 Native Americans have inhabited the area called Acadia for at least 12,000 years, including the coastal areas of Maine, Canada, and adjacent islands.The Wabanaki Confederacy ("People of the Dawnland") consists of five related Algonquian nations—the Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Passamaquoddy, Abenaki and Penobscot.Some of the nations call Mount Desert Island "Pemetic" ("range of mountains"), which has remained at the center of the Wabanaki traditional ancestral homeland and territory of traditional stewardship responsibility to the present day.