Northeastern Americas: Humanities Research and Education

Coastal flooding

With St. Amand’s matrix, town planners can ID at-risk archaeological sites 

As sea-level rise, extreme weather events and storm surge become more frequent and severe along the Maine coast, people who live there will move inland.  Globally, weather-related hazards accounted for more than 230 million displacements from 2008 to 2018, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center. In 2018 alone, 1.2 million people in the United […]

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VillageSoup advances John Bear Mitchell’s storytelling at Strand

VillageSoup promoted Penobscot storyteller John Bear Mitchell’s appearance at 5 p.m. March 14 at the Strand Theatre in Rockland. Mitchell, a citizen of the Penobscot Nation from Indian Island, will share Wabanaki stories. Mitchell serves as the University of Maine System Office Native American Waiver and Educational Program Coordinator, the University of Maine’s Wabanaki Center […]

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Wabanaki women painting

Penobscot women and the tribal land tenure system in 19th-century Maine

In the 19th century, Penobscot grandmothers approved marriages, adjusted family disputes, sanctioned divorces and carried wampum. The tribe’s grandmothers’ council (nohkəməssizak mawebohwak, or the modern spelling, nohkomess potawasin) could veto a declaration of war by the chief and tribal council. Penobscot women had powerful and wide-ranging roles in their society, and their importance was embedded […]

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Newsom quoted in bicentennial column in Morning Sentinel, KJ

In Lisa Miller and Luisa Deprez’s column in the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal about Maine turning 200 years old, University of Maine assistant professor of anthropology Bonnie Newsom, a citizen of Penobscot Indian Nation, said, “People have been living here for at least 11,000 years … living along the Penobscot River for at least […]

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Calais Advertiser covers Newsom’s research on POW camp on Passamaquoddy land

The Calais Advertiser announced that Bonnie Newsom will conduct archeological research on a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp located on Passamaquoddy land in Eastern Maine. Newsom, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Maine, will collaborate with Donald Soctomah, a Passamaquoddy Tribal Historic Preservation officer. The American Association of University Women recognized […]

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Mitchell talks with WVII about encounter with ‘one who eats a lot’

John Bear Mitchell shared his encounter with a creature for a WVII (Channel 7) piece titled “Some say Bigfoot seen in Maine.” “I never expected it, I never wanted it, never thought it would ever happen, but this happened,” said Mitchell, a citizen of the Penobscot Nation and the University of Maine Wabanaki Center outreach […]

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