Penobscot
The Penobscot ( Penobscot Indian Nation ) are formerly Algonquin , now English-speaking Indians , who lived in pre-colonial times on both sides of Penobscot Bay and in the valley of the Penobscot River and its tributaries in what is now the state of Maine in the northeastern United States . They were members of the Abenaki Confederation and, linguistically and culturally, belong to the eastern Abenaki , of which they were the largest tribe. A 53.4 km² reservation was established on Indian Island in the Penobscot River.
Surname
Europeans probably first met the Penobscot near present-day Orland in Maine . The French form Pentagoet was generally applied to the river from 1604 and in particular to the area of today's Castine . Later the French and English also used the term Penobscot for the river and practically every village near it. The Penobscot River was called Pemaquid by some early English explorers , but the name soon changed to Pemaquid Point , to the confusion of later historians. Penobscot comes from the Abenaki word Panawahpskek , which means where the rocks open .
history
prehistory
The oldest traces of human, more precisely Paleo-Indian presence, go back to around 10500 BC. BC back. The early hunters obtained their raw material for their stone blades from Munsungan Lake , presumably hunted caribou and lived in tents, as evidence on the Magalloway River shows . Around 8000 BC Other blades appeared that were probably more suitable for hunting bison. The groups were larger, lived more from fishing and lived in a limited area instead of following the large herds of caribou as was customary until then.
The archaic period is divided into three phases, from 8000 to 6000, then to 4000, finally to 1500 BC. Chr. Range. Between 6500 and 3000 BC The water level of the lakes sank so that most of the traces of the fishing groups were destroyed when it rose again. Tools were made from flint and rhyolite , scratches and projectile points were made from quartz . The first archaic Indians probably came from South and North Carolina , where similar tools were found. They hunted neither caribou nor bison, but bears, deer and roe deer, muskrat, birds and turtles. Apparently they sailed the rivers and lakes. The dead were cremated, but ocher was added to the dead in the subsequent period .
During this middle archaic period , new tools, again from the south, were grooved axes and spear throwers . In addition, blades and knives were made from slate . These people also lived in riparian zones and it is believed that small groups of 20 to 25 members predominated. The oldest fish weir was on Sebasticook Lake near Newport ; eel was probably the preferred prey.
In Maine, the Late Archaic Period is again divided into two phases, namely the Vergennes phase and the small stemmed point tradition , the culture of the small stemmed blades . The Otter Creek Point indicates the first phase, the v to about 3000th Chr. Ranges; Small groups of hunters could have immigrated during this phase. In the later phase fishermen dominated the Atlantic coast, catching cod , swordfish and mussels, but also deer. From this phase emerged the Moorhead phase , which is characterized by grave goods, red ocher and possibly an overarching culture as far as Nova Scotia .
The archaic period was replaced by the woodland period . Pottery, wigwams and birch wood canoes were characteristic. The later four tribal groups of the Mi'kmaq , Passamaquoddy , Maliseet and Penobscot are likely to have already existed around 800 .
Pre-European way of life, smallpox
The Penobscot made their livelihoods by hunting, fishing, and gathering by following food sources seasonally. These included moose, beavers, bears, otters and fish. The winter, a time when survival in the cold area was difficult, was spent by small family groups in hunting camps within separate family hunting areas, whose rights were inherited in the male line ( patrilinear ). Larger camps and villages were inhabited throughout the summer. The office of tribal chief or Sagamore contained little power, the holder generally acted as a representative of the tribe at ceremonies or in business dealings with outsiders, sometimes as an arbitrator in disputes.
The most important chief of the pre-European phase was Bessabes , whom the British called Bashabes. There were more than twenty villages in its territory. From 1606 to 1616 there were serious clashes between different tribes, in the course of which Bessabes was killed. In addition, an epidemic, presumably smallpox, decimated the Penobscot.
First contacts with Europeans, Jesuit missions, Iroquois wars
First contacts with Europeans came in the early 17th century; they probably brought in smallpox. The trade in fur raised the other three tribal groups against the Penobscot, who gained advantages in trading with the English and the Dutch. From the 1630s there was almost continuous war with the Mohawk , who belong to the Iroquois. The trigger was the fur and fur trade with the Europeans. This continuous war could only be ended in 1678. The number of Penobscot is estimated at perhaps 10,000 at the time. Under their Sachem Madockawando they maintained friendly contacts with the English. The Penobscot were drawn into the King Philips War , an attempt by the Northeast Indians to drive out the English. Under the leadership of Metacomets , whom the English called King Philip , 3,000 Indians died as well as 600 white settlers. On April 12, 1678, there was a treaty with the Maine Indians, but the fighting soon flared up again. With the King William's War , the North American branch of the Palatine War of Succession (1688 to 1697), the Indian tribes of Maine came between the fronts of the Anglo-French wars for the first time.
