#wabanaki land

[acadian-journal]

🦞🌲 an introduction 🌲🦞

hi there, welcome to my blog!! for a while i have been toying with the idea of making some sort of photo journal. it was a toss up between scrapbooking and a blog and because i am a broke scientist who is tired of unfinished craft projects….. blog it is!

this is going to be a mix of recent pics and stuff from last year (i moved up here in late spring lol). each will have a short description and will be tagged by month. i will include the location wherever possible, but some spots aren’t for sharing :) every single picture and video is mine unless otherwise specified and PLEASE do NOT use my media without any actual credit because that’s sucky and i will sell your parts as lobster bait

anyways, a little bit about me: i moved up here last year from a large city in the south and have absolutely fallen in love with maine. it was honestly a shocking decision to those who know me because, out of all the places i could have gone, i went somewhere chilly and snowy. a super epic and awesome biology job brought me here and i am totally loving it, i can’t wait to complete a personal year and then a calendar year and then hopefully forever and ever and ever….. anyways, happy scrolling!

[specialagentartemis]

Some good things happening at the local level: Land Back edition

The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians purchased back 2,000 acres of deeply historically significant land in Oregon, the site of both a massacre of Native people at the hands of the US army, and the site of a treaty signing that established a temporary truce and reservation. (Posted Jan 21, 2025)

The property was purchased directly from the previous landowner. The Nature Conservancy preserves a conservation easement on the land. The Siletz will continue to work closely with the Nature Conservancy and the BLM across the properties in the region to emphasize conservation and restoration. “To me, land back means, in its purest form, its return of lands to a tribe,” Kentta [citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and the tribal council treasurer] said. “This is through purchase, and a significant amount paid out for the purchase. So for us, that is regaining of land back, but it's not a settlement or apology for things that happened in the past.”

The Tule River Tribe in California is moving forward with a plan to buy back 14,673 acres of rivers, forests, ranchland, and wetland in a conservation project partnering with The Conservation Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Board, and various California conservation organizations. It's set to move into Tule River control (or at least co-management? unclear to me) sometime this year. (Posted January 8, updated January 10, 2025)

Charmaine McDarment, chairwoman of the Tule River Tribal Council, said in a press release that the tribe appreciates help in restoring ancestral homelands. “As the climate crisis brings new pressures to address the effects of environmental mismanagement and resource degradation, the Tribe’s partnership with WCB is an important example of building relationships based in collaboration and trust. “The tribe remains committed to supporting co-stewardship efforts and fighting to ensure that disproportionate harms to Native American lands, culture, and resources are resolved in a manner that centers and honors Native American connections to ancestral lands.”

Illinois lawmakers voted to move Shabbona Lake State Park to the management of The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.  The Illinois governor has a lot on his plate right now, but is expected to sign the bill into law. (Posted January 14, 2025)

The state House approved SB 867, which would transfer Shabbona Lake State Park to the Prairie Band Potawatomi. The bill now heads to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for his signature.  The land transfer hinges on an agreement that the tribe continue to operate the property as a park, still open to the public. Final details will be established in a forthcoming land management agreement between the state and tribe.  Prairie Band Potawatomi Chairman Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick said the bill’s passage was a “meaningful step” toward righting a historic old wrong. The land was originally part of the tribe's 1,280-acre reservation in northern Illinois. During Chief Shab-eh-nay's visit to family in Kansas, the land was unlawfully auctioned off, violating federal requirements for Congressional approval of tribal land sales. The tribe has sought to reclaim the land for nearly two centuries.

A Wabanaki food sovereignty group secured a no-strings-attached land deal to buy 245 acres of farm and forest in Maine, to focus on local, traditional, and sustainable foods. (Posted January 19, 2025)

What sets this purchase apart is that the land transfer comes without conservation easements. These easements, which frequently accompany land returns or transfers, are often well-meaning. However, they can inhibit Indigenous stewardship by preventing practices such as prescribed burning, subdivision, or particular kinds of zoning for buildings or infrastructure.  A coalition of 12 organizations and several private donors helped secure the land for Niweskok [a nonprofit collective of Wabanaki farmers, health professionals, and educators] without easements, giving the Wabanaki nonprofit sovereignty over the property, according to Heather Rogers, Land Protection Program director for Coastal Mountain Land Trust. Her organization has helped finance the Goose River purchase through fundraising and advocacy efforts.  “The land trusts had to approach it with humility - there are other ways to care for land that can end up with better outcomes, and I think we have all come to that realization,” Rogers said. “I think now that we've done it once, I think we would be open to doing it again that way.” 

Conservation, food sovereignty, water management - a few hundred acres here, a thousand acres there, there is movement to put lands back in tribal control, which is a human rights win as well as an ecology/conservation one.  This is mostly happening at state and even private levels, and is something to continue advocating for, pushing for, donating to, and finding out if you have any local movements advocating for this kind of thing near you and calling state-level lawmakers and representatives about.

