#penobscot

Penobscot Christmas Tree in Summer - Sara MacCulloch , 2020

Canadian , b. 1967 -

𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟏𝐭𝐡

Este dibujo son los "Loser's Club" de la película IT del 2017. Los dibujé según su personalidad.

Ethnonyms: Penawahpskewi, Penobscot, Wabanaki, Penobscot Nation

Total population: 2,398

Ethnolinguistic classification: Algic > Algonquian > Eastern Algonquian > Eastern Abenaki

Homeland: the Penobscot River Valley

Regions with significant populations: Penobscot River Valley, Penobscot Bay, Maine (Central and Coastal regions)

Languages and dialects: Penobscot (Eastern Abenaki dialect), English

Religion: Traditional Penobscot spirituality, Roman Catholicism

Origin Tales of the Penobscot Nation

The Penobscot are a Native American nation of the modern-day State of Maine, also recognized as a First Nation of Canada. Along with the Abenaki, Mi'kmaq, Passamaquoddy, and Wolastoqiyik, they form the Wabanaki Confederacy. Their origin tales, like those of all Native peoples of North America, feature animals, natural phenomena, and spirit beings including the supernatural entity Glooscap.

The Penobscot call themselves Penawahpkekeyak ("the people of the place of the white rocks"), a reference to their ancestral homeland along the Penobscot River. Early French explorers, misunderstanding the name or simply unable to pronounce it, referred to them as Penobscot, which the people then began to use to reference themselves.

Penobscot River

Centpacrr (CC BY-SA)

According to Penobscot oral history and archaeological evidence, the people inhabited the land from at least 12,000 BCE. They first came into contact with Europeans in 1524, with the arrival of Giovanni da Verrazano (l. 1485-1528) and, between 1604-1607, encountered French and English traders, become involved in the fur trade, and at least five Penobscot helped establish the Popham Colony (1607-1608), the first English colony in the North American region that would become New England. The first Penobscot chief documented by Europeans was Bessabez (d. c. 1616), who assisted Samuel de Champlain (l. 1567-1635) in his exploration of the Penobscot River.

Between 1616 and 1619, at least 75% of the Penobscot nation died from European diseases, and more fell in the Beaver Wars (1638-1655) fought over territory in the fur trade. They sided with the French during the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and with the Continentals during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), after which, despite their contributions, the colonists took their land, consigning them to the reservation on Indian Island in the Penobscot River, where they still live, primarily, today.

Culture & Origin Tales

The Penobscot historically spoke the Algonquian language in the Eastern Abenaki dialect, and they were initially a hunter-gatherer society before establishing semi-permanent and then permanent settlements along the Penobscot River. Men hunted bears, beavers, caribou, deer, and moose, and harvested the river for fish and other marine creatures. They were also responsible for the protection of the village and wider Penobscot community and for making war on other nations.

The women built the homes, raised the children (the boys only up to a certain age, when they became their fathers' responsibilities), harvested herbs, roots, and vegetables, and tended to the crops. Even after permanent settlements were established, the Penobscot still roamed freely following game. All life was (and is) considered sacred by the Penobscot, and even those animals and water creatures killed for food were understood to be their relatives, as illustrated in the legend The Water Famine below.

Among the great legendary heroes of the Penobscot (as well as the others of the Wabanaki Confederacy and still others not affiliated) is Glooscap (also given as Glooskap, Kluscap, and other variations), a supernatural entity usually depicted as a force of good (as opposed to his brother Malsumsis, the Wolf) but sometimes as a trickster figure, who might be a hero, villain, fool, or wise man. The Glooscap tales, like the other Penobscot legends, serve to entertain while also relaying some important cultural value. The Water Famine, for example, is not only an origin tale but also emphasizes the value the Penobscot place on generosity, hospitality, and sharing.

The entire world is alive with spirits in Penobscot cosmology, and so the winds, the grasses, trees, rocks, and rivers have their own unique personalities, likes, and dislikes that must be respected, as do all the animals, plants, and other creatures. As with many other Native American nations, the Penobscot believe they came from the earth of their ancestral lands and are spiritually bound to it; and so one is never home unless one is home on one's own lands, a belief shared by all Native American nations.

Penobscot Indian Island Reservation, 1919

Clifton Johnson (Public Domain)

After the Euro-American colonists forcibly relocated the Penobscot from their lands, they preserved their culture as best as they could and largely succeeded, though there are no more Penobscot fluent in Eastern Abenaki. A large part of their cultural heritage is their stories, however, which have been preserved and which, today, the Penobscot work to translate back into their native tongue or highlight those already known in Eastern Abenaki.

The tales below include Of Glooscap's Birth, The Water Famine, The Origin of Indian Summer, and The Giant and The Four Wind Brothers. The first three are origin tales explaining how the world or people or seasons came to be as they are, and the last illustrates the Penobscot's close relationship with the natural world, in this case in the form of the four winds.

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).