About Mihku Paul is a Native American Maliseet poet, writer, visual artist, and activist. She is a member of Kingsclear First Nation, N.B., Canada and holds a BA in Human Development and Communication from the University of Southern Maine. Paul then received an MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine. Born on December 4th, 1958 Paul grew up in Old Town, Maine, along the Penobscot River. Her mother was born an hour and 45 minutes north in Houlton, Maine where the Houlton Band of Maliseets is located. The Maliseet Tribe is also known as the Wolastoqiyik Tribe. Paul, the youngest of four children was the only one in her family to complete high school. Starting a year late in her schooling, Paul didn’t struggle to catch up and ended up completed school a year early. Early Life Her grandfather, a Maliseet elder, was instrumental in passing on tradition and cultural knowledge to Paul. Being the youngest of all her siblings, Paul’s mother stressed the need for Paul to know this history so it wouldn’t get lost in through generations. Paul’s grandfather lived on Penosbscot Indian Island Reservation near Old Town. Here Paul spent much of her childhood where she watched her grandfather watercraft, hunt, and trap. She would miss many days of school at a time while she was out on the river with her grandfather on expeditions. Though Paul lived near a reservation, hey family didn’t grow up on one due to the lack of programs dealing with infrastructure and housing. It wasn’t until after the civil rights movement during the 1960’s that those programs were beginning to be put into place. Though she lived off the reservation, conditions weren’t much better for her family as Paul grew up in a very poor neighborhood. When Paul was on the reservation she felt safe and accepted, but when she had to leave and interact, like in the public schools, that became problematic. Though she wasn’t the only Native American to attend public schools, the group of kids that did attend got bullied. Along with being harassed by the non-native students, the native students also picked on Paul due to her lighter skin completion. Her Work Motivated by her own unsatisfactory experiences of primary and secondary education in Maine, and by her experiences of racism and discrimination as a mixed-blood Maliseet woman, Paul has worked for more than two decades to better endow teachers in the state system. This work includes curriculum enrichment that focuses on Waponahki cultural views of unity and support, as well as language arts and the connection of native language to the study and charting of North America. Paul also works with children in the Portland school district, which she has been persistently doing for over twenty years on the complicated cultural, political, and social accounts of the lives of native peoples in the 21st century. Paul also has interactive storytelling sessions surrounding Waponahki legends, and assists students with art projects by intertwining conceptual principles along with practical design. Along with Paul’s storytelling and curriculum enhancements, she also involves her art and poetry to help educate non-native people about the condition of Waponahki people in the Northeast. Outside the classroom Paul’s poetry and art support diversity projects, events, and have been instillations in various museums. Visual Arts Paul is a contemporary artist and writer with traditional roots, seamlessly combining the modern world with her legacy. Paul appreciates traditional Native American arts but doesn’t have a niche for it; rather she is trying to bring her Native identity forward into the contemporary moment, and is trying to use her art as a way to bridge that into the twenty-first century. Paul has had no formal education in visual arts, just her creativity, heritage, and passion for education. Paul is particularly interested in pattern and color relationships and works with pen and ink, watercolor, gouache and mixed media collage. Paul’s first multi-media installation “Look Twice: The Waponahki in Image & Verse,” went on exhibit in October 2009 at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine. The exhibit is a compilation of twelve panels that combine archival images of Waponahki history and culture with original poems that are designed to facilitate the governing look at Native people in this region. Colorful medicine wheels are intermingled throughout the exhibit, merged with conceptual water shapes to evoke the flow of time, memory and the St. John river. Publications Paul got to share her storytelling, talent for poetry, feelings on her education, and the plight of being Native American in her first chapbook, 20th Century PowWow Playland, published in 2012. This chapbook is a compilation of poems in which the Maliseet lands are at points inventively populated with not just, “the ghosts of half a millennium” but also with “those who remain”. As Mihku Paul remains in these lands, her opposing thoughts on settler colonization are not quieted, as she believes in the rights and continuation of indigenous people in the northeast. Paul’s poems clearly give a voice to those whose words have been silenced in the holocaust of colonization and displacement. Paul talks widely on her dissatisfaction of the education she received in the Maine public school system. In the poem “Jefferson Street School” (9) in 20th Century PowWow Playland, Paul speaks as a “kindergarten captive” who is forced to memorize and recite the “invader’s language” and partisan cultural perspective, which evidently captures and details this disillusionment. Paul tends to lead toward lyricism when it comes to her poems and Paul credits her love for the way language sounds and her talent at storytelling to her grandfather. He would spend hours with Paul telling her stories and teach her certain things in dialect. Paul’s 34 poems delve into this thought of multiple identities; how Paul is a “child of all worlds, child of no world”. (Totem, pg. 40) Paul’s `Amerindia’ reads, “Those hybrids” meaning Native and American are “encased in this new-made flesh”, meaning stuck and split. She ends on the question of what to do with these shattered pieces of glass, (from their original lifestyle) and what to do with what is now being presented to them, “this new fruit”. (53) In history we see this wonder of identity and the role security and money play a role in this. The reservation’s conditions prior to 1980 were disconcerting and in a way forced natives to live elsewhere and find jobs outside the community. On October 10th, 1980 the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act was passed which granted the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Maliseet tribe $81,500,000. This act proved that there were treaty issues and that the federal government owed the tribe’s money and land, which assisted the tribes to improve conditions on the reservations. Due to this assistance many people who had left the reservation to find jobs moved back. This wave of native people included many youth who had spent much of their life disconnected from the reservation. Paul currently resided in Portland, Maine and teaches creative writing at the Maine Women Writers Collection at the University of New England. Works Cited Paul, Mihku. "The Work of Mihku Paul." The Work of Mihku Paul. Mihku Paul. 25 Apr. 2013 "Abbe Museum: Look Twice Evokes New Thoughts About History." Web log post. ABBE MUSEUM: Look Twice Evokes New Thoughts About History. Ed. Abbe Museum. 2 Oct. 2009. 25 Apr. 2013 Bryant, Rachel. "Mihku Paul." New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia. 2011. New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia. 25 Apr. 2013 "Indigenous New England Literature." Rev. of Mihku Paul’s first chapbook. Web log post. Indigenous New England Literature. 2 Nov. 2012. 25 Apr. 2013 Panepinto, Lisa. "Renewing Images: Mihku Paul Interview." River pine anthology of civic discourse. 14 Sept. 2012. River Pine Anthology of Civic Discourse. 25 Apr. 2013 Paul, Mihku. 20th Century PowWow Playland. 978-1-105-78610-5. Greenfield Center, NY: Bowman Books, 2012. Teeter, Karl. Tales From Maliseet Country. Nebraska: University of Nebraska, 2007.
