Abstract

For several decades, naturalists and historians have questioned whether the Sea Mink, Mustela macrodon, an extinct species whose distribution is centered on the coast of Maine, also lived in the Quoddy Region, New Brunswick. A recent find of Sea Mink bones, associated with the Late Maritime Woodland component at the Weir site, Bliss Islands, helps to answer this question. The association of the bones with artifacts made from Kineo-Traveler Mountain porphyry, an exotic lithic material from central Maine, suggests these remains do not represent Sea Mink living in the Quoddy Region. Rather, they probably represent artifacts brought by Native people from Maine to New Brunswick about 1000-1200 years ago.