Another #Nihkaniyane Honoree, #EmmaSoctomah, is the daughter of Elizabeth Neptune and #DonaldSoctomah -- Donald being another person I learned a lot from when I was covering the #MaineRivers conference! Emma is also the grandchild of renowned #Passamaquoddy #Basketmaker #MollyNeptuneParker.

"Emma Soctomah is a Passamaquoddy citizen of #Motahkomikuk and was the 2025 class valedictorian at University of Maine Machias,where she majored in psychology and community studies. She was an active participant in the college’s Kinap Mentorship Program, which creates both on- and off-campus programs aimed at bringing together #Wabanaki cultural values and Indigenous ways of knowing with Western education. She plans to continue working at the elementary school in Motahkomikuk and will pursue a master’s degree beginning in fall 2026. Soctomah is the daughter of Donald Soctomah and Elizabeth Neptune and the granddaughter of world renowned basketmaker Molly Neptune Parker. Soctomah is also a nationally recognized basketmaker and was among the first artists to receive an #AbbeMuseum Wabanaki #Artist Fellowship."

Learn more about Emma:
https://www.wabanakialliance.com/nihkaniyane2025-emmasoctomah/

#CulturalPreservation #PreservingHistory #IndigenousLanguage #IndigenousHistory #TraditionalArts #NativeAmericanArtists #valedictorian

One of the folks I had the opportunity to talk to at a #MaineRivers conference some years ago was #PenobscotNation member #JohnBanks. So glad to see him being honored... He has been a tireless advocate for the #PenobscotRiver!

"Banks was the Penobscot Nation’s representative on the Maine-Indian State Tribal Commission from 1987 to 2021, making him its longest-serving member. He also served on many local, regional and national organization boards, including the National Tribal Environmental Council, Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, National Indian Policy Center, and the Tribal Operations Committee with the federal EPA.

"But arguably Banks’ most noteworthy accomplishment involves bringing a Wabanaki voice and leadership to the historic #PenobscotRiverRestorationProject (1999-2016) in which two dams nearest to the sea were removed and a stream-like bypass channel was completed around a third dam at Howland.

"Completed in 2016, the $63 million restoration project opened almost 2,000 miles of habitat for 11 species of sea-run fish that had been choked off from their spawning grounds for almost two centuries by dams across the river.

"Since then, the river has come back alive with millions of river herring joined by Atlantic salmon, shad, sturgeon and other species in numbers that hadn’t been seen on the Penobscot River for nearly two centuries. Laura Rose Day credits Banks with a key intervention in 2002, when it looked like negotiations that had been going on for three years between #EnvironmentalGroups and the #hydro company owner were about to collapse.

" '[John] asked for a few minutes,' she wrote in a 2014 Christian Science Monitor commentary recalling the moment. 'Removing an eagle feather from a cloth wrap, he circled the table, laying the feather on each shoulder. He reminded us that, no matter whom we served, we were also responsible for being the voice for all the creatures of the river – the birds, the fish, and all of the people as well. The common goal had to be the health of the river.' "

Read more:
https://www.wabanakialliance.com/nihkaniyane2025-johnbanks/

#WaterIsLife #WabanakiAlliance #Wabanaki #Nihkaniyane #MaineRivers #DamRemoval #RiverRestoration

Here is a link to the story I wrote for #MaineWellBeing back in 2001. The publisher and editor, Judith Southworth, let me take the time needed to research this story -- including attending a conference at the #PenobscotNation on Indian Island, and interviewing the #WabanakiConfederacy leaders to get their side of the #MaineSettlementAct. I had some friends at the nearby Law School library help me to translate some of the "legalese" used in the Settlement Act (deliberately so). My story, though only in a newspaper with a small run (though statewide in its reach), helped to bring awareness to issues that the Wabanaki Confederacy -- especially the Penobscot Nation -- still face to this day.

Protecting Maine’s Life-Giving Rivers

First published in 2001, in Maine Well-Being

An excerpt:

TRIBAL GOVERNORS TAKE A STAND



The State of Maine and three major paper companies assert that the Settlement Act of 1980 makes the three tribes involved (the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and Houlton Maliseets) different from other sovereign Indian nations, claiming that they do not have the same rights as the other nations in the United States. There is language in the Settlement Act’s enforcement piece — the Implementing Act — which has been interpreted by the state as meaning the tribes are actually municipalities under state control. Because of this, the paper companies are bringing lawsuits against the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribal governments for access on their internal documents on water quality regulation. The paper companies claim that the Penobscot Nation and Passamaquoddy Nation are subject to the Freedom of Access Act, a state law requiring municipalities to provide such information on demand.



Passamaquoddy Governors Richard M. Doyle and Richard Stevens, as well as newly-elected Governor Dana of the Penobscot Nation, were threatened with daily $1000 fines and a year in jail for refusing to hand over the documents. The Penobscot and Passamaquoddy leaders claim that the health of their waters, which is life to them, is a matter of the health and welfare of their people and an internal matter, not subject to state regulations. The tribal governments are appealing to the Maine Judicial Supreme Court, but if they fail, the governors face imprisonment. Governor Dana asserted, “The paper companies don’t just want our documents... they’re after the continued right to pollute the river.” 



Read more:
https://doomsdayscw.blogspot.com/2022/12/protecting-maines-life-giving-rivers.html

#WaterIsLife #LandBack #Wabanaki #Maine #TraditionalCaretakers #MaineRivers #Pollution #Sovereignty #FirstNations #MaineFirstNations #IndigenousPeoplesDay