This powder horn is richly carved (or etched) with Penobscot designs, and once held gun powder used to fire muskets. A musket is a type of gun. Gun powder explodes when it is lit, and the power of the explosion shoots out the bullet.
Powder horns like these were made of the actual horn of an animal (usually a cow, ox, or buffalo horn). The horn is hollow on the inside so it can store powder, and the bottom (wide end) is sealed shut. The top (narrow end) has a plug that can be removed, like taking the top off a bottle. You can pour the powder out of the horn.
By decorating this horn with carved artwork, its owner made it a part of their culture. A Wabanaki person would not have needed a powder horn like this unless they had a musket that needed gun powder.
Sometimes, the fur trade with Europeans introduced the Wabanaki to new technologies that transformed their way of life. Muskets are a good example of this change. European guns, along with gun powder and shot, rapidly replaced traditional tools for hunting. Wabanaki became dependent on guns for hunting in the commercial fur trade and to feed their families.
Source 2 - Artifact
Source 2 - Artifact
Silver Cuff
Made by Zebulon Smith Bangor, Maine
ca. 1820
Maine State Museum, 80.88.1
This silver cuff would have been worn around someone’s wrist, like a large, decorative bracelet. It is European-made but inspired by Wabanaki artistic designs.
Officials for the State of Maine may have given this cuff to a Penobscot leader in one of the ceremonies that marked the beginning of the State’s relationship with the tribe.
Gift exchanges were important in diplomatic relations. Native people relied on gift giving to build and communicate the importance of relationships. Gifts represented respect and trust.
After Maine became a state, officials were eager to have the Wabanaki Tribes recognize the new state. Maine officials wanted the Wabanaki to end formal relationships with Massachusetts. Penobscot and Passamaquoddy leaders insisted that the new government should honor the treaty agreements that came before. They wanted to protect the rights they had worked so hard to keep.
Source 3 - Document
Source 3 - Document
Prices of Goods
Boston, Massachusetts
July 14, 1703
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Vocab and explanations:
What’s up with the extra ‘f’s? When you see a letter that looks like f but doesn’t make sense in the word, it is probably a long s! Up through the late 1700s, the letter ‘s’ was often written with an ‘f’ shape (depending on where it was in the sentence).
In this period, English officials called the Wabanaki of present-day Maine and the Maritimes “Eastern Indians.”
A “truckmaster” was an officer in charge of trade with Native Americans, especially among the early settlers.
“Peltry” means pelts. A pelt is an animal skin with the fur still attached.
This broadside (or poster) shows how beaver furs were used as currency, like money. Massachusetts set prices for licensed traders to pay “Eastern Indians” (Wabanaki) for animal skins they had hunted.
The list states how many beavers could be exchanged for goods. The end of each line reads “in season,” meaning traders desired beavers taken in the winter when their fur was the thickest.
One beaver fur was the base line for each trade. The second column shows how many skins from other animals equaled one beaver. One bear equaled one beaver; one moose hide could be traded for two beavers.
By the HONOURABLE SPENCER PHIPS , Esq;
Lieutenant-Governor and Commander in Chief for the time being of His Majesty’s Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England.
A PROCLAMATION for Encouragement to Voluntiers to prosecute the WAR against the Indian Enemy.
