Government of New Brunswick - Aboriginal Affairs Secretariat

More than 10,000 years of history	Place names in the Maritimes
Knowing the Environment	Craftwork, artwork and practical tasks
The Flowering of Maritime Culture	Maliseet and Mi'kmaq Languages
Wampum: Using Symbols to communicate messages	Spirituality and and the People's sense of place
Oral History and the Wabanaki Confederacy	Spiritual leaders and authorities in Aboriginal Communities
Storytelling	Extracts from Maliseet & Mi'kmaq: First Nations of the Maritimes

Mactaquac, Nashwaak, Quispamsis, Kouchibouguac, Restigouche, Abegweit, Pictou, Kejimkujik - Maliseet and Mi'kmaq place-names are what most non-Native Maritimers know of the languages that were spoken here when the first Europeans arrived. Their meanings are a record of what the original inhabitants of the land found significant.

They also show that early visitors, who kept many of the names, depended upon Indian guides when they travelled. Today, there are more Native names used for rivers, towns and other places in New Brunswick than in any of the other Atlantic provinces.

Native place names are much like those in English and French which name or describe a geographical feature - Grand Bay, Brookfield, Oyster Bed, Grande Anse,Baie Verte. But while many English and French names refer to people- Fredericton, Halifax, Charlottetown, Saint John - Native place names do not.

Nor did Maliseet and Mi'kmaq people borrow names from other places and apply them to their own locale - as settlers did with New Glasgow, Nouvelle France or Cambridge. Maliseet and Micmac place-names fall into two categories: those that simply name natural features and those that describe them.

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