3,000 Year Old Drawings Returned To Passamaquoddy Tribe
Published: October 27, 2006
A piece of history, more than 3,000 years old, is back in the hands of its owners. The Maine Coast Heritage Trust exchanged a five and a half acre piece of land for an easement on coastal tribal land in Washington County Monday.
The Passamaquoddy Tribe celebrated the deal with song and ceremony. The land, called “Picture Rock” on Machias Bay is sacred to the Passamaquoddys. Thousands of years ago, native people told stories there, by carving pictures into the rocks called petroglphys.
For decades, Ann Thompson’s family owned the land and took great care to keep it from being developed. Now, Thompson and her husband have sold the five and half acres of land to the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, which it then traded with the Passamaquoddy Tribe.
“The property we will have a conservation easement on will be added to other land already protected, creating about 1000 acres in one of the most important wildlife areas in the entire state,” says Jay Espy, President of Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
“We think it’s a day of friendship between Maine people who are native and non-native,” says Rick Doyle, Tribal Chief.
Maine Coast Heritage Trust paid $450,000 dollars for the land at “Picture Rock,” the president of the trust called the petroglyphs priceless pieces of history.
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