Passamaquoddy

The Passamaquoddy (Peskotomuhkati or Pestomuhkati in the Passamaquoddy language) are a First Nations (Native American) people who live in northeastern North America, primarily in New Brunswick, Canada and Maine, United States of America. The Passamaquoddy had a purely oral history before the arrival of Europeans. Among the tribes of the loose Wabanaki Confederacy, they occupied coastal regions along the Bay of Fundy, Passamaquoddy Bay and Gulf of Maine and along the St. Croix River and its tributaries. In winter they dispersed and hunted inland; in the summer, they gathered more closely together on the coast and islands, and primarily harvested seafood, including porpoise. The name "Passamaquoddy" is an Anglicization of the Passamaquoddy word peskotomuhkati, the prenoun form (prenouns being a linguistic feature of Algonquian languages) of Peskotomuhkat (pestəmohkat), the name they applied to themselves. Peskotomuhkat literally means "pollock-spearer" or "those of the place where pollock are plentiful", reflecting the importance of this fish. Their method of fishing was spear-fishing rather than angling or using nets.