Salt, Sand, and Sweetgrass: Methodologies for Exploring the Seasonal Basket Trade in Southern Maine

On an early summer evening in 2001, visitors knocked on the door of the Elizabeth Bishop Perkins House along the York River in Maine. Susan Lewey and her husband, Passamaquoddy people who were working as itinerant construction laborers in the region, wanted to speak with the people who lived in the house. They had been fishing on Sewall’s Bridge and had a direct view of a cigar-store Indian that stood on the lawn near the house. The property, which is owned, maintained, and interpreted by the Museums of Old York, was the summer home to four fellows in museum studies that year. The museum director, who happened to be visiting the house that evening, quickly called upon me, the sole Native fellow participating in the summer fellowship program focused on Native American history in the Yorks, to speak with these visitors. I was delighted to see Ms. Lewey and her husband, who raised issues that had been part of ongoing discussions among the fellows and with museum staff throughout the summer.

Speaking with our Passamaquoddy visitors brought the stakes of museum interpretation at the small local historical society in southern Maine into sharp relief for all of the fellows. Presenting static, stereotypical images of Indians is entirely unacceptable, and the Leweys were quick to voice their objections to this representation in the form of the cigar-store Indian. That said, our interaction quickly transformed from confrontation to genuine engagement. As I and the other fellows talked about our summer research projects, smiles slowly emerged in our small circle. Before long Ms. Lewey explained that, in addition to working as an itinerant construction worker, she was a basket maker. This news delighted me—I was devoting my time as a fellow at Old York to researching Indian basketry and, more importantly, the network of Indian basket makers who traveled to coastal Maine every summer to sell their wares. My enthusiasm for this craft work inspired Ms. Lewey to invite me back to her efficiency apartment to look more closely at her tools, her materials, and some of her work. Trusting that this was a very good development, I climbed into her car and drove off to learn more. An hour or so later, Ms. Lewey, her husband, and I returned to the Elizabeth Bishop Perkins House, where she allowed me to take photos of her tools (fig. 1) and she gifted me with two ash splint baskets (fig. 2). This interaction, which opened up the lived practice of Wabanaki ash splint basket making to me, was one of the key moments in a research process that combined informal interviews, documentary evidence, material culture, and travel across the Dawnland.

Fig. 1.

Tools for basket making from the collection of Susan Lewey (Passamaquoddy). Photograph by the author.

The essay that follows explores the possibilities that emerge in Native American and Indigenous studies (nais) when scholars expand their research methodologies and sources. Drawing on work undertaken in the summer of 2001 as part of a fellowship program dedicated to expanding the interpretation of Native American history at a local historical society, it is intended as a provocation to both scholars working in

Fig. 2.

Ash-splint baskets made by Susan Lewey (Passamaquoddy). Photograph by the author.

the discipline of history and those pursuing work in the field of nais who may overlook or diminish the work of trained historians. The essay presents an argument about methodologies and sources that tracks one historian’s process of research, discovery, disappointment, and renewed hope. It gestures toward the expectations initially brought to bear on the project and the accommodations made in the midst of research for this preliminary effort to begin illuminating the history of Indian basket makers in the Yorks for a broader audience. Rather than offering conclusions, it opens the door to further inquiry about Wabanaki seasonal communities in coastal New England. Like all proper histories, the story begins with the documentary...