"To the Women Poets of Kandahar" (2003) and "Polaris" (2009) by Carol Bachofner
Carol Willette [Snow Moon] Bachofner is a Native American poet of Abenaki descent. She is a resident of Rockland, Maine. She has published several collections of her own poetry, includingNative Moons, Native Days, as well as Drink from Your Own Wells: a guide to richer writing. Carol is a native of Maine but has lived for many years elsewhere, including having resided in Germany and London for some time. She graduated from Vermont College with a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry and has been a professor of college-level English at Victor Valley College and Taft College. She was previously a midwife and labor and delivery RN, and a free-land writer. One of her favorite ways to work with other poets, both new and emerging, is to offer poetry workshops in her local area and loves to travel to bring poetry workshops to people all over the country. A dream of hers is to spend time in Scotland translating the poetry of her Scots ancestor, William Dunbar. Bachofner recalls first becoming interested in writing poetry when she was six years old. She frequently read poems aloud to classes in her elementary years, encouraged by her teachers. This led to a “life in verse” as she tells it. Career Bachofner co-founded and edits the online literary journal, Pulse in 1997. She is dedicated to unveiling new poetic voices and art. She has published her own poems in countless literary journals since 1995. Becoming a runner-up in the 2006 Main Street Rag Poetry Chapbook Award Contest, encouraged Bachofner to publish her poems in collections as well as in a broader array of literary journals including Prairie Schooner Journal, Main Street Rag, The Comstock Review, and Naugatuck River Review, among many others. She has been nominated for several literary awards and honors, including Editor of the Year by the Wordcraft Circle of Writers & Storytellers in 1999 and Writer of the Year for her poetry by that same group in 2000. In 2007, Bachofner was a featured speaker at the Winter Wheat Conference at Bowling Green University, and in 2009, she was invited to be a presenter of poetry by indigenous writers at the Maine Literary Festival in Camden, Maine. She was also named in the 2009-10 publication of MarquisWho’s Who and made the short list (runner up) for individual works of poetry by the Maine Literary Festival in 2011. Carol’s poem Super-Hero won the First Place Portia Steele Memorial Award for Poetry in June 2007. In 2009, she was named “A Poet of Merit” by the Florence Poets Society. In April of 2012, the City of Rockland, Maine named her Rockland, ME Poet Laureate. She launched her latest collection, Native Moons, Native Days (2012) at the Three Poets Book Launch, hosted by the Camden Public Library. Bachofner’s poem, We Speak the White Man’s Language, will appear in the anthology, Unraveling the Spreading Cloth of Time, edited by MariJo Moore and Trace A. DeMeyer. Her poems will also be appearing in the anthology Dawnland Voices, edited by Siobhan Senier, associate professor of English at the University of New Hampshire. Writing Style and Themes Bachofner frequently writes themed collections. Her collection titled I Write in the Greenhouse includes poems about Maine and its people, including Edna St. Vincent Millay and Andrew Wyath. Her other poems often describe the traditions within Native American culture. When asked in an interview by Fringe magazine what her favorite milestone in her poetry career has been, Bachofner gave a very thoughtful yet direct reply. She said, “Getting published in Prairie Schooner. I was in my MFA program and had written a kind of quirky poem for me. My advisor told me to throw it away, but I started sending it out and Prairie Schooner took it. That was a turning point for me. I realized it wasn’t about somebody else’s point of view, it was about the writing and how I encountered language. Carol often writes with a strong sense of place as narrative, and enjoys writing in both traditional and free verse. Works Cited Rector, Leta. “Genocide of the mind.” News From Indian Country (Feb. 12, 2004). Ernest, Dagney. “Laureates Galore." The Camden Herald (March 27, 2013). Three Poets Book Launch, Camden Library. June 22, 2011. YouTube. Carol Bachofner, personal interview.
"Writings on Civil Rights" (2015-16) by Donna Loring
In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, many indigenous intellectuals lent their voices to the cause of racial justice and equity. Donna Loring--a Penobscot tribal leader, author, and Vietnam veteran--exemplifies the commitment to cross-racial solidarity and social justice activism. She presented the "Memorial for 9 Killed in Charleston, South Carolina" at a service in Portland, ME, commemorating the victims of the massacre at that city's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 2016, she wrote a fierce defense of African-American activist Rachel Talbot Ross for the Portland Press Herald. While the paper declined to print the piece in its entirety, she posted it on Facebook and asked friends to circulate it widely, saying: I tried to get the Portland Press to print this article as an op-ed but they refused and made me cut a 730 word article down to 150 words. I did that because I wanted to get something in about Rachel before the primary next week. I decided to put the entire article on my facebook and ask you guys to share it on your facebook pages twitter and any other form of social media you can.The paper controls too much of our political process. Please circulate this! THANK YOU!!!! Biography Donna Loring* was raised by her grandmother on Indian Island, Maine. Loring received a Bachelors degree of Arts in Political Science from the University of Maine in Orono, and later attended the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. In 1984 she became the police chief for the Penobscot nation, making her the Academy's first female graduate to become a police chief. From 1992 to 1997, Loring was the first female director of security at Bowdoin College. During her service in Vietnam, she was stationed at the communications center at Long Binh Army base north of Saigon, where she processed all casualty reports of southeast Asia. Former Maine State Governor Angus King commissioned her to honorary Colonel rank, and appointed her as Aide de Camp to advise him on women veteran's affairs. In 2011, Loring retired to form a new nonprofit, Seven Eagles Media Production, which works to create accurate representations of Native people. She is also a member of the Deborah Morton Society of the University of New England and a member of the International Women's Forum (IWF) Tribal Representative: In The Shadow of the Eagle Between 1998 and 2008, Loring served as Penobscot tribal representative to the Maine State Legislature. Maine is unique in having tribal representatives sit in its state legislature. Following this tradition, which dates back to the 1800s, Loring served several terms on behalf of the Penobscots. One of her major accomplishments was her writing and sponsorship of LD 291, “an Act to Require Teaching Maine Native American History and Culture in Maine’s Schools,” which passed as a law in 2001. She also created and supported the first "State of the Tribes Address" in 2002. During her tenure, Loring kept a journal, which she later turned into a memoir, In the Shadow of the Eagle. The book provides great insight into the inner workings of the U.S. government on a state level, as well as the adversity Native Americans face in modern times. For instance, the first bill Loring worked on was called the “Offensive Names Bill.” This banned the use of the word "Squaw" in the titles of Maine locations and tourist spots. She also worked on a bill that proposed an extension on the time period in which the tribe could purchase land for the Calais Casino. More than one representative opposed this and any bill having to do with Native casinos, while at the same time supporting bills that would enable race tracks to receive verbal bets over the telephone. Loring also used her position to fight environmental contamination from a local paper company. When she brought the issue to the table, the company responded with a bill to define and criminalize