[wihinaphe-makhoche]

6/24/24: Reflections on Visiting Homeland & Indian Policy

This will be a series of short essays about my experiences visiting CRST (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe). Edited & posted 7/30/24.

Standing beside the graves of my great-grandparents, William Garreau and his wife On the Lead.

I've just returned from a trip to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST), sovereign Lakota land surrounded by the state of South Dakota. This experience of going to this place where my ancestors lived was humbling, informative, and intense above all.

While I am an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Lakota, I was born and raised in Maine; In many ways, this is where my heart is. I connect with the woodlands and the river that has been a constant companion to me through all my years. This, though, is not where my blood family or ancestors are from.

The sky here seems to stretch forever. You don't fully understand the enormity of it until you're under its expanse--But despite what you might hear about "prarie madness" in places where the "sky is too big", I felt comforted in knowing that this is where my family and ancestors lived, and continue to live.

Coming from Maine, tribal lands are handled differently. In traveling to a Native community here, you are very nearly assured that everyone living on reservation land is either Native themselves, or integrated into a Native family one way or another (married, adopted, etc). In off-reservation areas, there is still often recognition of the land's Indigenous roots, whether it be through place names or by signage. This is not to give too much credit to colonizers. The Wabanaki community has been steadfast in maintaining their cultural identity and asserting their presence. This is helped by the fact that these are truly ancestral lands; Wabanaki have lived here since time immemorial, and their archaeological record in the area goes back at least 5,000 years.

Indian policy in Maine also fundamentally differs from that out West. In my paper Triumph and Tribulation: Wabanaki Experiences, 1950-2020, I cover MICSA, perhaps the most significant Maine Indian land policy in recent years:

For the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot, their long battle with the State of Maine for land claims would bear fruit in 1980, with the passing of the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (MICSA).[1] MICSA was initially deemed a success and was the largest land claims settlement at the time, as well as the first to include provisions for land reacquisition.[2] The Act had tribes cede 12.5 million acres, or 60% of Maine, in exchange for $81.5 million divided between tribes.[3] The Houlton Band of Maliseets joined the settlement in 1979 and were provided with $900,000 for the purchase of a five-thousand-acre reservation, as well as federal recognition.[4] The breakdown of the $81.5 million between the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot was $26.8 million for each tribe, or 150,000 acres in unorganized territories—soft money.[5] The remaining $27 million would be split between the two with one million dollars set aside for infrastructure for elders.[6] MISCA also created the Maine Implementing Act (MIA) and the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission (MITSC), which would define tribal-state relationships by establishing specific laws about Wabanaki peoples and their lands.[7] This served as a means to define and resolve discrepancies with MICSA, as it was largely considered much more legally rigid than the Wabanaki tribes had initially understood it to be.[8] This rigidity would ultimately be a major critique of MICSA and its associated provisions. There were concerns that MISCA did not respect Wabanaki tribes as sovereign nations but, rather, reduced reservation lands to municipality status.[9] State paternalism toward Indigenous peoples of Maine was effectively allowed to continue. Per-capita payments for MISCA were ultimately very little for many, hardly the windfall gain that many perceived it to be; additionally, many saw acceptance of the payments as agreement to the terms of MICSA, with which not all Wabanaki agreed.[10] Though MICSA was perhaps the first step in a road toward true self-determination, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, and Maliseet people continued to struggle. Fears surrounding termination still loomed in the minds of many ...

The 1990s would bring the Aroostook Band of Micmacs (or Mi’kmaq, now considered the correct spelling) into the MICSA agreement. Following the 1980 settlement, and with the MIA considered no longer necessary, the Mi’kmaq had been largely left to fend for themselves.[11] Their fellow Wabanaki found it inappropriate to speak on their behalf.[12] In 1991, Congress would seek to correct this oversight: similar to the Maliseet, Mi’kmaq would receive $900,000 for a five thousand acre reservation, federal recognition, as well as $50,000 in additional property funds in dispersed settlements.[13]

However, like many tribes in the West, my oyate were affected by the disastrous Dawes Severalty Act (also known as General Allotment Act) in 1887. In short, this act would give Indians an allotment of land to farm or ranch (regardless of traditional living and subsistence practices). "Surplus" land not allotted was then sold off cheaply to white farmers and ranchers, creating something of a checkerboard affect in Indian country. I talk more about this in reblog discussing the issues of cottagecore on my main blog back in January.

Because of this, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe land is still inhabited by a minority of white farmers and ranchers. While we had no incidents while picking timpsula, traveling through fields to Thunder Butte, or otherwise exploring and learning, the discomfort my aunties (residents of CRST) felt when encountering white ranchers was palpable.

