint John River is a river, approximately 418 mi (673 km) long, located in the U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick. ...

The Maliseet customs and Algonquian language are very similar to those of the neighboring Passamaquoddy (or Peskotomuhkati), and largely similar to those of the Mi'kmaq and Penobscot tribes, although the Maliseet are considered to have pursued a primarily agrarian economy. They also shared some land with those peoples. The Maliseet and Passamaquoddy languages are similar enough that they are properly considered slightly different dialects of the same language, and are typically not differentiated for study. The name Passamaquoddy is derived from their name for themselves, Peskotomuhkati, which literally means "those who spear pollock"; "peskotom" = pollock, "-uhke" = spear (verb), "-ati" = people. This name was also associated with the river around which the people lived, and which is now known as the St. Croix River, which flows through both Maine and New Brunswick. The Algonquian (also Algonkian) languages are a subfamily of Native American languages that includes most of the languages in the Algic language family (others are Wiyot and Yurok of northwestern California). ... Passamaquoddy Territory The Passamaquoddy (Peskotomuhkati or Pestomuhkati in the Passamaquoddy language) are a Native American/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America, primarily in Maine and New Brunswick. ... The Mikmaq The Mikmaq (; also spelled Míkmaq, Migmaq, Micmac or MicMac) are a First Nations people, indigenous to northeastern New England, Canadas Atlantic Provinces, and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec. ... ¢ Seal of the Penobscot Indian Nation of Maine For other uses, see Penobscot (disambiguation). ... Farmlands in Hebei province, China. ...

Before contact with the Europeans, the traditional culture of both the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy generally involved travelling downstream on their rivers in the spring, and back upstream in the autumn. When they had finished travelling downstream in the spring, they congregated in larger groups near the ocean, and planted crops, largely of corn (maize), beans, squash. In the autumn, after the harvest, they travelled back upstream, taking provisions, and spreading out in smaller groups into the larger countryside to hunt game during the winter. Fishing was also a major source of resources throughout the year.

There are about 650 remaining native speakers of Maliseet and about 1,000 of Passamaquoddy, living on both sides of the border between New Brunswick and Maine; most are older, although some young people have begun studying and retaining the language, and the numbers of speakers is seen to have potentially stabilized. An active program of scholarship on the Maliseet-Passamaquoddy language takes place at the Mi'kmaq - Maliseet Institute at the University of New Brunswick, in collaboration with the native speakers, particularly David Francis Sr., a Passamaquoddy elder living in Sipayik, Maine. The Institute actively aims at helping Native American students master their native languages. The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a Canadian university located in the province of New Brunswick. ... Official language(s) None (English de facto; French is also an administrative language) Capital Augusta Largest city Portland Area  Ranked 39th  - Total 33,414 sq mi (86,542 km²)  - Width 210 miles (338 km)  - Length 320 miles (515 km)  - % water 13. ...

Several French and English words made their way into Maliseet from the earliest European contact. One Maliseet word also made its way into English: "Mus", or Moose, for the unfamiliar creature the English speakers found in the woods where the Maliseet lived and had no name for in their own language. Binomial name Alces alces (Linnaeus, 1758) Moose range map The moose (so named in North America, derived from Eastern Abenaki moz)[1] or elk (in Europe), Alces alces, is the largest member of the deer family Cervidae, distinguished from the others by the palmate antlers of its males. ...

In the Jay Treaty of 1794, the Maliseet were granted free travel between the United States and Canada because their territory spanned both sides of the border. During the 1800s, intermarriage between the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy and European settlers was not unusual, particularly among the growing community of Scottish Canadian frontiersmen. When the Treaty of Ghent was signed, ending the War of 1812, a significant portion of the Maliseet/Passamaquoddy territory was ceded from British Canada to the United States, in what is now northern Maine. The Treaty The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain averted war, solved many issues left over from the Revolution, and opened ten years of peaceful trade in the midst of a large war. ... 1794 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Signing of the Treaty of Ghent The Treaty of Ghent, signed on December 24, 1814, in Ghent, (Belgium), was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ... Combatants United States Great Britain Canada Bermuda Eastern Woodland Indians Commanders James Madison Henry Dearborn Jacob Brown Winfield Scott Andrew Jackson George Prevost Isaac Brock† Tecumseh† Strength •U.S. Regular Army: 35,800 •Rangers: 3,049 •Militia: 458,463* •US Navy & US Marines: (at start of war): •Frigates:6 •Other...

Today, within New Brunswick, approximately 3,000 Maliseets currently live within the Madawaska, Tobique, Woodstock, Kingsclear, Saint Mary's and Oromocto First Nations. There are also 600 in the Houlton Band in Maine and 200 in the Viger First Nation in Quebec. Saint Marys First Nation forms part of Fredericton, New Brunswick and is one of six Maliseet Nations on the Saint John River in Canada. ... First Nations is a term of ethnicity used in Canada. ...

References

1. ^ Erickson, Vincent O. 1978. "Maliseet-Passamaquoddy". In Northeast, ed. Bruce G. Trigger. Vol. 15 of Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, pg. 135. Cited in Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pg. 401.

External links

• Maliseet language and culture links
• Audio files of samples of Maliseet speech by a native speaker
• Maliseet Test Wikipedia
• Mi'kmaq-Maliseet Institute - University of New Brunswick