Penobscot tade-silver brooches. Maine State Museum collection

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Penobscot tade-silver brooches. Maine State Museum collection

Brooches are frequently mentioned in the pawn records of Manly Hardy of Brewer, Me. Most were manufactured in the late eighteenth century by Montreal silversmiths. They were probably acquired by Penobscots, Passamaquoddies and Maliseets during diplomatic visits to gatherings of descendants of those who, like them, had signed the Great 1701 Treaty of Montreal. These gatherings were kown as the Great Council Fire.

This "grand alliance," also called the "great council fire," persisted into the nineteenth century and held periodic meetings, referred to as Great Council Fire, at the Iroquois village of Caughnawaga [Kanawake] near Montreal. This is probably the context in which Wabanakis acquired them.

See Bourue and Labar 2009:23-33 (818).