Digging timpsula at CRST with my thiwahe (family)

Reservation lands have historically been a place where Indians are cloistered away. My grandfather would recall times when there were curfews for when they had to be back (though he would gleefully recall violating this curfew and riding around with friends and getting up to all sorts of car-related hijinks); an extension of US paternalism towards Indians. In earlier times (though not in such a distant past), Indian agents policed and monitored Indian behavior. Nuns and priests evangelized and enforced the ban on Indigenous religious practice. The cultural devastation created by these systems is still felt today. My great auntie, who lived on the reservation, was very Christian until the day she died. Our language continues to be endangered. Efforts to revitalize and maintain our culture are critical and complicated by generations of racial shaming, residential schools, and forced US paternalism that has caused us to become unwilling dependents.

This is one of the biggest recurring themes in Indian policy in the United States. We are set up to fail, and when we do, the US government can swoop in and claim we can’t take care of ourselves. 

I don’t mean to engender a sense of hopelessness within this essay, far from it. There is hope. I want to make those outside of Indigenous communities viscerally aware of our struggles and our existence in the current moment. We are here, we are not peoples of the past, and everything is not okay. There is pain, but how we navigate our cultural wounds is a testament to our resilience as a people. 

Within the Lakota Nation, there have been a number of programs to preserve and revitalize the culture. The Lakota Cultural Center in Eagle Butte has recently experienced a massive overhaul under the leadership of Dave West, current program director.

Me and Até outside the Lakota Cultural Center in Eagle Butte after getting my tribal ID

We were lucky enough to catch Dave during his work day at the center, and he graciously gave us an extremely in-depth and powerful tour of the museum. What stood out to me during my conversation with him was a re-orientation of cultural knowledge.

The Lakota Cultural Center has been doing important work in facilitating community nights and days were our oyate can come together and share knowledge on more equal footing. Tables and chairs are set up in a circle, so that, as Dave put it, "A six year old child and seventy year old elder can both be heard." Workshops may range from traditional crafts to singing, story-telling, gathering, and language-sharing.

Elk hide prepared by CRST youth.

Community engagement with traditional practices is not only sacred, but helps heal and offers a healthy outlet for pain we may be feeling.

Something I've taken away from my work this summer, and what I intend with this blog is similar to the cultural center's message-- Knowledge sharing. Knowledge is power as much as it is healing. I believe it is critical to share knowledge not only without our own communities, but outside of them as well; To facilitate a conversation between Indigenous communities and our neighbors (all residents of Turtle Island).

I hope to share more about my trip in follow-up posts. This installment has been focused on Indian land policy and cultural revitalization. If you've made it to the end, I want to thank you for taking the time to read and engage. Please feel free to share your thoughts in comments! Respectful conversation around my posts is very encouraged. Have a wonderful day!

Check out my (free) substack!

Citations & References:

[1] Lecture NAS 222, 4/15/24. [2] Girouard, 60. (Girouard, Maria L. 2012. “THE ORIGINAL MEANING AND INTENT OF THE MAINE INDIAN LAND CLAIMS: PENOBSCOT PERSPECTIVES.” Graduate School: University of Maine.) [3] Lecture 4/15/24. [4] Ibid. [5] Ibid. [6] Ibid. [7] Ibid; Girouard, 60. [8] Girouard, 60. [9] Lecture 4/15/24. [10] 4/19/24.

[11] Brimley, Stephen. 2004. “Native American Sovereignty in Maine” Maine Policy Review 13.2 (2004) : 12 -26. http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol13/iss2/4., 22. [12] Ibid. [13] Lecture 4/19/24.

[twistingtreeancestry]

Acadian Day (LA)

While this day is to celebrate the resilience, contribution, and culture of Acadians, it's also Native American Heritage Day, so I'd also like to celebrate and thank the Wabanaki Confederacy, specifically the Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, and Wolastoqey Nations.

Without the Mi'kmaq Nation accepting the French colonizers onto their land and extending a hand of peace and teaching, the French would not have easily survived, if at all.

Thanks to the bravery and resistance of the Penobscot and Wolastoqey Nations, some of the Acadians were able to evade capture, deportation, and death. If not for them, there would have been nothing for the returning Acadians to come home to.

Thanks to all of them, the Acadians were able to settle deep roots that would resound through time.

Wela'lin, Mi'kmaq Nation.

Woliwoni, Penobscot Nation.

Woliwon, Wolastoqey Nation.

We owe more than we could ever repay to you.

⋘ ⋙

In honor of my ancestors who came to Nova Scotia from France and those who left Nova Scotia to France or Louisiana.

|| Paternal Grandfather's Father's Line

Charles Olivier Miquel Guillot (1746 Nova Scotia, CA - 1845 Louisiana, USA) and his wife Madeline Josephe [Boudreaux/Boudrot] Guillot (1744 Nova Scotia, CA - N/A).

Charles' father, Jean Baptiste Guillot (1720 Nova Scotia, CA - 1759 Atlantic Ocean).

Jean's mother, Marguerite [Doiron] Guillot (1669 Nova Scotia, CA - 1759 Nova Scotia, CA).

Marguerite's parents, Jean Doiron (1677 Nova Scotia, CA - 1735 Nova Scotia, CA) and Marie Anne [Trahan] Doiron (1671 Nova Scotia, CA - 1710 Nova Scotia, CA).

