Andrew Dana Doll
• The Frank T. Siebert Collection
• Courtesy of Stephanie Finger
• 35 cm tall
Penobscot Andrew Dana owned this doll. Andrew grew up on Mattanawcook Island, a tiny Penobscot village in the Penobscot River at Lincoln, Maine. Located about 25 miles upriver from the main Penobscot village at Indian Island, Old Town, the Mattanawcook Island village was a more remote community. Linguist Frank Siebert sought out Penobscot speakers from there when he began his study of the language in the 1930s. Andrew became a close friend, colleague and language teacher to Siebert. When Andrew died in 1968, Siebert was devastated; he continued to work with Andrew’s wife, Susie, who was also a native speaker of the language.
Andrew was born in February 1898 and lived with his grandfather, Francis Joseph Dana. Francis Dana was a proficient Penobscot speaker and one of the last of the traditional narrators who remembered and performed the very ancient Penobscot stories. Young Andrew grew up listening to his grandfather’s narratives. Later, as an elder himself, he recounted them for Frank Siebert.
The doll is delicate and intricately carved. He carries a tiny bow and wears bird claw and bead necklaces and a feather headdress. He is dressed in a buckskin jacket and leggings typical of 19th century men’s “traditional” clothing, and has his recurved bow and a feather headdress.
This delicate, intricately carved doll belonged to Andrew Dana, a Penobscot born in Februrary 1898.