Sherri Mitchell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1969 (age 54–55) |
| Education | University of Maine (BS) James E. Rogers College of Law (JD) |
| Occupation | lawyer |
Sherri L. Mitchell [1] - Weh'na Ha'mu Kwasset (born 1969) [2] is a Penobscot lawyer, author, teacher and activist from Maine. Mitchell is the author of Sacred Instructions; Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change, a narrative of 'Indigenous Wisdom' that provides "a road map for the spirit and a compass of compassion for humanity." [3]
Mitchell grew up on the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation (Indian Island). She is the granddaughter of Theodore N. Mitchell, who founded the Native American Studies Program and the Wabanaki Center at the University of Maine. She graduated from the University of Maine magna cum laude before studying law at the University of Arizona's Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program led by Robert A. Williams Jr. [4]
Mitchell is an alumna of the American Indian Ambassador program, and the Udall Native American Congressional Internship program. She worked as a law clerk with the United States Department of the Interior's Division of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C. as well as with the Native American law firm Frederick Peebles Morgan in Boulder, Colorado. [4] She was the Native American Unit Attorney for Pine Tree Legal Assistance and a Civil Rights Educator for the Maine Attorney General's Civil Rights Division. She is currently on the Board of the American Indian Institute and the Advisory Board of Nia Tero.
She is an Indigenous Rights attorney and the executive director of the Land Peace Foundation, an organization dedicated to the protection of Indigenous land and water rights and the Indigenous way of life. [5] Mitchell has been actively involved with Indigenous rights in the U.S., Canada and abroad for more than 25 years. [6] [5]
Mitchell has been a longtime advisor to the American Indian Institute’s Healing the Future Program and she currently serves as a helper and advisor to the Indigenous Elders and Medicine People’s Council of North and South America. Mitchell is also the organizer of "Healing the Wounds of Turtle Island," a global healing ceremony that rises out of the Wabanaki Prophecy of Reopening of the Eastern Gate. The ceremony began in 2017 and was attended by individuals from six continents. The ceremony continues for 21 years, and will move in four year cycles until it travels to all four corners of the United States. Her work is featured in the documentary film Dancing with the Cannibal Giant by BALE (Building A Local Economy).
Mitchell was the recipient of the 2010 Mahoney Dunn International Human Rights and Humanitarian Award for research into Nation/State complicity in human rights violations against Indigenous Populations. In 2015, she received the Spirit of Maine Award for commitment and excellence in the field of International Human Rights. [7] In 2016, Mitchell’s portrait was added to the esteemed portrait series, Americans Who Tell the Truth, by artist Robert Shetterly. [8] [2] She is also the recipient of the 2017 Hands of Hope award from the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine.
Sacred Instructions; Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change, published by North Atlantic Books on March 20, 2019 Sacred Instructions; Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change is also available on Audible. An excerpt of Sacred Instructions; Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change, Creation Songs, was published in Dawnland Voices 2.0 which is known for Indigenous writing from New England and the Northeast, on February 18, 2016. [9] Sherri is also a co-editor of the book The Corona Transmissions: Alternatives for Engaging with Covid-19 - from the Physical to the Metaphysical, published by Healing Arts Press in December of 2020. Mitchell is also a contributor to the following anthologies and publications: All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis , published by One World Publishers in September of 2020; Resetting Our Future: Empowering Climate Action in the United States , published by Changemakers Books in February 2021; Hearing the Waters: Indigenous oral tradition and the sacred science of sound, published by Orion Magazine in the summer of 2018; Gatherings, Volume XII, published by Theytus Books in October 2001; Sense of Place, Collected Maine Poems, published by Bay River Press in June 2002.
The Abenaki are Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predominantly spoken in Maine, while the Western Abenaki language was spoken in Quebec, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
Penobscot Indian Island Reservation is an Indian reservation for the Penobscot Tribe of Maine, a federally recognized tribe of the Penobscot in Penobscot County, Maine, United States, near Old Town. The population was 758 at the 2020 census. The reservation extends for many miles alongside 15 towns and two unorganized territories in a thin string along the Penobscot River, from its base at Indian Island, near Old Town and Milford, northward to the vicinity of East Millinocket, almost entirely in Penobscot County. A small, uninhabited part of the reservation used as a game preserve and hunting and gathering ground is in South Aroostook, Aroostook County, by which it passes along its way northward.
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 Passamaquoddy are a Native American/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America. Their traditional homeland, Peskotomuhkatikuk, straddles the Canadian province of New Brunswick and the U.S. state of Maine in a region called Dawnland. They are one of the constituent nations of the Wabanaki Confederacy.
The Maine House of Representatives is the lower house of the Maine Legislature. The House consists of 151 voting members and three nonvoting members. The voting members represent an equal number of districts across the state and are elected via plurality voting. The nonvoting members represent three of Maine's Native American tribes, though two tribes have declined to send representatives. Each voting member of the House represents around 9,000 citizens of the state. Because it is a part-time position, members of the Maine House of Representatives usually have outside employment as well. Members are limited to four consecutive terms of two years each, but may run again after two years.
The Treaty of Casco (1678) was a treaty that brought to a close the war between the Indigenous Dawnland nations and the English settlers. There are no surviving copies of the treaty or its proceedings, so historians use a summary by Jeremy Belknap in his 1784 History of New Hampshire.
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 five principal Eastern Algonquian nations: the Abenaki of St. Francis, Mi'kmaq, Maleceet, Passamaquoddy (Peskotomahkati) and Penobscot.
Donna M. Loring is a Penobscot author, broadcaster, and former Senior Advisor on Tribal Affairs to Janet Mills, the governor of Maine.
Mihku Paul is a First Nations poet, visual artist, storyteller, and activist. She was born into the Maliseet Nation and she is a member of Kingsclear First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada. Mihku Paul currently resides in Portland, Maine where she teaches creative writing at the Maine Women Writers Collection at the University of New England.
The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians of Maine (HBMI) is a federally recognized tribe of Maliseet, whose land is along the Meduxnekeag River in Maine, United States. They are headquartered in Littleton, Maine, located in Aroostook County.
Lewis Mitchell, a Native American member of the Maine State Legislature in the late 1800s into the early 1900s, is known for his advocacy of the Passamaquoddy people and his work on a plethora of writings in the Passamaquoddy language, of which only some have been preserved. Although he was Passamaquoddy, he was widely versed in Wabanaki tradition, as Wabanaki was the overall surrounding language and more general culture of not just Maine, but the Canadian and New England area, home to several indigenous tribes during this time period.
ssipsis was a Penobscot poet, social worker, visual artist, writer, editor and storyteller. Much of her work was focused on and inspired by the advancement of Indigenous people.
The Maine Indian Newsletter was a monthly newsletter published independently from 1966 to 1972 in Gardiner, Maine and Freeport, Maine. While the exact address is not listed, the office was on Pine Street in Freeport. All of the articles archived by Dawnland Voices have Pine Street listed as the place to send submissions and money.
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 Old Town, 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.
June Sapiel, a citizen of the Penobscot Nation, is a Native American activist and public speaker from Maine.
Rena D. Newell was the Passamaquoddy tribal representative to the Maine House of Representatives during the 129th and 130th legislatures. During her two terms, she was the only tribal representative in the Maine House.
Rebecca Sockbeson is a Wabanaki scholar and activist in the field of Indigenous Peoples' education.