history
Photo: My mother, Mary Mitchell Gabriel, Passamaquoddy National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship 1994
Wabanaki Weaving Across Generations
PASSAMAQUODDY BASKETS ARE LIVING HISTORY - OUR STORIES DESERVE TO BE PRESERVED
WHO ARE THE WABANAKI?
WABANAKI IN MAINE & THE MARITIMES
The Wabanaki tribes consist of the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseet, and Mi'kmaq people of Maine and the Canadian Maritimes.
For centuries the Wabanaki people have passed on their cultural heritage through their basketry. Before recorded history, woodsplint and birchbark baskets were made for utilitarian use and trade purposes. Splint baskets made of brown ash trees and sweetgrass from saltwater marshes in Maine eventually became a means of economic and cultural survival, particularly in the nineteenth century, right through the turn of the century of the Victorian era. This was a time of great deprivation for the Wabanaki people, living on reservations, with limited land to hunt and fish and becoming more dependent upon the European economy and trade goods to feed their families. Economic survival prompted the creative production of “fancy baskets” for sale to local and tourist markets along the coastal routes as new markets emerged at popular coastal resorts in Maine and New England.
Highly adaptable, creative and mobile as a culture, Passamaquoddy weavers began to market and sell “fancy baskets” that appealed to the new collectors and Victorian tourist trade that began to flourish at the turn of the century along coastal waters. Responsive to the emerging market, many basketmakers traveled to coastal areas in the summer and set up rough camps just outside the seaside resorts such as Bar Harbor and Poland Springs, Maine where affluent travelers and tourists began their summer residence. The summer trade market began to decline by the 1930s, likely influenced by the Stock Market crash of 1929, and the Great Depression (1929-1939), as well as inexpensive imported products. Gradually the economy in basketmaking was replaced by other employment sources. Sales to summer tourists on the reservations and local markets continued on a smaller scale, but, by 1980, the basketmaking tradition was practiced by very few weavers. Thus, the labor intensive work of making baskets, along with low consumer prices failed to attract many younger people in the tribes to learn or practice the art as a livelihood. As basketmaking began to decline, only a few elder members of the tribes continued the tradition.
Read more about the early years at the Hudson Museum’s website . . .
WOODSPLINT BASKETRY - "FANCY BASKETS"
The value and recognition of Passamaquoddy basketmaking as a high quality traditional art has slowly risen over the last 20 years. In 1992, my mother, Mary Mitchell Gabriel, was the first Passamaquoddy basketmaker to be honored by the State of Maine Arts Commission with an Individual Artist Fellowship award. She was continuing the heritage of Native American basketmaking when many others were not involved in the art. This prestigious award in 1992 helped to spur the development of national recognition of Mary’s Passamaquoddy baskets two years later. Further, the 1992 award also helped to inspire the State of Maine Arts Commission, in alliance with tribal elders, to offer a traditional arts program for Maine Wabanakis to preserve the art of traditional basket making. With her exquisite skills in basketmaking, Mary was an amazing leader and role-model for others to follow. Later in 1994, Mary was the first Passamaquoddy Native American to be honored with a prestigious National Heritage Fellowship award by the National Endowment for the Arts for her extraordinary craftsmanship in basketmaking. Mary Mitchell Gabriel was the first Passamaquoddy Native American to receive both of these prestigious awards for her outstanding skill in basketmaking. Since that time, others have followed to receive either state or national recognition for their basketmaking. Mary was a founding member of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance funded by the State of Maine Arts Commission and formed in 1993 with the introduction of the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program. The State and National recognition that has resulted since 1992 when Mary initially received the Maine State Arts Commission award has helped to keep this living tradition alive and well.
As a valued heritage art form, Passamaquoddy baskets now command a price that more closely reflects the time, labor, natural materials and traditional skills that go into each basket, while their inherent beauty attracts buyers from all over the world. The market continues to expand as Native art and basket enthusiasts continue to purchase baskets for their collections. Although fancy basketmaking began as a means of economic survival to suit the Victorian trade market, it has evolved to become a nationally recognized collectible art form. Contemporary Passamaquoddy basket weavers today continue to carry on this traditional art to express their living culture in much the same way as their ancestors before them.
VISIT THESE WEBSITES FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HISTORY AND BASKETMAKING:
PASSAMAQUODDY CREATION LEGEND
Above: My grandfather, Joe Mell, spearfishing at night with a firetorch for light. . . (ca. 1910)
Birch Bark Scraping, Tomah Joseph, ca. 1884
ORIGINS OF THE WABANAKI TRIBES & BASKET MAKING
The following creation legend is excerpted from Charles Leland’s Algonquin Legends, published in 1884. This story was narrated by Passamaquoddy elder, Molly Sepsis, and recorded by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown, Calais, Maine:
“Glooskap came first of all into this country, into Nova Scotia, Maine, Canada, into the land of the Wabanaki, next to sunrise. There were no Indians here then (only wild Indians very far to the west). First born were the Mikumwess, the Oonabgemesuk, the small Elves, little men, dwellers in rocks. And in this way he made Man: He took his bow and arrows and shot at trees, the basket trees, the Ash. Then Indians came out of the bark of the Ash trees. And then the Mikumwess said……called tree man…Glooskap made all the animals. He made them at first very large….” (only fragments remain of some sentences).
GLUSCAP - THE GIANT CULTURE HERO
Gluscap, the legendary giant, was a transformer/culture hero of the people. Legend reveals how Gluscap provided the Passamaquoddy an entrance into this world through shooting arrows into Ash trees while the people emerged from the bark of the trees.
This transformation, in turn, gave birth to wood splint basketry. Thus, the legendary origins of Passamaquoddy basketry are the origins of the people. The rich mythology of the people is woven through families as oral history is passed down generation after generation.
In the pre-European contact period, these stories were conveyed through music and ‘singing of the stories’ preserved their integrity to keep them intact for each succeeding generation. According to J. Walter Fewkes, 1890, in Contribution to Passamaquoddy Folk-lore, the Passamaquoddies confirm how their legends were formerly sung, while the narratives were styled like poems. Non-native scholars recorded the ancient legends in written form beginning in the 1800s. Through direct interviews with tribal informants, many narratives were preserved, as they were no longer being widely preserved through song.
TREES TO TREASURES
The Wabanaki creation legend expresses our ancient culture born from trees and sustained by trees. Trees have provided sustenance, helped to navigate the waters, carried burdens, and helped to create an economy in basketry. The brown ash tree of life, according to legend, continues to provide sustenance in the treasures of Passamaquoddy basketry. The brown ash tree wood splints provide structure and substance of the baskets, and the treasure is revealed in the timeless beauty that emerges. Traditional style basketry has a continuity as basket weavers today continue to design, create and produce stunning examples of nature’s provisions. The spirit of Gluscap and the basket tree lives on through the living tradition of Maine Indian Baskets and the living culture of the Passamaquoddy people.
The voice of the ancestors in basket weaving speaks of respect, beauty, and the wisdom of the land. In the legendary past, the ancient giant, Gluscap, wove many stories for the people that are relevant today in our modern world.
You must be logged in to post a comment.