Mary Anne's parents, Guillaume Trahan (1611 France - 1682 Nova Scotia, CA) and Madeleine [Brun] Trahan (1645 France - 1700 Nova Scotia, CA).

Madeleine's parents, Vincent Brun (1611 France - 1693 Nova Scotia, CA) and Marie Renee [Breau] Brun (1616 France - 1686 Nova Scotia, CA).

|| Paternal Grandmother's Mother's Line

Silvain Sonnier, Sr. (1736 Nova Scotia, CA - 1801 Louisiana, USA) and his wife Marie Magdeleine [Bourg] Sonnier (1744 Nova Scotia, CA - 1814 Louisiana, USA).

Jean Baptiste Granger (c1741 Nova Scotia - 1842 Louisiana, USA) and his wife Susanne [Cormier] Granger (c1763 Nova Scotia, CA - 1800 Louisiana, USA).

Alexandre Aucoin (1725 Nova Scotia, CA - 1780 France) and his wife Isabelle [Duhon] Aucoin (c1750 Nova Scotia - 1817 Louisiana, USA).

[racefortheironthrone]

I appreciate the counter-revisionist spirit of the Puritans but it doesn't fully acknowledge the bad with the good, right? The Puritans were genocidal towards Native Americans (during Metacomet's War), supported slavery, and then there's the brutal campaign in Ireland under Cromwell that ended with many poor Irish reduced to indentured servitude.

So I think this is a very fair critique. If I'm going to take the position that we have to acknowledge that tumblr's faves the Vikings and Caribbean pirates were heavily implicated in slavery, I think it's incumbent on me to recognize the intense violence that was also part of the Puritan legacy. Because I think there's a direct line that can be drawn towards the violence of King Metacomet's War, the violence of Cromwell's campaign in Ireland, the violence of the English Civil War, and the violence of the wars of religion on the European continent, in part because in some cases you literally had veterans of one conflict fighting in another, and also because I think it points to the ways in which these conflicts fit a rather conventional pattern of 17th century warfare. This is not to say that the Puritans' actions were moral, but rather that they weren't unusual.

First, these wars tended to involve targeted attacks on civilian populations, the tendency for both sides to engage in escalating reprisal atrocities (this is not meant as a minimization tactic: if you look at the actual conduct of these wars, there are no good guys as pretty much everyone gives into the temptation to massacre civilians in revenge), and high casualty rates.

Second, they tended to involve seizure of land and the simultaneous pushing out of existing inhabitants and intended settlement of co-ethnics/co-religionists. These wars were intended to reshape borders and frontiers in ways that we today would consider ethnic cleansing.

Third, they were also rather complicated conflicts. Metacomet's War wasn't just a Puritan attack on the Wampanoags, but a complex affair of the Puritans and nine different First Nations tribes who fought both for and against the Puritans and one another - indeed, arguably two of the biggest victors of Metacomet's War were the Mohawk and the Wabanaki. In Ireland, you had the Catholic Confederation who had originally rebelled against Charles I and warred against the largely Scottish Ulster Protestants but who also allied with Charles against first the rebellious Scottish Covenanters and then the English Parliamentarians, you had Scottish Covenenanters who sent armies into Ireland to protect and revenge their kinsmen, you had a Royalist army under the command of an Irish lord who was tasked with putting down the Confederation and then recruiting the Confederation, and then you had Cromwell's New Model Army. (This is why, for example, most of the victims of the massacre of Drogheda were English Royalist soldiers rather than Irish Catholic civilians.)

Finally, a couple points about slavery. First, it is true that slavery was practiced in Puritan New England, but unlike in Virginia, New England was a society with slaves rather than a slave society. Hence why you had odd scenarios, whereby in New England slaves had the right to jury trials - a loophole that enlaved people would exploit starting in the mid-18th century to launch freedom suits by which they would petition the court for manumission.

Second, I would strongly advise that you be very, very careful about the topic of Irish indentured servitude, because the "Irish slaves myth" discourse devolves very quickly into white supremacist propaganda, and there is a nasty tendency for Irish republicans to be extremely cavalier with racist tropes. For example, Sean O'Callaghan, the author of To Hell Or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland not only conflated indentured servitude with chattel slavery, but invented a brand new historical libel when he claimed that Irish women sent to Barbados were systematically forcibly bred to African men. (Incidentally, for some misbegotten reason Wikipedia's page on the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland cites O'Callaghan as a source.) Despite the fact that this obviously trades in racist myths of black men as sexual predators, other authors repeated the claim and then it went viral online.

Not only is the conflation of temporary indentured servitude with chattel slavery something that a lot of white people use to minimize the history of anti-black racism similar to how narratives of immigrant struggles and upward mobility are used to minimize the impact of slavery and racism (essentially, we white ethnic group suffered and got over it, why can't you), but it also becomes this vector for online radicalization by white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and conspiracy theorists as memes circulate on social media forums - with the hope being that you gradually draw people from Facebook (and Tumblr?) to Infowars to Stormfront.

