Elliotsville Foundation returns 735 acres to Penobscot Nation

What happened

On Friday, October 30, 2020, the Penobscot Nation and the Elliotsville Foundation announced that 735 acres in Piscataquis County, Maine, had been returned to the Nation. The Bangor Daily News, as reposted by the group Atowi, says the return was made through a land stewardship agreement. Mainebiz, reporting on the same news release, says the foundation "has given" 735 acres in the former town of Williamsburg to the tribe. Reports do not make clear whether the Nation received ownership of the land or a stewardship agreement.

Mainebiz reports that the land lies between two parcels already under Penobscot stewardship, west of the Pleasant River and north of Brownville, creating a contiguous block of 5,000 acres held by the tribe. The foundation, Elliotsville Plantation Inc., was created by the family of Roxanne Quimby; Mainebiz says it donated 87,000 acres to create the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in 2016.

Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis said the Nation is grateful for this restoration of land stewardship and appreciates the opportunity to once again have this parcel within its present-day landholdings. John Banks, the Nation's natural resources director, said consolidation of the Nation's indigenous territory is an ongoing priority. Lucas St. Clair, the foundation's president, said the gift is not the start or the end of a long journey of reparation. The foundation is part of First Light, a coalition working on arrangements for sharing, returning and co-managing ancestral lands in Maine.

Good to know. Sources disagree on what kind of return this was: a land stewardship agreement (Bangor Daily News) or a gift of the land (Mainebiz).

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error