Saint Croix Island has long held importance for both the United States and Canada. Archaeological evidence indicates that Aboriginal peoples, including the Passamaquoddy, used the island for about the past 3000 years, and that the adjacent river area had been used for thousands of years before that. In 1797, Robert Pagan of St. Andrews, New Brunswick, proved that Dochet Island, as Saint Croix Island was then called, was the former site of Sieur de Monts' settlement. Based on this and other evidence, the Boundary Commission set the Saint Croix River as the international boundary, in the first use of archaeological techniques in North America to solve a historical question. Harriet Taber Richardson of Cambridge, Massachusetts, conceived the idea of rebuilding the Port Royal Habitation, and with Loftus Morton Fortier of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, and other supporters in both countries, persisted until the Government of Canada undertook the project in 1938-39.