[spaceandthedigitalfrontier]

😗 — what are some of your favorite things to do when you have some time to yourself?

💯 — share three random facts about yourself that your mutuals may not know about you.

😗: either writing (currently mostly rp, though I sometimes write drabbles, my long fic is on hiatus and has been for two years now, unfortunately), crafts (currently crochet, embarrassingly thanks to my main muse, Ed, though others I've taken up in the past include friendship bracelets and book binding...), or volunteering with the local greyhound adoption group. I also like to go hiking and would like to try backpacking but the first is contingent on having the energy for it, and the second on time, which I won't have much of for at least the rest of the month.

💯: hmmm. Okay...

I have storm spotter certification for the area of Maine that my local weather forecasting office covers, as well as for the Norman, OK forecasting area where I used to live!

My brother and I are exactly thirteen months apart, to the day. He has always been my best friend.

I've been to Greenland, Iceland, France, Belgium, Canada, and Mexico, and some places I hope to eventually visit are Spain, Chile, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand. I also really want to visit Antarctica, and though that one isn't impossible given I'm surrounded by folks who study ice cores, that currently isn't my path.

Several fun facts not specifically about me but that is of interest to you: Without giving out the specific tribe name since that could potentially dox me, I live on the ancestral land of the Wabanaki people; Wabananaki means 'people of the dawn'. The kalallitsut (greenlandic) word for 'thank you' is qajanaq (j makes i sound), and the Inupiaq (if I'm remembering the workshop correctly) word is kayanakpak.

I should probably say here that I am not an indiginous person, but the program I am part of has a large focus on co-production with indigenous groups in Maine and in Greenland.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

We are writing as queer, trans, Two Spirit, non-binary, Palestinian, Arab, Black, Indigenous, white, Latinx, and Jewish people living in the Boston area on occupied Massachusett, Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Wabanaki lands.

We were disappointed to learn that Boston Pride for the People chose to co-host a Pride event with the Israeli consulate and other zionist organizations. This event, framed as a celebration of the experiences of queer Jewish community members, centers the experiences of queer Israeli settlers living on top of Palestinian villages stolen through violent expulsion and colonialism. This event is part of a broader strategy of recruiting support for the Israeli state by rebranding itself as queer-friendly in an effort to mask the Israeli state’s ongoing violence against Palestinians—known as “Brand Israel.”

[wihinaphe-makhoche]

thoughts of the day: 5/23

What I've mostly been ruminating on this week is ideas of Euro-American versus Indigenous thoughts around land use.

This week I visited Hirundo Wildlife Refuge in Western Old Town. The refuge has done its due diligence in recognizing this as a place where Wabanaki historically lived and gathered, as far back as 5,000 years ago. It is registered in the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior. In the 1970s, the University of Maine did an archaeological dig at the site, and the land still bears the marks of those digs.

On one hand, the recognition of this historical significance is good, but it also continues to place the importance of this place firmly in the past. "This was a place for the Wabanaki, but now it is a wildlife refuge, and isn't it so nice that we're taking care of it and keeping it safe from human hands?"

The removal of humans from the ecosystem seems to be a distinctly European idea; In their eyes, the relationship between humans and the environment is necessarily destructive and exploitative rather than symbiotic. This leads to the popular idea among disillusioned, often white academics that the world would be better off without humans in it.

Robin Wall Kimmerer explores this idea further in her 2013 novel "Braiding Sweetgrass", a collection of essays that marries Indigenous knowledge and Western science beautifully. I believe that each have their place, but in order to best learn, we need to utilize Two Eyed Seeing (interestingly, an idea that was first brought forward and named by two Mik'maq (Wabanaki) elders).

To my point.

In the first chapter of Kimmerer's book, "Skywoman Falling", she compares Indigenous and Western creation stories. Skywoman's relationship between the animals and plants (non-human relatives, as my mentor often says) is symbiotic and serves to better the lives of both.

Meanwhile, the Christian creation story and relationship Adam and Eve have with their environment is far less reciprocal. They are shunned from their comfortable home and left to suffer in the world, and must take what they can get to survive. I think this lies at the center of much of Christian (and thus, Western) ideology--That we must take.

Reciprocity is so very important to Indigenous lifeways and environmentalism. I return to ideas of place and how this centers around my visit to Hirundo, and the readings I did this week (Specifically, exploring Samantha Senda-Cook's piece, Materializing Tensions: How Maps and Trails Mediate Nature). The public often tends to view National Parks and wildlife reserves as being raw nature, but these too are shaped by human hands to cater to a certain demographic, to fulfill ideas of what nature "should" look like. But they are managed, and their trails managed to a degree. As Senda-Cook puts it:

