Sopiel’s Songs

Sopiel Selmore, my great-great-great-great grandfather, was the grand chief of Passamaquoddy; he served as the wampum belt and history keeper for the grand council fire at Kahnawake. His father fought in the American Revolutionary War and was part of a team of Wabanaki who stole a British vessel. His grandfather was the m’teoulin at Norridgewock, Maine, at the time of the 1724 massacre. Despite these often-cited historical events, many don’t know he was also a songkeeper. The text of these two “love songs” written in phonetic Wabanaki and English lyrics were published in John Reade’s 1888 book Some Wabanaki Songs [and] Aboriginal American Poetry.​

–Lokotah Sanborn

The Bowman House in Dresden, Maine, occupies land on the Kennebec River just across from Fort Richmond (1720-55). In 1724, colonists gathered at Fort Richmond before traveling upriver to Norridgewock, where they committed a massacre. As many as a hundred Abenaki people were killed. The Kennebec Proprietors (1749-1816) dispossessed the Wabanaki of 1,500 square miles of land along either side of the Kennebec River, including Norridgewock. They also paid for the building of Fort Western (1754) in Augusta and Fort Shirley (1752-59) and the Bowman House (1762) in Dresden.  ​​

–Danikah Chartier

Photomontage

Inkjet on glossy paper, 13 x 19

2023