In 1688 a French mission was established in Sillery near Québec . The French merchant Baron de Castine settled with the Penobscot and married the daughter of Sachem Madockawando . After his death, Castine took over the post of chief until his son, Castine the Younger , was old enough to take over the office. A permanent trading post and Jesuit mission were established in what is now Castine , Maine. Castine and his son were implacable enemies of the British and under their leadership the hostility of the Penobscot towards the English grew especially because the latter had broken off trade. In 1703 the French and 500 Indians attacked settlements around Portland . Until the end of the war in 1713 there was further fighting, as a result of which many Abenaki and Wabanaki fled north, since Maine came to Great Britain. In the early 18th century, the Penobscot lived in relatively large villages made up of houses with bark roofs and log cabin walls.
Allies of New France, peace with the British (1749)
The Penobscot supported the French against the English in all wars on the New England Front until 1749, the year in which they made lasting peace with the English. As a result, they did not have to flee to Canada with the other groups of the Abenaki Confederation , but remained in their old residential area to this day.
Seven Years War, Loss of Territory (1755–1764)
When the Seven Years' War broke out in North America (1755–1759), which is also known there as the "French and Indian War", the Penobscot remained neutral and urged the other tribes to stay out of the conflict. But the rest of the eastern Abenaki were mostly in Quebec and had little to lose. They allied themselves with the Indians of the coastal region and attacked the English. Finally the English also forced the war on the Penobscot. Huge premiums were offered on scalps as in previous wars: £ 50 for a captured Penobscot warrior, £ 40 for a male scalp, £ 25 for a woman or child captured, and £ 20 for a woman or child's scalp. The war ended in 1759 with the end of French rule in North America and, for the Penobscot, with the loss of most of the territorial rights outside their river system to the British. In 1764 the British claimed possession of the lower Penobscot area. The Penobscot could no longer balance the two rival powers and the peace treaty of 1762 was essentially a surrender.
American War of Independence
In 1775 the American War of Independence (1775–1782) broke out. To counter British domination, the Penobscot strengthened their ties with the Maliseet - Passamaquoddy , Mi'kmaq , Odawa , Hurons, and other former French allies in the Abenaki Confederation. The center of this alliance was the great fire in Caughnawaga in Quebec, now the Kahnawake reservation . When the war broke out, the Penobscot stood by the rebelling colonists, on the one hand because it was politically advantageous and on the other hand because the colonists also had the support of the French. Massachusetts , then part of Maine, seemed to recognize the territorial rights of the Penobscot north of Bangor , but later there was a dispute about it. The Penobscot were involved in local skirmishes and some more distant campaigns, such as Benedict Arnold's attack on Quebec. They were in a prominent position at the end of the war, but Massachusetts took a misunderstanding in the 1775 security bonds as an opportunity to appropriate most of the central Penobscot River . Chief Joseph Orono offered the Massachusetts Parliament, in which their land still lay at the time, support against the British if they would spare their land from illegal settlers and, above all, loggers. In fact, in 1786 Parliament reserved only 200,000 acres of land for the tribe; Orono accepted, hoping for safety. The northern limit of this central section was established in 1786 and enshrined in law in 1796, but the Penobscot lost more and more land. Within that area, they kept only the islands in the river north of their main village, Old Town . They also kept two islands off the coast.
American Indian Legislation, Baptist Church, Disappearance of Language
By 1803 the population had fallen from 10,000 in the 17th century to just 347. In 1820, Maine, which became a new state that year, took over the rights and obligations of Massachusetts. Contrary to the Federal Trade and Non-Intercourse Act of 1790, the state appropriated the land of the Penobscot.
In the 19th century Molly Molasses (approx. 1775–1867) was one of the most important shamans of the tribe. Among the non-Indians of the wooden metropolis Bangor with its 20,000 inhabitants, where she had to beg in her old age, she was considered a witch and was feared. Among the Penobscot she was regarded as interpreting dreams, could drive away diseases, predict where one would meet game, and she could send spirit helpers (bao-higan) against enemies. As a child she was given the name Mary Pelagie by Catholic priests , the Penobscot pronounced the name Molly Balassee , the English made it Molly Molasses . In the meantime the fur trade, which never completely disappeared, had been replaced by handicrafts, for which one could purchase European products such as guns, pans or sugar. In 1784, Bangor was founded, where around 300 woodcutters lived, and another 1000 were added in the vicinity. In addition, the first families soon settled near Penobscot Island in Orone and Old Town , and soon there were 200 people. The region became Maine's primary source of wood, the forests being cut down, the logs being floated down the river. A Catholic church was built in the village, followed by a short-lived school. Chief Attean was the first to leave his nave and move into a British-style hut. In the 1830s, more and more logging companies entered the vast forests, Bangor became the Lumber Capital of the World (dt. Wood capital of the world ). In 1836 a railway connection was completed. Orono and Old Town had 6,000 inhabitants, Bangor over 10,000. At the end of the 1840s, 16 sawmills permanently noisy the island of Penobscot. The rafts of the lumberjacks often interrupted the canoe routes for days, the wild habitats were destroyed, sawdust drifted on the fishing grounds, multi-storey houses stood on old storage areas. In 1833 the Penobscot received $ 50,000, or 50 cents per acre, for the sale of their land. All that remained was the islands, and the money went to a fund that was supposed to finance a school, the Indian agent and food. Molly's son was threatened with poaching for killing an elk in the forests that no longer belong to the tribe; she had a similar experience when a farmer drove them off his land with a rifle because they were looking for fiber for their baskets. The Indian agent offered seed grain when the Indians gave up the hunt and became farmers, but most of them moved to Moosehead Lake , even if the game was also disappearing there. Molly refused to live exclusively on one of the islands and opened her wigwam in the cities. She soon realized, like some other Indians, that their lives were considered backward by the whites, but that more and more of them were willing to pay for dance performances. Frank Loring , who appeared as Big Thunder , succeeded in this way, to gather thousands for his medicine shows in tents and halls. Some were able to continue their nomadic lifestyle and travel around the country. Between 1862 and 1869 Joseph Attien (1830–1870) was governor of the tribe.
