The Maliseets or Welustuk ~ The Ones Living Along the Great River

Since the Maliseets are semi-nomadic, their hunting, fishing and farming land spreads over the current province of New Brunswick. Many Maliseets tribes settled along the shores of the Saint John River. The Maliseets are members of the Wabanaki confederation (Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, and Abenaki of Maine, and Micmacs) and for that reason have frequently been mistaken for other members of their confederation.

Art from the Canadian National Archives - Copyright Expired

The French called them Passamaquoddy in reference to the place where many Maliseets lived, meaning the valley of Passamaquoddy Bay. They were also nicknamed Etchemins. The spelling of the word "Maliseets" varies between Malecite and Maliseet (in English).

The Maliseet community was sparsely populated; it varied from 1,000 to 2,000 individuals. The Maliseets were close allies of the French, especially of Pierre Dugua de Mons and Samuel Champlain, who established the first settlement on Saint Croix Island.

The Maliseets traded fur for precious goods and basic necessities. The settlement moved to Port-Royal as a result of the fierce winter of 1604-1605 and the death of half of the population. The French continued to trade with the Maliseets of the region, who incredibly thrived. However their contact with the Europeans didn't always benefit them, like many Amerindians, they weren't immunised against European diseases and in 1694, plague ravaged the Maliseet Nation, killing 120 of them, survivors fled to Medotec to shield themselves from the disaster.

Wars between France and England in North American territory also allowed the Maliseets to create strong ties with the French. Then in 1728, the Maliseet abandoned their French allies by signing the Boston peace treaty with the English, by virtue of which all the Amerindians of New England and Nova Scotia acknowledged the British sovereignty over Nova Scotia.

The Maliseet nation did not accept this defeat well, and attempts by subsequent governments to assimilate them into sedentary colonial life added to their sentiments of resentment. The Maliseets had always refused to adopt a European way of life, or to live on reserves that were ridiculously small when compared to the vast hunting territories they were accustomed to.

Place Names in the Maritimes

Place Name	Origin	Language	English Translation
Cobscook	kapskuk	Maliseet	at the falls
Quispamsis	qospemsis	Maliseet	little lake
Aukpaque	eqpahak	Maliseet	where the tide stops coming in
Katahdin	ktoton	Maliseet	big mountain
Wolastook	wolastoq	Maliseet	beautiful river
Mactaquac	meqtoqek	Maliseet	where the river is red
Keswick	nuhkamkicuwok	Maliseet	where water flows over soft gravel
Gaspe	gespe'g	Mi'kmaq	where it (land) ends
Shubenacadie	s'p'gne'gatig	Mi'kmaq	gound-nut land
Wagmatcook	waqam'tgug	Mi'kmaq	where water flows clean
Abegweit	epegwitg	Mi'kmaq	lying in the water (name for PEI)
Restigouche	ulastuguj	Mi'kmaq	nicely flowing river