An Old Tale Set In Stone Passamaquoddys work to save coastal carvings for future generations

The rock art of Maine that dates back thousands of years in Washington County is one Indian tribe’s link to the past.

And the Passamaquoddy, whose ancestors pecked pictures on rocks with stones, are working to preserve those sites.

The images vary from animals to people in canoes to legendary figures that continue to be part of the Passamaquoddy tribe’s stories. “This is right to the core of our traditions,” said tribal state Rep. Donald Soctomah.

Don’t expect a road map to the petroglyphs, Soctomah said, because the tribe isn’t talking about the specific locations.

Over the years, people have blasted the petroglyphs with shotguns. Some people have attempted to remove the artwork, while others carved their initials into them. One private property owner built a dock over his.

There are several sites in Maine, with many of them in Washington County. There also are sites along the Kennebec River. Other than that, the taciturn Soctomah will say little more. “I think man has done a lot of destructive things to a lot of archaeological sites or to petroglyphs. Either they don’t understand what they mean to future generations or they just don’t care,” he explained. “That destructive behavior isn’t helping anybody.”

During a recent visit to a site in coastal Washington County, Soctomah gently traced the outline of a cow moose and her calf with his finger.

“These were made by taking a harder rock and individually pecking until you get a figure,” he said. “So you can tell the age of this because when you see a scrape it is usually metal that is making a picture, but when you see pecking then you know the site is older than 400 years, because metal wasn’t around until 400 years ago. So that is how you tell the difference between the recent petroglyphs and the older ones.”

It was Ernie Neptune’s first visit to the site. He works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Machias. History says it was his ancestors who thousands of years ago built a village near the site and who may have created the rock pictures.

Neptune watched as Soctomah traced the outline of the animals.

“A lot of the petroglyphs refer to legends, personal journeys, a person’s trip and they are usually located at places where their canoes stopped and rested,” Soctomah told Neptune. “Those are the ones that talk about the trip that lies ahead. Other sites are spiritual sites where a spiritual journey took place.”

There is even a drawing of the sea serpent Aputmahkin. “That is a big feature in our legends. It was a creature in the ocean that you had to be careful of. You always had to have your eye out for the Aputmahkin because it may tip your canoe over,” Soctomah said.

Does the creature exist? A 1938 article in a book titled “The Great New England Sea Serpent” reports that two Passamaquoddy fishermen saw the creature in Passamaquoddy Bay. They described him as being 40 to 50 feet long, with a snake-like body with humps on its back and that swam very fast. Earlier fishermen had reported seeing the serpent in nearby St. Andrews Bay.

In Maine, Soctomah said, the largest concentration of petroglyphs is in Washington County and they are believed to have been made by the Passamaquoddys. “In this area alone there are a couple of hundred petroglyphs. Near the Augusta area there is another high concentration of petroglyphs, but they are more inland,” he explained.

The images go back thousands of years and are believed to have been made by tribal shamans. He said Maine does have some painted petroglyphs, which he said were rare. “They are in western Maine in a cave. They used berries, roots and maybe some minerals from the earth,” he said.

Maine Historic Preservation Society senior archaeologist Arthur Spiess said most of the petroglyphs are “fantastical creatures, the kinds of things a shaman would see in a dream journey or spirit helpers.”

Two years ago, Soctomah introduced legislation to protect the state’s Indian archaeological sites. In his speech before the Legislature, Soctomah said: “There are currently 7,000 known archeological sites. [These are] areas that intrigue the human mind; such as the petroglyphs along the Kennebec River or on the shores of [coastal Washington County]. These are Native American stone tabulates that tell stories of a time over 3,000 years ago. Our medicine people tell us these are sacred sites which need to be protected.”

The bill was signed into law in April 2000.

The petroglyphs indicate a link to today’s tribes. “They definitely have something to do with the ancestors of the modern tribes,” Spiess added. “They definitely are related to the speakers of the eastern Algonkian languages, the Wabanaki People.”

Mark Hedden, who retired from the Maine Historic Preservation Society, and who is described by Soctomah as the foremost authority on petroglyphs, wrote in a research paper that “style changes in these sites … can be traced from approximately 3,000 years ago, into the 19th century. The earliest extant designs are related to Late Archaic petroglyphs from the Great Lakes.”

Archaeologists believe the petroglyphs connect the Passamaquoddys to tribes in Wisconsin and Michigan. Hedden said the connection suggests “an ongoing cultural exchange through migrations, trade or long-term visits between distant groups.”

Speiss agreed. “Their archeology ties in with the Maine archeology back to about 2,300 years ago. So we think that ties all these folks together, language, archeology and history,” he said.

Soctomah said a documentary about the petroglyphs is expected to air this fall on Maine Public Television.