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Surrounded by a growing cash economy
and no longer able to survive on hunting and gathering,
Wabanaki women and men struggled to get by while trying
to hold on to at least some of their traditional liberty.
Avoiding the miserable confines of factory jobs requiring
long hours for low wages, they worked independently
making and selling crafts, especially moosehide moccasins
used in logging camps and woodsplint baskets used for
harvesting and storage. Most Wabanaki men continued
to hunt to feed their families. Many took up logging
and river driving, which allowed them to spend their
days in the familiar setting of the forest. Some began
farming small reservation plots to earn government crop
bounties.
Some Wabanaki women and men capitalized
on white society’s growing romantic fascination
with the primitive wilderness that was being destroyed
by “progress.” Marketing themselves as Indian
doctors or performers, they took to the road as entertainers
in various venues, including medicine shows. Wabanakis
who made a living as small-town entertainers were treated
as backward, county fair material. Those who succeeded
in the greater venues of Wild West shows and films found
themselves forced to portray Plains Indian stereotypes
wildly popular with the American public.
Quite a few Wabanaki men became hunting
and fishing guides, and many women began making fancy
woodsplint and sweetgrass baskets designed specifically
to suit the Victorian tastes of well-to-do visitors.
Most Wabanaki ventured to Maine’s coastal and
lakeside resorts each summer to market their wares.
Everyone knew that sales increased if one dressed in
Indian costume or had their children perform an Indian
dance or song. By the end of the century, most Wabanaki
households in the state depended on basketry as their
primary source of income—and women were the major
makers and marketers of the craft. Despite hard work,
many suffered from poverty.
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