(percussive music) (speaking indigenous language) - That's to gather the berries.

(rustling) Well, the blueberry represents a very important source of food; it was really important.

When all other resources were gone, the blueberry was always there.

We can depend on it.

- People traditionally planted gardens, fished, hunted, everything, and they were migrant people, you know?

They moved around with the seasons, and they followed the animals and they followed, you know, the berries.

- [Man's Voice] Well, it'll be like a moose.

We don't know where the moose originated, but we know they've been here all along.

So there's no, really, the history I can give you is to tell you that the Creator must have put them here.

(percussive music) - [Donald] The main river that flows through our territory, in our language, is called the Schoodic River.

Schoodic means: burnt-over place.

It could have been that lightning struck a tree and created an opening, and blueberries flourished from that opening, and we've always kept those openings available for the blueberries.

(water lapping) - [Donald] The area here for the Passamaquoddy was considered Wabanaki territory.

And our territory extends from the easternmost part of North America to Maine.

Wabanaki means: people of the first light.

We see the first light as the sun rises in the east.

The Wabanaki make up five tribes, five nations.

The Mi'kmaq, the Maliseet, the Passamaquoddy, the Penobscot, and the Abenaki.

The majority of Mi'kmaq live in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Maine.

The Maliseet live in New Brunswick and Maine.

The Penobscot live in central Maine.

And the Passamaquoddy, whose lands are crossed over by two countries, have the international boundary line, going through the center of our territory.

(pensive music) - The spiritual connectedness to this place, the spiritual connectedness to the area that is called Passamaquoddy territory, and we were taught how to take care of it, how to live in balance with it.

We were taught how to harvest what we needed.

When my grandmother talks about when she was out raking, and then my father, and then my uncles and aunts, and myself and my wife, and then my kids.

So it's been passed down for at least four generations, that I know of.

- My family and other tribal members have come down for many, many years, to help rake the wild blueberries.

But we did not own the land until the land claim settlement in 1980.

(woodwind music) (speaking indigenous language) - Which is our, (speaking indigenous language) our, that's: land.

(speaking indigenous language) (percussive music) - I saw the land, it was beautiful, but I didn't know how much of it was ours.

What I saw of it, I was like: wow!

I was amazed by it.

(percussive music) - [Wayne] The land claim settlement gave us, I can't remember, about $26 million or something like that, to purchase land so that it could become part of the acreage that we were to acquire.

I think the Penobscot were to acquire 150,000 acres, and we were to acquire another 150,000 acres, that would become trust land.

The whole notion of ever going there was to harvest something from the earth.

You know, it's not all money.

It's a part of doing something that comes out of the earth.

(muttering) - It takes patience, it does.

And you know what, some of these guys that have been stringing for a while are quicker at it, so they, sometimes the pace, to keep a pace, but yeah, these ladies have been doing it for me for, geez, how long?

Tara, you've been doing it forever.

(laughing) 10-plus years.

- Yeah, I like that answer.

That's how I should have said it the other day.

- [Alex] 10, a long time.

Lacy, this is her fourth year.

She was a greenhorn, she's now- - [Lacy] Yeah, not that long ago.

- [Alex] Can't drag her off the fields.

(muttering) But this is my crew, pretty much, other than the other ones you saw out here the other day.

Their job starts tomorrow at another level, so that's why they didn't come out today.

That seems to be their tradition.

[Jody] We string the fields to make sure eveybody has their own plots to rake, make it easier to separate it, and to make sure all of the berries get cleared, not just, you know, we wanna, don't wanna waste any.

- We can show you where the valley is.

As you guys work this way with the stringers, just at the top of this crest right here, you'll see there's a big valley, it's a very deep valley, and that's the area that they're talking about.

- Obviously we can't go with all this equipment in the vehicle, thank you.

(laughing) - I would have done that if we were coming back.

Oh, smack her in the head!

- Concussion!

(laughing) (splashing) Whoops!

(faint car driving on gravel - I've got approximately 105 right now.

And I'll probably register the ones that commute, will be probably another 50 or 60 tomorrow.

So I should be close to 200 people.

I have, I have my sunrise group.

I have a six or seven o'clock group, all the way up to an eight o'clock group, and they all come out at different times.

