Commitment to anti-racism

We do our best to uncover and confront racist ideas that are embedded in the way we interpret the past and view our place in the present. We want the stories we share on Portland by the Foot tours to frankly reflect and challenge society's evolving system of unfair advantage based on perceived racial differences. We are committed to cultivating tour environments and business practices that counteract racism and other harmful historical patterns.

Land acknowledgement

We’re always calling this place Portland, but really it’s Machigonne. That’s the Algonquian name given to this peninsula by the Indigenous Wabanaki Nations who have lived here for thousands of years. Despite encroachments by French and English colonizers and their descendant institutions, the Wabanaki have maintained their sovereignty and skillfully navigated diplomatic relations with the State of Maine and United States of America to this day. There are four federally recognized tribes in Maine today: Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Penobscot Nation, Mi'kmaq Nation, and the Passamaquoddy Tribe.

As guests in unceded territory, the owners of Portland by the Foot are grateful for the Indigenous knowledge made available to us and for the ongoing stewardship of this land by the Wabanaki. We support these nations’ current claims to self-determination, land rights, water rights, fishing rights, hunting rights, ancestors’ remains, and historic artifacts. We urge the State of Maine and United States governments to recognize the jurisdiction and authority of Wabanaki regulatory powers over taxation, natural resources, land use, gaming, and trust land acquisition. We urge museums to repatriate to Wabanaki authorities all Indigenous human remains and sacred and funerary objects collected in Maine. And we commit to the ongoing process of decolonizing the stories we share with guests on our tours.