In #Maine prisons, #NativeAmerican #SweatLodges are part of the program
A #Passamaquoddy elder has led over 100 sweats for inmates since 2007.

Reuben M. Schafir, Posted November 6, 2025

WINDHAM — "When the tarps of the sweat lodge are pulled back, a swirling cloud of steam wafts up toward the bear pelt draped overhead.

"It dissipates before reaching the razor wire that caps the fences around the recreation yard at the #MaineCorrectionalCenter.

"Between rounds in the ceremony, voices from inside command the retrieval of rocks warming in a fire pit a few feet away. Women carefully lift the rocks with shovels over an altar bearing a cedar bough and a turtle shell, and into the lodge.

"As Savannah Smith, 28, crawls out of the roughly 12-foot-wide structure, she grins.
'It’s a lot right now,' she said, her calves dotted with goosebumps as her body readjusts to the cool fall air after two hours inside the lodge.

"Her halting voice and still-glistening eyes give her away: 'I cried at every session we had.'

"It’s been nearly 20 years since #IndigenousPeople in Maine’s prisons won the right to practice their religion while incarcerated. Inmates say sweat ceremonies help them stay sober and connect them to their communities. And the state’s corrections commissioner heralds them as a sign of Maine’s #inclusivity and says they are part of a progressive approach to ensuring safety inside prisons and reducing the likelihood of future offenses.

"Since inmates won the right to hold sweat ceremonies, #BrianAltvater has traveled from his Down East home on the #PassamaquoddyReservation at #Sipayik (#PleasantPoint) to facilitate them. He is a #PipeCarrier and a #SweatLodgeKeeper — designations, he explained, that are chosen by the ancestors.

" 'I don’t deserve to be a pipe carrier and do this sort of work,' he told his teacher, David Gehue of #Sipeknekatik, Nova Scotia, when Gehue noticed his potential.
'Deserve’s got nothing to do with it,' Gehue, himself a respected spiritual leader, said. 'Once the ancestors pick you, you don’t have a choice.'

" 'Let me think about it,' Altvater said.

"That was several decades ago."

Read more:
https://www.centralmaine.com/2025/11/06/in-maine-prisons-native-american-sweat-lodges-are-part-of-the-program

Archived version:
https://archive.md/ImwsD

#WabanakiNews #PassamaquoddyNation #IndigenousNews #RightToPracticeReligion

#AshTree Protection Collaboration Across #Wabanakik

"Ash trees, in particular brown ash (used interchangeably with black ash, Fraxinus nigra), are a cultural keystone species for Wabanaki communities and a crucial part of wetland ecosystems in the Northeast. The spread of the invasive forest pest EAB has caused 99% brown ash tree mortality in other areas of Turtle Island, and will have a considerable effect on ecosystems and traditions as it spreads through the Dawnland.

"Partners of the Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik’s (APCAW) have been working for 20 years to prepare for the onset of EAB in Northeastern forests. We are committed to identifying research-informed strategies to protect the future of ash in the Dawnland that align with Wabanaki priorities. The purpose of this website is to share practical knowledge with those who seek to take actions to maintain ash on the landscape. If you’d like to receive event announcements in your inbox, sign up for our newsletter here. Read on to find information about the cultural importance of ash, seed collection efforts, and emerald ash borer (EAB) management.

Why are we called the Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik?

"Our name emerged from collaborative conversations about the goals of our shared work. We decided to use the word #Wabanakik to refer to the place where we are located in an effort to center Wabanaki language and ways of knowing. Wabanakik is a term with slightly different meanings in each eastern #Algonquin language, but can be understood in English to mean either 'in the location of the land which is referred to as the #Dawnland' or 'in the location of the People of the Dawn.' Wabanakik stretches from Newfoundland in the north, to mid-Maine in the south, and parts of Quebec in the west.

"APCAW members acknowledge that we are located in the homeland of the #WabanakiConfederacy, which includes the #Abenaki, Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Tribal Nations. Wabanakik has a ongoing legacy of #colonialism, of #StolenLand, broken treaties, forced removal and genocide of Wabanaki peoples which have fragmented Wabanaki relationships to land. The People of the Dawn maintain a sacred relationship with brown ash trees since time immemorial. APCAW’s work is to center, protect, and restore this ongoing relationship between Wabanaki peoples and ash ecosystems.

Who are we?

