Strongly, strongly recommended! I'm pushing, via this very broadly listed post, an excellent resource book on Native Americans -- the Wabanaki Indians [People of the Dawn.] It's a splendid piece of work indeed: THE WABANAKIS OF MAINE AND THE MARITIMES [A resource book by and about Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, Micmac and Abenaki Indians.] It's just reached me via a good friend, Ed Nakawatase, Indian Desk, American Friends Service Committee. Just off the AFSC press, this is the revised third edition of this very solid work which first appeared in 1989.
The Wabanakis of Maine and the Maritimes is a great big paperback book: 8.5 by 11 inches, 520 pages. History, culture, legends and stories, some acculturation -- but never assimilation, personal accounts, a myriad of organized facts, all sorts of resource lists [e.g., comprehensive listing of Native governments/organizations/institutions], 110 illustrations [including maps] and photos, lesson plans and much more indeed -- plus [state of the art!] a separate CD with word pronunciations from the Wabanaki nations plus songs. Bibliography and index. There is material here for all educational levels. It's very well organized and clearly written -- refreshingly lucid. These are the Native people who first encountered Europeans well over four hundred years ago. And, despite the most brutal forces -- e.g., English head and scalp bounty hunters, repeated treaty violations and colossal land theft by British and Americans and Canadians, attempted cultural genocide via assimilation, hostile neglect, the destruction of much of the old hunting economy [e.g. caribou] and much of that of fishing, pervasive poverty, urban pressures in crucibles such as Boston -- they have not only very much survived in the socio-cultural sense but have fought back. And the Wabanakis have fought back hard and effectively over the epochs in countless local and regional struggles [e.g., land preservation, treaty maintenance, fishing and hunting rights] and massive, precedent-setting legal struggles such as the prolonged and relatively successful Maine Indian land claims case carried a generation and more ago by the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy nations -- with beneficial implications for a number of other tribal nations as well. The book has just arrived at our Idaho door. And my daughter, Maria, has just indicated it to a Maliseet friend at Tobique, NB -- who has the first edition and who has immediately ordered this one. When WABANAKIS initially appeared, an older cousin of mine who was/is listed therein as a principal member of the Curriculum Committee, immediately sent me a copy. Sadly, she -- a very active person over generations -- died in February, 1998. So it's especially good to see the fine work of herself and so many other authoritative Indian people carried forward -- especially since my youngest son, Peter, borrowed my original copy and continues to retain it. [My cousin would be pleased, though not at all surprised, with Peter's tenacious hold.] It's available as a book -- or as an unbound three-hole [binder not included.] The cost is $30.00 [U.S. currency only] with shipping and handling extra. Ordering information from American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102-1479. Tel: 215/241-7048 or Toll Free 888-588-2372. ============================================================================ === >From Frank G. Speck: Penobscot Man: The Life History of a Forest Tribe in Maine, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1940 -- and several subsequent editions including an enlarged one in 1997: Typical English bounty proclamations directed against the Wabanaki in the mid-1700s: "Whereas the tribe of Penobscot Indians have repeatedly and in a perfidious manner acted contrary unto their solemn submission unto his Majesty long since made and frequently renewed . . . For every scalp of a male Indian brought in as evidence of their being killed as aforesaid, forty pounds. For every scalp of such female Indian or male Indian under the age of twelve years, that shall be killed and brought in as evidence of their being killed as aforesaid, twenty pounds. ------------ For every Indian enemy that they shall kill and produce the scalp to the Government and Council in evidence, the sum of three hundred pounds. -------------- Also, voted, that the same allowance be made to private persons who shall . . .kill any Indian enemy which is made to soldiers on the frontiers of the province. " In Solidarity - Hunter Gray [Hunterbear] Micmac / St Francis Abenaki / St Regis Mohawk www.hunterbear.org Protected by NaŽshdoŽiŽbaŽiŽ and Ohkwari' _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
