COUNTERCURRENTS • August 16, 2021
The first colonial settlers arrived in New England at about the same time as they arrived in Ireland. These settler-colonialists expropriated a half-million acres of arable land under the conviction that Ireland needed to be anglicized, civilized and controlled. The parallels between Ireland and the Wabanaki of Maine and the Maritimes is compelling. The English settlers who came into America devastated Native populations, not only by militarism, but as the result of widespread infections brought about by diseases. Over the last few centuries the Wabanaki, as well as other Indigenous tribes, have seen the diminishment of Indigenous Rights. White Americans continue to exercise control over the forests and rivers, lakes and mountains of Maine but it is now high time for residents of Maine to practice co-existence with Wabanaki people.