Browse Items (189 total)

Peter Mitchell ( b. 1929) was a World War II veteran from Perry, Maine. He wrote frequently for the tribal newsletters, contributing pieces like this 1966 letter. Mitchell was murdered in 1978; as with several other homicides of Maine Native people…

Fancy Hamper, c. 1900, Ash Splint, Abenaki, Housed at the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum This basket, housed at the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum, is a fancy basket hamper decorated with cowiss that dates to c. 1900s. Cowiss is the Abenaki word for the…

This 1754 herbal diary is a rare written record of indigenous medicinal practices from early New England. Part of the original manuscript is housed at Dartmouth College (link above); the other part is in the New London County Historical Society in…

This penmanship exercise by 15-year-old Lewy Sockbason is tucked into an 1828 report from the Reverend Elijah Kellogg, a Protestant missionary who ran a school on the Pleasant Point reservation for six years.  Kellogg was much enamored of Lewy’s…

Katherine Garret’s “Dying Warning” would appear at first glance to be a testament to her life and her conversion to Christianity, though closer examination raises many questions. Garret was a Pequot Indian servant in the home of Reverend William…

Hat Basket, c.1860-1880, Ash Splint, Abenaki, Housed at the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum This hat basket, one that would have been sold to tourists, nicely illustrates Abenaki basketry's functional and aesthetic appeal. The chain link design on the…

Eel Weir, c. early 1900s, Wood Splint, Abenaki, Housed at The Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum An unidentified fishing basket trap from the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum in Warner, NH, is likely an eel trap. Woven from wood splints, it stands nearly three…

The signature of Abenaki sachem Bomoseen is one of many attached to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of July 13, 1713.  Some of these signatures are printed in spiraled cursive while others are elaborate totems, emblems used by Native American leaders to…

“In 1789 Mashpee women Amy Simon and Mary Sunkoson complained to the overseers that they were being denied necessities that were supposed to be supplied through their common fund.” A year prior, the Mashpee had lost their independence and in turn…

Written by Penobscot Governors and Indians in Council at Old Town, Maine, The Penobscot Land Claims Petition of November 5, 1829 concerns the sale of tribal lands in the new State of Maine. The petition, which was in response to an application for…