LITTLETON — The bingo tent was always full.

Intermittent rain showers — some light, some torrential — sent attendees of the 45th Annual Metaksonekiyak Community Days ducking for cover throughout the day.

Some gathered under the main tent, where Wabanaki dancers stepped in rhythm to one of the six drum groups in attendance. Trash bags used to hood the speakers and keep the rain off flinched with each emphatic beat.

Other people dipped into the market space, where artisans sold beadwork, children’s books, jewelry and baskets. The rain seemed to keep people away, said Bonnie Murphy, a Mi’kmaq beader from Presque Isle. Business wasn’t as good Saturday as she would’ve hoped.

But even during breaks in the weather, the bingo daubers were never laid to rest.

The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians’ annual community days is a family reunion of sorts, attendees said.

“This is home. This is family,” said Alan St. Jean, of Monticello, with a chuckle. “I’m related to 90% of the people sitting around here.”

St. Jean left his hometown on the Canadian border for central Maine when he was 18. He is a member of the Houlton band of Maliseets as well as the Saint Mary’s First Nation in New Brunswick.

It was his culture, he said, that brought him back home six years ago.

Each of the Wabanaki tribes in Maine, and many in Canada, hold their own celebration toward the end of summer, all carefully scheduled not to interfere with one another. Events on the “powwow circuit,” as some refer to it, are a chance for family and friends to convene in cultural celebration.

The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians was formally recognized by the federal government Oct. 10, 1980. The community days celebration that year was named “recognition day,” a title that remained in place until 2023, when the tribe ditched it in favor metaksonkayik, which means “along the Meduxnekeag River.”

“There was a sense in the community, and even with tribal leadership, that we wanted to do something that honored us as a people, versus when someone told us that we were a tribe,” said Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians Chief Clarissa Sabattis. “And that means thousands of years of traditions.”

The cultural celebrations that happen on the Maliseet reservation in Maine, where just 300 of the tribe’s approximately 2,200 members live, can be difficult for off-reservation members to attend. Over 500 people attended the weekend-long event on Saturday.

It’s this annual event that Maliseets from away return to, Sabattis said.

The gathering is not just for Maliseets — members of other Wabanki tribes come too.

Isaac Sylaboy, 28, is Passamaquoddy and Mi’kmaq. He grew up in Sipayik (Pleasant Point), one of two Passamaquoddy reservations in Maine, and Sipekne’katik (Indian Brook) Nova Scotia.

Sylaboy was one of four head dancers — two men and two women, one adult and one youth of each — at the community days. The four dancers followed flag-bearers in the Grand Entry, a parade of nearly 70 people that marked the beginning of the day’s dancing and drumming.

“We don’t want that floor to ever be empty, and it’s our job to make sure that someone’s always dancing, whether it’s just us or getting other people in there,” said Sylaboy.

His two kids, ages 5 and 8, travel with Sylaboy each weekend he travels to another powwow.

“It fills my heart with pride” to see them dance and sing, he said.

There’s noticeably more children dancing and running around the event in ribbon shirts and other regalia than even a few years ago, said Tawomah Martinez, who is Mescalero, Jicarilla Apache and Lakota and works for the tribe in Littleton. Members of older generations who were in residential schools and were beaten for practicing cultural traditions could be reticent to pass those traditions on. But that’s changing, thanks in part to events like community days.

“Our dances are definitely an act of healing,” Martinez said, drums still dominating the event’s soundscape as the evening community dinner approached. “Our songs, gathering — it’s all part of the healing process.”

Others, such as St. Jean, describe the events as a simple affirmation: “We are still here, and we’re still the same.”

The Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahkomikuk (Indian Township) will hold its community days on Sept. 21 and 22; The Penobscot Nation’s community days celebration will be held Sept. 26 through Sept. 28 on Indian Island.

Reuben M. Schafir is a Report for America corps member who writes about Indigenous communities for the Portland Press Herald.