bikahtagenigan

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.

These archaeological specimens show evidence of having been used in the same fashion as crooked knives, chisels or small gouges. Sections A and B show modified beaver teeth from the Carson Site, Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick, 1000 BP. Section C shows beaver mandibles from the Sand Point Site, St. Croix River.
Image courtesy of David Sanger, The Carson Site and the Late Ceramic Period in Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick,Canadian Museum of Civilization, Mercury Series, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Paper no. 135, 1987.

Indigenous to the Northeast, the bikahtagenigan, or crooked knife, was an essential tool and the ability to make one, a necessary life-skill. The earliest crooked knives were made from a beaver incisor left imbedded in a portion of the mandible or a beaver or porcupine incisor hafted into a handle. After European contact, Native Peoples had access to a variety of metal blade forms that could be modified to make crooked knives. Some companies, such as the Hudson Bay Company, stocked blades for crooked knives. By the 1700s, Wabanaki artisans made crooked knives with metal blades. Handles for these knives were either left plain or ornamented with elaborate carvings or incised decorations produced by chip-carving or etching.

Crooked knives were integral to making birchbark canoes and canoe paddles and poles. They were also used in the production of brown ash splint basketry, in the shaping of snowshoe frames, and in carving root clubs.