It is that precious time of year when we unpack our winter jackets, hang our holiday lights, and stand by the oven waiting for a beautiful holiday dinner. Nothing goes better with a homemade meal than heartwarming stories from neighbors in our own community.
What started as informal conversations quickly gained traction towards building the Katahdin Collaborative. The Katahdin Collaborative brought people of all ages together from each town in the Katahdin region to share their ideas, hopes and visions — ultimately leading to the creation of the Gazetteer.
Our mission is to create a positive environment to facilitate communication sharing the success of the region, leverage resources and foster collaboration among volunteer groups, businesses, non-profit institutions and municipalities working toward the revitalization of the Katahdin Region. Below are updates and good news from the Katahdin Region.
This year the National Park Service (NPS), Kala Rush, education coordinator for Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters (FKWW) collaborated with the Wabanaki Youth in Science (WaYS) inaugural year to develop an Ancestral Lands Trail Crew. The impetus to develop this crew was to develop and adapt the program this year in an regional effort to continue supporting Native youth in Maine. In light of this, some organizations like National Park Service, & Friends of Katahdin Woods & Waters, found a way to continue to support each other and to continue offering programs that benefit the region and those residing here.
Tish Carr, executive director of the WaYS program, said “We have had an amazing opportunity to work with Tim Hudson, National Park Service in creating an Ancestral Lands Trail Crew led by Shantel Neptune and assisted by Kala Rush, to engage our Native youth. One positive thing about this program is that we can also focus on students who may not be in school- who may have dropped out.”
This program incorporates workforce development to engage Native youth who have not yet attended college to help be a potential bridge to post-secondary education.
“The WaYS Program is an opportunity where Native youth learn about western science and Cultural Science together. One of the challenges we have with Native youth being successful in schools is the way it’s taught. If we bring western science and cultural science together, we have a high success rate of students staying in school and graduating,” Carr said.
Changes were needed due to COVID-19. This included reduced capacity with four Native youth instead of eight, and adapted curriculum. Unfortunately, COVID also reduced the ability to interact with Cultural Knowledge Keepers as initially planned. They did have a few opportunities to work with Chris Sockalexis, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Penobscot Nation, Chris presented archeological lessons in the Monument where they found items from a couple different places along the Portage trail. Crew Members found plates from flint knapping. Jeremiah found a scraper that’s used to “take flesh off of hides”.
Ancestral Lands Trail Crew Members started the year off with wilderness first aid training, building ADA trails with vaulted toilets, campsites, and picnic areas and did an large amount of difficult tasks, like shoveling gravel for eight hours a day.
“They had to use a grip hoist to remove larger tree roots and haul large beams in there to line the trails of the monument,” Rush said. “Crew Members finished the program with a resume workshop where they had the option to incorporate their wilderness first aid, trail basics training experience that they’ve gotten over the summer with the WaYS program.”
“I like the hard work and having a good work ethic and I would personally like to come back next year,” said Zack Lola.
Jeremiah Ireland said he joined the program because “I want to lead a better path to becoming a Game Warden.”
Shantel Neptune, The Ancestral Lands Trail Crew leader, said the group hopes to have the summertime next year to do this program as well. “This is our pilot year, and it was great to have different collaborations with WaYS. It’s something we will continue to do in the future,” she said.