WHEREAS the Indians of the Penobscot and Norridgewack Tribes, and other Eastern Indians, as also the Indians inhabiting the French Territories, and Parts adjacent thereto, have by their Violation of their solemn Treaties, and by open Hostilities committed against His Majesty’s Subjects of this Province, oblig’d Me, with the Advice of His Majesty’s Council, to declare War against them;
And whereas the General Assembly in their late Session, have Voted “For the Encouragement of any Company, Party, or Person singly, of His Majesty’s Subjects belonging to and residing within this Province, who shall voluntarily, and at their own proper Cost and Charge, go out and kill a Male Indian of the Age of twelve Years or upwards of such Eastern Indians, or such others as may be found with them at any Time so long as the War may continue, and produce the Scalp in Evidence of his Death, the Sum of One hundred Pounds, in Bills of Credit on this Province of the new Tenor; and the Sum of One hundred and five Pounds in said Bills for any Male of like Age who shall be taken Captive and deliver’d to the Order of the Captain General, to be at the Disposal and for the Use of the Government; and the Sum of Fifty Pounds in said Bills for each Woman, and the like Sum for Children under the Age of twelve Years kill’d in Fight, and Fifty five Pounds in said Bills for such when taken Prisoners, and the Plunder; And to such Person or Persons of this Province as aforesaid, for whom the Province shall provide Ammunition and Provisions, vis. Provisions from the Day they go forth until their Return, to be paid in said Bills for each Male about the Age of twelve Years, kill’d, and Scalp produc’d, the Sum of Seventy five Pounds, and Captives Seventy eight Pounds fifteen Shillings; and for a Female and Others as aforesaid, kill’d and Scalp produc’d, Thirty five Pounds ten Shillings, and Captives Thirty nine Pounds five Shillings; And to the Inhabitants of this Province, and such Soldiers as may be employed by the Province, who shall issue out upon any Party or Parties of Indians, for each Male above twelve Years, kill’d and Scalp produc’d as aforesaid, Thirty Pounds, and for a Captive Thirty three Pounds like Bills, for a Female and Others kill’d, and Scalp produc’d, Fifteen Pounds, and Captives of the like Sort Sixteen Pounds ten Shillings, And that the [ink smear] premium be given for any Indian kill’d, and Scalp produc’d, as aforesaid, or Captive taken, who shall be found arm’d (unless call’d in to our Aid) easterly of a Line drawn from the Massachusetts Block-House near Hoosuck over to Crown-Point , viz. between such a Line and the eastern Frontiers of this Province and New-Hampshire. Provided no Payment be made as aforesaid for killing and captivating any Indian as aforesaid, until Proof be made to the Acceptance of the Governour and Council.
I have therefore thought fit, with the Advice of His Majesty’s Council, to issue this Proclamation, for giving publick Notice of the Encouragement granted by the General Court to all Persons who may be disposed to serve their King and Country against the Indians aforesaid; as also to inform all Persons concerned, That the several premiums which were granted for a certain Term (now expired) for the killing and captivating the Indians of the St. Johns and Cape-Sables Tribes are now granted anew by the General Court for one Year, or such Term of Time as the War shall continue with the said Indians.
Given at the Council Chamber in Boston, the Twenty-third Day of August, 1745. In the Nineteenth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the Second, by the Grace of GOD of Great-Britain, France and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, &c.
S. Phips.
By Order of the Honourable the Lieutenant Governour, with the Advice of the Council, J. Willard, Secr
GOD save the KING
Boston: Printed by John Draper, Printer to His Excellency the GOVERNOUR and COUNCIL.
Source 4 - Document
Source 4 - Document
Spencer Phips Proclamation
Boston, Massachusetts, 1745
Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Vocab and explanations:
“Pounds” are units of British currency, as Americans use dollars today. Note on the money: A male captive was worth 50 pounds, which was a lot of money at the time. The average yearly salary of a teacher during this period was between 60 – 120 pounds.
“Bounty” is a sum of money offered for something, usually for capturing or killing a person.
A “scalp” is the skin at the top of a human head, including the hair.
This document provides evidence of the English colonial Government’s policy of genocide toward Wabanaki people. In 1745, Massachusetts Lieutenant-Governor Spencer Phips wrote this proclamation to offer colonists money if they could prove that they had killed or captured Wabanaki men, women, and children.
During the 1600s and 1700s, Wabanaki people were caught up in conflicts between the French and English. Conflicts over land and resources led to violence. This proclamation and a 1755 proclamation from Phips tried to wipe out an entire group of people. They had a disastrous impact on the Wabanaki Confederacy, and the effects are still felt in Maine today.
The Phips Proclamation is more visible today (in 2020) as Wabanaki people use it to share a more honest history and as tool for change. It was recently used by the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission to initiate a healing process around the use of an Indian mascot and the team name of “Redskins” by a school district in Wiscasset, Maine.
A 2012 article explains: “By posting the Spencer Phips Proclamation and making it visible to others, Wabanaki people are asserting their rights to their homeland with a visual reminder to the non-indigenous that they are foreigners to this land. It effectively classifies the non-indigenous as outsiders, interlopers, and a people with severed roots. Additionally, it reaffirms Wabanaki ties to their homeland and solidifies their relationship with that land, both in their eyes and in the eyes of others.”
