let me just say something anecdotal:
i’m from maine. i’ve lived here my whole life. i am also native american, and in community with other native people here (wabanaki people— passamaquoddy, penobscot, mi’kmaq and maliseet). i have been to mount desert island and bar harbor (you may know as far harbor) countless times throughout my life. i am also a native studies minor in a wabanaki-led program.
mount desert island, or pesamkuk (passamaquoddy name) has been a gathering place for wabanaki people since time immemorial. indigenous presence on the island has shaped what it is today. tourism and white settlement (summer homes, a coast guard base, a national park, and myriad other tourist businesses in places such as bar harbor) during the “rusticator period” (1840s-1920s) all but pushed major seasonal camps off the island. in fact, today most average-income people will have a difficult time living on MDI now. the crisis of affordable housing on the island was at one point so bad that teachers and firemen were traveling upwards of an hour to get to work. not great!
but that does not mean that indigenous people are simply gone from the island (or maine in general!)
in maine, the major wabanaki communities are: penobscot nation on indian island, motahkomikuk (passamaquoddy), qonasqamkuk (passamaquoddy), and sipayik (passamaquoddy). the houlton band of maliseets and mi’kmaq nation are both in aroostook county and do not have formal reservations in the same way. indigenous lands in maine are subject to some very interesting and frustrating legislation. for more info, look into the maine indian claims settlement act (MICSA).
today, the abbe museum is in the middle of the tourist district in bar harbor— it is dedicated to wabanaki history and is largely wabanaki-run. efforts into restoring traditional harvesting are ongoing (such as picking sweetgrass)!
indigenous people are still very much here and deserve much, much better than complete erasure for the kitsch aesthetic of the game. wabanaki presence COULD HAVE BEEN integrated into the game. bethesda could have made an effort to reach out to wabanaki peoples to work on representation in some way or another. the history of the place could have been mentioned. it was not.
i think a lot of it boils down to laziness. companies do not want to pay for cultural consultation. they don’t want to take a risk at either seeming “too woke” or, on the other side, not socially aware enough.
so indigenous people continue to be written out. because it is easier to pretend we are all dead.
for more information about wabanaki presence on pesamkuk:
https://abbemuseum.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/4b8da-namingthedawnlandgeorgeneptune_web.pdf (written by a passamaquoddy knowledge keeper— i have met them, very cool person!)
indians in eden by bunny mcbride and harald prins: https://ppld.overdrive.com/media/1239742
some discussion of suzanne greenlaw (maliseet) and her work around sweetgrass harvest: https://www.abbemuseum.org/blog/2018/6/21/a8ox8s8wxde6nenklfm77gayl60h87
the abbe museum website: https://www.abbemuseum.org/
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