Happy Indigenous People's Day And Congrats Skowhegan High School River Hawks

For a long time I taught high school Ancient World Studies beginning with the indigenous presence here in Wabanaki territory that dates back at least 12,000 years. It seemed like a fitting place to start the study of what happened before colonial settler cultures from Europe began their attempted genocide of the Native tribes of the continents that became known as the Americas. 

My school always had some Native students despite false claims by some staff and school board directors who wanted to pretend that we were all white and therefore there was no racism. (You can unpack that argument if you want to.) I began to realize how virulent the white supremacy of northern New England was as I read through old newspaper articles about Native issues and, especially, the comments. Wow those comments. The nastiest of stereotypes about Native people were offered as evidence that they could never exercise sovereignty while ignoring the fact that several tribes were still continuously doing exactly that right here in Maine.

It was good preparation for engaging as an ally in the battle to retire the last school mascot in my state that made derogatory reference to indigenous people. Starting back at least as far as 1999, Native leaders in Maine had been asking Skowhegan High School to retire its pretendian mascot. Revived periodically until 2019, their demand attracted more nastiness, death threats, ugly slurs and overt expressions of racism. Change leader Maulian Dana, ambassador from the Penobscot Nation to the State of Maine, described some of it in a TEDxDirigo talk.

A blog post I wrote conveying my sister Hope's testimony to the school board was one of my most read posts ever -- currently at 8,106 views -- describing how she listened to Native people saying they and their children found pretendian mascots and Halloween costumes degrading. She described other cartoonish figures of racial prejudice that had long since fallen from favor because people listened to the impacted communities. 

Sisters Leah & Sydalia Savage and Natalie Cooke are student athletes who asked their school board to change the team name back in 2019.

Our great-nieces took a stand for changing a team name that had embarrassed student athletes for years. A family project that I know my dad, a former Skowhegan High School athlete whose letter sweater I often wore to school board meetings, would have endorsed.

"Hope Savage, right, gestures as she speaks about Skowhegan Area High School using Indian as the school mascot on Monday. Her sister, Lisa, is at left. The Savages and others are urging the school board to cease using Indian as the school mascot." Source: Waterville Morning Sentinel

After a few years teaching about ancient cultures and their reflection in modern life, I was approached by a former student who is Penobscot and wanted to celebrate Indigenous People's Day on the Monday holiday still known then as Genocidal Maniac Day. She wanted to gather other students for a teach-in and the principal had said she needed a faculty member sponsor. Now a high school teacher herself, she organized her mom who was serving on the school board and her dad Barry, a former chief of the Penobscot Nation, to help as IPD educators. We learned outdoors that day as is the Native way, and took a field trip to a collection of indigenous artifacts collected by a Passamoquoddy tribal member.

Many years later, here we are celebrating IPD as a state along with 14 others. Learning opportunities today in Maine include these featured in the Portland Press Herald's coverage about our newish holiday:

These events are scheduled online to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2020:

• The ACLU of Maine and the Wabanaki Alliance will host a free educational webinar at noon Monday on “The Sovereignty and the Maine Tribes: Where We Are and What Comes Next.” Go to aclumaine.org for more information and to register for a Zoom link.

• The Upstander Project will offer free online screenings from 8 to 10 p.m. Monday of “Dawnland,” a film about the formation of the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and “Dear Georgiana,” a film about a Passamaquoddy elder’s journey to understand her removal from her native community at age 2 by child protective services. The event will include a live panel discussion with the filmmaker and question-and-answer period. Go to upstanderproject.org to register.

I was in college in Brunswick when children were being removed from their Native families by the State of Maine. Many were consigned to abusive foster homes and nearly all lost connection with their cultural heritage. As a US history major, why was I not taught about this?

Our education is our own responsibility, ultimately. I've kept listening and learning and today I hope to do the same.

Barry Dana and I at one of many, many board meetings in MSAD #54. The person behind us is a Skowhegan police officer, present because threats of violence against Native people were a consistent theme during the mascot retirement struggle. Photo credit: Jeff Kirlin

Running for the US Senate seat currently held by Susan Collins under Maine's fairly new system of ranked choice voting has been a learning experience second to none. One of my earliest endorsements came from Barry Dana, who wrote:

"Lisa became in my opinion one of the hardest working allies to the Tribes. She continually gave testimony before the board requesting they comply with Tribes' request to drop their offensive mascot, nickname, and imagery. She also presented testimony before the Maine state legislature in our successful effort to create a statewide law prohibiting offensive mascots. Lisa played a huge role in this victory for which I am forever thankful."