The Republic of Madawaska () was a putative republic in the northwest corner of Madawaska County, New Brunswick (also known as the "New Brunswick Panhandle") and adjacent areas of Aroostook County in the US state of Maine and of Quebec. The word "Madawaska" comes from the Miꞌkmaq words madawas (place of) and kak (porcupine). Thus, the Madawaska is "the country of the porcupine". The Madawaska River which flows into the Saint John River at Edmundston, New Brunswick, and Madawaska, Maine, flows through the region. History The origins of the unorganized republic lie in the Treaty of Paris (1783), which established the border between the United States of America and the British North American colonies. As with several other disputed areas along the imprecisely defined border, the Madawaska area and the larger region of overlap between Maine and New Brunswick remained in dispute until 1842. In 1817, a US settler, John Baker, arrived in the region. He made his residence west of the junction of the Meruimticook (now Baker Brook, after him) and Saint John Rivers. This area is now Baker-Brook, New Brunswick. Outside of the Madawaska settlement, hardly anyone lived in what is now Aroostook County. At the 1830 census, Madawaska settlement had a population of 2,487 people. Aroostook, with 261, and Houlton Plantation, with 576, were the closest settlements. In 1825, Baker petitioned the state of Maine for Madawaska's inclusion in the state. Believing fervently that the territory belonged to Maine, Baker became an agitator and provocateur toward the British government. In 1827, Baker provoked the British authorities by attempting to stop the mail being sent by canoe from Madawaska to Quebec on the St. John River; by trying to get the French residents of Madawaska to reject British authority; by preventing a constable from carrying out an arrest; as well as other such defiance of British authority. On July 4, 1827, John Baker held an Independence Day celebration at his house and invited all Madawaska settlers. At the time, 16 American families lived in the Upper Saint John River Valley, as well as French settlers. At his event, Baker proclaimed the entire Madawaska Territory to be independent of all foreign jurisdiction and vowed not to acknowledge any other authority than the United States. A flag sewn by his wife, Sophronia (aka Sophie) Rice, was raised in salute of the new republic. The event was followed by an evening