This special release by the Peskotomuhkati is a message from Chief Hugh Akagi for the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney. Chief asks him to correct the current lack of recognition of the Peskotomuhkati people and, therein, to support the restoration of our common ecosystem.

The root of the problem is an incredible story where, in 1951, a snowstorm hit New Brunswick, leading a Canadian Federal employee, an ‘Indian Agent’ so-called, to cancel his trip to St. Andrews, New Brunswick, where he was to record the names of the Peskotomuhkati Nation. Rather than return to the peninsula to complete his task at a later time, he lied and submitted a report stating that there was no longer a Peskotomuhkati community in St. Andrews. Indian Agents were phased out in the 1960s, but the negligent report became a part of ‘official history’.

We see that history is not about the past but a tool to use in the present. The Treaties of Peace and Friendship between the Peskotomuhkati and the Crown were signed 172 years before the storm of 1951 and its unbelievable ‘mistake’. These Treaties were never abolished and remain in force.

This story is for sharing. Help us gain recognition as a distinct people so we can once again take up our responsibilities: we are the Peskotomuhkati, the "people of the pollock," the traditional stewards of Passamaquoddy Bay, with a living language, culture, and way of life. Help us restore Passamaquoddy Bay and its surrounding watershed, help us restore our homeland

Treaties are not history, they are living promises.