Wabanaki Confederacy - Contemporary Wabanaki Confederacy

Contemporary Wabanaki Confederacy

In 1993 the confederacy meetings were revived and the first reconstituted confederacy conference was hosted by the Penobscots; the sacred Council fire was lit again, and embers from the fire have been kept burning continually since then. This gathering was held in Listuguj. The Listuguj community hosted this event and witnessed the rebirth of the Wabanaki Confederacy which brought together the Passamaquoddy Nation, Penobscot Nation, Maliseet Nation, the Mi'kmaq Nation and the Abenaki Nation.

In September 2012, at St. Mary's First Nation, "Unceded Wabanaki Territory (New Brunswick)", non-Indigenous peoples were invited to participate, especially environmental activists. The leadership emphasized the ongoing role of the Confederacy in protecting natural capital. Some key quotes from leading participants:

"When we talk about Wabanaki people, we're also talking about Wabanaki people being the land, being the trees, being the animals, because in that cultural perspective, we're all related...The Wabanaki are in a far better position to defend the land," says gkisedtanamoogk. "No land was ever ceded, and that's acknowledged by both the province and the federal government. So on the basis of the treaties, what we're suggesting is that you and I have a common responsibility to the land under those treaties." - gkisedtanamoogk, the Gathering's fire keeper.

"Within the Wabanaki territory we're looking for allies that are going to stand against the total annihilation of our land and water and air. We're looking for allies who will help us to put our nation back together, and put it back in order. And we're asking our allies to help us empower that. And in the process of doing that, they will be decolonizing us and they will be decolonizing themselves." - jeaba-weay-quay (roughly translated from Obijway to 'The woman whose voice pierces').

"We're going to rebuild the Wabanaki Confederacy," says LaPorte. "We also invited some non-Natives...to come and be with us and to help us build an alliance, so that when we...come into conflict with the government and some of their decisions and policies...to have them stand beside us and to let their government know that it's not only Native people who are worried about the water, the land, the air. But it's also people from their nation that are concerned." - Harry LaPorte, grand chief of the Maliseet First Nation

The final press release indicated that "the grandmothers" would decide the next step in reconstructing the confederacy as a legal and sovereign entity. The structure resembles that of indigenous peoples in Chiapas, especially the recognition of the authority of the 'comandantes' (older native women) by Subcomandante Marcos and other political and military leaders better known to the public.