Passamaquoddy
Posted by Janet Richards Chasse on Jan 21st 2018
I am so excited! For the past couple of years I've wanted to add products from Passamaquoddy Maple. Being a "bootstrap" business, I've had to wait until we could afford to, and here we are! Perfect timing, Katahdin Cookie Works stopped making pancake mix, and we needed some for our breakfast crates. And Passamaquoddy Maple makes such a variety of maple products, to further entice you to eat natural maple sugar. They're about an hour up Rt 15 from us, traveling up the West side of Moosehead Lake to Moose River. Here's a little bit about them:
Passamaquoddy people have lived within our Aboriginal Lands primarily in Eastern Maine and Western New Brunswick, Canada. The Passamaquoddy way-of-life was to hunt, fish, trap and gather food and medicine and to employ the natural resources of the environment to sustain our communities. Over the past 500 years the encroachment and degradation of the resources in our homeland forced Passamaquoddies to adapt, forcing a shift away from our traditional indigenous economy. We had to find alternative ways to survive and feed our families.
Today there are about 3,600 Individuals on the Passamaquoddy tribal census rolls. There are three distinct self-governing Passamaquoddy communities within the tribe’s ancestral homeland. Two communities are located in Maine, Indian Township and Pleasant Point, and the third is located at St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Each community is separated by geography but the people continue to maintain close political, social and kinship ties.
Throughout the history of the Passamaquoddy people, we have lived off of the land. One of our Indigenous food gathering methods included harvesting the sweet sap from the Mahgan (Sugar Maple)
In 2013 the Passamaquoddy Tribe created an economic development project to tap into this traditional natural resource: maple syrup. Owning more than 65,000 acres in northern Maine, where the predominant tree species is Mahgan (Sugar Maple), we have an abundant resource to harvest, however we have lacked the funding to purchase equipment, hire staff to take our product to market.
Through the diligence of many, especially tribe leadership, in 2014 we raised enough funding to break ground and purchase sustainable tapping equipment to build sugar houses and raise a bottling facility, all on our tribal land in Prentis Township and Moose River.
Since our operation began we have tapped over 10,000 trees and produced over a thousand gallons of maple syrup, we have also created 6 seasonal and full-time jobs for the Passamaquoddy people.
We strive to produce the best Grade A quality of Maple Syrup, and are proudly organic certified by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. We would like to personally thank you for purchasing Passamaquoddy Maple Product, and your gracious support for our venture.
Woliwon (Thank you)
Marie Harnois
Operations Manager