Like Niagara Falls, some landscapes that have been physically altered are perceived as not constructed, as ‘‘natural.’’ For example, Olmsted (1863/1990)  best known for designing New York’s Central Park  was concerned with presenting nature to at once cultivate visitors’ feelings and mask such cultivation. He planned every aspect of a landscape, including details such as flower head size and stem length, to communicate particular messages and evoke particular emotions. La Pierre (1997) described how the National Park Service (NPS) has started to include human artifacts such as roads  in preservation efforts because they have become as important to the landscape as the land itself. She explained that visitors love the views from the road in Acadia National Park in Maine. ‘‘What visitors may not realize is that John D. Rockefeller, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and others deliberately manipulated nature to achieve those views’’ (p. 32). Finally, as Spirn (1996) contended, efforts to construct landscapes such as the ones enacted by Olmsted remain largely invisible to park visitors. She states, ‘‘Few people now recognize [Central Park, Niagara Falls, and Yosemite] as built landscapes’’ (p. 91). These places carry a unique kind of material rhetoric that appears natural. (Senda-Cook, pg. 357.)

I've also ruminated on how National Parks have served to block cultural access to traditional hunting grounds, fisheries, and places were medicines may be gathered, such as in Acadia National Park. Acadia is my next destination in exploring my thoughts and research. I will explore this idea more in my next post.

[kindafondawanda]

Acadia National Park in Maine has many claims to fame. It was the first national park east of the Mississippi. Generations of artists have immortalized its mountains, forests and rocky coastline. And of course, Acadia is the first place the see the sunrise in the continental United States. It’s history includes Native Americans, who have inhabited the land for 12,000 years. Today four distinct tribes - the Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot - are known collectively as the Wabanaki, or “People of the Dawnland.” Photo courtesy of J.K. Putnam.

[lapsed-bookworm]

"Penobscot Nation to Reclaim Ancestral Land in North Central Maine" (published 1 November 2023, shared here on 5 November 2023).

The Penobscot Nation has plans to reclaim more than 30,000 acres of their homeland in Maine from a national nonprofit Trust for Public Land (TPL), according to a press release from the organization.

The transfer will put the acreage— taken from the Penobscot Nation in the nineteenth century in the Katahdin region of Maine— back into tribal stewardship, the nonprofit said. TPL purchased the land when it went up for sale in 2022. “We are very excited to work with TPL towards this common goal of returning a portion of unceded lands back to the governance of the Penobscot Nation,” said Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis in a statement. “We are also ecstatic for the opportunity to explore and improve the aquatic and wildlife habitat within this parcel to conserve more land in the Katahdin region for our future generations.” The 31,367 acres going back to the Nation sit within the Penobscot River watershed and include forests, recreational trails, wetlands, and more than 50 miles of streams. The nonprofit and tribe will work together to: re-establish the Penobscot Nation as legal stewards of the land, create public access to the southern portion of the land, and boost local economies through the creation of public access, TPL said. Trust for Public Land President and CEO Diane Regas said the land back announcement isn’t “just an isolated act, but a deep acknowledgment and reaffirmation of a timeless bond, a rich history, and a promising future.” As we collaborate with the Penobscot Nation, the National Park Service, and local communities, we are driven by a shared vision: to honor and help restore the rich tapestry of Wabanaki connection to land and ensure that Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument can be accessed and enjoyed by all."

[blogynews]

"Hidden History Unveiled: University of New Brunswick's Bold Move Ignites a Stir by Raising the Wolastoqey Flag Permanently - What Are They Really Celebrating?"

The flags of the Wolastoqey Nation and the Wabanaki Confederacy were ceremoniously raised on the University of New Brunswick’s Fredericton campus, serving as a permanent testament to the university’s location on Indigenous land. This symbolic gesture was chosen as part of the university’s observance of Truth and Reconciliation Day. University President Paul Mazerolle emphasized the significance…

[blogynewz]

"Hidden History Unveiled: University of New Brunswick's Bold Move Ignites a Stir by Raising the Wolastoqey Flag Permanently - What Are They Really Celebrating?"

The flags of the Wolastoqey Nation and the Wabanaki Confederacy were ceremoniously raised on the University of New Brunswick’s Fredericton campus, serving as a permanent testament to the university’s location on Indigenous land. This symbolic gesture was chosen as part of the university’s observance of Truth and Reconciliation Day. University President Paul Mazerolle emphasized the significance…

[radiogreen]

"Gatherers, harvesters, hunters, and healers have lost knowledge as a result of being kept out of national parks and prevented from accessing their own history, their own lands and waters. The loss is accelerating as parks are affected by overcrowding, pollution, and a changing climate. ...

The sweetgrass project also shows how Indigenous scientific approaches can generate new thinking—and more accurate results. Previous studies by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Laurie Reed, and others had demonstrated that just as a lawn grows back thicker after being mowed, stem density increases after harvest of sweetgrass. According to preliminary findings presented by Greenlaw and Baumflek at the 2021 Acadia National Park Science Symposium, the plots selected by the [traditional] gatherers had, on average, a 30 percent increase in stem density after harvest. The botanist-selected plots, however, had no change."