"The Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik (APCAW) is a group of Indigenous and non-indigenous researchers, Tribal members, and forest caretakers working together to bring more awareness of the cultural and ecological significance of ash trees and efforts to conserve them. APCAW continues the initiative set forth by the EAB and Brown Ash Taskforce, which began in the early 2000s to facilitate the collaborative capacity of Wabanaki basketmakers, Tribal Nations, state and federal foresters, and others to prevent, detect, and respond to the EAB. APCAW gives platform to the work of a broad range of partners, including:

• University of Maine School of Forest Resources

• Tribal Nations
#MikmaqNation, Presque Isle
#HoultonBand of #Maliseet Indians, Houlton
#PassamaquoddyTribe at #IndianTownship
Passamaquoddy Tribe at #PleasantPoint #Sipayik
#PenobscotNation, Indian Island

• Wabanaki basketmakers and the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance

• State and Federal Forestry Agencies
USDA APHIS
State of Maine Department of Agriculture & Forestry
State, Private, and Tribal Forest Service

• Conservation organizations and seed saving organizations
The #WildSeedProject
#MaineLandTrustNetwork

Learn more (includes links to resources):
https://umaine.edu/apcaw/

#Maine #MFS #EAB #EmeraldAshBorer #AshTree #AshTrees #APCAW #InvasiveSpecies #Wabanaki #ProtectTheForests #MaineNews #Maine #SaveTheTrees #WabanakiCulture #WabanakiBasketry #WabanakiTradition #Forestry #ProtectTheSacred #SolarPunkSunday

#Wabanaki Nations, allies celebrate progress in continued fight for #sovereignty

Emma Davis
Fri, July 12, 2024

"[The alliance] honored the contributions of #RenaNewell, former #Passamaquoddy Tribal Representative to the state Legislature and former chief of the reservation at #Sipayik, and #BethAhearn, who this year retired as director of government affairs for Maine Conservation Voters, a nonprofit focused on protecting the environment and one of the earliest members of the #WabanakiAlliance.

"Newell, who currently serves as interim associate director of the Wabanaki Alliance, said it is not the work of one individual that brings success but the relationships people have with one another that allow for collective learning and movement forward together.

"During her time in the State House, Newell led efforts to expand Tribal-State coordination, including paving the way for greater sovereignty for the Passamaquoddy two years ago. Newell sponsored legislation that provided tribal members at Sipayik, also known as #PleasantPoint, more power to regulate local #DrinkingWater by, among other means, removing barriers in the #SettlementAct that had prevented the tribe from fully accessing federal funds and remediation resources that were available to other federally recognized tribes."

Read more:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/wabanaki-nations-allies-celebrate-progress-113944863.html

#WabanakiConfederacy #WaterIsLife #Maine #NativeAmericans #PassamaquoddyNation

#WabanakiREACH Celebates #OralHistory Exhibit Opening with Gathering at #SipayikMuseum

wikhikonol: stories + photos at the Sipayik Museum, 59 Passamaquoddy Rd., #PleasantPoint, Maine. Exhibit runs June 20 through October at the Sipayik Museum, Point Pleasant Peninsula.

6 June 2024

SIPAYIK | PLEASANT POINT, ME (June 4, 2023)– "Wabanaki REACH has partnered with the Sipayik Museum to present wikhikonol, an oral history exhibit featuring #stories alongside #photography by #Wabanaki artists #NolanAltvater and #MayaAttean. The exhibit, which opens June 20 with a celebratory gathering, is part of Wabanaki REACH’s #truthtelling initiative Beyond the Claims– Stories from the Land & the Heart.

"Wabanaki REACH has recorded and preserved over forty personal oral history interviews from #Wabanaki and #Maine communities in hopes to illuminate the humanity behind the Maine Indian land claims era and demystify the #MaineIndianClaimsSettlementAct of 1980. The organization has been focusing its efforts on building an accessible archive of interviews, creating educational resources for the greater community, and making space for healing and truth-telling to happen.

"wikhikonol marks Wabanaki REACH’s second public offering related to the project following where the river widens, an original community-devised play performed on Indian Island last fall.

"wikhikonol features text and audio of stories that emerged in the interviews, complemented by photographs of Wabanakik and its people. Beyond the Claims is led by Wabanaki ways of being and knowing to further Wabanaki REACH’s crucial work of bringing truth, healing, and change to the #Dawnland.

"'Our intentions were to create a deeper understanding of the Maine Indian #LandClaims, a tumultuous period in tribal-state history that still impacts the Tribes today. We wanted to capture stories from people with lived experiences during this time, uplift stories that exemplify the Wabanaki people's unique relationship to their homelands, and create tools for learning and understanding so we can ultimately move toward a more just and understanding future together', said #MariaGirouard, Executive Director of Wabanaki REACH.

"Wikhikon is the #Passamaquoddy word originally used for #birchbark maps but now refers to book, image, map, or any written material. For this exhibit, it can be understood as a visual tool for storytelling that offers spaces for relations and understandings to emerge from the Land and from the people who are connected to it. It is a term that challenges and resists dominant, western understandings of stories and the Land and the relationships in which they attempt to force Wabanaki people into.

"Nolan Altvater said, 'This exhibit is a celebration of the myriad relations that Wabanaki people have with our homelands. The stories blur the lines between image and word while inviting the audience to critically think and learn with the literacies of our land beyond the claims of the settlement act'.

https://www.wabanakireach.org/press_release

#NativeAmericanHistory #WabanakiHistory #WabanakiAlliance #Maine

An unexpected visit to Pleasant Point allowed us to see the Model T railmotor RM4 arrive at the station - sadly we didn't have time to go for a ride on it, as it looks an absolute treat!

#PleasantPoint #NZ #NZR