Native Americans crucial to history, future

The traditional scene of the first Thanksgiving in the Plymouth Colony is the union of Indians and Pilgrims sitting down to a feast together to celebrate a bountiful harvest.
But, Native Americans had more to do with the United State’s growth and development than that one depiction. The descendants of the Houlton Band of Maliseets played crucial roles throughout American history.
An interpreter explained the meaning of the Declaration of Independence to the Maliseet leader, Ambrose Saint-Aubin Bear as recorded in the Massachusetts Archives, and his response was recorded as “We like it well.”
On July 10, 1776, representatives from the Maliseet and Mi’kmaq Tribes from what are now Maine and New Brunswick — the Wolaastoqiyik (also known to the British as Malecite, Maliseet or St. John River tribe) and the MíKmaq — had arrived in Watertown and signed the July 19, 1776 Treaty of Alliance and Friendship, the so-called “Watertown Treaty,” as well.
During the Revolution, the Maliseet were the predominant military force in the northern Maine district and placed their allegiance with the Americans whose fight for independence appealed to them. One of Col. John Allen’s first assignments was to obtain the backing of the Maliseet. It was considered a great victory for the Americans when several hundred Maliseet in 124 canoes came through the Houlton region and joined the Americans at Machias to successfully defend it from a British Naval attack involving three warships, one brig, one armed British schooner and several hundred British Marines, according to Continental Army Col. Allen’s well publicized diary.
“There was little actual fighting, but the Americans had the satisfaction of knowing that several hundred Maliseet would not join English forces,” said Henry Bear, Maliseet tribal representative for the Maine House of Representatives. “Their biggest contribution was as spies going to Canada and returning with news of the English plans, and attacking English coastal shipping. The Indians played a leading role in preventing an English attack on Machias by sea from being successful.”
Since American officials deemed Maliseet of the Saint John River to be residents of British North America and that their tribal territory in northern Maine and western New Brunswick was not considered part of the United States until into the 1840s, they were not allowed a share in the benefits of the Passamaquoddy Treaty of 1779, in spite of the fact that they had hunting territories in what is now northern Maine, in spite of their participation in the American Revolution, and in spite of an existing treaty relationship. Hence the Bears/Saint-Aubins seem to have drifted off to more isolated hunting areas in the north.
“In 1811, Noel Bear and his uncle Ambrose Bear met the first settlers in what was to become Houlton according to a historical report completed by James Wherry in 1979,” said Bear.
“In his last years, Noel Bear was well known as a basket-maker around Houlton, Ashland, and Presque Isle,” explained Bear. “He much preferred to hunt, claiming that basket-making was ‘only work to get food.’ As late as 1903, he was still seen hunting on the headwaters of the Tobique. Although he spoke only broken English, he is reported to have said that “[the Indian] did not … go … through the world taking what belonged to other men and dying before his right time. He only wished to die quietly where he was and live where his fathers lived and as they did.”
Henry Bear
In 1907 Noel apparently died alone in the woods near Mars Hill, possibly as old as 111, and was buried at the larger Maliseet Reservation at Tobique to the north, which is an area he knew all too well. In fact, as the Wherry report documents, at the time of the Aroostook War, Newell Bear was engaged by the soldiers garrisoned in Fort Fairfield to bring moose meat for them out of the woods. It is clear that the friendship and support both Ambrose and Newell Bear provided the Americans in various wars throughout history was a strong Bear family tradition.
“In the past, especially before Maine Law required it, this story and these traditions of the Maliseet people, our history and present-day activities, was too often never mentioned or taught. It was intentionally hidden or, at best, inaccurately portrayed,” Rep. Bear explained.
In October 2014, Bear — a relative of Ambrose Bear (Var) and Newell Sallis (Wallis), two signers of the Treaty — attended the reenactment of the 1776 Treaty of Watertown. Representative Bear actually held the original 238-year-old, Treaty document in his hands.
“When I placed my hand on the treaty at the very place it had been signed by Maliseet Chief Ambrose Bear, a great pride swelled within me.
“It was a reminder of the pride I feel whenever I observe the flag of the United States of America and the pride I feel whenever the Eagle feather is brought forward before us in the tradition of my ancestors and elders,” Bear said.
“To me they are a continuing reminder that since the first day of this great American nation, beginning shortly after the signing of this first treaty in Watertown, our respective peoples and warriors have honorably served and recognized each other’s sovereign interests as allies, as brothers, as equals,” he added.
Knowing the role the Maliseets played in American history, they are seen as a strong and essential part of its development. Yet, the rich history of the Maliseets in Houlton is not well known or publicized.
“We need to change the negative portrayal of the Maliseet story and perception too many people have of the Maliseet Tribe,” said Bear. “Despite our historical support as allies to the United States of America, we desperately need help to protect Maliseet people from widespread racism in Maine, which baselessly opposes economic success for Maliseet tribal governments and people.”
The 126th Maine Legislature resolved to recognize and honor the Treaty of Watertown last term, according to Bear. The history is now taught in area schools as well.
“This is a real breakthrough and it is also in accordance with Maine law that this story be told,” said Bear.
So, the Maliseets and Wabanaki tribes have long been involved in support of America long before President Abraham Lincoln declared the actual, first Thanksgiving Day.
“The event we now know as ‘the First Thanksgiving’ was in fact neither the first occurrence of our modern American holiday, nor was it even a ‘Thanksgiving’ in the eyes of the Pilgrims who celebrated it, according to the website Plimouth-on-the-web. “It was instead a traditional English harvest celebration to which the colonists invited Massasoit, the most important sachem among the Wamapanoag.”
Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. It became an official Federal holiday in 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens,” to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. Also, there are reports that the concept of a Thanksgiving proclamation was actually signed by George Washington. As a federal and public holiday in the U.S., Thanksgiving is unique in the world and one of the most celebrated holidays of the year … and rightly so.