Indian Island just upriver from Old Town Falls is located about 10 miles above the former Veazie Dam and is home to the Penobscot Nation, a proud riverine people. The above sign greets folks preparing to walk or drive across the bridge to Indian Island. It depicts the island, its surrounding waters, Penobscot people in traditional dress, and many of the animals that live along the river. While the Penobscot people lost much of their ancestral land since the arrival of Europeans they did retain all of the islands (200+) in the Penobscot River north of and including Indian Island. Yet to be resolved, however, is the issue of who has sovereignty as it relates to the lands and waters where the Penobscot people live...the State of Maine or Penobscot Nation. The Penobscot Nation maintain that sovereignty is theirs according to the terms of a 1775 treaty with the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in Watertown, MA (when Maine was part of Massachusetts). In an article
A River Runs Through Us, Tribal Elder Butch Phillips wrote "The People of the Penobscot have always believed that this river was our lifeblood. In honor of our Ancestors and for the future generations, we must continue the efforts to restore the sacredness to the river." Unfortunately, while I was paddling on the Penobscot this past Friday Maine Governor Janet Mills vetoed a bill (LD 2004) which would have helped the Penobscot Nation and three other Wabanaki tribes achieve some of their goals. One of those goals is that they be entitled to rights provided to almost every other federally-recognized tribe in the country. Hopefully, the Maine State Legislature will override the veto and pass the measure.
My paddling would take me amongst several islands belonging to Penobscot Nation and I kept in mind that landing on those islands is not allowed without the permission of the tribe. This map (from the Kiosk at Costigan) shows most of the non-tidal portion of the Penobscot I paddled over a two-day period last week...
A blogpost at Penobscot Paddles described a counter-clockwise paddle around Orson Island from the Old Town Boat launch and my plan was to follow their route. Before launching I noted the dock adjacent to the ramp was submerged due to recent rains...
Upon reaching the pinch point between Orson and Indian islands...
...I found the current had considerably more giddy-up than this paddler could overcome so I turned around and proceeded in a clockwise direction via the Stillwater section of the Penobscot. This route brought me past a float plane operation...
...where no float planes were present, past Orono Island, Pea Cove Islands, Black Island, Boom Islands, Twin Islands, to a point just west of Socks Island. At that point I could have either gone swiftly with the current back to Old Town Launch via the Penobscot's main stem or return the way I came (also with the current) via the Stillwater. Elected the latter and stopped for a lunch break at the Ketawamkihtek campsite...
The campsite is maintained by the Penobscot River Paddling Trail organization and it is worth noting that this organization made the effort to use both English and Wabanaki place names...also providing the meaning of the Wabanaki word ie: Ketawamkihtek refers to the Stillwater River and means "long sandy stream".
As I headed downriver I noted this structure on one of the Twin Islands, perhaps for wood ducks?...
Paddled past a couple of homes on Orson Island one of which had this artwork in one of its windows...
Old bridge abutments remain from a long-abandoned Bangor and Aroostook RR line which once crossed Orson and Black islands...
Once back near the Old Town Boat Launch I paddled over to the Indian Island Bridge...
...before turning to see some of the day's first blue skies (looking north)...
Before leaving Old Town I drove past the facility where many canoes or kayaks are still made...
The next day I launched a few miles upriver at Costigan in Milford, ME where the Penobscot Nation provides several informational kiosks in addition to informational kiosks such as this one...
At Costigan there's also a stone monument to the Penobscot River Drivers...
...the men who drove huge numbers of logs down the river each spring prior to the 1970s.
Heading downriver from Costigan along Freese Island...
...my destination was the Sunkhaze Stream National Wildlife Refuge on the river's east side. When Henry David Thoreau was being guided down this stretch of river by Penobscot Nation member Joe Polis in 1857 he asked Polis what Sunkhaze meant. According to Thoreau, Joe Polis responded "Suppose you are going down Penobscot, just like we, and you see a canoe come out of the bank and go along before you, but you no see'em stream. That is Sunkhaze." Thoreau made three trips to the Maine woods: 1846, 1853, and 1857 and wrote of them in his The Maine Woods. It is interesting to read how his perceptions of Native Americans evolved as he got to know two Penobscot men he hired as guides, Joe Attean and Joe Polis.
After finding Sunkhaze Stream's perhaps long-ago elusive outlet, I headed upstream...
...for 2 miles of tranquil paddling with numerous wildlife encounters. Passed under the former Maine Central RR line...
...which follows alongside the Penobscot northward from Old Town to Mattawamkeag. The line known simply as the "Keag"...
...to many has seen little activity the past few years, but new owner CSX is in the process of upgrading the line.
Saw my first spire-topped conifer of the trip while in Sunkhaze...
Wildlife seen along the Penobscot River included eagles (pairs of eagles seen each day):
An adult...
...and an immature against a rare spot of blue sky...
White-tailed deer:
...and this velvet-antlered buck...
Wildflowers seen included blue flag...
Sheep laurel...
Bluebell...
After having experienced some of the tidal and non-tidal Penobscot River I was struck by how different they are: the tidal section has mostly conifers and rock ledges coming down to the riverbank, whereas the non-tidal section had more deciduous trees along with lower, grassy banks.
Reading material I brought along included:
The Life and Traditions of the Red Man by Joseph Nicolar Edited, Annotated, and with a History of the Penobscot Nation and an Introduction by Annette Kolodny;
Notes on a Lost Flute: A Field Guide to the Wabanaki by Kevin Hardy;
Wildness within Wildness without: Exploring Maine's Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail by a compilation of authors and photographs by Bridget Besaw.
According to the Wabanaki Alliance website the Wabanaki name for Penobscot Nation is Penawahpkekeyak - the people of the place of the white rocks.
Trash encountered on the non-tidal stretch was just as minimal as the small amount found on the tidal stretch...
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