=Tomar.= Many an Indian legend of doubtful authority still clings to various points on the Island; yet only the Indians themselves are persistent and real. Each summer day they bring their baskets for sale. Tomar, at one time governor of his tribe, on a small salary with large work to do, is one of the few thoroughbred Indians who still live in this region. He is a man of integrity, skill, and gentleness. Each visitor is eager to gain his companionship and guidance in his canoe, as he paddles into nooks where one less experienced might hesitate to penetrate. Greater than his skill in paddling is Tomar's ingenuity in scraping pictures on birch bark symbolical of Indian life.
=His Tribe.= The Passamaquoddy Indians, or Openangoes, were a branch of the Etechemin nation, and apparently of comparatively recent origin. Their earliest village near Campobello was at Joe's Point, near St. Andrews. The majority of the remnants of the tribe are found at Pleasant Point, near Eastport, at Peter Dana's Point, near Princeton, and at The Camps, on the border of Calais. Their language is fast dying out; but their traditions and customs have been carefully studied and collected largely by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown, of Calais, and also by Professor J. Walter Fewkes, who has taken down on the wax cylinders of the phonograph many of their songs and stories.
The following original poem by one of the tribe was written for a sale that was held on August, 1883, for the benefit of a new rectory on the Island, in which Miss Lucy Derby was interested, and through whose efforts the rectory was built, the Company giving the land.
Amwézik 'klithwon ya skedabe zogel; Skedap tatchuwi melan kekousé kiziolgweh. Ulzee-ik 'lee madjhé goltook kizosook; Tatchuuwi tewebn'm nenwel kthlee-tahazoo wagenen woolsum'kik. Piyemee absegékook beskwaswesuk tchicook Pèmee woolip p'setawkqu'm'see you wen. P'skèdab tatchuwè oolazoo weeahl m'pseeoo-wenil. Amwess ooktee-in aboozek; Uppes kootee-in hedlègit; Beskwas'wess lookquem hahze; Nojeemeeko gèmit chooiwigeou: Weejokègem wee you'h. Piel John Gabriel kweezee-toon yoot lin to wagun. Kee zee skee jin wih tun; Whu-titli keezeetoon Ebawg'hwit, Wè jee kissi tahzik wenoch chigwam. N'paowlin kweezee Iglesmani tun.