Thank you for this heart-breaking account of Maine’s untold history. It’s so important for writing like yours to bring attention to it and its relationship to climate destruction. A new study released on Indigenous People’s day found that despite a 21-year-old law requiring all Maine K-12 schools to teach students about the Wabanaki Tribes, school districts have failed to include Wabanaki Studies consistently and appropriately in their curriculum and that the law is not being meaningfully enforced. See wabanakiallliance.com for more info.
It's good to see you back with Code Red, Kathleen, especially with this important and timely history of the Maine land we think of as "ours." On the flip side of scalp bounties, I like to think of Robin Wall Kimmerer's account of how her indigenous ancestors cared for this land, from her inspirational book, Braiding Sweetgrass:
"Harvest in a way that minimizes harm. Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken. Share. Give thanks for what you have been given. Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken. Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever."
Thanks, Susan. What a beautiful quote from RWK. Perfect for this Thanksgiving time. Giving thanks means giving back as well as saying thanks. It means being actively part of the cycle of sustaining. Thank you for your sustaining words and support!!
Beautifully written, Kathleen. So good to see you in the inbox again. Thank you for your recommendation of Dunbar-Ortiz; I'm putting her writing on my list. One book you might add to your list is Notes On A Lost Flute: A Field Guide to the Wabanaki, by Kerry Hardy, who explores both language and landscape to provide a truer map of this area. It's excellent.
Good luck processing your new view of the land. It's very disorienting, isn't it? But so necessary.
Thanks so much Jason. Your support means much to me!! I have ordered that book and look forward to reading it!! It is stunningly disorienting.
All this has been hiding in plain sight, has been written about now by many people in the last ten or fifteen years in particular, and yet I didn't see.
So glad to have your enlightened stories back in my mailbox Kathleen. I was particularly struck by your comments about the reverend gathering his flocks of men to capture and scalp or kidnap for the slave trade the natives who lived in this “discovered” land. I just finished reading Russell Shorto’s “The Island at the Center of the World” in which he depicts the Dutch interactions with the original inhabitants of this land as so different from how the English (or the Spanish) dealt with the natives. The interrelationships were much more egalitarian and respectful, with some of the Dutch actually learning the languages of the Iroquois and other tribes. Unfortunately even the pattern of friendly and respectful relations completely ended when the English took over. Anyway, I recommend that book as a history that we don’t know much about, as the Dutch were overrun by the English and we know too well that history is mostly written by the victors and not the vanquished.
It looks to me like you've developed some great resources. Maine Historical has become the first place I go to for online lectures & discussions. One listing I haven't seen is the Abbe Museum's Educator Resource Hub: https://www.abbemuseum.org/educatorhub.
Thanks, Leonard for this reference to this book. There is so much buried history of the vanquished we need to learn.
Thank you for this heart-breaking account of Maine’s untold history. It’s so important for writing like yours to bring attention to it and its relationship to climate destruction. A new study released on Indigenous People’s day found that despite a 21-year-old law requiring all Maine K-12 schools to teach students about the Wabanaki Tribes, school districts have failed to include Wabanaki Studies consistently and appropriately in their curriculum and that the law is not being meaningfully enforced. See wabanakiallliance.com for more info.
Very thoughtful and true. Thanks.
It's good to see you back with Code Red, Kathleen, especially with this important and timely history of the Maine land we think of as "ours." On the flip side of scalp bounties, I like to think of Robin Wall Kimmerer's account of how her indigenous ancestors cared for this land, from her inspirational book, Braiding Sweetgrass:
"Harvest in a way that minimizes harm. Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken. Share. Give thanks for what you have been given. Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken. Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever."
Thanks, Susan. What a beautiful quote from RWK. Perfect for this Thanksgiving time. Giving thanks means giving back as well as saying thanks. It means being actively part of the cycle of sustaining. Thank you for your sustaining words and support!!
So glad to have you back, Kathleen, waking me up.
Thinking of the Me Too movement, how the more we learn, the more we come forward, ripping shrouds off buried history.
OH here you are Helena. Great to have your company back on Sunday mornings! "Ripping off the shrouds of buried history!" Wow.
Beautifully written, Kathleen. So good to see you in the inbox again. Thank you for your recommendation of Dunbar-Ortiz; I'm putting her writing on my list. One book you might add to your list is Notes On A Lost Flute: A Field Guide to the Wabanaki, by Kerry Hardy, who explores both language and landscape to provide a truer map of this area. It's excellent.
Good luck processing your new view of the land. It's very disorienting, isn't it? But so necessary.
Thanks so much Jason. Your support means much to me!! I have ordered that book and look forward to reading it!! It is stunningly disorienting.
All this has been hiding in plain sight, has been written about now by many people in the last ten or fifteen years in particular, and yet I didn't see.
Thanks, Baron...the person to whom I owe my courage and capacity to write stories.
So glad to have your enlightened stories back in my mailbox Kathleen. I was particularly struck by your comments about the reverend gathering his flocks of men to capture and scalp or kidnap for the slave trade the natives who lived in this “discovered” land. I just finished reading Russell Shorto’s “The Island at the Center of the World” in which he depicts the Dutch interactions with the original inhabitants of this land as so different from how the English (or the Spanish) dealt with the natives. The interrelationships were much more egalitarian and respectful, with some of the Dutch actually learning the languages of the Iroquois and other tribes. Unfortunately even the pattern of friendly and respectful relations completely ended when the English took over. Anyway, I recommend that book as a history that we don’t know much about, as the Dutch were overrun by the English and we know too well that history is mostly written by the victors and not the vanquished.
,
It looks to me like you've developed some great resources. Maine Historical has become the first place I go to for online lectures & discussions. One listing I haven't seen is the Abbe Museum's Educator Resource Hub: https://www.abbemuseum.org/educatorhub.
More on settler colonialism:
http://www.harpswellhistorical.org/about/news/news%202017-10%20email.pdf
Thanks, Paul, I am happy to have this to add to the stories of what happened here. Haven't read it yet but will soon!!