(muttering conversations) - That's my friend Steve and my cousin, Jonathan.

This is my brother, Matt.

She was telling me that, selling me one like that, right?

And then Tonya has a (indistinct), with handles, she's selling me, too.

So I'm buying two of them, you know?

Try to see if this old man still has it out there, man.

(muttering conversations) - Morning!

How are you?

Good to see you.

It's only been four years.

- Holy shit, has it been that long?

(muttering) - We started raking here, what?

Maybe 30 years ago.

But we've raked it long before that, towards other fields, and then we got these fields.

And then we moved here.

And it's been a yearly, traditional thing for us.

We look forward to coming here, every year.

And we love it.

I mean, it's hard work, but we love it.

We love these lands, and when we're here, it's like home for us, for the summer.

But we don't miss it until spring.

(laughing) - [Terri] We look forward to seeing all the people that we've seen throughout the years, and like Donna, we like, she hadn't showed up when we first got here, and then we waited, and she still hadn't showed up, but then we seen her and it was just like, it was just awesome.

It's just awesome to see everybody.

- Oh, I love it.

I love blueberry raking.

It's probably in my blood, I would say.

I've been raking since back in 1978, even further back than that.

Like, I came up with my parents back in, ah, 1970, we used to work down in Jonesport.

My grandkids are down here, Victor, Leon, Leon (indistinct).

Faith, Justine, Lynnie, Layla, Silas, Avalon and baby Petra will be up Monday.

Yesterday I helped Layla rake in, rake a few boxes, and yesterday I also helped Justine with her section; today I kind of helped Layla out a little bit while we're doing a short section, today.

(muttering) - [Woman's Voice] On the first one.

- Good.

You need more boxes, there's some over there.

If the grandkids are working, it's for their school-clothes, for school supplies, whatever they need for school.

The rest, you know, whatever they want with it.

The girls work, my granddaughters.

Oh, they're funny.

Lynnie was complaining she had a sore back yesterday.

But you just seen her behind the hoops over there, playing basketball that same evening.

(laughing) I told her: dear, that's not pain.

- [Man's Voice] I'm done.

- You're done, Chase?

Let me look at your forms there, buddy, and I'll go over it with you.

Your mom wanted you guys to experience doing this for your first time.

Okay, so...

Check that off.

That right there is the year and date that you start working with that, and don't worry about that, so I'll correct it.

(muttering) - I feel good.

I'm kind of excited.

- [Interviewer] Do you know any other kids here?

- Yeah, I have some cousins from Eskasoni staying in one of the cabins.

- Parents, with their kids that are under-aged, they'll come in and they'll out the documents for them, and once they're done with that, I'll then go and seek them out and have them sign the documents.

She's the first one that's come in that I can remember in a long time, that basically said: my kids want to fill out their own documents, can they do that?

And I said: absolutely, bring them in.

This tells you the documents that you have to have.

So it lists them, each one, right down through.

A band card identifies which tribe they're from, in Canada.

That's a band card.

So I have a tribal ID, a band card is the same thing as what we refer to as a tribal ID.

It identifies me as a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe.

So the parent has to fill that out with their address, social number, and then right here, gives their consent, stating that that's the actual age of their children; if they're under 14, they have to be 12 years of age to rake.

So, that's on the, just, that's state laws, agricultural laws.

But this is your guide, and you sweep.

You sweep, but you don't wanna hit the ground.

That's all it is, back and forth.

That's a big rake.

That's probably too big for you.

- 30, 23, yup, did you get 20 twice?

Yeah, 20 is his worst day.

And we've been doing this for the last five years now, bringing other kids with us, because ours are getting older, and started working for the company.

But we wanted other kids to have this opportunity, to earn a little bit of money, and learn some of the same lessons my kids did.

- But my sister just came back from township, and she's gonna rake tomorrow.

(clattering) - Ah, my son, me, Kenny, Lynn, Ariel, two of my daughters and two of my other daughters, Martha and baby Lynn.

So there's seven of us out now.

They're right over there.

There's Ariel there, she has a white Jeep, and Lynn now is raking right next to her.

So they both took double strips.

They're good pickers.

