THE MAN WHO WEEPS Long, long ago, when the world was still new, there was a family of people who called themselves “The Hammonassetts.” In their language this meant “The People.” They lived on the shores of a river, which later came to be named for them. One of the ...

The Pageant My earliest memories of the Pageant are of being embarrassed. The Pageant is an annual event my Tribe puts on for non-Tribal members where we dress up in traditional clothing and act out Wampanoag legends. As a kid it felt like a chore. I didn’t want to walk ...

Per the request of the late Abenaki Elder Gali Sanchez, this poem was lovingly read at his ceremony, as his ashes were laid to rest in the Connecticut River.   Seeing Some things are clear as the eyes of a just-caught fish. Others dance at the edge of our circle of seeing as a bat at dusk. Some ...

In this time In this time of posted landWhere do we go...?How do we live...?No food gathered…No medicine picked...No game honorably killed and eaten... In this time of posted landWhere can we go without being shot at...?Can we live sustainably and maintain our culture ...?No sweetgrass picked…No ash fallen.No game ...

When the Smoke Fills My Eyes I could feel that there was something different about today when I woke up this morning. First of all, my eyes were stinging. The smoke from the morning cook fires was hanging low in the morning air. Every morning mom would start the cooking ...

Writer’s Statement You could say that my sons turned me into a children’s author at a time when my main objective was writing and publishing poetry. First of all, the traditional Abenaki and Iroquois stories I told them as bedtime stories (stories I’d learned not in my own childhood from ...

Mother Earth Water Walk When I began walking in the Eastern portion of the Mother Earth Water Walk that began on May 7, 2011, in Machiasport, Maine, I had little knowledge of the story behind the walk or of the remarkable Anishinaabe elder, teacher, water protector, and human being Josephine ...

REBEL DAWTA 2: The Kitchen Formica tables with stainless steel strips around their edges yellow tables, the color of freshly churned country butter glass topped butter dishes gold-rimmed sugar bowls plastic paper napkin and matching salt and pepper shakers marvelous shakers labeled P and S fat bellied enigmatic short white ...

Standing in a Wooded Area Iti waya chito fako Iti chito kanafa shila kchulakko Iti illi Large tree Leaning without limbs Large dry tree fallen turned up By the roots Dead ~iti kafi 2017 You Never Have to Ask I was six years old and my little brother three, when ...

Kataahdin     Read Suzanne Rancourt's article in Combat Stress about trauma and her healing through expressive arts and Native culture and ceremony at www.stress.org   Suzanne S. Rancourt's book, Billboard in the Clouds, Curbstone Press, was the 2001 recipient of the Native Writers First Book Award. She is an Abenaki ...

The Massachusetts State Flag is Insulting Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory OversightThe General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts24 Beacon Street511-8Boston MassNovember 11, 2019 The Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Flag is insulting, demoralizing and of the utmost disrespect to Indigenous people. Too many of our ancestors have died ...

Walruses On The Rings Of Saturn – I purchased a wood panel about ten years ago and asked my son to draw a picture of some walruses taken from a photograph I found in National Geographic.  He drew the images in white chalk and the unfinished work sat until December ...