Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/56

history. The tribe is a mixture of Maliseet and Penobscot, and originated thus: A Maliseet man, so the tradition runs, married a woman of the Penobscots and built a wigwam at the mouth of the St. Croix. The pair were joined by other Maliseets and by parties of Penobscots from Machias, Mattawamkeag and the Penobscot river. The band thus formed continued to hold allegiance to the Maliseet tribe until sometime after the advent of the whites. It was not until the Penobscots finally deserted Machias and most of the families moved to St. Croix that the band, thus augmented, elected a chief of its own and set up a tribal establishment. The inaugural of this chief was conducted by leading men of the Maliseet, Penobscot and St. Francis tribes.

Of these tribes, numbering according to the estimate made by Williamson and others, at some 36,000 at the time of the European invasion, there are at the present time but small bands, numbering in all something less than 2,000 people. They are scattered thus: The Passamaquoddies still occupy Sipayik or Pleasant Point, as it is better known, but the tribe has been separated ; for a few years ago, the band living at Lewy's Island, on the upper waters of the St. Croix, quarreled with the Sipayiks over the election of a chief, and now there are two divisions on the St. Croix. The Penobscot chief still holds his council at Old Town, and the Maliseet villages are scattered along the St. John. A branch of the Maliseet is settled at Cacouna on the south side of the St. Lawrence, near Riviere du Loup. This tribe was founded in 1828 by some thirty families who moved from the upper St. John. They are written down Amalecites in the Report of the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs.

Other branches of the Wapanaki are settled at St. Francis and Becancour, near Quebec. These are the