If you can recognize how much of North America was cultivated over thousands of years by indigenous people, then you also need to recognize that a significant chunk of "wilderness" here is dependent on human intervention to thrive.

There are countless plants and fungi, from mushrooms to grasses to trees, that have been proven to do best when regularly harvested, whether it's because harvest makes them release seeds or clears away dead growth or provides more light to younger plants, cultivation means that harvesting is often to the benefit of the plant.

Which means that you also have to recognize that locking those plants away from people, even with the best intentions, can actually do horrible damage to their populations and to existing ecosystems.

There isn't an easy solution to this problem. Proper foraging isn't something that most people are taught anymore and many of these plants do not have significant enough populations right now to survive excessive harvest.

But going forward, as we work on restoring ecosystems and helping our planet (and our relationships to the land) heal, then we need to acknowledge that humans and nature are not separate entities and that we've always been dependent on each other.

[biglisbonnews]

Indigenous Maple Syrup Makers Tap Into Tradition Upon cutting down a tree in Canada one spring, the first European known to have tasted maple sap, Jacques Cartier, found a delicious elixir. There “gushed out from it a juice, which was found to taste as good and as delicious, as the fine wine of Orleans or Beaune," reads a 1557 account of the event. But centuries before the first European settler arrived in North America, Indigenous communities in Eastern Canada were harvesting sap from maple trees of the region, boiling the raw bounty, and turning it into sugar water, syrup, and maple sugar. Haudenosaunee traditional knowledge includes descriptions of cutting maple trees to access “sweet water,” and many Anishinaabe communities have sugaring-off traditions when they collect sap. Many used maple products not only for their delicious flavor, but also as medicine and even as a way to help preserve foods. As of 2020, there were over 5,300 producers of maple syrup across the country, accounting for nearly 47 million tree taps nationwide. After all, Canada produces over 75% of the world’s maple syrup, most of which is harvested in Quebec. But there are only a handful of Indigenous-owned maple syrup companies across Canada, and even fewer Indigenous-owned sugar shacks. There’s a quest for historical quaintness behind every aspect of maple syrup production, from the anachronistic glass bottles to the rustic charm of the sugar shacks. But what this popular imagery doesn’t capture is the Indigenous origin of maple syrup itself. While only a small proportion of maple syrup producers in Canada are Indigenous, those who currently own their own maple farms and processing plants are proudly reclaiming their heritage. Many apply traditional methods and the teachings of elders to their work in an effort to keep that history alive. When Europeans settled in Ontario in the 17th and 18th centuries, they cleared vast swaths of forest from the land, including the sacred maples and sugar maples, known for the sweetest saps. Research shows that during this era, Indigenous peoples lost much of their ability to harvest maple syrup. Then, the forced resettlements of the Indian Act of 1876 caused the disappearance of traditional maple ceremonies and festivals. By then, settlers had learned the traditional processes and eventually industrialized maple syrup production. More recently, though, there has been an attempt at reconciliation through collaboration, and an effort to recognize maple syrup as an Indigenous creation. In the past, Sand Road Maple Farm in Moose Creek, Ontario has invited Ojibwe, Métis Cree, and Algonquin knowledge-keepers to lead smudging ceremonies and prayer at the start of their season. But Indigenous-owned companies themselves are now making headway in the industry. Giizhigat (Gee-jah-gut) is located in Richard’s Landing, Ontario. Its Indigenous owners, Deborah Aaron, a member of Six Nations of the Grand River reserve, and Isaac Day, an elder and healer from Serpent River First Nation, use traditional teachings in their syrup-making approach. They bought their equipment in 2012 and completed their first maple syrup run in 2015. Another Indigenous maple syrup producer, Kleekhoot Gold Bigleaf Syrup, is located on the West Coast’s Vancouver Island, in a region known as the Alberni Valley. Kleekhoot is run by members of the Hupacasath First Nation. The owners use Bigleaf maple trees, a tree unique to the West Coast of British Columbia, to produce their golden syrups. This tree creates syrups with caramel and vanilla notes. Often, these companies combine tradition with contemporary technique. Wabanaki Maple, located in Tobique (or Neqotkuk First Nation) is not technically a maple-syrup producer. Instead, Wabanaki flavors and barrel-ages syrups, for unique aroma profiles such as rum, oak, whisky, and bourbon. Jolene Johnson, owner of Wabanaki, is Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and from Tobique. When she started her business in 2018, she was the first Indigenous woman working in the industry in the Atlantic provinces. “I’m not aware of any other Indigenous female-led maple syrup companies in Canada at this time,” Johnson says. “But when I first embarked on my journey in 2018, I realized that there were very few Indigenous businesses in the maple syrup industry.” In Maliseet culture, maple syrup would be heated during the preparation process to ensure stability and a long shelf life, Johnson says. “This was a practice done for many years in our culture, so supply could be kept throughout the long harsh winters in our territories,” Johnson explains. “The maple syrup would have been boiled down so that it was hard like maple candy, and then it could be stored more easily and broken down to use as maple sugar.” Wabanaki still uses this technique. According to Johnson, maple syrup production within her own Maliseet culture was historically centered around the women—that each matriarch or head of the family would manage her own sugar grove, but it was still very much a community effort.“The responsibilities of the women would include things such as making hundreds of birch bark baskets to hang on the maple tree, so it could be gathered once the sap is flowing,” Johnson says. “They would also maintain the fires so the sap could be boiled down to syrup, candy or bricks.”She can’t say what roles the men would have played in the process, but assumes that they would have helped too. “Perhaps gathering and providing the firewood or carving holes into the maple trees to allow for the sap to flow,” ” Johnson says. “These are only my thoughts, since much of the history of Indigenous people and maple syrup was not necessarily documented, but rather passed on through stories from generation to generation.” For Johnson, working with maple is a community endeavor, as well as a family endeavor. “In fact, I was first introduced to maple syrup through my sister and her husband who have been collecting maple syrup as a hobby, and passed on a lot of teachings and knowledge to me,” Johnson says. Besides creating unique maple syrups, Wabanaki also celebrates Indigenous culture through its Bareroots Initiative. This gift box project seeks to help support the environment and reforestation. “It is curated with products from other amazing Indigenous businesses across Turtle Island,” Johnson says, referring to the name for North America used by many First Nations peoples.While there may not be many Indigenous-led maple syrup companies in Canada today, the ones who do this work should be celebrated, as they uphold their traditional values, advocate for the environment, and empower Indigenous youth to follow in their footsteps to reclaim their history. “As a 100-percent female, Indigenous-owned company, we care and are passionate about sharing our culture,” Johnson says. Making maple syrup, she says, is how she’s chosen “to help support and give back to our communities, and the next seven generations.” https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/maple-syrup-history