environmental terrorism. Loring responded by publishing an article suggesting that the bill's sponsors were the true "environmental terrorists." As her final action in the state legislature, Loring brought forward the JOINT RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (H.P. 1681). This passed, without debate, in both the State House and Senate on April 15, 2008. Maine was only state in the country to pass such a resolution in favor of the UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights. Although Loring had opposition during her time as Tribal representative, her influence within the house was recognized by everyone. One of her opponents, Representative Waterhouse, once proposed a bill to ban the use of minors in police sting operations, particularly those involving tobacco sales. Loring stood up in support of this bill, which passed with staggering numbers (about two thirds). Later, she received a note from Waterhouse himself, saying “Thanks Donna, you have a lot of sway around here.” New Directions In 2009, Loring gave her personal and literary papers to the University of New England, which established a highly regarded lecture series in her name. Loring has continued to write and has produced the first Penobscot musical, The Glooskape Chronicles. *This article began as a biographical entry for Wikipedia. We thank Donna Loring for her time and feedback on that article and this one. Sources Dolloff, Aimee. "‘The Eagle’ has landed; The Legislature’s tribal representative, Donna M. Loring, hopes her memoir provides a guide for those who follow in her footsteps". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved 18 April 2013. Starbird, Glenn (1983). "A Brief History of Indian Legislative Representatives". Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library. Retrieved 17 April 2013. Penobscot Tribal Nation. "Donna Loring." Penobscot Culture. Penobscot Tribal Nation. Retrieved 4 April 2013. Senier, Siobhan. "A Penobscot Musical in the Making". Indigenous New England Literature. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
Joan Tavares Avant is a Mashpee Wampanoag elder, historian, and writer who works to promote an accurate representation of her Mashpee Wampanoag culture and heritage. Family From the day of her birth on April 14, 1940 until today, Joan Tavares Avant has lived in Mashpee, Massachusetts. As she puts it: “I was born in Mashpee as a Mashpee Wampanoag, Why would I want to leave?” She is the granddaughter of revered Mashpee Wampanoag Elder Mabel Pocknett Avant, in whose ancestral home now resides the Mashpee Wampanoag Historical Museum, of which Avant has been the past director of. She is mother to four children, grandmother to five grand-children, great grandmother to 3 great grandchildren, and has two un-adopted adult children, all which she loves dearly. She is also one of seven clan mothers, the Deer clan mother of her tribe. Granny Squannit Granny Squannit is one of the oldest Wampanoag legends. An old medicine woman with long black hair covering the single eye in her forehead, she snatches away children who misbehave, taking them away in her canoe to her cave in Cummaquid to scare them into being good. However, Granny Squannit also has a benevolent side, giving presents to good children and guiding sailors who leave her gifts. Every Halloween, Avant dresses up as Granny and greets (often scaring them in the process) Mashpee children as they walk through the woods. After playing Granny Squannit for adults, children and organizations and keeping her alive through writings for 20 years, Avant was given “Granny Squannit” as her native name from their tribal medicine man. She continues to write articles on Granny Squannit, even having her own column titled “Tales from Granny Squannit” in the Mashpee Enterprise in recent years. She also has a black and white tattoo of Granny Squannit on her right arm Education Unlike some of her author peers, Avant did not enter college immediately after high school, finding it hard to be accepted to a university because of her Native status, as well as financial difficulties. She finally received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Services from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1993, at the age of 53. Two years later, she earned her Master’s degree in Education from Cambridge College, and presently is working on a Doctoral Degree in Education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Avant believes that “it is never too late to learn, age is but a number.” For 26 years, she was the Director of Indian Education for the Mashpee Public School district. She worked to provide guidance and promote cultural awareness to local Wampanoag students and teachers, as well as to provide school day-care and tutoring services. Finding the Mative history taught to schoolchildren biased and inaccurate, she also worked with both Native and non-Native educators to create a curriculum that highlighted local Wampanoag elders, culture, history, legends, and values. In 1993, the Falmouth Affirmative Action Committee recognized her for this work. Community Involvement Avant has been tribal president for three terms, as well as tribal historian for four. She is currently a member of the Mashpee Historical Commission, as well as a member of the Mittark Committee, which publishes the Nashauonk Mittark (the monthly Mashpee Wampanoag newsletter). She is also a member of Wampanoag Language Reclamation Project, which since 1993 has worked to teach Native children the Wampanoag language, which has had no known native speakers for six generations. In November 2012, CBS News interviewed her about the project. Writing Avant is also a writer for the Mashpee Enterprise, writing about Mashpee Wampanoag affairs and contributing her own column, "Tales from Granny Squannit." Her journalistic style often shows up in her book, People of the First Light. She begins each section of her book with the sentence “Let’s be Frank about this,” a line in remembrance of her son, but also a good euphemism for her writing. She uses a straightforward, blunt manner to presents her facts, and unapologetically expresses her opinion: There are people who still believe only that the Wampanoag met the Pilgrims and helped them through the first winter…and later fell off the face of Mother Earth. Rarely is it mentioned that we were here 12,000 years before any newcomers arrived. The entire realm of opinion has been that we have been here since the celebration of Thanksgiving in 1620…These are facts and not myths; they were challenging for our people then and continue to challenge us even today. Also, my view is this: just because leaders of this country such as Henry Laurens (President of the Continental Congress), George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and others who set certain dates for Thanksgiving does not mean that they were the first to think of such a celebration. People of the First Light took two years for Avant to finish. She self- published it in 2010. She was inspired to write after finding the Native perspective lacking in her own tribal history; decribing non-Native writing about her people, she remarks that it's “insulting and it hurts,” though it makes “millions of [dollars] off the backs of our ancestors and all our tribal people.” Having lived in Mashpee all her life, and having done tribal interviews and research, there was never any difficulty in finding things to include; in fact, she often found herself with more than she could incorporate. Avant says that the most difficult part was writing the proposal for funding; the rest, such as structure and selection of works, came naturally via cultural experience and indigenous insight. She wants to remind people, through her book and other works, that “We are still here.” Works Cited P. Stone, R. MacKenzie (1990). The Excluded Past: Archaeology in Education. Google Books: Unwin Hyman Ltd. p. 123 Avant, Joan Tavares. “Now, And Always, Wampanoag.” Cultural Survival. N.p., 26 05 2010. Web. 23 Mar 2013. Avant, Joan Tavares. People of the First Light: Wisdoms of a Mashpee Wampanoag Elder. Mashpee: 2010. Print "Special Election Candidates." Nashauonk Mittark. 12 2009: 4. Web. 9 May. 2013. Tavares-Avant , Joan. E-mail Interview. Apr 2013.
