More than a century after Maine’s Penobscot Nation lost control of much of its ancestral landscape, 11,297 acres have now been returned; the wider $32.5 million effort aims to return more than 30,000 acres

• On September 16, 2026, 11,297 acres surrounding the East Branch of the Penobscot River were returned to the Penobscot Nation, marking the first phase of a larger effort to restore more than 30,000 acres of ancestral homeland.