Carol Ann (Bunny) McBride is an American author of a wide range of nonfiction books on subjects ranging from cultural survival and wildlife conservation to Native Americans. [1] Her most recent ethnohistory book is Indians in Eden: Wabanakis and Rusticators on Maine's Mt.Desert Island (Down East Books, 2009). Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she regularly published her poetry and essays in the Christian Science Monitor, and reported on her travels in China, West Africa, East Africa, and northern Europe. Her articles appeared in various US newspapers and magazines, including the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune,International Wildlife, Travel & Leisure, Sierra, Yankee Magazine,Downeast, and Reader's Digest. From 1981 on, she was actively involved in oral history and community development projects with Micmac Indians in Maine. [2]
An award-winning author, Bunny has taught ethnographic writing and organized creative writing workshops. In 1999, she received an official commendation from the Maine State Legislature in recognition of the "tremendous contribution" made in her writings about Maine Indian women, in particular Penobscot dancer Molly Spotted Elk. [3] The Maine Historical Society selected this acclaimed biography as one of the one hundred most "notable" books written in or about Maine (2000). [4]
McBride has served as a visiting professor in cultural anthropology at Principia College, Elsah, Illinois (1981–1992) and the Salt Center for Documentary Field Studies, Portland, Maine (1995). She has curated several museum exhibits, including the national-award-winning exhibit Indians and Rusticators (2012) at the Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, Maine. [5] She serves on a number of boards, including the Women’s World Summit Foundation, based in Geneva, Switzerland (2003- ). An adjunct lecturer of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University (1996- ), she now lives in Bath, a town on the coast of Maine, with her husband, Dutch anthropologist Harald E.L. Prins. They have co-authored a study on the indigenous cultural history of Mount Desert Island, as well as the book Indians in Eden, and are collaborating on a life history of a Penobscot Indian combat veteran of World War II and the Korean War. They have also collaborated on other books, articles, and museum exhibits.
McBride was born in Washington, D.C., on April 9, 1950. She is the daughter of retired CBS Executive and NBC anchor Robert J. McBride and Cynthia Martin. Having majored in art and English literature at Michigan State University (BA 1972), McBride continued her graduate studies in art (painting and sculpture) at Boston University, and completed a master's in cultural anthropology at Columbia University (1980). [6]
Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, is the largest island off the coast of Maine. With an area of 108 square miles (280 km2) it is the 52nd-largest island in the United States, the sixth-largest island in the contiguous United States, and the second-largest island on the Eastern Seaboard, behind Long Island and ahead of Martha's Vineyard. According to the 2010 census, the island has a year-round population of 10,615. In 2017, an estimated 3.5 million tourists visited Acadia National Park on MDI. The island is home to numerous well-known summer colonies such as Northeast Harbor and Bar Harbor.
The Penobscot are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic provinces and Quebec.
The Maine penny, also referred to as the Goddard coin, is a Norwegian silver coin dating to the reign of Olaf Kyrre King of Norway (1067–1093 AD). It was claimed to be discovered in Maine in 1957, and it has been suggested as evidence of Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact.
Dummer's War (1722–1725) is also known as Father Rale's War, Lovewell's War, Greylock's War, the Three Years War, the Wabanaki-New England War, or the Fourth Anglo-Abenaki War. It was a series of battles between the New England Colonies and the Wabanaki Confederacy, who were allied with New France. The eastern theater of the war was located primarily along the border between New England and Acadia in Maine, as well as in Nova Scotia; the western theater was located in northern Massachusetts and Vermont at the border between Canada and New England. During this time, Maine and Vermont were part of Massachusetts.
Glooscap is a legendary figure of the Wabanaki peoples, native peoples located in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Atlantic Canada. The stories were first recorded by Silas Tertius Rand and then by Charles Godfrey Leland in the 19th century.
Mary Nelson Archambaud, best known by her stage name Molly Spotted Elk, was a Penobscot Indian dancer, actress, and writer who was born on the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation, in Maine, U.S.
Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin (1652–1707) was a French military officer serving in Acadia and an Abenaki chief. He is the father of two prominent sons who were also military leaders in Acadia: Bernard-Anselme and Joseph. He is the namesake of Castine, Maine. He died at Pau, France, in 1707.
Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands include Native American tribes and First Nation bands residing in or originating from a cultural area encompassing the northeastern and Midwest United States and southeastern Canada. It is part of a broader grouping known as the Eastern Woodlands. The Northeastern Woodlands is divided into three major areas: the Coastal, Saint Lawrence Lowlands, and Great Lakes-Riverine zones.
Harald E. L. Prins is a Dutch anthropologist, ethnohistorian, filmmaker, and human rights activist specialized in North and South America's indigenous peoples and cultures.
The Wabanaki Confederacy is a North American First Nations and Native American confederation of four principal Eastern Algonquian nations: the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet (Wolastoqey), Passamaquoddy (Peskotomahkati) and Penobscot. The Western Abenaki are also considered members, being a loose identity for a number of allied tribal peoples such as the Sokoki, Cowasuck, Missiquoi, and Arsigantegok, among others.
The Pentagoet Archeological District is a National Historic Landmark District located at the southern edge of the Bagaduce Peninsula in Castine, Maine. It is the site of Fort Pentagoet, a 17th-century fortified trading post established by fur traders of French Acadia. From 1635 to 1654 this site was a center of trade with the local Abenaki, and marked the effective western border of Acadia with New England. From 1654 to 1670 the site was under English control, after which it was returned to France by the Treaty of Breda. The fort was destroyed in 1674 by Dutch raiders. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993. It is now a public park.
Old John Neptune (Penobscot, was elected Lieutenant-Governor at Indian Island, Old Town, Maine, in 1816, a life-time position. Born into the Eel clan, John had a powerful father, John Neptune, who had been the tribe's war chief. As the most powerful leader of the Penobscot for almost half a century, he was popularly known as "the Governor." Also feared, he had the reputation of being a medicine man.
Horace Aloysius Nelson was an American Penobscot political leader and the father of dancer and actress Molly Spotted Elk.
Donna M. Loring is an author, broadcaster, and former Senior Advisor on Tribal Affairs to Janet Mills, the governor of Maine.
Charles Norman Shay is a Penobscot tribal elder, writer, and decorated veteran of both World War II and the Korean War. Along with a Bronze Star and Silver Star, Shay was also awarded the Legion d'Honneur, making him the first Native American in Maine with the distinction of French chevalier. He was instrumental in the re-publishing of a book by his own grandfather, Joseph Nicolar: The Life and Traditions of the Red Man, originally published in 1893. He has recently written an autobiography, Project Omaha Beach: The Life and Military Service of a Penobscot Indian Elder that details his time abroad in the military. Shay is also a direct descendant of Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin.
Concouguash, christian name Francis Joseph Neptune, (1735–1834) was chief of the Passamaquoddy tribe during the American Revolutionary War. He succeeded his father, Bahgulwet, who died in 1778, and was succeeded by his own son, John Francis Neptune, in 1824. The term "chief" later became the word for governor. Becoming chief is passed along through family lineage and requires acceptance from the Passamaquoddies, Penobscots and Maliseet tribes. These three tribes share similar chief induction ceremonies, conducted simultaneously with eyewitnesses from each tribe present.
Lucy Nicolar Poolaw, also called Wa-Tah-Wa-So and billed as Princess Watahwaso, was a Penobscot and a performer on the Chautauqua and lyceum circuits.
Theresa Secord is an artist, basketmaker, geologist and activist from Maine. She is a member of the Penobscot nation, and the great-granddaughter of the well-known weaver Philomene Saulis Nelson. She co-founded, and was the director of, the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA) in Bar Harbor, Maine.
The Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, also known as the MWTRC, was a commission looking at events relating to Wabanaki children and families from 1978, when the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was passed, until now. The Commission was officially established on February 12, 2012 and issued its final report on June 14, 2015. The MWTRC's mandate was to find Truth, Healing, and Change by giving the Wabanaki people and others involved within the Maine Child Welfare System a place to voice their stories and experiences. The final report addressed findings made by the commission and provided recommendations to improve compliance with the ICWA.
Rebecca Sockbeson is a Wabanaki scholar and activist in the field of Indigenous Peoples' education.