August 13, 2015

Meet a Wabanaki Artist Fellow: Emma Soctomah

August 13, 2015/

Emma Soctomah is 11 years old and a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe living at Indian Township. She is an Honor Roll student who skipped the 4th grade, and will be in the 7th grade this fall.

Artwork is very important to her, and she spends much of her time outside of school making baskets. She has attended the Santa Fe Indian Market twice and has returned with top awards each time.

"My inspiration would definitely be my Gram, Molly Neptune Parker. She is always working on baskets and stopping to help me or my cousins. I am very thankful to have my Gram because she always helps me when I need it. She also makes very beautiful baskets. I am my brother George Neptune's apprentice, so I go to markets with him. He helps me work as hard as I can, but sometimes too hard, but that's okay. He just wants me to do as good as I can."

Here she is (in the pony tail), teaching Franklin Delano Roosevelt's great grandchildren how to weave a basket. Roosevelt was good friends with Tomah Joseph, who was from Indian Township, and a family relation to Emma and George.

As a Wabanaki Artist Fellow, Emma is off to the Santa Fe Indian Market this month to see what other awards she can win. But, it's not just about winning awards; making baskets is about keeping a tradition alive and well.

"I want to be sure that basketmaking keeps going so that we don't lose the tradition. At one point we started losing the tradition but my Gram started teaching more and more people. I want to be just like her and teach people to make baskets and keep it going. I will teach all of my children that I have in the future."

The Wabanaki Artist Fellowships were made possible through support from Dawnland, LLC, the concessioner in Acadia National Park.

May 13, 2015

Wabanaki Antiques Expo

May 13, 2015/

During the Wabanaki Antiques Expo held on Saturday, May 9th, four Master artists from the Wabanaki communities assembled to allow Abbe visitors to pick their brains for knowledge on pieces that were—or in some cases, were not—made by Wabanaki people. The panel included Master Basketmaker and beadworker Jennifer Neptune, Penobscot; Master Basketmaker Richard Silliboy, Micmac; Master Birchbark worker David Moses Bridges, Passamaquoddy; and Master Basketmaker and Museum Educator George Neptune, Passamaquoddy.

A wide range of objects were brought before the panel in hopes of having them identified. Tucked among several beaded "flapper" adornments and a few pieces of southwestern pottery were a few objects that piqued the panels' interest: the first object being a seal-skin belt, likely dating back to the Indian Encampments of Bar Harbor, making it easily one hundred years old.

While other objects were identified as "non-Wabanaki," including a shaker-style basket and several pieces of Southwestern pottery, many Wabanaki baskets—both utility and fancy styles—were brought in to be identified. While it's difficult to identify work by specific artists, the panelists were able to identify which tribes the baskets came from based on aesthetic trends from each community. The basket that brought up the most discussion: a red "sweetgrass flat" style purse with woven ash handles. A Potawatomi flute that dates back to the early 1800s also garnered a lot of discussion, and even some playing!

Hawk Henries, a member of the Nipmuck tribe, brought the flute in for the panelists to inspect. Hawk has a lot of experience enchanting audiences with flutes; he also crafts his own eastern woodlands flutes (out of a single piece of wood!).

The final object discussed by the panel was a beaded leather jacket. According to the oral histories around the item, it was constructed nearly two-hundred years ago, with the beadwork eventually being added by an Ojibwe beadworker. Jennifer Neptune confirmed that the beadwork was in the Ojibwe style, however, the presence of thread in the seams and use of trade-cloth and "greased" beads led panelists to believe that the jacket was made after the Civil War when thread became much more accessible for Native peoples.

May 05, 2014

Keep up with the Abbe's Collections

May 05, 2014/

The Abbe Museum’s collections comprise more than 50,000 objects representing 10,000 years of Native American culture and history in Maine, including the present. And additions are made each year, under the expert supervision of Curator of Collections, Julia Clark. Each new piece in collections is photographed and shared on our Flickr page; a wonderful way to keep up with new acquisitions. These acquisitions are made possible through two funds, the Diane Kopec fund and the Friends of the Collection Fund. If you’d like to make a gift to one of these funds, please contact Director of Development, Hannah Whalen at hannah@abbemuseum.org or by calling 207-288-3519.

A few recent collections additions: