Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Home In The Dawnland: Sense Of Place And Eco-Cultural Relations In The Penobscot River Valley, Kate Kemper

Honors College

In a world where a deep disconnect between humans and nature is commonplace, this thesis is motivated by a personal interest in reconnecting with the more-than-human world. The purpose of this project is to explore my own sense of place and lived experience on the land we’ve called Maine and the Dawnland, and to strengthen my relationship to this land through a co-creative artistic practice. It draws on the historic context of the land, as it has been stewarded by Penobscot people, to investigate existing human-land relationships in the area, and attempts to honor Indigenous perspectives. The praxis for the …

Carlisle Indian Boarding School's Role In The Unconstitutional Relationship Between Organized Christianity And The U.S. Federal Government, Kayleigh Hogg

Honors College

The Carlisle Indian Boarding School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania was the first large Indian boarding school to open in the United States. Carlisle was founded by Richard Henry Pratt and opened in 1879. Carlisle was the first of hundreds of Indian boarding schools that operated throughout the United States and served as the model for many of the schools that followed it. The school was military-run and federally funded until its closure in 1918. The purpose of Carlisle and the rest of the boarding schools was to culturally assimilate American Indians and do so by forcibly removing them from their families. …

Maine Monsters: How Indigenous And Non-Indigenous People Perceive Environmental Monstrosity, Cheyenne Hebert

Honors College

Wilderness is a creation of the human mind. Wilderness reflects our desires, fears, and truest selves—therefore within it we often find monsters. The application of monstrosity to the natural world is an act of projection and an accumulation of the cultural and historical influences that shape the perceiver. It’s often a reflection of religion—e.g. European gods associated with agriculture, while their monsters and demons roam the woods—and varies across peoples. This thesis seeks to understand how people create and assign monstrosity from their own mind to the environment around them, and in turn how they perceive it. Specifically, it explores …

Religious Self-Identity And Racism, Alexandria Morgan

Honors College

This project is a replication of a study by Johnson, Rowatt, and LaBouff (2010) that subliminally primed American Christian participants to think about Christianity subconsciously and found increased prejudice towards Black Americans. This study is often cited to support the claim that “thinking about religion makes people more prejudiced,” despite not having been replicated effectively. Replicability is crucial to make appropriate claims. We replicated the original study with updated explicit priming methods as well as updated racial prejudice scales with a recruited national sample of 500 white American Christians through Prolific.ac. Participants were randomly assigned to a priming condition, where …

Wabanaki Experiences And Perspectives On “Our Shared Ocean”: Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission Special Report Sea Run, Anthony W. Sutton, Judson Esty-Kendall, Paul Thibeault

Maine Policy Review

The Maine Indian State Tribal Commission (MITSC) recently published a special report titled, Sea Run, documenting the impact of Colonial and Maine policies and activities on the quality and quantity of tribal fisheries spanning the time from first contact between Europeans and the Wabanaki Nations to today.

November 2023 News, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

This month we offer the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, first published on our blog page on November 2, 2017.

The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address is an ancient message of peace and appreciation of Mother Earth and her inhabitants. The children learn that, according to Native American tradition, people everywhere are embraced as family. Our diversity, like all wonders of Nature, is truly a gift for which we are thankful.

When one recites the Thanksgiving Address the Natural World is thanked, and in thanking each life-sustaining force, one becomes spiritually tied to each of the forces of the Natural and Spiritual World. …

October 2023 News, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

This month we offer the essay "Human Resources to Growth and Support: A new take on Annual Performance Reviews (Vol. 2)," by Andrea Francis. "On our continued journey towards a more values-aligned Human Resources department, Wabanaki REACH is exploring new ways to take on traditional HR practices and disentangle them from the idea that humans need to be constantly productive.

See also: How REACH does HR (Vol. 1), by Andrea Francis

September 2023 News, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

Truth, Healing, and Change in Wabanaki Territory, Resources for Learning and Teaching about Land Acknowledgments, dozens of essays in our Voices of Decolonization blog posts, a Literary Resource List, and so much more. We hope you will check them out at Educational Resources (wabanakireach.org).

August 2023 News, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

This month we offer you the essay where the river widens by Beyond the Claims project coordinator, Kate Russell.

Wabanaki REACH has partnered with Threadbare Theatre Workshop to craft an original, community-devised play together– where the river widens– to be performed along the Penobscot River in September. This collaboration with the Wabanaki community is part of Wabanaki REACH's truth-telling initiative, Beyond the Claims– Stories from the Land & the Heart; an oral history project illuminating the Maine Indian land claims.

Limited Series-Human Resources to Growth and Support: How REACH does HR (Vol. 1), by Andrea Francis.

July News, 2023, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

Voices of Decolonization blog: "Decolonizing Human Resource Policies for Nonprofits," by Andrea Francis.

June News, 2023, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

Voices of Decolonization blog: "On the Anniversary of the Maine Wabanaki State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission," by Andrea Francis.

Happy Birthday Reach! Thank You Denise!, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

Voices of Decolonization blog: "Happy Birthday REACH! Thank you Denise [Altvater]!" The "Honoring Denise" video can be viewed on our YouTube (00:02:20).

May News, 2023, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

Interacting with Wabanaki-Maine History: Participate in this interactive experience in which we engage in a story of particular events in the history of 400 years of colonization of Wabanaki people by Europeans in this territory now called the state of Maine. Voices of Decolonization blog: "Native Children Are at the Heart of ICWA," by Erika Bjorum. (Indian Child Welfare Act).

S8e7: How Can Indigenous And Western Knowledge Help Preserve The Planet?, Ron Lisnet, Darren Ranco

The Maine Question

Darren Ranco has spent his life determining how to help Indigenous and non-Indigenous people protect the land they inhabit.

Through his work as an anthropologist and chair of Native American Programs at the University of Maine, Ranco has studied tribal sovereignty, cultural resource protection, environmental justice and ways Native American communities can resist environmental destruction. As a member of the Penobscot Nation, he also is passionate about improving research relationships between universities and indigenous communities, as well as training the next generation of Indigenous scientists.

In this episode of “The Maine Question,” Ranco discusses his many research projects and how …

April News, 2023, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

Voices of Decolonization blog: "ICWA Under Attack: Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument for Haaland v. Brackeen," by Ryan Lolar, Indigenous Peoples Unit (IPU) Staff Attorney and Alida Pitcher-Murray, IPU Intern.

The Illustrations Of Jay Jackson: A Visual Analysis Of The Chicago Defender In The 20th Century, Ruth Lewandowski

Honors College

In 1905, Robert S. Abbott invested twenty-five cents in starting a weekly newspaper covering stories about and for Black Americans. It would end up being called The Chicago Defender and became one of the most prolific Black newspapers of the 20th century. The staff, throughout the years, would write papers that aided and defended the community's well-being. In the earlier days, it fueled the Great Migration and helped people escape their violent homes in the South. The Defender also exposed lynchings and attempts of it throughout the decades. By exposing the hate crimes of white supremacists, the Defender was communicating …

March News, 2023, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

Voices of Decolonization blog, "My life today as a Person in recovery, I stand Proud," by Melody Paul, a poem about living in recovery.

February News, 2023, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

Laughter is Good Medicine! Indian Radio Days: An Evolving Bingo Experience by LeAnne Howe and the late Roxy Gordon. Panel discussion with actors and playwright. Voices of Decolonization blog: "Shifting Our Idea of Impact: Decolonizing Program Evaluations," by Heather Augustine.

January News, 2023, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

Forgiveness is a core cultural value of the Wabanaki and a message of forgiveness is traditionally shared at the start of the New Year. Voices of Decolonization blog, "Wabanaki Prayer," by Brian Altvater, Sr.

Technology & Tradition: Shaping Indigenous Collections For The Future, Gretchen Faulkner, Harold Jacobs, Alex Cole, Jonathan Roy, Reed Hayden, Anna Martin, Duane Shimmel

Technical Publications

The Hudson Museum received a UMAI seed grant to support
a collaboration with the Advanced Structures and Composites
Center and Intermedia Programs to replicate a culturally -
sensitive object in our collection. This is a technical publication to describe the process of replicating a Tlingit Frog Clan Helmet (HM5040) requested for repatriation by the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (CCTHITA).

Wabanaki Reach Newsletter, Winter 2023, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

The Winter 2023 cover story reflects on the year 2022. Headlines in this issue include:

• Nulasuweltom ~ I am grateful
• Beyond the Claims Update by Kate Russell, Beyond the Claims Project Coordinator
• Educational Programs Update by Heather Augustine, Community Education Development Coordinator
• Wabanaki Wellbeing Program Update by Brian Altvater, Wabanaki Wellness Coordinator
• Website Communications by Heather Newton Brown, Wabanaki REACH Volunteer