I guess Neut was the first one to take a double strip.

I don't know how many he got.

He's at the camp now.

(speaking indigenous language) (speaking indigenous language) - I'm out here right from sunrise until sunset.

Making sure people ain't overheating.

I don't want to have people getting heatstroke.

I know my people that are diabetics, I know my people that are older.

The older group versus the younger group, and I've been working with these people for quite a while.

I have some newcomers, but it's just a matter of getting to know them, also.

And I don't push them, I don't tell them, ah, when they can come and go.

I let them work at their own pace, as long as they come back and finish where they left off, I'm fine with that.

I'm here for them, so it's not on my time, it's on their time.

(scraping) - Oh man, to have your family all around you, and we're all working together and doing the same thing, the feeling out there.

So it's hot and hard work.

But knowing that your family is out there, and you're doing it together, as a team, it makes it not so hard, you know?

Because we're all doing it together.

- Well, did you wanna do the ones that's going up on that one, and then I'll start down here, by the ferns and, or- - And then Lids could start here?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- [Alex] I think the morale's good.

I think it's good.

It's very humbling.

It's very hard work.

It's takes a lot to get out there and put in an eight or six-hour day, or even a 10-hour day.

You know, you're picking up 22 pounds, on the average, a box, sometimes anywhere between 18 to 22 pounds.

That's a long ways, and it's hard work, lugging them boxes back up over the hills.

That's how I motivate them, is I tell them when they're working down in them areas down there, I tell them: stack their boxes out in the center, and we'll pick them up in trucks.

(scraping sounds) - I remember when I was six, seven, when I started, the berry's were two dollars.

I mean, yeah, 2.50 a box.

They were the same price as they are today.

(laughing) Yeah, but I, it don't bother me.

I mean, it's just the idea of raking, being able to rake.

- It's got 106.

Then I've got a Dennis that's got, one, about, that'd be about 160 right now.

Right there.

(acoustic music) ♪ Thank Creator for life ♪ And all that sustains me ♪ Thanking my ancestors ♪ For choosing this place to live ♪ ♪ You can't find a better place ♪ ♪ To raise your family ♪ A place as safe as Wabanaki is the place I wanna be ♪ (indistinct singing) ♪ Wabanaki confederacy (indistinct singing) ♪ Is the place they roam free ♪ Free to hunt and fish the waters, ♪ ♪ To feed their family ♪ Our dancers tell the stories ♪ Our songs, that's our history ♪ - That's Indian bread.

- [Woman's Voice] Yup, just made it in, ah- - You must know that, that bannock, you guys call it?

(muttering) Try a piece.

It's good.

Made by a pro.

- [Woman's Voice] I made it.

- [Woman's Voice] What is it?

- [Woman's Voice] It's, we call it: four cents.

It's Indian bread.

- The costs four cents to make it one time.

- [Woman's Voice] Grab yourself a plate there.

There's lot.

- We speak Mi'kmaq.

The Mi'kmaq language.

- Yeah.

She was in the immersion program.

She graduated from the immersion program.

And that starts from K through to grade four.

- [Child] Uh-uh, grade three.

- Grade three, and that's all you learn is Mi'kmaq.

Yeah.

And she had one year in there, and then he's starting school in September, and he'll be going in the Mi'kmaq immersion program also.

Eskasoni is the largest reserve in Nova Scotia, which is about close to 5,000 of us.

- Well, it is the largest Mi'kmaq reserve in the world.

(flute music) - [Wayne] The Mi'kmaq are the ones we depended on, or we depend on, actually, still, and they're largely from Eskasoni, which is in Nova Scotia, and Big Cove, which is in New Brunswick.

Those are the two big Mi'kmaq villages.

There are others, but they came long before we ever owned the company.

(flute) - [Woman's Voice] Our elder, Susie Marshall, can remember her tribal days raking.

(speaking indigenous language) (percussive music) - [Hubert] Since I can remember, and I was, say, about three or four years old, we came by truck.

Actually, the truck that we came on, was owned by my dad.

My father would ride with a tribe elder in the cab, and the rest of us would ride in the back.

(speaking indigenous language) - I remember one time when we, ah, went to pick blueberries, that was a long time ago.