Linda Coombs* is program director of the Aquinnah Cultural Center. She is an author and historian from the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah). Life & Career Born and raised in Martha's Vineyard, Coombs lives with her family in the Wampanoag Community in Mashpee on Cape Cod. After she graduated from University of Massachusetts at Lowell in 1971 with a degree in music education, Coombs began a museum career in 1974, interning at the Boston Children's Museum as part of its Native American Program. She and her peers, including Narragansett elder Paulla Dove Jennings, wrote children's books for the museum, illustrating Native American culture from a Native American perspective. Coombs later worked for nearly three decades with the Wampanoag Indigenous Program at Plimoth Plantation, including 15 years as the program's associate director. Writing Her children's book, Powwow, was published in 1992 by Modern Curriculum Press under their Multicultural Celebrations series; it chronicles the experiences of a Native American girl at her first powwow. The book is 23 pages long and is illustrated by Carson Waterman. Additionally, through her work at Plimoth Plantation, Coombs wrote a number of essays documenting colonial history from a Native American perspective. For example, at a conference on Thanksgiving, she stated, The actual and factual history of Thanksgiving in this country will be discussed: the European origins, views and practices, and how it evolved into the holiday it has become today. Many people don’t realize that thanksgiving was not a new concept to Native people. … Native people have held thanksgiving ceremonies since the time of Creation. The energy of lifeways of acknowledgement and thankfulness is what sustained Native culture for millennia. Coombs strives to promote truth, authenticity and cultural sensitivity. In 2008, she received some media attention when she asked a nine-year-old girl to remove her indian costume before entering the Wampanoag site at Plimoth. When the child cried, Coombs gave her a necklace from the gift shop as a token of reconciliation. “Costumes are offensive because of what has happened in history,” Coombs explained; “we’re trying to educate people about our culture and to correct stereotypes and wrong information, we’re here to make a bridge between people, not to just send them packing." Coombs is passionate about educating the public about myths concerning not only Wampanoag culture and traditions, but those of all Native People. Her goal is set on continuing to educate the public about Wampanoag history, culture, and other contributions and to present their nearly-forgotten traditional skills and technologies of her 17th century ancestors as authentically as possible. The material history of her research includes traditional wetu (house) construction, mat weaving, pottery, deerskin clothing, twined woven baskets, gardening, and foodways. Community is the Wampanoag way. According to archeological records, the Wampanoag have been around for at least 12,000 years. They did not maintain their culture that long without work. But the Wampanoag have undergone a difficult history through colonization, and are now divided into separate tribal communities. Re-linking those communities together is a way of preserving the ancestral homelands and Wampanoag culture. As Coombs puts it in "A Wampanoag Perspective," For many people in this country, the word “colonization” often seems to slide glibly off the tongue; and when it is used, the full aspects of its meaning are not recognized. … The deeper, dark meanings of the word have been “bred” out of American history. However, people still carry associated attitudes and behaviors that go unrecognized for what they actually are. Coombs understands the importance of preserving her culture and making certain that the lives of her ancestors are not forgotten; she has dedicated her career to this cause and wants to share it with the world. "The people today are the windows to the past if one knows how to navigate." -Linda Coombs *This article began as a biographical profile for Wikipedia. Thanks to Linda Coombs for her input and feedback on that article as well as this one. Writings by Linda Coombs “A Wampanoag Perspective on Colonial House.”Plimoth Life, v.3 no. 1, 2004: 24-28. “Hobbamock’s Homesite.” Thanks, But No Thanks: Mirroring the Myth: Native Perspectives on Thanksgiving. Plymouth, MA: Wampanoag Indian Program. September 9, 2000: 2-3. "Holistic History." Plimoth Life 1(2) 2002:12-15. “New Woodland Path Makes Inroads at Wampanoag Homesite.” Plimoth Life, v. 5 no. 1, 2006: 20. "Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War." Cultural Survival Quarterly, Spring 2007. Powwow. Modern Curriculum Press, 1992. “Wampanoag Foodways in the 17th Century." Plimoth Life 2005: 13-19 Other Works Cited “Artists and Craftspeople Sought for Directory of Native American Artists Living in New England.” Akwesasne Notes. January 31, 1992. Dresser, Tom. The Wampanoag Tribe of Martha’s Vineyard: Colonization to Recognition. The History Press, 2011. Fifis, Fran. “Native Americans Still Fighting Ignorance at Plimoth.” CNN Travel. November 28, 2008. Accessed May 5, 2013. First Thanksgiving - Boston City Hall Linda Coombs 4/4, 2010. “Kids Told Not to Dress as ‘Indians’ at Plimoth Plantation | CNS News.” November 26, 2008. Accessed April 23, 2013.
"The Seven Cities" (1996) by Stephanie Fielding
Stephanie “Morning Fire” Fielding is known for her work in linguistics, especially for her work in resurrecting the Mohegan language. A member of the Mohegan Tribal Council of Elders, she lives on the Mohegan reservation in southeastern Connecticut. Fielding holds a Bachelor of Arts in linguistics and anthropology from the University of Connecticut, as well as a Master of Science in linguistics from MIT. Her Master's thesis, The Phonology of Mohegan-Pequot, includes diary excerpts written in Mohegan from her relative Fidelia Fielding, the last fluent speaker of the Mohegan language. In 2006, Stephanie Fielding published A Modern Mohegan Dictionary. She also created the online Mohegan Language Project, a central part of her efforts to keep her native language alive. Of this project, Fielding states that “the goal is fluency,” and offers links to a Mohegan-English dictionary, phrase book, pronunciation guide, exercises, and an audio option. The webpage incorporates her Master’s thesis as well as her Mohegan dictionary. Fielding’s use of technology in restoring the Mohegan language is paramount; creating an online resource makes the language available to everyone, and the audio option allows one to learn the language from home. Besides making her work in linguistics readily available on the Internet, Fielding teaches Mohegan language classes. She also translates English into Mohegan for speakers at traditional Mohegan ceremonies. Fielding is weaving the Mohegan language back into modern Mohegan life in as many ways as she can. Her efforts in Mohegan language revival are unparalleled today, and in history are tied tightly to her ancestor, the determined Fidelia Fielding. Beyond her dictionary, phonology, webpage, and Mohegan community service, Fielding revives the Mohegan language through her creative writing. Creative Writing Fielding’s children’s story, Uyasunôqak Cits: Leading Bird, incorporates the values of the Mohegan people. In the story, Fielding emphasizes a core value of the Mohegan people that is rooted in the backbone of their language: sharing. Delving into the world of linguistics, one can better understand how a language overlaps with its speakers’ perception of human connections. Fielding discovered an overlap between the virtue of sharing and the structure of the Mohegan language. In English, for instance, we say “I love you” or “I want you to do well." In the Mohegan language, however, the "you" always comes first. Fielding says, "In Mohegan when 'you and I' are both in the equation, 'you' always come first, whether 'you' is the subject or the direct object. Can you imagine what kind of society it would be like if everyone always put 'you' before 'me'?" The make-up of the Mohegan language thus exemplifies a value of the Mohegan people- to always think and care about others before worrying over oneself- with which Fielding concludes her children’s story: Everyone’s tears watered his grave that day and for many days to come. Then one day in the spring chipmunk saw a little plant growing from that very place where they had laid him to rest. The animals kept watch over the plant carefully, knowing that this was Uyasunôqak’s