With land claims settled, tribe turns focus to culture (fwd)

[Phil CashCash]

With land claims settled, tribe turns focus to culture

By Grace Murphy, Staff Writer
http://www.pressherald.com/news/state/030915spiritside.shtml

PLEASANT POINT —  Dute Francis prayed as he raked the grass in front of
a sweat lodge built by Passamaquoddy students.

  The circle where Francis would heat the stones, and the altar where he
would lay offerings to the Great Spirit, needed cleaning before a
ceremony was held to honor the reservation's eighth-graders.

  As Francis prayed to the Great Spirit, his words grew faint, then
inaudible, as a school custodian approached with a lawnmower. Within
minutes, the sweat lodge, altar and fire circle were sprinkled with
grass.

  The unintentional desecration of a sacred site put a temporary stop to
the prayers and preparations.

  "It's just ignorance, total ignorance," Francis said, glaring after
the custodian. "I have to go sit down before I do something I regret."

  Both on the reservation and off, Passamaquoddies of all generations
are trying to educate themselves and others about the tribe's culture,
values and beliefs.

  The tribe, like others in Maine, is undergoing what anthropologist
Harald Prins calls a cultural and spiritual rebirth. Prins, a Kansas
State University professor who has studied Maine and Canadian Maritime
tribes in what is known as the Wabanaki confederacy, said the
land-claims settlement of 1980 began to resolve some of the most urgent
economic, legal and political concerns of the tribe.

  That gave tribal members more energy and resources to focus on
reviving the aspects of their culture that nearly died out following
colonization by European settlers. Examples abound:

   There is a Passamaquoddy culture course at the Beatrice Rafferty
Elementary School at Pleasant Point, where students learn the language
and tribal dances, drumming and prayers.

   Dute Francis' father, David Francis, is translating an ancient, oral
language into a digital Passamaquoddy-Maliseet-English dictionary. A
research assistant runs classes for adults and children at the
Waponahki Museum & Resource Center.

   The weekly tribal government newsletter includes coloring sheets for
children printed in Passamaquoddy.

  David Francis, 86, the oldest male tribal member living on the
reservation, feels a sense of urgency to finish the talking dictionary,
which will include a computer component.

  Francis grew up speaking Passamaquoddy decades before linguists
arrived in the 1970s to help assign the oral language an alphabet and
translate it on paper.

  Most of those who are fluent in Passamaquoddy are age 35 and older.
Francis can think of only 20 people who can both comprehend and read
and write the language, as he can.

  "I know the language is dying. It's my life ambition to save it," he
said.

  Francis hopes the dictionary will help younger generations carry the
language into the future.

  Preservation of the language also keeps the tribe connected with its
past. The Passamaquoddy lost many of their religious customs when
members converted to Catholicism in 1604.

  Catholic churches were built on Maine's reservations in the 1800s,
followed by religious schools. While spiritual traditions were lost or
suspended, the tribe kept the language alive.

  "If you have people that have lost their language, they've also lost
that sense of connectedness to their ancestors and nature," said Prins,
the Kansas State professor. "A lot of the concepts that express human
beings' attitudes toward nature, landscape, animals, the trees, it's
all in the language."

  The Roman Catholic church on the reservation is full on Sundays, and
it's unlike any service most Catholics ever have seen. Parishioners
recite the Lord's Prayer in Passamaquoddy, and use the Passamaquoddy
word for "the end" rather than the word "amen."

  Janice Murphy, a Sister of Mercy who lives at Pleasant Point and
ministers to the tribe, said native spiritual observances and the
Catholic church coexist on the reservation.

  "As long as the Blessed Trinity - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit -
are at the core and center of their life in addition to their native
beliefs, I can't say enough positive about their native traditions,
customs, and God-given gifts that they use," Murphy said.

  Some tribal members, like Dute Francis, do not rely on an institution
to worship. He prefers native religious rituals such as the sweat
lodge. Some Passamaquoddy participate in both native rituals and
Catholic services.

  Dute Francis is a cultural instructor at the school, and the sweat
lodge on school grounds was built by the fifth- through eighth-graders
he teaches. He has found healing and strength in beliefs shared by his
ancestors, and wants to give the rest of the community the same
opportunity.

  As a pipe carrier for the tribe, his job is to conduct ceremonies.

  "My purpose in life is to carry the language and culture. My life will
end here, where I was brought up, with daily practices of custom,
tradition and language," he said.

Staff Writer Grace Murphy can be contacted at 282-8228 or at:
gmurphy at pressherald.