Penobscot Indians Join Museum Tribute
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22, 2004– For those who happened to be on the National Mall
Tuesday, there was a lot to look at. But among the thousands of colorful Native American costumes, members of the Penobscot Tribe brought something else that caught people’s eyes, especially on dry land: a hand-made, 70-pound birch bark canoe.
During the procession of tribes that celebrated the opening of the new Indian museum, Chief Barry Dana and some others carried the canoe they said marked a return to forgotten traditions. For more than 12,000 years, he said, the tribe lived on the Penobscot River, and traveled up and down it. But over time, the custom of making the canoes fell away.
“It would be one thing to say well, we used to have birch bark canoes. And up until a couple of years ago, that’s what we would have said. Now we have birch bark canoes ’cause we built them,” he said. “To really know about it, you gotta do it.”
The canoe is one of two used in the sacred annual trip up the Penobscot up to the base of Mount Katahdin, about 100 miles away, an event that begins with a fire at the tribe’s graveyard on Indian Island.
The Smithsonian Institution, which oversees the museum, was impressed enough to ask the tribe if it would contribute the canoe to the new collection. The tribe does not have any items there – though numerous items are archived with the Department of Interior in Washington and will likely become a part of future exhibitions, one tribal member said. Even so, Dana said the tribe turned down the offer, because of the significance the canoe holds.
“We would be extremely happy to oblige them” on a future canoe, Dana said.
Though the day belonged to the opening of the new museum on the Mall, tribal member James Neptune said their own tiny museum on the Indian Island reservation, which was converted from an old Bureau of Indian Affairs office, shouldn’t be overlooked. In fact, he said, they were hoping to get some of the items now at the Department of Interior, so that their own younger generations can see the items, without having to travel to Washington.
“To get a lot of these artifacts back would be very significant in helping us, helping our children to be proud of who they are,” he said. “Some things should come back to us.”