remembrance for them. It was a low growing plant with dark green leaves. No one had ever seen anything like it before. Later it sprouted little white blossoms with yellow centers and later those blossoms turned into little red hearts. We call them wutah-berries, but most others call them strawberries. No one had to say it, but all the animals knew that this was Uyasunôqak’s heart being born again and again with the blooming of each strawberry. And when they tasted the berries, and they knew they should, they could tell the sweetness of Uyasunôqak would be with them still. Now this would be a good way to end the story, but there is one thing more. Because chipmunk was the first to taste a berry, and because there were so few in the beginning, he left part of it on a stone nearby for the next animal to taste. It is said that chipmunks, all the way until today, still do this. They are remembering Uyasunôqak’s lesson of sharing when they do. Faith Fielding is a follower of the Baha’i faith, which is a faith centered on the oneness of humanity. While separate from the Mohegan culture, the Baha’i faith’s core beliefs - equality of men and women, the elimination of prejudice, and a spiritual solution to economic problems- closely parallel the core beliefs of the Mohegan culture. Fielding writes about her religion in her fiction piece The Seven Cities. The epigraph of the story is from a Baha’i sacred writing, The Seven Valleys. Fielding’s The Seven Cities is analogous to this sacred writing; her story is divided into seven parts, all of which mirror the seven sections of the sacred writing. The “seven valleys” in the sacred writing include the valley of search, of love, of knowledge, of unity, of contentment, of wonderment, and of true poverty. Fielding’s story offers a contemporary look into the meanings of these valleys. The spiritual journey of Baha’is is centered on learning the importance of unity and the wrongness of discrimination. The religion Fielding chose to follow could not be more fitting for one who belongs to a people who faced such significant prejudice. Fielding has devoted a large portion of her life to the re-unification of her people. Through her work in reviving the Mohegan language, Fielding is reviving a part of her heritage that was stripped away. She is reuniting her people- her people that were made foreigners in their own land when they lost their language. References “Stephanie Fielding Interview.” Telephone Interview. 19 April 2013. Mohegan Tribe Homepage Mohegan Language Project Fielding, Stephanie Mugford. The Phonology of Mohegan-Pequot. N.p.: n.p., 2005. Print. Fielding, Stephanie Mugford. A Modern Mohegan Dictionary. Uncasville, CT: Mohegan Tribe, 2006. Print. Speck, Frank G. Native Tribes and Dialects of Connecticut: A Mohegan-Pequot Diary. Washington: G.P.O., 1928. Print. Mohegan Tribe Pressroom Ni Ya Yo: Mohegan Newsletter MIT Interview with Fielding Profile of Stephanie Fielding Writing of Indigenous New England: An Article on The Mohegan-Pequot Diary Canku Ota: A Newsletter Celebrating Native Americans
The Narragansett Dawn (1935-36)
The Narragansett Dawn was a monthly newspaper produced by members of the Narragansett tribe in Rhode Island from May 1935 through September 1936. The founders of the paper were Princess Red Wing and Ernest Hazard. They both also produced content for the paper, with Hazard often writing under the pseudonym Eagle Eye. The paper was sold for $0.25 an issue or $1.00 a year by subscription. Its cover bore the official seal of the Narragansett Tribe of Indians and the slogan “We Face East.” Through a total of seventeen issues, The Narragansett Dawn touched upon issues pertaining to the language, culture, religion, politics, and daily life of members of the Narragansett Tribe. While the exact scope of the paper’s readership is difficult to determine, letters published within it show that it attracted attention both within and without the Narragansett community. According to an editorial written by Princess Red Wing, the name The Narragansett Dawn was chosen at a tribal meeting in December 1934 in order to signify “the awakening after so long and black a night of being civilized” (“Our Purpose”). This quote begins to suggest the quietly subversive nature of the paper. The general tone of many of the articles is a sort of defiant and proud resistance to the dominant narratives about Indians in American culture at this time. Native people were often portrayed as savages who needed to be civilized by the stronger hand of white people, to be forcibly taught about Jesus, Shakespeare, and white bread in order to become worthwhile members of society. In response to this depiction of their people, Indians like the founders of the Narragansett Dawn worked to create an image of their communities as close-knit and tradition-based. Moreover, looking to the future, George D. Jordan insisted that, “to preserve the best that was and now is in this culture shall be the primary function of this organization” (“The American Indian”). The Narragansett Dawn was both a way for Red Wing and Hazard to do this in the present and a platform through which they could call upon other Native people and allies to do so in the future. History This sort of resistance to the hegemony of white American culture is perhaps explained by a consideration of the history of the Narragansett tribe. The Narragansett tribe was a prominent nation of Native people in Rhode Island and other parts of New England before the arrival of European settlers in the 1600’s. Their cultural values and way of life led them to resist the influence of English settlers in very “passive” ways. Unlike the Pequot nation, who challenged the English in direct combat, the Narragansett people rebelled against the English by going to other tribes and keeping them from signing treaties with the English (Boissevain). They also teamed up with the Dutch to resist the English in 1653. Because of these trends in their history, the Narragansett nation become intermingled with many different bloodlines. For instance, Princess Red Wing, one of the founders of The Narragansett Dawn, was actually only half Narragansett; her mother was Wampanoag (Poon). Partially because of the ubiquity of this blood mingling, the Narragansett tribe was particularly susceptible to the trend of detribalization in the late 1800s. The General Allottment Act, passed in 1887, distributed land previously held by the tribe to settlers and forced many Narragansett people to leave Rhode Island. In addition, the state of Rhode Island claimed that the blood of the members of the Narragansett tribe was not pure enough for them to ever become federally recognized (Geake). In 1934, just before the launch of the Narragansett Dawn, the United States federal government issued the Indian Reorganization Act, which allowed tribes to make claims to land and govern themselves. Since this seemed to reverse some of the effects of the General Allottment Act, the Narragansett Tribe began to believe that they could regain a sense of their own communal identity. Political activists from the Narragansett community spoke out in hopes of reawakening the spirit of their people, who had been so long oppressed and diminished. One such activist was Princess Red Wing, who held tribal events out of her home and initiated the publication of The Narragansett Dawn. In the editorials she wrote for the paper, she invoked the Narragansett people’s pride in response to governmental claims regarding their ancestry and purity. The Narragansett Dawn was therefore a manifestation of a mounting sense of community among the Narragansett people in the 1930’s, as well as a sort of throwback to the passive resistance the tribe championed in its earlier days. Structure The Narragansett Dawn was broken into multiple sections, which varied from issue to issue. There were many that were consistent, though. One such section was the Narragansett Tongue, which contained lessons on common vocabulary, such as the names of animals, plants, and types of buildings, in the Narragansett language. A total of thirteen lessons were produced. Another section was Genealogy, which traced the lineage, both paternal and maternal, of significant figures in the Narragansett community. The paper also contained a section that was first named Greetings From Friends and later changed to the Narragansett Mailbox. It was similar to a "letter to the editor" section and contained letters written to the newspaper by its readers, both Indian and non-Indian. The letters mostly served to praise the paper or the tribe, or to