9th – 12th Grade Literary Picks

Scroll through a list of informative and challenging texts from state legislators and veterans.

This book examines how Penobscot legend, linguistics, dance, and oral tradition became “foundations of resistance” against assimilation into the dominant culture of the United States since colonial times.
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This book focuses on the period of time when the government of Canada required all Aboriginal children to attend schools administered by churches. The author collected the firsthand experiences of forty-two survivors of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School.
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This book describes the struggle of the author as she works as both a representative of the Penobscot Nation and a legislator in Maine state government. Currently, Maine is the only state in the nation to have tribal representatives seated in its legislative body, although the tribal representatives do not have voting power on the house floor.
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This text on the history of indigenous peoples details the treatment and complete displacement of the Mi’kmaq civilization at the hands of European settlers. The author’s ongoing research continues to focus on Canadian colonization records and the treatment of First Nation people into the present.
This book illustrates the interaction between the Wabanaki and the wealthy summer rusticators on Mount Desert Island when Bar Harbor was called Eden.
women of the dawn
The biography of four Wabanaki women living in four different centuries; Molly Mathilde, Molly Ockett, Molly Molasses, and Molly Dellis Nelson.
A narrative of Indigenous wisdom that addresses some of the crucial issues of our day, such as environmental protection and human rights.
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Stories of Maliseet heroes told through poetry.
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This is the key monograph on the Penobscot. The author did fieldwork on Indian Island between 1907 and 1936. The book is broken down into four sections: Tribal Name and Habitat; Material Life; Arts, Decorative Designs, and Techniques; and Characteristics of Social Life.
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The author utilizes his memories and oral tradition to tell the story of the isolated Passamaquoddy village in Maine that he grew up in during 1940s and 1950s, and explains why preserving the Passamaquoddy traditions and language is so critical to his people’s survival in modern times.
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This book examines the service and sacrifice made by Native American soldiers and their communities in WWII, the Korean War and Cold War, focusing on the life of Charles Shay and told partly in his words. The book will be released in full in 2020; currently, certain excerpted chapters were released early to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day.