Project Omaha Beach – The Life and Military Service of a Penobscot Indian Elder
By Charles Norman Shay
As a young Army medic Shay had been in the famed 1st Infantry Division that landed in the first wave on Omaha Beach, Normandy. He does not recall how many men he pulled from the water while bullets were streaming past him.
Shay was a medic who saved many lives that D-day in 1944 when 3,000 Allied troops died and some 9,000 were injured or went missing. Shay repeatedly plunged into the treacherous sea and carried critically-wounded men to safety.
His book honors all who served but it was hard for him to recall the past while writing it. Read more . . .
From Indian Island to Omaha Beach: The Story of Charles Shay, Penobscot Indian War Hero
By Harald Prins and Bunny McBride
Among the many thousands of Allied troops crossing the stormy sea to France’s Normandy coast on the dark night of June 6, 1944, were a few dozen American Indian soldiers–including Charles Shay and Melvin Neptune from the small village of Indian Island on the Penobscot Reservation in Maine. Serving in the legendary 1st Infantry Division, better known as the Big Red One, they found themselves aboard the same transport ship. They talked about home until midnight, then said farewell. Read more . . .
The Life and Traditions of the Red Man
Joseph Nicolar tells the story of his people from the first moments of creation to the earliest arrivals and eventual settlement of Europeans.
This extraordinary work weaves together stories of Penobscot history, precontact material culture, feats of shamanism, and ancient prophecies about the coming of the white man. An elder of the Penobscot Nation in Maine, Nicolar brought to his task a wealth of traditional knowledge. Read more . . .
Conversations with Quetzalcoatl and Other Stories
By Esther Pasztory
Esther’s many and innovative nonfiction publications in her field of expertise opened new cross-cultural vistas that are further explored in these five short stories.
When Quetzalcoatl’s pre-Columbian baritone in “Conversations with Quetzalcoatl,” forces open the quiet in Anna’s twenty-first-century study, and he appropriates the most comfortable piece of furniture in the room, a love seat, readers know they are in for a love story. Read more . . .
Aliens and Fakes: Popular Theories About the Origins of Ancient Americans
by Esther Pasztory
A wonderful book about the myths and theories that have accumulated over the ages about the origins of the peoples of ancient America.
“Why, do farfetched ideas enjoy the popularity that they do? Dr. Pasztory is a highly respected art historian with an international reputation in the field of pre-Columbian art. She is especially well known for her work at the ancient city of Teotihuacán in Central Mexico. Having spent a long career studying the works of the great civilizations of the Americas, no one is better qualified than she to provide an answer.”―From the introduction by William A. Haviland, PhD Read More . . .
At the Place of the Lobsters and Crabs: Indian People and Deer Isle, Maine
By William Haviland
For thousands of years, native people lived, loved and labored on Deer Isle as well as the surrounding islands and peninsulas of east Penobscot Bay. Then, just over 400 years ago, their lives were disrupted by the arrival of strangers who, over the next 150 years, took control of their homeland. But the original people didn’t just go away. Instead, they survived this assault by adapting in creative ways to life in a world controlled by others. Read more . . .
The Interrupted Forest: A History of Maine’s Wildlands
By Neil Rolde
We go deep into geologic time to understand the land and the trees that grow on it, and then come the stories of people and events that have shaped it further: Native Americans, French, English, Puritans, settlers, loggers, speculators, great proprietors, surveyors, soldiers, squatters, industrialists, game poachers, conservationists, philosophers, artists, writers, sportsmen, nature lovers, property rightists, preservationists, hermits, mystics, and picturesque characters that have created and still create their own legends. Here is the background to see the Maine Woods—its wildlands—in perspective. Read more . . .
Three Hundred Years in Thirty: Memoir of Transition with the Cree Indians of Lake Mistassini
By Nicholas Smith
Over nearly six decades, Nicholas Smith has amassed an astounding compendium of historical and ethnographical information about the Algonquian-speaking peoples of northeastern North America.
“Dr. Smith takes the reader right into the heart of the Canadian wilderness to dwell with the Mistassini and Waswanipi Cree. –James Scanlon, Sometime inlander, Formerly Archdeacon of James Bay . Read More . . .
Penobscot Traditions, with Little Devil Fish
By Nicholas Smith
The reader joins a Penobscot family, where Little Devil Fish gets to hear some of his favorite stories, as he learns the skills and social relationships described in detail, while family and friends move camp with the seasons.
A realistic narrative of Penobscot Indian life in the Maine woods before Europeans arrived. Read more . . .
Wisdom of Bear
By Holly Berry, Dawn Levesque & Ramona du Houx
Native American stories that broaden the sense of our heritage. Stories of coming of age and rights of passage. The mystery of feral children who return from the wild launches the theme of how we can learn from the animals, how Nature’s positive forces can speak to us through a bear.
Wisdom of Bear bridges the generations. There is plenty of insight interwoven in a series of magical, mythological tales to fascinate the mind of a child with a bedtime story, or in the classroom for discussion. Read more . . .
Above the Gravel Bar
By David Cook
The book takes the reader along for a journey on the traditional Native American canoe routes of Maine.
The is the books third edition, with translations of Indian place names, a thorough index, notes and bibliography, and a foreword by Penobscot tribal historian, James Eric Francis, Sr. David Cook takes the reader on a birchbark canoe adventure through the landscape in the context of Northeastern geological development and Indian prehistoric culture. Read more . . .
Your Maine Lands: Reflections of a Maine Guide
By Tom Hamrahan
A master Maine guide introduces the free amenities of the nearly one million acres of Maine’s public lands, including hunting and fishing, with advice on how to prepare for a visit to the North Maine Woods.
Features thirty-eight illustrations by Kelly Thorndike. Read more . . .
Indian Connections 