This post is in recognition of Indigenous People's Day, celebrating communities that have lived in the Americas for thousands of years. Our very own Wabanaki tribes, the People of the Dawnland, were the original inhabitants of Maine, where the sun rises.
On our recent road trip up north to Downeast Maine, we found many interesting names and places associated with indigenous inhabitants of this land. The word 'keag' came up a few times in place names we visited. It is apparently an Abenaki word for 'the place of the ...' We spent one afternoon at Naskeag Point, the eastern edge of Penobscot Bay. When I looked it up, it seems that 'Nas' is possibly a contraction of the word 'Namas,' which means fish in the Abenaki lexicon. This coastal harbor was a place of fishing and trading, hence Na'skeag!
Katahdin is also based on a native American name for the 'greatest mountain', though the Penobscot word Ktaden (or Ktaaden) has been corrupted to Katahdin for us Europeans to pronounce. The Appalachian Mountain Club describes the peak as "the beginning of life, a place of birth and spiritual enlightenment" for the Penobscot tribe, which holds the mountain in extreme reverence.
At our visit to the Hirundo nature preserve along the Pushaw river, we saw the archaeological dig that uncovered Native American hunting and fishing artifacts in an area that had been in use for some 4,500 years.
I'm so glad to see these names have lived on.
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