In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

113 Introduction Juana Perley Have you ever wondered why you see Maliseet/Malecite spelled two different ways? It is because the tribe exists in two different countries, the United States and Canada. The Malecite spelling is usually seen in Quebec. In the United States the community is referred to as a tribe, whereas in Canada it is referred to as a First Nation. Most of the Maliseet First Nations are located in New Brunswick province: Kingsclear, Woodstock, Madawaska , St. Mary’s, Oromocto, and Wolastokwik ‘Negoot-gook (Tobique).¹ There is a First Nation of Viger, located in Quebec, and the Houlton Band in Houlton, Maine. There are also numerous Maliseets living on Indian Island, Maine. They were adopted by the Penobscots when the Penobscots were obtaining their federal recognition. I remember my first trip to Tobique. I was attempting to be recognized by the Canadian government so that I could obtain my tribal certificate. It is very curious that to be Native American you must be recognized by a government. It is the only American ethnic group that I know of that is required to have a document to prove ethnicity. This is one method that the governments use to control the Native American populations and their obligations to them. At one time, if a Maliseet woman married a white man, she and her children would no longer be considered Native American.² On the other hand, if a Maliseet man married a white woman, he and his children would not lose their Native American standing. As Andrea Bear Nicholas explains in her essay below, linguicide is a method of stripping culture from Native Americans; so too, this was a way of destroying a First Nation. Tobique is the reserve where my great-grandfather, Gabriel Perley, originated. Gabe had left the reserve to find work in Greenville, Maine, as a guide, trapper, and snowshoe maker. Greenville soon became home for the Perley family. In the years to follow, Gabe and his wife, Philomen, did return to Tobique for weddings and baptisms. The first time I visited, I was very nervous, but I was welcomed by all. People knew about Gabe 114 maliseet and knew that he left the reserve, but what had happened to him and his descendants was unknown. Jim Bear had come down to Maine to interview my sister and me after we inquired about tribal membership. He was a tribal member who worked as a liaison between the Canadian government and the tribe on issues of tribal memberships. He introduced me to Andrea Bear Nicholas, because at that time she was documenting various family trees. It turned out that Andrea and I were distantly related. She was able to point me to the archives where I could find documentation on Gabriel and Philomen Perley. It does not matter if you have relatives living on the reserve. If you weren’t there to sign the rolls then you were not considered a member of the First Nation.³ According to the Canadian government, they had no documentation of Gabriel Perley ever being on the reserve. I was, however, able to find several documents that showed that he had lived on the reserve. After I submitted this documentation, the Canadian government started to lose various documents. It was at this point that I gave up. There is a recurring theme in the following works, from Gabe Acquin’s pictograph to Brenda Commander’s 2009 letter to President Obama requesting assistance with the state of Maine over the Indian Claims Settlement Act. The short story “The Red Man’s Burden,” by my grandfather , Henry Red Eagle, also shows the frustrations and difficulties that many Native Americans faced then as well as today. Meanwhile, Shirley Bear’s poignant poem “Fragile Freedoms” speaks to the vulnerability of the Native American world. Mihku Paul’s poem “Trade in the 21st Century” brings back my memory of staying at a working farm and bed and breakfast in Perth Andover. The owners knew that I was doing research at Tobique, but they had no idea that I was part Native American and that I had relatives living there. They were complaining about the high price of the potato baskets so painstakingly woven by Native people. Paul’s poem, as all of these writings, brings to mind the adage about how much things have changed, but how much they remain the same. ...

Share