[patrickccaron]

Acadia Running Retreat! Coming June 2023! 📍 Wabanaki land This dream has been in the works for some time, and it is exciting to finally get to share it with the world! For folks who know me well, I will say yes to pretty much any invite to run with others, whether it be on the road, track, or trails, and I cherish the experience of getting to share in that intimacy of running with friends and strangers out in the natural world and propelled by our own love for movement. The creation of this retreat is an evolvement of that love and an opportunity to play host to several days of fun and adventure on some of the top trail systems in the world. From the rugged and unique granite peaks to the flowing and scenic carriage roads, the island has so much to offer, and we will be sure to try and explore it all! Grateful to have my good friend @jarlyb by my side to help host, especially as he shares many of the same values and philosophies regarding running and our relationships with it. You can visit the link in my bio to read all the retreat details and dates and to book one of the several open spots if you are eager to join! https://www.instagram.com/p/CotGjP5tnaa/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[evoldir]

Fwd: Workshop: UMaine.BiodiversityData

Begin forwarded message: > From: evoldir@evol.biology.mcmaster.ca > Subject: Workshop: UMaine.BiodiversityData > Date: 14 February 2023 at 07:22:43 GMT > To: rdmpage@gmail.com > > > > > We’re pleased to announce a two-part workshop aimed at rapidly bringing > participants to a high level of proficiency in the management and analysis > of multidimensional biodiversity data. Part I serves as an introduction > to data management and visualization, and serves as a crash course in > the data methods that will be necessary to participate in Part II, which > focuses on analyzing biodiversity data using process-based models and > machine learning. For those with extensive familiarity with biodiversity > data, enrolling only in Part II might make sense. > > This workshop is organized in conjunction with Data Carpentry and > the Evolution 2023 conference in Albuquerque, NM, USA. Significant > funding is available to support travel and lodging for the duration of > the workshop. Participants may also apply for funding to extend their > stay and join the Evolution 2023 conference (Evolution registration fee > waivers may also be requested). > > Read the full add here: > https://ift.tt/dApK7XL > > To attend our workshop and apply for funding support, please complete > the application form (https://ift.tt/NsjlPyV; use for both > Parts I and/or II). Spots are limited, and acceptance into the program > will be competitive and based on your application. We encourage applicants > from all backgrounds and especially welcome individuals from minoritized > populations. To contribute to the goal of broadening participation in > the study of biodiversity, we will use diversity, equity, inclusion, > and justice principles in addition to other criteria in selecting > applicants. Computational expertise and financial need will not be > selection criteria. > > > > Andrew J. Rominger (he/him) > Assistant Professor of Ecological Bioinformatics > > School of Biology & Ecology > University of Maine > > ecoevomatics.org > > The University of Maine recognizes that it is located on Marsh > Island in the homeland of the Penobscot Nation, where issues of > water and territorial rights, and encroachment upon sacred sites, are > ongoing. Penobscot homeland is connected to the other Wabanaki Tribal > Nations — the Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Micmac — through kinship, > alliances and diplomacy. The university also recognizes that the Penobscot > Nation and the other Wabanaki Tribal Nations are distinct, sovereign, > legal and political entities with their own powers of self-governance > and self-determination. (UMaine Land Acknowledgement) > > Andy Rominger