The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.
The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.
Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.
Fern L. Nesson
Last week, I drove to Maine to visit the island home of the Penobscot Nation, one of the two remaining native American tribes in the state. During my visit, it felt almost like time had stood still. The Maine Guide had much to say about the Penobscots in 1938 and its sensitive reporting holds remarkably true to this day:
Of the many tribes of Indians that inhabited Maine at the time of the white man’s coming in the early 17th century, only two remain: the Penobscots and the Passamaquoddy. They are all that is left of the Abenaki people of the dawn, a once powerful nation of more than 20 tribes, inhabiting parts of Canada, Maine, New Hampshire, and northern Massachusetts. …
The Penobscots live on a reservation at Indian Island. … The Indians of Maine have always been a peaceful and friendly people living chiefly by agricultural activities. It was they who kept the early settlers of Massachusetts alive by sending presence of food to the settlements. They were ultimately aroused to violent action only by the prolonged aggression of the settlers and by being forced to take sides in the English French struggles and when they did rise up, whole tribes were remorselessly exterminated.
…
The Indian village [is] autonomous in government, electing its own officers. The tribe may send representatives to the state legislature, [and has its own school. … They [speak English but] are, however, taught to speak their native language at an early age and much is being done among them to preserve their native traditions and arts.
In 1786, a treaty confirmed to the Indians certain lands [which ] were sold at various times to Massachusetts and to Maine. [Currently,] the tribe owns all of the 146 islands above Old Town with a total area of 4,500 acres. The Indians work as river drivers and as guides to hunting and fishing parties.
…
The Office of Chief or Sagamore was formerly held for life, but in 1862 it became annually elective…. The Indians used to wander with the seasons according to the location of food supplies. In spring, they went to the rivers for alewives, shad and salmon on the banks. They planted corn, squash, beans, and other vegetables. In June, they went to the sea for porpoise and seal in order to get oil and skins and for clams and lobsters …. In September, they returned to the river valleys to harvest their crops, and in October they went into the big woods to hunt.
Before Christmas, they held their annual Thanksgiving feast for not less than two weeks. Our national Thanksgiving day is a direct imitation of the Indian festival, even to the kinds of food served: turkey, cranberries, Indian pudding. When snow came, they went into the deep woods hunting for moose and setting traps.
Before the ice broke up in March or April, they had made their spring catch of Otter and Beaver. When the river was clear, they were ready for the catching of muskrat and they could start out in their canoes to fish and to go to the lower valleys for the planting.
Throughout Maine, the scene has actually changed but little since the time of the Indian supremacy. Today in the great woods or by the lonely shore one can still see them in the mind’s eye.
The home of the remaining members of the Penobscot tribe, numbering about 400 on Indian Island in the Penobscot River. The Penobscots own the island under state supervision and send a non-voting representative to the main legislature.
The village centers around a main street extending back from the wharf, [and] has a church, school and … weather-beaten residences. Many of the old customs are still retained. During the tribal celebrations held several times a year, centuries slip away and once again, the island rings with the chanting of old songs and flashes.
[W]ooden crosses mark the [graves in the] cemeteries on the island. … Among those buried are Andrew Sockalexis, a marathon runner and member of the American team in the fifth Olympiad at Stockholm, Sweden in 1912, and his brother, Louis, a Holy Cross graduate and baseball player on the Cleveland American League Club. At a grassy spot on the island stands a monument to the Penobscot Indians killed in the revolution. A bronze tablet on the monument lists the names of the men who fought with the continental forces. Maine Guide, p. 24-27.
Prior to 1980, the Penobscot Nation was not formally recognized as a tribe by the United States government. In 1975, the Penobscots and Passamaquoddy sued for recognition. Five years later, they received the recognition that they clearly deserved. The Penobscot/Passamquoddy Wabanaki Alliance website describes the result:
The Penobscot Nation supported the Americans of the Revolutionary War, largely on the basis of promises and assurances to respect Penobscot territory and provide aid. These promises were supported and endorsed by General George Washington in a 1777 letter, but were quickly forgotten. Once the Americans defeated the British in the years to follow, the Penobscot Nation petitioned Congress to honor their promises and provide aid, but their requests were ignored.
The Penobscot nation fared a little better under the stewardship for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and after 1820, the state of Maine. Neither government honored the agreements to provide for the needs of tribal people in exchange for thousands of acres of land they occupied and sold. By the mid 1830s, the Penobscot nation had been dispossessed of much of its Aboriginal territory, retaining possession of only the Penobscot River and its islands from Indian Island north. State appointed Indian agents exercised total control over the dispensing of food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, and other necessities purchased with the money from the sale of the misappropriated tribal lands.
For many generations, the Penobscot people lived at a bare subsistence level. Not until 200 years after the Revolutionary War did the federal government acknowledge its obligation to the native tribes. [Although] Congress in 1790 had passed legislation to curtail exploitation of Indian lands, The Indian Trade and Intercourse Act, the United States historically took no action against states for violations of the act. [As a result,] the legal presumption arose in Maine that the tribes were not protected by this legislation and that the federal government had no responsibility towards them.
[It was only in] 1975, [that] a United States District Court ruled that the 1790 Act was applicable to the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Nations. In the case of Passamaquoddy v. Morton, the federal government [was ordered] to litigate a claim against the state of Maine for damages arising from the illegal taking of thousands of acres of tribal lands.The subsequent negotiated settlement of this case culminated in the passage by the US Congress of Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act in 1980, mark[ing] a critical turning point in the history of the Penobscot Nation.
wabanakialliance.com
For the Penobscot Nation, the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act provided a an opportunity to improve their educational and social resources on their island. In the ensuing 40 years, the infrastructure and services on Indian Island have dramatically improved. Just as in 1938, the population of Indian Island remains in the low 400s but the native government provides more robust services for its members:
There are 417 tribal members living on Indian Island. The Penobscot Nation followed a hereditary chief system until the early 1800s when they began operating as a democracy. While leaders are elected democratically, the entire adult tribal membership constituted as the general meeting serves as the legislative body of the nation. The executive and administrative functions of the nation are delegated to Penobscot Nation chief, a vice chief, and a 12 person council. A tribal ambassador appointed by the Chief and Council serves as liaison between the nation, the federal government, and the state of Maine government.
The nation’s administrative functions … are carried out by 16 tribal departments, including housing, health, social services, and tribal court. The Penobscot Nation Judicial System comprised of the tribal court and the Court of Appeals is the adjudicatory branch of the nation’s government. The nation is governed in accordance with its 31 chapters of tribal law. …Notably, the Penobscot Nation’s healing to Wellness Court has been nationally recognized for innovative, culturally based intervention that combines judicial oversight with tribal healing and wellness services.
wabanakialliance.com
A visit to the island offers both an opportunity to see the new improvements but also to experience the remoteness and beauty of the community as it was in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Main Street looks just as described in 1938: modest houses, a graveyard, a tribal courthouse and a wood-framed church, A few blocks down a side road stand the modern buildings housing the health center, a school, and a police/ fire station.
Set in the wide Penobscot River, the views from Indian Island are extraordinary and the island feels serene and protected. It seems a wonderful haven for the practice of native ritual and the transmission of native values for generations to come.
