[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 87 (Tuesday, June 22, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S7167]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CELEBRATING ST. CROIX ISLAND, MAINE

 Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, today I mark the celebration of the 
400th anniversary of the settlement of St. Croix Island, in Calais, ME, 
one of the earliest European settlements in North America. It is an 
extraordinary site with a remarkable story to tell--a narrative 
overflowing with adventure, courage, risk, and a very special 
friendship between the Native tribes who peopled this region long ago 
and the pioneers who crossed an ocean in pursuit of opportunity, 
prosperity, and freedom.
  There is an old Sioux proverb: ``A People without History is like 
Wind in the Buffalo Grass.'' When expedition leader Pierre Dugua and 
his company of 120 settlers arrived on the shores of what is now the 
great State of Maine, the First Peoples, the ``People of the Early 
Dawn,'' or Wabanaki, had already occupied these lands for thousands of 
years. Nevertheless, they came out of their villages with open hearts 
and open hands to welcome Dugua and the 120 noblemen, artisans, and 
soldiers who had sailed with Dugua across the Atlantic from their 
native France.
  At that moment, the European settlers began to craft a new history 
for this place they called ``Acadie.'' But it is important to remember 
that the Native Peoples, the Wabanaki, had already authored their own, 
proud history of North America, although it has taken us, in some 
cases, all too many years to understand that. That the Native tribes 
welcomed Dugua and his followers speaks to one of the noblest aspects 
of human nature--an instinct to reach out to men and women in need, to 
our human neighbors, whenever we can help, whether they live across the 
street, or across the world. Certainly, that generous impulse lives on 
today among the members of the Passamaquoddy Nation.
  The historical bond between the Native Peoples is also one to 
celebrate and remember. The lives and personalities of the people in 
this region continue to be shaped, generation after generation, by the 
history, legends, and purpose forever invested in this coastal stone 
and soil by Pierre Dugua and his companions, one of whom was the great 
Samuel Champlain, the ``Father of Canada.'' Let us not forget that 23 
of the original French settlers remain interred on this island today, 
making this a sacred, as well as a historical, site.
  After four centuries, the settlement of St. Croix remains a powerful 
lesson, a parable that is not only about a journey of a thousand miles, 
beginning with a single step, but also about the extraordinary ability 
of diverse cultures to support and enrich one another, and, in the end, 
to create new cultures, new peoples who bring unique and singular 
strengths to the never-ending, universal campaign to build a peaceful 
and prosperous world.

                          ____________________