Wabanaki and Brown Ash - Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

Wabanaki and Ash

Wabanaki people have been living in the Dawnland since time immemorial, and their relationship with brown ash is just as long. According to one Wabanaki creation story, Gluskabe fired an arrow into a brown ash tree, and women and children emerged from its bark singing and dancing (Hudson Museum). Ash is therefore woven into the cultural identity of Wabanaki people. In addition to its role in creation, ash is used as a primary material in Wabanaki basketry, which is currently practiced by about 200 Wabanaki artisans in Maine alone (Neptune and Neuman 2015). The growth rings of ash trees have unique structural qualities that make them suitable for pounding, splitting, and weaving. There is no comparable wood material in the Northeast. Selling ash baskets has been and continues to be an important source of income for Wabanaki people. Protecting ash is therefore critical to protecting this cultural tradition and economic lifeway, and groups like the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance have been working to revitalize Wabanaki basketry since 1993.

To report a stand of brown ash you’d like to share with Wabanaki ash harvesters, please fill out this form.

"They Carry Us With Them" features Richard Silliboy, Vice Chief of the Mi’kmaq Nation, a tribal elder, vice chief of the Aroostook Band of Mi’kmaqs, and a brown ash basketmaker. As he weaves a potato basket at his home in Littleton, Maine, Richard contemplates the arrival of the emerald ash borer and the tenuous future of this art.

Resources about Wabanaki people and Brown Ash

Weaving Together Livelihood and Culture in Maine, USA by Gabe Frey, Marla Emery, and Suzanne Greenlaw
Basketry of the Wabanaki Indians, by Jennifer Neptune and Lisa Neuman
Wabanaki Basketmakers featured by the Abbe Museum
Basketry as Economic Enterprise and Cultural Revitalization: The Case of the Wabanaki Tribes of Maine by Lisa Neuman
Waponahki Intellectual Tradition of Weaving Educational Policy by Rebecca Cardinal Sockbeson
Video: My Father’s Tools by Director Heather Condo starring basketmaker Stephen Jerome.

For many Wabanaki people, basket making signifies a process of decolonization, as the production of baskets is inseparable from assertions of tribal/band sovereignty, land use rights, and indigenous identities in twenty-first-century America and Canada Jennifer Neptune and Lisa Neuman, 2015

Tools to protect Wabanaki relationships to brown ash

Part of APCAW’s work is to build understanding about the importance of Wabanaki peoples relationship with brown ash, and share examples of how that relationship can be protected. There are a number of tools that already exist that protect Wabanaki relationships to brown ash and their ability to harvest ash. Existing tools should be adapted for the unique ecologies and significance of each location, as each is imperfect and comes with strengths and limitations. Landowners must also consider that not all brown ash is basket quality ash, and Wabanaki harvesters look for very specific characteristics of harvestable ash.

Existing tools to formalize access include:

Handshake agreements
Access permits
Cultural respect and use agreements
Land return