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The Rockland City Council is taking steps to examine a dark chapter of the city’s history involving the Penobscot Nation.
Last week, councilors unanimously voted to create a task force that will study a 1755 attack on Penobscot people, gather input from the community, and recommend how the city should recognize those who were killed.
The initiative is led by Rockland City Councilor Kaitlin Callahan, who sponsored the measure. In a statement, Callahan wrote the goal is to ensure the city’s history is told fully while centering Penobscot voices throughout the process.
“I brought forward the order to create this task force because true history requires truth-telling,” Callahan wrote in part. “This task force isn’t just about marking a massacre—it is about honoring the Penobscot people and their enduring, living relationship with Penobscot Bay.”
The effort began after former Rockland City Councilor and Maine State Representative, Elizabeth Dickerson, brought the history forward to urge city leaders to include it in the public conversation.
“It is safe to say that we were all surprised that this had happened in Rockland, and gratified that she brought it forward to us,” said Rockland City Councilor Nate Davis.
Historians say that in July 1755, colonial bounty hunters led by Captain James Cargill of Newcastle attacked Penobscot people near the area now known as Owls Head Bay.
“It isn't just thought that ‘Oh well, you know, some where these Indigenous people who lived.’ No—they lived right here,” Dickerson said.
Dickerson said Cargill and his group overtook Penobscot people at the bay, where they were killed and scalped.
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“Cargill overtook them right here at this bay, and they were also murdered and scalped,” she said.
Among those killed was Margaret Moxa, a Penobscot knowledge keeper and cultural mediator, along with members of her family. Historical accounts described the attack as part of a colonial bounty system that paid for the scalps of Indigenous people.
Davis said recognizing this history was an important part of telling a more complete story of Rockland’s past.
“It seemed wrong, and even discriminatory, to acknowledge the history of white settlers that became the Rockland that people now think of as the city and ignore the history of Native people here,” Davis said.
The new task force will include city officials, tribal representatives, and local historians. The group will develop recommendations for a public memorial and educational signage at what is now Snow Marine Park.
Maulian Bryant, executive director of the Wabanaki Alliance and a member of the Penobscot Nation, said visiting the area where the massacre is believed to have occurred carried significance.
“I’ve been able to walk the land a couple times where this massacre most likely occurred, and being there, you feel the power,” Bryant said.
Bryant said acknowledging this history was not about placing blame on people living today, but about ensuring the community understood the full history of the place it calls home.
“If we’re thinking about these beautiful lands and waters we all share, we should really be informed about everything that’s happened here,” Bryant said.
Davis said the task force is expected to present its recommendations in October.
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