Exhibition
Adaptation and Resistance: Indigenous History of the Pejepscot RegionNotes
This eighteenth-century canoe highlights important issues between Europeans and Abenaki that began in the seventeenth century. During this period of monumental change, many aspects of life altered, from social structure to technology and material culture. European colonizers and traders interacted closely with Abenaki people and both groups frequently used each other's technology. This canoe was given to Captain William Barnes of Harpswell, Maine, who, along with his descendents, used it to travel the coast. Indigenous people used canoes as payment of European goods. The elegant technology of birch bark canoes facilitated trading between various groups of people throughout New England. Similarly, Abenaki people incorporated European iron into their own technologies.
Birchbark canoe carbon dated to 1729-1780. Pejepscot History Center had this canoe fully conserved and stabilized by expert Steve Cayard in 2017. It can be seen at Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, Maine.