Westbrook pays homage with a land acknowledgement statement read in a tribute to the Wabanaki, known as people of the dawn, at the beginning of every Westbrook City Council meeting. The acknowledgement began in October 2022.

Maulian Bryant, executive director of the Wabanaki Alliance, said Aug. 13 in an email to Westbrook-Gorham Now, that Westbrook’s statement is a good start and she hopes it leads to a “deeper understanding and connection.”

The Westbrook statement reads, “The Westbrook City Council understands, honors, and acknowledges that the city of Westbrook is located on the traditional and unceded homelands and waters of the Indigenous people of the Presumpscot River. We recognize that the Wabanaki people have been displaced by the advancement of colonization, yet have belonged to this land for countless generations and thousands of years, and their presence continues in Maine to this day.”

Bryant described it as a comprehensive statement. “I always stress that Wabanaki people are still here so part of the process is making that clear. I think this statement accomplishes that,” Bryant said.

City Councilor Michael Shaughnessy was the inspiration behind the acknowledgement and monuments to the Wabanaki people and to the historic, local legendary Chief Polin are on his property. Polin was killed in a skirmish with settlers in Windham in 1756.

Historical accounts report Stephen Manchester killed Polin and an undocumented story attributed to a Manchester descendent claimed the two probably held a grudge because Polin refused to allow his daughter to marry Manchester.

Polin was immortalized in a poem, “Funeral Tree of the Sokokis,” by John Greenleaf Whittier.

Shaughnessy, also president of Friends of the Presumpscot River, wrote an email Jan. 28, 2022, to then Mayor Michael Foley and fellow city councilors pitching the idea for the land acknowledgement statement.

“There are strong reasons why Westbrook should adopt such an acknowledgement. One, we were a center of (Indigenous) activity along the river and a prominent, if not sacred, location of the Abenaki,” Shaughnessy wrote. “Two, little is recognized and taught about our local (Indigenous) history within our city, but that is changing in our schools.”

The Abenaki are a group in the area that is part of the wider Wabanaki, referring to the multiple Indigenous peoples in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and southeastern Canada.

Shaughnessy further attributed the struggle of the local Abenaki people to the city’s namesake. “Finally, our city is named after Col. Thomas Westbrook, who is responsible for the eradication and destruction and promoted the genocide of the (Indigenous) people in the region and particularly along the Presumpscot River.”

Attempts to reach Shaughnessy were unsuccessful.

Other communities, such as Yarmouth in July, have authorized similar land acknowledgements.

This story was updated Aug. 20 to clarify the Abenaki and Wabanaki terms.