I remember that drive, when I was only around six or seven.

And a lot of people made tarpaper shacks, you know?

Just for a few weeks, there.

And one day, there was a big thunder and hail, and all the hail went through our tarpaper shacks.

Just like paper.

It was so big.

I remember that.

- The canoe was our connection between each Native communit.

We traveled and visited, we traded.

We had sacred ceremonies together.

Back then, we were like the eagle.

We could travel wherever we wanted to.

(river gurgling) Over the years, the tribes have signed treaties with governments, and one of the strong points that's in every one of the treaties is the right to hunt, to fish, to cross overland, to live our traditional lives.

The Jay Treaty was signed by the United States and Great Britain, the Canadian government became federated and separated from Great Britain, to form its own country, in the mid-1800s.

So they recognize bits and pieces of the Jay Treaty.

For Canadian Natives, like say the Mi'kmaq, coming into the United States, the United States recognizes the Jay Treaty.

For us Passamaquoddy, going into Canada, they say: okay, we don't recognize the Jay Treaty and your right to cross and recross.

(somber music) - Everybody looks forward to it.

It's a good trip.

It's like getting paid to go have a vacation.

- We go after our son's birthday.

Our son's birthday is August second.

They'll ask for our tribe card.

When they know we're going up for raking, they ask for our letters, which we get from the Band Office, and you have to ask for a letter stating that you have more than 50 percent Indian blood in you, and you're able to work between the two countries, and pass freely through the borders.

So you need that, along with your status card, and an ID.

- When I go to Maine, I make sure I'm in good shape.

And I figure, there's nobody out there that can beat me with the boxes I make.

I'm always, I'm a really competitive person.

- Who comes here?

It's people from New Brunswick, that's Native people.

And from Nova Scotia, as well.

Some from PEI, and also local people.

And people from as far away as New York, New York City.

It's hard work.

You're out there and you're bent, your back is bent over like, all day.

And especially in the heat, which is increasing, heat, I guess the climate change, it's getting hotter, warmer every year.

You have to be in good shape to be out there.

- Hopefully 100 boxes by the five o'clock.

Hopefully.

(muttering) (speaking indigenous language) Same pace, every day.

First day or last day, same pace.

Yeah, my family, my boys, my two boys are right there.

My record sits by, not by the day, but by the paycheck, I guess.

And by the boxes at the end of the week.

I got a record of 245 boxes in one day.

That was two years ago.

And the berries were good, and they still had a lot of berries, but I had to go home for a funeral.

- [Chrisma] What I like about it, ah, because we're in such, like, close quarters, my kids have to, like, mingle with each other.

And it's like getting to now one another all over again.

- I love it.

I don't mind this work.

I don't mind it at all.

It's quick cash, but it's a little hard.

But it's quick cash and I love it.

(speaking indigenous language) When everybody's saying like: how come you make so much?

Well, I work my butt off, and then it pays off.

It's only 10 days.

- [Man's Voice] Looks good.

- This is my regular routine.

(truck rumbling) - My wife and I, we have a way of doing this.

Like, she's in front of the truck, tallying, so I come in the front here and like, tally from the front and meet her halfway.

She has the real tally, but I have just a little notebook here.

So I have to write everything.

She has it all written already, so all she has to do is put the numbers down.

But me, I have to write names and then the numbers.

And then we transfer the information to the main sheet.

It's nice to reflect very much on the cultural aspect, but it also was a business, and the tribe expected us to make good on the business.

So we tried to learn as much as we could, as fast as we could, because one of the goals that we set was we'd like to have this operation, as soon as possible, have a lot of Native involvement, at the administrative and top head, you know, so that we could determine policy.

And we wanted to have as many Native people as possible involved in this business.

That was our primary goal.

- We're a not a large grower in that sense.

But at the same time, if you took a look at the amount of berries we grow, compared to the amount of acreage we have, we're number one in the world.

There's nobody that grows more berries per pound, per acre, than the Passamaquoddy Tribe.

Cherry Field Foods processes all the berries that we grow, and we sell to them.

And we get a good price for the berries, per pound, and the berries, you know, some years can be a quarter a pound, and on a given year, it could be a dollar a pound.

