Penobscot, Algonquian-speaking North American Indians who lived on both sides of the Penobscot Bay and throughout the Penobscot River basin in what is now the state of Maine, U.S. They were members of the Abenaki confederacy. Penobscot subsistence was based on hunting, fishing, and collecting wild plants, with seasonal movement to obtain food. In winter small family groups lived in hunting camps within separate family territories, rights to which were inherited through the male line; larger camps and villages were inhabited during the summer. The tribal chief embodied little power, generally acting as a tribal representative in ceremonies or in dealings with outsiders and sometimes adjudicating disputes.
Europeans first encountered the Penobscot early in the 16th century; a French mission was established among them in 1688. The Penobscot assisted the French against the English in all the wars on the New England frontier until 1749, when they made peace with the English. As a result, they did not remove to Canada with the other groups of the Abenaki confederacy, and they remain in their old territory to the present. The Penobscot and the Passamaquoddy send a nonvoting representative to Maine’s state legislature.
Early 21st-century population estimates indicated some 4,000 Penobscot descendants.