Many Passamaquoddy people don’t own regalia. Meet the man who’s changing that.

Maine’s Passamaquoddy Tribe Reclaims Tradition With New Regalia Program

By Maine News Now

Motahkomikuk, Maine – In the glow of a fluorescent‑lit bingo hall at the heart of the Passamaquoddy reservation, a 9‑year‑old boy twirled the buckskin fringes of his newly‑made outfit. The sight was more than a childhood pastime; it was a quiet declaration that a culture once nearly lost is stepping back into the light.

The Passamaquoddy Community Days, an annual celebration that blends dance, drumbeats, craft vendors and shared meals, had just begun on Sunday. For many attendees, the event is a chance to don ceremonial clothing that connects them to generations of ancestors who once walked these same grounds in leather and bead‑stitched garments. Today, thanks to a community‑driven effort led by museum director Dwayne Tomah, nearly twenty new pieces of traditional regalia are being worn for the first time by residents of Motahkomikuk (also known as Indian Township) and its neighboring reservation, Sipayik.

A Generational Gap Bridged by a $30,000 Grant

“After years of systemic cultural oppression, many people don’t own ceremonial clothing and few know how to make it,” says Tomah, 60, who serves as director and curator of the Passamaquoddy Tribal Museum in Sipayik. Over the past three years, he has secured a $30,000 grant from the Maine Community Foundation’s Belvedere Traditional Handcrafts Fund. The money covers materials and pays the artisans who hand‑craft the garments.

“Daughters of the tribe, like me, know how to stitch buckskin and bead‑work. I can’t do beadwork as well anymore because my eyesight has faded, but I still make regalia,” says Mary Creighton, 83, a skilled buckskin maker who has produced more than a dozen outfits for the program. “They’re not from here,”