And what people don't realize is there are other blueberry growers, other than in Maine.

You know, New Brunswick and Quebec and Nova Scotia, and all that that, you know, is part of the world market, and dictates as to what kind of price you're gonna get.

The blueberries that are harvested are 100 percent, low-bush, wild blueberries.

They're indigenous to this area.

They're very tasty berries.

They're very nutritious, and they've got a high concentration of antioxidants.

(rumbling) We've only been harvesting with mechanical harvesters to bring the berries in for about four years.

And there's a couple reasons for that.

We're improving the lands, as far as we're removing the rocks and we're land-leveling to make the fields flatter.

And once you do that, the mechanical harvesters are able to harvest those lands.

There are many areas where the mechanical harvester can't go.

You know, the ground is too rough and uneven, big hills, and stuff like that.

- Hand-picking is dwindling down, because now they're bringing in harvesters.

And that hurts, kind of hurts my feelings.

I'm hoping that in the future, our kids get to rake some of these berries.

(pensive music) (speaking indigenous language) - [Man's Voice] The harvesters are taking all the flat and good berries, and now we're only taking nothing but hills.

Today, when we go to pick blueberries, we get nothing but hills now.

Whenever there's a flat, like a flat, nice field, the harvesters take that.

- Our average crop is, is approximately doubled in the last few years.

So because that's doubled, the crew that's in place now, we have about 600 rakers, would have never been able to get the crop in, with the size of the crop that we had.

And we try to do a balancing act.

A balancing act between keeping all the rakers employed and getting the crop in, while realizing a profit.

- There was always, always a known commitment, because of the tradition, to have hand-raking.

To have Passamaquoddy or Mi'kmaq or any other people come and rake by hand, and the times, they're changing, and we need to adjust to that.

Because again, I say this, one of our primary purposes is to run a business.

And hopefully that business will have cultural identification.

- Something magical about it.

Wouldn't you say it's spiritual?

Something magical.

Something happens, something transpires.

It's like winning a lottery, just coming here.

And I can speak on behalf of most people here.

They were brought up, when they were kids, by their parents, in Washing County, Hancock or whatever, to rake berries.

- I'm from Indian Brook, Nova Scotia.

I drive.

It's a seven-hour drive.

I almost didn't come, and then I was like: I have to.

It's just like a magnet.

It draws me right here.

It's a family, this is my family.

And this is my vacation.

This is when I get to have my own peace and quiet.

No mom, no this, that, nothing.

Even though there's a million kids running around, there's me and my little cabin.

And I'm very happy.

(splashing) - [Girl] What are you doing?

- There's nothing like being able to just go outside and be able to work.

So, that's part of why I come to the blueberry raking, and I guess it's a getaway for a lot of us, you know, to step back in time.

We're living in cabins, we don't have running water.

No plumbing in here, so it's, it's, you know, it's like a step back in time.

It's really comfortable.

There's a really big community here.

And it's a lot of hard work, but we come more for, I think, you know, we need the financial aspect of it, too, but we also come for the social and the community and the family that we create here.

(speaking indigenous language) - While I'm raking, I pray.

And I sweat sometimes, you know, I feel like I wanna stop, because it gets so hot, and it's hard work, and it's like: no, I can't.

And I actually talk to my grandfather, and ask him to help me, you know, to keep going on.

At the end of a raking season, I replenish myself and, ah, you know, I've sweat, prayed, and I've done what I needed to do out here.

Basically.

(speaking indigenous language) - I pray, I pray every year, that we'll have a good harvest.

That it'll be non-eventful as far as, we don't want anybody getting injured and stuff like that.

And every year I give thanks that we're able to do this another year.

And that whatever we do as far as harvesting the berries, the blueberries, benefits our community as a whole.

And I even share that at joint tribal council meetings.

- Traditionally, our people didn't look at land as an ownership aspect.

It was, we weren't put here to own land.

We were put here to take care of the land.

You know, we are keepers of the land, we are keepers of Mother Earth.

That's who we are.

Yes, we own the land because, financially, through the Land Claim Settlement Act, the state gave so much money for us to buy land, so we own it on a piece of paper, yes.

But in our mindset, we're just caretakers of the land.