“…the act of posting the Spencer Phips Proclamation acknowledges those ancestors whose bloodshed helped to preserve the integrity of a homeland and identity. It reflects an act of sovereignty and a testament to Wabanaki survival.”
We the undersigned Chiefs & others of the Penobscot Tribe of Indians, ask you to hear us in this our petition, in which we mean to speak nothing but truth and first we would say that in the days of our fore Fathers the great plenty of fish which yearly came into the waters of our Penobscot River was one of the greatest sources by which they attained their living and has so continued within the remembrance of many of us who are now living, which plenty we always considered as sent us by the Great God who provides means for all his Children.
But when our white brethren came amongst us they settled on our lands at & near the tide waters of our river and there was plenty of fish for us all but within a few years our brethren the white men who live near the tide waters of our river have every year built so many weares [weirs] that they have caught and killed so many of the fish that there is hardly any comes up the River where we live so that we cannot catch enough for the use of our families even in the season of the year when fish used to be most plenty.
We have asked the general Court at Boston to make laws to stop the white people from building weares and they have made Laws but they have done us no good for the fish grow more scarce every year. Besides the weares there are a great many long nets. We can only use verry small nets and spears. Now we ask you to make a Law to stop the white folks from building any more weares forever so that fish may again become plenty and also stop the white people from using any [?] above Kenduskeag on the main river
And we ask you to make this Law so as to stop the white people & Indians from catching fish more than two days in the week in the season of salmon, shad, and alewives at least for five years. We think that fish will then be plenty again.
We are your Brothers
John (his X mark) Neptune
Lewey (his X mark)
Peal (his X mark) Moley
Joseph (his X mark)
Solomon (his X mark)
House of Representatives
Jan’y 26, 1821
Read and committed to the joint standing
committee on Interior Fisheries.
Sent up for concurrence
Benj. Ames, Sec’y
Petition of John Neptune & all praying a law may be passed to prevent destruction of fish
In Senate Jan’y 24, 1821
Read & concurred
W[illiam] Williamson
Pres.
Source 5 - Document
Source 5 - Document
Petition of the Penobscot
January, 1821
Courtesy of the Maine State Archives
Vocab and explanations:
A “weir” is a low dam built across a river to raise the level of water upstream or regulate its flow. It can also be a fenced-in part of the water where fish can be kept without escaping.
This petition from John Neptune and the other Chiefs of the Penobscot Tribe requests that the Maine Legislature pass a law to prevent the destruction of fish in the Penobscot River.
After decades of settlers building fish weirs and dams, fish could no longer ascend the river to spawn. The fisheries could no longer sustain the tribe’s livelihood. They proposed a law that would prohibit additional weirs and limit fishing to two days per week. This would allow fish stocks to recover and could restore a valuable ecosystem. The Maine Legislature rejected the Penobscot people’s proposal.
Penobscot Lieutenant Governor John Neptune and many other Wabanaki leaders worked to protect their rights to land, fish, and game. They learned to work within the system of Maine’s new government with petitions such as this, as they had previously worked with the government of Massachusetts.
Source 6 - Image
Source 6 - Image
Portrait of John Neptune
Painting by Obadiah Dickinson
1835
Maine State Museum, 79.40.283
This portrait of Penobscot Lieutenant Governor John Neptune was painted by the artist Obadiah Dickinson in 1835. This is an oil painting on a wood panel.
John Neptune was inaugurated as Lieutenant Governor for life on September 19, 1816. He was born July 27, 1767 and died May 8, 1865 and was probably the son of Colonel John Neptune, Lt. Governor under Gov. Joseph Orono.
Lt. Gov. Neptune was descended from a Passamaquoddy family, the Neptunes, who furnished chiefs and governors for that tribe for more than six generations from father to son in direct hereditary succession. The family was later adopted into the Penobscot tribe, where John Neptune was elected as lieutenant governor.
He and many other Wabanaki leaders worked to protect their rights to land, fish, and game. They had to learn to work within the system of Maine’s new government.
