The Church of the Good Shepherd in Houlton, Maine respectfully acknowledges that our buildings are located on the homeland of the Wolastoqey (Maliseet) Nation. The Wolastoqey Nation is connected to the other Wabanaki Nations — the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Mi’kmaq — through kinship, alliances and diplomacy. We reside today near the Wolastoqey village of Meduxnekewiyik, alongside the bank of the Meduxnekeag River, a tributary of the Wolastoq (the St. John) which is the cultural heart of the Wolastoqey people. We acknowledge the unresolved issues of water and territorial rights, rights to adequate sustenance and food sovereignty, control and care for the ecosystem, and the encroachment upon sacred sites that occur on these lands. We further recognize that these nations are distinct, sovereign, legal and political entities with their own powers of self-governance and self-determination living on unsurrendered and unceded traditional lands.