(percussive music) - Live the way that we're taught.

We were taught how we survive.

What does that mean?

And that's really, ah, that's really the inherent part of being sovereign.

Being able to completely be left alone, and not have anything from the outside, or anybody from the outside try to change our way of living and dictate how we're supposed to do things.

And that's our survival, you know?

We do things differently, yes we do.

People may say that: you're different.

Yeah, we are.

We're really, we're really different.

(chanting song) Because our teachings teach us to respect the water, the air, the land, the resources.

My own personal observance is that hunting and fishing and harvesting is a big, ah, not only economic aspect, or importance to the tribe, but also the spiritual, and the ability to carry that tradition on has been held onto and fought for.

(singing and drumming) - Before we send you off onto the journey, another journey down the bloodstream of our tribe, which connects both reservations here, I see a lot of youth here today.

I see a lot of, ah, of our elders.

And the wampum belt will be carried by Donald, to Pleasant Point.

Keep our ancestors in mind, those who have did the paddle and the journey before us, up and down this river.

Let's respect our bloodstream and the sacredness of this river as we go back down and we meet again.

So, safe journeys, and let's see you off.

(drumming and singing) - Just keep in mind, the first thing I wanna say is thank you, to everybody who paddled this waterway.

Retracing this migratory route of our ancestors.

But please, keep in mind what you just did today is what it's about.

(drumming and singing) (flute music) - And I'm here today at the Passamaquoddy camps, Centerville, to be specific.

As you can see, the camps are empty, so, the blueberry harvest has been canceled for this season.

- Well, with the Passamaquoddy Wild Blueberry Company, our contract was breached.

And we had, as a result of that, we had no one to process our berries, or sell our berries to.

So we had to make the decision not to harvest for 2017.

- That, when the '17 harvest was no longer there, that was a big part of the, I guess the nomadic, ah, nature of the tribal culture.

That we're not able to go there and do that again.

So that was a big loss, not only economically, but it was almost spiritual, as well.

Just because that has been ingrained in a lot of the families here, the Passamaquoddy.

- Our people are very sad about it.

It has become a part of our tradition, and it has become a big part of our lives and livelihood and stuff.

And then to lose that, to, to wake up one morning and find out that it's over, is devastating.

(percussive music) - So as far as 2018 went, there was a very late frost, there was a frost in June, which is incredibly unusual.

Some of the growers got totally wiped out, and that had a severe impact on our yield for 2018.

And our cash flow was getting low.

And so we made the decision to increase mechanical harvesting.

And at that point, because we were gonna rake more berries mechanically, that would lessen our need for hand raking.

So we closed two camps, and that only left two crews, two hand crews.

- It weren't the same.

Not every cabin was filled.

There was a lot of empty cabins there.

There was a lot of people that, you know, we haven't seen in a couple years, or a year, even, that weren't there.

I mean, every year we've been there, the cabins, every cabin was always full.

And we've had what we call each other, family, that all came from up north.

An then last year, it was just, just a couple of families.

- Picking blueberries with Passamaquoddies is, it's awesome.

It was just different because we usually go visit other camps, the Goo-Goo camp, and it wasn't open this year; there was nobody there.

Usually we, the flat fields, we used to wait for the flat fields, at near end of the picking.

And that's where everybody made their money.

But now the harvesters are there.

- People have been talking about harvesters moving in for a very long time.

So it was just a matter of time.

We were just, we weren't really getting assurances from the Passamaquoddy tribe.

- I think my feeling was: at least they had two camps open, for hand raking.

- The issue is, if you looked at how much it cost you to hand rake as compared to mechanical harvest, the mechanical harvest is probably about half the cost of what it is to hand rake.

And because when you mechanical harvest, you need relatively flat land, so there'll always be a need to harvest by hand, but we'll always have hand raking.

It just won't be done at the level that's been done before.

(woodwind music) - I would love to go back, yes.

I love raking.

People tell me I'm crazy, because I do actually enjoy it.

But I definitely will try to keep going back.

- Definitely.

- We'll return to blueberries, as long as it's still open and our camp's still there.

We'll return.

(berries dropping from rake to box) (somber music) (acoustic music)