In 1879 schools were established to assimilate Indian children. 44 Penobscot students had to attend the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania . In the 1920s the tribe lost their fishing privileges, in 1924 the tribesmen were recognized as US citizens against the will of the Passamaquoddy in order to be able to dissolve the tribes. Maine denied them the right to vote. An investigation into the conditions among the Passamaquoddy in 1935 came to the conclusion that there was not only considerable poverty and social problems there, but also that the state was to blame.
A growing number of mixed marriages were concluded. Young Penobscot often found Maliseet and Passamaquoddy spouses. Members of other tribes were also represented and there were increasingly mixed marriages with non-Indians. The best-known penobscot of the 1930s was probably Molly Spotted Elk . She starred in the 1930 film The Silent Enemy , lived in Paris until World War II and returned to the United States in 1940, fleeing from the German occupiers.
In 1957, Louise Sockabesin discovered a Passamaquoddy treaty with Massachusetts of 1794, a discovery that gave a great boost to the Maine Indian movement. In 1965, Maine became the first state to establish its own Department of Indian Affairs . The Indian agent responsible for the Penobscot resided in what is now the tribe's museum. The department existed until 1980, but was permanently underfunded and did not recognize the tribe's sovereign rights. At least the tribe was able to enforce its own Indian agents. In 1980 he sued for his rights to the illegally confiscated land and he was recognized by the USA as an Indian tribe ( Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement ). The tribes of the state received $ 80 million as an attempt at reparation, and in 1991, ten years later, the Mi'kmaq were also recognized as tribes. In 2000 the word "squaw" was banned from politics, and in 2002 the Maine Parliament passed LD 1940 , a law that provided redress for injuries to graves and the return and interment of remains.
The tribe, which now owns 146 islands in the Penobscot River and the village of Old Town, now elects a governor and a deputy without a seat or vote in the state of Maine parliament every two years, who can only speak on tribal issues. The government's obligations to the Penobscot are administered by an agent whose office is on an island in Old Town and a government agent for Indian affairs in Augusta . Compared to the Passamaquoddy, the Penobscot derive sole benefit from the contractual agreements with the state. You do not report directly to the Bureau of Indian Affairs , an unusual case in the United States. Even so, they are eligible to benefit from state programs and are subject to state law as Native American citizens and other general laws affecting Native Americans.
Penobscot children attend their own elementary school but go to secondary schools outside the island. A small Catholic mission provides the tribe's religious and educational needs. A Penobscot minority attend a Baptist church on the island. Some handicraft skills, especially basketry and moccasin making , are still practiced. In contrast, the Penobscot dialect has practically died out.
Reclamation of natural resources: demolition of the dams on the Penobscot river
On July 22, 2013, the demolition of the Veazie Dam , the dam located furthest downstream on the Penobscot, began. In 2012 the Great Works Dam had already been removed, so that the river can now flow downwards from Milford unhindered. Now the Penobscot are hoping for the return of the salmon and numerous other related species. In 2004 the Penobscot River Restoration Trust came together for this purpose . Since 1999, 96 dams have been removed in the north-east of the USA and 1,100 in the USA since the last century.
Demographics
In January 1970, including non-residents, the population was 815 people, the census of 2000 indicated 2,045 tribesmen. In 2013, the Penobscot Nation Museum reported the number of 2,261 dependents, 416 of whom lived on Indian Island. The reserve includes 4,866 Acre trust land and 53,276 Acre fee land.
swell
literature
- Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15. Northeast . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978 ISBN 0-16-004575-4 .
- Bunny McBride: Molly Spotted Elk. A Penobscot in Paris , University of Oklahoma Press 1997.
- Frank G. Speck: Penobscot Man: The Life History of a Forest Tribe in Maine. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2017, ISBN 978-1-5128-1378-4 .
Web links
See also
Remarks
- ↑ This and the following from: Ronda Roberts: Maine , chap. 19 in: Daniel S. Murphree: Native America. A State-by-State Historical Encyclopedia , Santa Barbara 2012, pp. 467-482.
- ^ Bunny McBride: Women of the Dawn , University of Nebraska Press 2001, pp. 73ff.
- ^ Kathleen Joan Bragdon: The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Northeast , Columbia University Press, 2005, p. 145.
- ↑ Down Comes Another Dam , in: The New York Times, July 21, 2013.