Maine Memory Network

Sweetgrass comb, ca. 1900

Contributed by: Hudson Museum, Univ. of Maine Date: circa 1900 Media: Wood

Penobscot sweetgrass flat block, ca. 1900

Contributed by: Hudson Museum, Univ. of Maine Date: circa 1900 Media: Wood

Designing Acadia

For one hundred years, Acadia National Park has captured the American imagination and stood as the most recognizable symbol of Maine’s important natural history and identity. This exhibit highlights Maine Memory content relating to Acadia and Mount Desert Island.

Gifts From Gluskabe: Maine Indian Artforms

According to legend, the Great Spirit created Gluskabe, who shaped the world of the Native People of Maine, and taught them how to use and respect the land and the resources around them. This exhibit celebrates the gifts of Gluskabe with Maine Indian art works from the early nineteenth to mid twentieth centuries.

Mount Desert Island: Shaped by Nature - The Indian Encampment: Behind the Scenes

"… clothes, skinning and stretching hides, braiding sweetgrass, preparing ash strips, weaving baskets and, of course, socializing and playing games."

Abbe Museum

View collections, facts, and contact information for this Contributing Partner.

Welimahskil: Sweet grass
by Suzanne Greenlaw

Weaving Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and western science around Sweetgrass

Why environmental advocacy is critical for making baskets
by Jennifer Sapiel Neptune

My advocacy work for the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance

Wabanaki Studies: Stewarding Natural Resources

Grade Level: 3-5 Content Area: Science & Engineering, Social Studies
This lesson plan will introduce elementary-grade students to the concepts and importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Indigenous Knowledge (IK), taught and understood through oral history to generations of Wabanaki people. Students will engage in discussions about how humans can be stewards of the local ecosystem, and how non-Native Maine citizens can listen to, learn from, and amplify the voices of Wabanaki neighbors to assist in the future of a sustainable environment. Students will learn about Wabanaki artists, teachers, and leaders from the past and present to help contextualize the concepts and ideas in this lesson, and learn about how Wabanaki youth are carrying tradition forward into the future.

The Fur Trade in Maine

Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12, Postsecondary Content Area: Science & Engineering, Social Studies
This lesson presents an overview of the history of the fur trade in Maine with a focus on the 17th and 18th centuries, on how fashion influenced that trade, and how that trade impacted Indigenous peoples and the environment.