Tribe regains state’s largest petroglyph site

A two-year effort among diverse groups culminated in a ceremony on Monday, October 23, in Machiasport to celebrate the return to the Passamaquoddy Tribe of a parcel of land holding centuries-old petroglyphs that their ancestors carved. A crowd of nearly 200 people gathered on a blustery, rainy day at the site to pay witness to the hand-over and the efforts of all involved to protect and preserve what was described as the most significant petroglyph site in the state by Mark Hedden, an archeological consultant to the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.

The ceremonies included a smudging ceremony, to purify the area, a sweat lodge and a thunderhead dance, along with a traditional song sung by the seventh-grade class of the Beatrice Rafferty School at Pleasant Point. Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Donald Soctomah assisted the seventh grade class in planning the ceremonies.

The land, about five and a half acres of shoreland on Machias Bay, was purchased by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT) and conveyed to the Passamaquoddy. The Passamaquoddy gave the trust a conservation easement on about 300 acres of nearby land, which includes critical shorebird habitat. This conservation easement will allow the continued use of the land for agricultural purposes and some timber harvesting, but will permanently prevent development.

"It's a big day for the tribe to regain a site like this, back into the tribal arms," said Soctomah. "These petroglyphs represent the story of the Passamaquoddy, their hunting trips, a gathering of other tribes coming together."

Jay Espy, president of the trust, said, "The easement adds to other land that has already been protected. This day is magical -- a special day in the history of Maine." The MCHT now has protected over 1,000 acres of land in the area from development, land that is significant as shorebird habitat and for migratory waterfowl.

The land containing the petroglyphs was owned by Ann and Peter Gommers. The land had been in Ann Gommers' family for over 40 years, and Gommers said that her mother had worked to protect the carvings. In the 1970s, Ann Gommers' mother, working with Mark Hedden and others from the Maine State Museum, catalogued the petroglyphs on the family land and recorded them by making surface rubbings. "My family always worked to protect these special areas. There is so much pressure to develop coastal lands now, we wanted to make sure they would always be preserved," explained Ann Gommers. She presented a framed copy of one of her mother's rubbings to Passamaquoddy Governor Rick Doyle of Pleasant Point as part of the ceremony. Doyle, in turn, gave the print to the seventh grade students from the Beatrice Rafferty School. Doyle also presented traditional Passamaquoddy baskets to Ann and Peter Gommers and to representatives of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust. Ann and Peter Gommers will continue to live in a house adjacent to the site that was not included in the purchase.

The exact location of the petroglyph site, known as the Picture Rocks site, is closely held by tribal members, researchers and historians, in order to protect the fragile carvings, made in shale. Two other, smaller sites are known to exist in Maine, one in Embden and the other along Grand Lake Stream.

The Passamaquoddy have announced plans to host guided tours to the area, so that the public and local schools can learn about the carvings and the heritage of the tribe, once a comprehensive plan to preserve the area has been completed.

Everyone involved in the complicated arrangements that resulted in the return of the land gave great credit to the hard work and perseverance of the Gommers family, representatives of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, the Passamaquoddy, University of Maine at Machias professors Bernie Vinzani and Mike Kimball and members of the local community. Governor Rick Doyle said it was a good example of "a combination of peoples working together -- both Native and non-Native -- to preserve part of our past."