Maine’s Passamaquoddy people are once again growing and eating ancestral crops and saving the often rare seeds. These simple yet significant acts are tied to new research that sheds light on the sophisticated agriculture and accompanying plant-centric diet of the early Wabanaki people of northeastern North America, who lived and farmed in what we call Maine for 12,000 years before the European migration and colonization…
Planting these heirloom seeds is part of a wider effort by the Passamaquoddy to increase the amount of food produced on tribal land. All the ancestral seeds have been linked to tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy, which includes the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseet, Micmac and Abenaki.
In 2014, Koasek Abenakis, the Seeds of Renewal Program and retired Johnson State College humanities professor Frederick M. Wiseman, who is Abenaki, gave these ancestral seeds to the Passamaquoddy tribe at Motahkokmikuk. The following spring, the seeds returned to Passamaquoddy soil and flourished.
Read the full article in the Press Herald here.
Wonderful news!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Wholeheartedly agreed!
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Rich, wanted you to see this: https://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/rauner/dartmouth/dartmouth_history.html
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That is quite an accounting (I just had the time to read it through). Thank you for sharing it, Trace. The story of Wheelock’s earliest days, with Samson Occom, is one I would like to study further. I know a little about it, and have Colin Calloway’s book on the subject, but haven’t had the opportunity to read it yet. And Dartmouth is so close by to us; I hope to be able to cultivate some further connections there. I did note that the speaker/author of the essay identified Samson Occom as Mohican, whereas he was Mohegan, but that is a common confusion!
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Yup, Rich, confusion is the goal? I also found something about Uncas which I need to send you – was quite shocking. I cannot verify this account is true. Will post here when I find it.
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My interest is piqued! Thank you for your exchanges; I appreciate them very much. Warm wishes to you and yours, my friend.
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It is so long and so weird, I made a pdf… https://newtopiamagazine.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/the-intelligencers-and-the-fifth-moon-of-jupiter-alchemy-in-the-american-colonies/
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Whoa, that is a wild ride. Read halfway through… I need a break!
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Yup, it winds like road through a crazy history which I didn’t know!
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Some of the Uncas narrative is not completely novel, but the Winslow material is pretty remarkable for what it’s worth from this telling.
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I had no clue these guys were kinda Rosicrucian alchemists which makes this a much bigger story. [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rosicrucians]
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The things they didn’t teach you in school… not that that isn’t the case today as well!
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