express solidarity with its aim of stirring up a sense of community among the Narragansett. The paper also featured identity sections, which described Narragansett items and values that displayed their cultural identity. They appear with varying titles pertaining to the topic, such as "Narragansett Fires" and "Pipe of Peace." There was also a section called Milestones that contained small bits of news, such as the announcement of births, deaths, weddings, and notable visits, that occurred in and around the Narragansett reservation in Rhode Island. There was also a news section called Sunrise News that was written for each issue by the Keeper of Records, a woman named Marion W. Brown. This section contained information on small, notable things that had taken place in the Narragansett community in each respective month. The paper also printed short articles on history, offering a Narragansett perspective on historical events such as the first Thanksgiving and King Phillip’s War. There was also a decent amount of origin Indian poetry published in The Narragansett Dawn. These poems were usually quite short and often dealt with themes related to Narragansett culture and values, religion, and nature. An excerpt from one poem: "All that eye and heart could own / Rich domains to roam at will / When the morning sun went down / See him on his eastern hill” (“The Indian”). This poem, written by a poet called Flying Squirrel, presents an image of pre-colonial Narragansett life as idyllic and profoundly in touch with the natural world. Yet it also laments that this lifestyle is no longer possible after the past three hundred years of history: “Oh his Golden Age hath vanished / Like the moonlight from the hill” (“The Indian”). It therefore presents a less optimistic tone than much of the rest of The Narragansett Dawn, which is focused on the idea of reestablishing a sense of Narragansett identity and preserving the culture for posterity. Works Cited "The American Indian." The Narragansett Dawn. Feb 1936. Retrieved 22 April 2013. Boissevain, Ethel. "Narragansett Survival: A Study of Group Persistence Through Adapted Traits". Ethnohistory 6 (4): 347. Retrieved 15 April 2013. Geake, Robert A. (2011). A History of the Narragansett Tribe of Rhode Island: Keepers of the Bay. Charleston, SC: The History Press. pp. 126–128. "The Indian". The Narragansett Dawn. Aug 1936. Retrieved 5 April 2013. "Our Purpose". The Narragansett Dawn. Sept. 1936. Retrieved 5 April 2013. Poon, Chris (12 Jul 2003). "Princess Red Wing: Preserver of Native American Traditions". Providence Journal. Redwing, Princess and Ernest Hazard. “The Narragansett Dawn". URI Digital Commons. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
Graham Hayslip, UNH 2013 Katie Gardner, UNH 2014 Ray Hebert, UNH 2014
Alice Azure was born July 30, 1940 in North Adams, Massachusetts. Her father, Joseph Alfred Hatfield, was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, but grew up in northern Maine and New Hampshire. He was of French, Dutch, and Mi'kmaq descent. Azure's mother, Catherine Pedersen, was born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, but spent her formative years in Mandal, Norway from about 1924 to 1934. She was of Norwegian descent. At the age of seven, family strife sent Azure and her siblings to live in the Cromwell Children’s Home in Connecticut. Azure lived there from 1951 to 1959. She attended the University of Iowa, earning an M.A. degree in urban and regional planning. Ancestry Azure was long unclear about her familial roots, and did not know to which tribe she belonged. After searching for 35 years, she wrote a memoir, Along Came a Spider, about her life and the struggles she went through to discover her ancestry. The title of this memoir comes from Azure’s discovery of her spiritual guide, Grandmother Spider. Azure speaks with Grandmother Spider throughout her memoir, who provides inspiration and tranquility. After years of research, a visit to Canada, and alliances with Metis groups in Nova Scotia, Azure was finally able to discover many of her old ancestors, dating as far back as the 17th century. She can officially say that she is of Mi’kmaq Metis descent, and her roots are in the Kespu'kwitk District of Nova Scotia. Azure has also been granted recognition of aboriginal status as an Acadian descendant in Nova Scotia by the Association des Acadiens Metis-Sourquois (salt water people), who are located in Saulnierville, Digby County, Nova Scotia. Personal Life Azure has been married twice. She met her first husband, Tom Liljegren, at North Park College, where Azure attended as an undergrad. Though they did not have a lot in common, they were still able to fall in love, and were married in 1960. They had three children, Kathryn, Michael, and Patti. After twenty years of marriage, their busy schedules caused too much stress and indifference, which led to their divorce. Azure met her second husband, Alec Azure, many years before they married. They had been merely friends, visiting each other every so often. Over time, their relationship grew more serious, and they married in July of 1990. Unfortunately, Alec passed away after only two and a half years of marriage. Through her grief, Alice devoted more of her time to writing. Work and Writing Before she began writing, Azure worked in the United Way movement, starting as a volunteer in 1975, then as a professional in 1979. Except for a four-year period from mid-1990 to 1994, she remained a community planner in various local United Ways until her retirement in January 2005. She currently lives in Maryville, Illinois near her three grandchildren, where she is a member of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers and the St. Louis Poetry Center. Azure now focuses strongly on her poetry and writing. She now has her own website where she keeps up with her blog. Aside from Along Came a Spider, she has published two other books, In Mik’maq Country: selected poems and stories, and Games of Transformation, (which won the 2012 Poetry award from the Worldcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers). Azure’s poetry consistently delves into her past, and typically voices her wonders about the mysteries of her ancestry. This allows for the reader to engage with Azure, and understand the hardships and confusions that she has gone through. Yet in all of her poetry, there is never a strong sense of anger or resentment. It's always a reflection that is told through delicate descriptions, which makes her poetry very enjoyable to read. Literary Analysis One of Azure's strongest poems is Trenching (featured below). This poem is stunning on so many different levels. It is so hard hitting with it's unexpected ending that is incorporated perfectly. For Azure to drop the reader off like that she forces them to feel very much how she felt when she was left at an orphanage – to go from enjoying an ordinary, beautiful life, to taking a dramatic turn for a reason that is very hard to grasp. Azure’s best attribute in her writing is her attention to detail. In Trenching specifically, her descriptions of the small, delicate flowers are so vivid, which draws the reader’s attention, pulling them into a comfortable space that then gets yanked away. Azure’s attention to these small details is very similar to the description of her hands in Along Came a Spider, “I couldn’t help but notice how aged my hands and skin looked. All my life, it seems, I’ve had grandmotherly looking hands—brown, vieny, big and boney. An artist would have quite a time drawing my hands, catching the play of light on the branched, protruding veins, the prominent bones. The skin of my lower arms is so textured and leathery-looking, too, a busy network of lines all connected to pores—like the geodesic domes designed by R. Buckminister Fuller.” (83) Lastly, Azure’s emphasis on the flower’s future colors is very interesting, since she pays great attention to the “bright, bright whites.” Why are the whites brighter than the other colors? Perhaps this is an inclination to white Americans who repress Native Indians and feel as though they should grow up like a white person. Many Indian children were taken from their homes and placed into orphanages and boarding schools in order to be raised as a white child, in the hopes that this would eradicate the Native Indian population. This arouses the question; did Azure feel as if she was one of these children in the Cromwell Home? She has not directly addressed this, but she does not look at her time in the Children’s Home as a negative experience, and she is very proud of her native ancestry. References "35.1." The Florida Review. Retrieved 10 April 2013. Adams, Faye. "Interview: Alice M. Azure". STLbooks. Retrieved 4/2/13. Along Came A Spider. Bowman Books, Mayville, IL, 2011. Azure, Alice (2007). In Mi'kmaq County: selected poems & stories. Chicago, IL: Albatross Press. p. inside cover. "Contributors." Past and Current Contributors. Native Literatures. Retrieved 10 April 2013. Francis, Lee (January 1994). Word Trails: Wordcraft Circle Quarterly Journal 1 (1): 6. "Honors and Awards 2012." Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. Retrieved 17 April 2013. Micmac Maliseet Nations News: 18, 22, 23, 25,. August - November 1995. Moore, MariJo (2006). Eating Fire, Tasting Blood: An Anthology of the American Indian Holocaust. Pegasus 1960: The North Park Literature and Arts Review 31: 10. 1960. Rankovic, Catherine. "Talking With:Alice Azure, Native American Author". Interview with Alice Azure. Book Eval. Retrieved 10 April 2013. Smith, R.T. (January 2004). Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee University Review 54 (3). Straus, Terry; E. Donald Two Rivers (1994). Skins: Drumbeats from City: 12–13. Straus, Terry; Grant P. Amdt (1998). The Native Chicago. Zoominfo. "Alice. M. Azure". Web references. zoominfo.com. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
Suzanne Rancourt is a Native American poet, veteran of both the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army, and a regular Jack of all trades (Erdrich). Rancourt connects with people through her poetry, as well as through other art forms, and through instructive positions and jobs she has held. About Her Life Rancourt was born and raised in west central Maine as part of the Abenaki Bear Clan, of which she is now an elder, though she currently lives in Hadley, New York(Archuleta 74; “Birthing the Drum” ; Birns 17). She not only has a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry from Vermont College but also a Master of Science in Educational Psychology from University at Albany, SUNY (Erdrich). With her degrees and several abilities, Rancourt has coordinated Pow wows, and held workshops on several topics including drum making (“Birthing the Drum” ; Keyser). She has worked as a counselor for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in New York and has also worked as a parent education specialist for a Head Start Program in the northern part of New York (Rancourt 68; Erdrich). Among other things, Rancourt is also a singer/songwriter, a personal fitness trainer, a percussionist, an herbal educator, and a dance instructor (Erdrich) Rancourt is not afraid to try it all and to spread her knowledge to others. About Her Writing Suzanne Rancourt’s work has appeared in numerous locations. It has been published in several literary journals including Callaloo and The Cimmaron Review, as well as many other anthologies (Rancourt “Poets & Writers”). Her most notable work is her collection of poetry calledBillboard in the Clouds, which won the Native Writer’s Circle of the Americas First Book Award in 2001, while some of her other pieces appear in The Journal of Military Experience Volume II. The Journal of Military Experience The Journal of Military Experience contains prose, poetry, and artwork from veterans all across the United States. The goal of the journal is to express what it is truly like to serve and to “facilitat[e] a dialogue that can bridge the gap between civilians and those who serve” (The Journal of Military Experience). Rancourt published five different poems in this journal and while many of her other poems showcase stories of her life outside of the military, of her family, and of nature, the poems in this journal are packed with raw emotion all focused on her experiences in the military and army. Rancourt expresses the same intenseness that she does in her other poetry and remains true to her simplistic style for which she has been praised for (Birns 20). Her poems are rather short, but are packed with vivid images that speak of the aftermath of bombs, the tragedy of innocent deaths, and the confusion and exhaustion involved in serving. Billboard in the Clouds Suzanne Rancourt’s poetry in Billboard in the Clouds covers three different themes: her childhood, her ancestors, and her current life. The poems about her childhood include descriptions of nature, her parents, and grandparents. Ancestral poems cover stories Rancourt has heard conveying deep connections between her people and their land. Finally, poems about contemporary life cover such topics as Rancourt’s life with her son, her current home, and, in some, hints of her military experience. Many of the works in this book are a lot longer than the works she published in The Journal of Military Experience, but she presents her stories and images with the same vivid realness as in those poems. Her style is very simple, not abstract or meant to confuse. It is more like a parent or a lover sitting you down to tell a story or to express an emotion. Her work is extremely approachable because it is relatable and allows the reader to enter into her life with understanding. “Whose Mouth Do I Speak With” is one of the forty poems that appears in the book and it tells a story about Rancourt’s father from when she was young: I can remember my father bringing home spruce gum, He worked in the woods and filled his pockets with golden chunks of pitch. For his children he provided this special sacrament and we’d gather at this feet, around his legs, bumping his lunchbox, and his empty thermos rattled inside. Our skin would stick to Daddy’s gluey clothing and we’d smell like Mumma’s Pine Sol. We had no money for store bought gum but that’s all right. The spruce gum was so close to chewing amber as though in our mouths we held the eyes of Coyote and how many other children had fathers that placed on their innocent, anxious tongue the blood of tree?” (Rancourt 21) On the Poem This poem allows the reader so much access to Rancourt’s life as a child. It becomes apparent that Rancourt had a positive relationship with her father growing up. He provides this special gift to his kids and Rancourt questions “how many other children had fathers” who would do something like this for them. The act of getting this gum almost seems like a ritual for her and her siblings. They beg at the father’s feet and we get this textual image of Rancourt’s father’s sticky clothing that gives off a piney scent. It is this image that pulls the reader into the moment with little Suzanne Rancourt. It is very casually mentioned by Rancourt that they did not have money, but that it did not matter. She is not bothered by the fact that her family cannot afford gum like the other kids and she seems to relish in what she has. She makes a big deal about how the spruce gum connects her to nature, how it was like “chewing amber” and holding “the eyes of Coyote” in their mouths. Then she goes on to describe it again as “the blood of tree,” almost as if the pleasure of chewing this golden, delicious thing was a gift or sacrifice of nature; the sacrifice of a Coyote’s eye or the gift of the tree’s blood. Rancourt also paints her father as being very connected to nature by telling us that he works in the woods and this comes up in a few other poems, one in which she describes her father speaking to the sky. It is through her poetry that Suzanne Rancourt stays so connected to her culture and to their relationship with nature. Suzanne wants to share with the world both where she comes from and where she has gone in life, all in the effort to keep alive the traditions, memories, and experiences that have defined her and her people. Works Cited Archuleta, Elizabeth. “Billboard In The Clouds.“ World Literature Today 80.3 (2006): 74. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Mar. 2013. Birns, Nicholas. “The Other East Coast.” American Book Review 26.3 (2005): 17-20. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Mar. 2013. “Birthing a Drum”. Heartbeat Collective. Web. Retrieved 4 April, 2013. Erdrich, Heid E., and Laura Tohe. Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 2002. Print. The Journal of Military Experience 2.2 (2012): Web. Keyser, Tom. “Even in the heat, celebration: Native American heritage group holds powwow at sweltering Route 5S site.“ Times Union (Albany, NY) 18 July 2010:Newspaper Source. Web. 21 Mar. 2013. Rancourt, Suzanne S. Billboard in the Clouds: Poems. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone, 2004. Print. Rancourt, Suzanne. “Suzanne Rancourt.” Poets & Writers. Poets & Writers, 9 July 2012. Web.
