Wabanaki Confederacy

Wabanaki Confederacy

The Wabanaki Confederacy (Wabenaki, Wobanaki - translated roughly as 'People of the First Light' or 'Dawnland') are a native American confederation of five principal Nations: the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Abenaki and Penobscot.

Members of the Wabanaki Confederacy — the Wabanaki peoples — are located in, and named for, the area they call Wabanaki ('Dawnland'), generally known to European settlers as Acadia. It is now most of Maine, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, plus some of Quebec south of the St. Lawrence River. The Western Abenaki are located in New Hampshire, Vermont, and into Massachusetts.

In its most recent official communications the confederacy has emphasized common cause, and acceptance of alliances, with environmental activists allied with its goal of protecting the land and waters, powers gained under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and related treaties major powers have signed.