Lorèn Spears, MsEd, (Narragansett/Niantic) is an educator, essayist, artist and two-term Tribal Councilwoman of the Narragansett Tribe in Charlestown, Rhode Island, where she currently resides. She is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island and the University of new England; and taught for over two decades, including 12 years in the Newport Public School system working with underserved children. Spears is also the Executive Director of one of the oldest tribal museums in the country--the Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum, located in Exeter, RI. This site was originally home to the Dovecrest Restaurant and Trading Post, founded by Eleanor and Ferris Dove. A few years after the museum was founded by Eva Butler and Princess Red Wing in the 1950s, the Dove's donated their property to provide the museum a permanent location. Native American Education The museum has helped her with many of her personal endeavors, including the publishing of her essay in the book The Pursuit of Happiness: An Indigenous View, the Narragansett People Speak in 2005 as well as serving as the site for her school. Spears is a strong advocate for integrating more Native history and experiential learning into school curricula, as well as standing up for Native American children in the public school systems. As a child, Spears struggled to reach the caliber of her first grade classmates in her public school class in rural Rhode Island. She reflects on the experience, stating that “it was the perfect story of the low expectations white teachers have for Native American children” (Coeyman). In an unfortunate sense of déjà vu, Spears watched her eldest son struggle through first and second grade. This is when she decided to take some action; the discrimination of, and lack of respect for, Native children had gone on too long. Because of this, in 2003, Lorèn founded the Nuweetooun-meaning "our home"- School. This was a K-8th grade day school for Native American children (but also open to the public), located on the museum site, that used a curriculum based in Native American tradition and culture as well as standard academic subjects like math, literature and science. Her mission for the school was laid out in her essay featured in The Pursuit of Happiness: We are committed to an experiential, integrated and collaborative learning environment in which we strive to develop well-rounded, enthusiastic and self-motivated learners. They experience education that embraces their Learning styles, honors their multiple intelligences, and enriches their educational, social spiritual and cultural development. Lorèn has achieved this idea of experiential learning in various ways including having her students learn to work with and appreciate nature by trekking through a nearby forest to identify various trees, animal tracks and vegetation, making a gallon of maple syrup from 40 gallons of maple sap and travelling to Bluff Point State Park in Groton, CT to receive a hands-on lesson on “how archaeologists use fine-mesh screens and water to recover small-scale remains” (Silliman). She has also taught her students about the importance of the Three Sisters, which consist of corn, beans and squash, to the Narragansett people and many other Native American tribes. Each student at the Nuweetooun School, therefore, created either a picture or a poem about the Three Sisters, which were inspired by the Three Sisters Garden located on the grounds of the Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum. These depictions were collected and composed into a book, The Three Sisters: Pictures and Poems. The proceeds from selling this book were incorporated back into funding the school. Narragansett People and Nature In another endeavor sponsored and published by the museum, Lorèn, her mother Dawn Dove, her daughter Laurel and her grandmother Eleanor Spears Dove collaborated with other family members, tribe members and artist Holly Ewald to create “an environmentally-themed collage art book that presents Indigenous perspectives on the history of the Mashapaug Pond, the last remaining natural freshwater body in Providence, Rhode Island” (Farris). At one time in the history of the Narragansett People, the pond served as a venue for the young people to learn how to fish, swim and navigate canoes; it was also a very important factor in the physical and psycho-spiritual well being of the Narragansett community (Farris). Lorèn further explores the importance of nature in her poem “Roaring Brook,” which has yet to be published: Every spring the brook’s water was glistening and full Roaring from Arcadia, over falls and rocks; We swam all summer in the pool We thought it was deep Our memories fun-filled and cool Like the Mashapaug Pond, this brook served as a place for young Narragansett people to explore. Unfortunately, due to more than a century of industrial pollution and surface water runoff, the Mashapaug Pond can no longer contribute to the lives of the Narragansett community. However, Lorèn further describes in “Roaring Brook” how her community worked hard to preserve these important natural landmarks and the significance of continuing the preservation: Grandfather, Chief Roaring Bull, Always kept the brook clean… …So long as we heed nature’s call: Care for Mother Earth and her creatures So that Roaring Brook can be enjoyed by all In addition to heeding nature’s call, Lorèn strived to enrich her students with the culture in which they live, and grew up. As a result, every day at the Nuweetooun School begins with a Friendship Circle, a tradition of Narragansett people. Other cultural classroom activities include beadwork, finger weaving, basketry and the use of some Narragansett words (Hopkins). Struggles and Achievements Unfortunately, the Nuweetooun School was faced with a series of crises from 2009-2010. In 2009, the water pipes in the school building were discovered to have traces of metal in them, thus making the water unsafe to drink. Since the school is a non-profit organization, they relied on grants and fundraising to fund their school. With the help of this fundraising, the school was able to fix the plumbing issues in July 2009 (Thanks). The following year, the school was faced with more problems. In March 2010, the Supreme Court made a ruling that removed 31 acres of land out of trust from the Narragansett reservation in Charlestown. Because the tribe had much less land for money-making ventures, they had less money to provide to the school. In addition, Rhode Island was hit with devastating floods, which forced the school to go on hiatus, where it remains today (Davis). In light of these events, in 2010 Spears was also chosen as one of eleven Extraordinary Women honorees for Rhode Island. This award exemplifies the very nature of Lorèn Spears—extraordinary. In the words of Narragansett Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas, the Narragansett People “…support her in all she is doing and seeking to accomplish. She is an exceptional woman…” (Rovetti). References Coeyman, Marjorie (29 July 2003). "The school that Loren built; Native American children lag behind other minorities in academic achievement. One Rhode Island woman wants to change that." The Christian Science Monitor. Davis, Paul (Mar. 2009). "U.S. Supreme Court ruling latest setback for Indians". The Providence Journal. Farris, Phoebe (September 2012). "Through Our Eyes: An Indigenous View of Mashapaug Pond". Cultural Survival Quarterly. Retrieved 7 April 2013. Hopkins, John Christian. "Nuweetooun - Our Home - School". News from Indian Country. Rovetti, Leslie (29 March 2010). "It's official: Narragansett educator, curator Loren Spears is extraordinary". Westerly Sun. Retrieved 6 April 2013. Spears, Cassius, Jr., comp. The Three Sisters: Pictures and Poems. Exeter: Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum/ Nuweetooun School, 2009. Print. Spears, Loren (2005). The Pursuit of Happiness: An Indigenous View of Education. Exeter, RI: Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum. pp. xx. "Thanks to You, WE REACHED OUR GOAL!" Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum and Nuweetooun School. Nuweetooun School, 2 June 2009. Web. 4 Apr. 2013. Through Our Eyes: An Indigenous View of Mashapaug Pond. Exeter, RI: Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum. 2012. pp. xx.