Theresa Secord | |
---|---|
Born | 1958 |
Nationality | Penobscot |
Alma mater | University of Southern Maine University of Wisconsin-Madison |
Occupation(s) | Artist, geologist, activist |
Known for | Geology, basketmaking, activism |
Theresa Secord (born 1958) 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. [1] She co-founded, and was the director of, the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA) in Old Town, Maine. [2]
When apprenticing with basketmaker Madeline Tomer Shay, Secord learned that at the time she was one of few young Wabanaki people being taught to make brown ash and sweet-grass baskets. [3] After Shay's death, Secord founded MIBA in 1993 as a way to preserve Wabanaki language and culture. [4] In 2003, the MIBA received the International Prize for Rural Creativity in part for lowering the average age of basketmakers in Maine from 63 to 43. [5]
Her work has been shown at the Hudson Museum at the University of Maine, at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, and at the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in Los Angeles. [6] She is the great niece of the renowned Penobscot dancer, actress and writer Molly Spotted Elk, and her great-grandmother is Philomene Saulis Nelson, considered an "acclaimed weaver." [1]
Secord earned a B.A. in geology from the University of Southern Maine in 1981 and an M.S. in Economic Geology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1984. [1] She served as Staff Geologist for the Penobscot Nation. [7] Secord studied weaving and Penobscot language with Madeline Tomer Shay from 1988 to 1993. [1] [2]
Secord has two sons, Caleb Hoffman and Will Hoffman. Caleb is a basketmaker apprenticing with Jeremy Frey. [2]
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.
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's third-most populous city, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121). Bangor is known as the “Queen City.”
Old Town is a city in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 7,431 at the 2020 census. The city's developed area is chiefly located on the relatively large Marsh Island, but its boundaries extend beyond it. The island is surrounded and defined by the Penobscot River to the east and the Stillwater River to the west.
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 Wolastoqiyik, also Wəlastəkwewiyik, Malecite or Maliseet are an Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy. They are the Indigenous people of the Wolastoq valley and its tributaries. Their territory extends across the current borders of New Brunswick and Quebec in Canada, and parts of Maine in the United States.
The state of Maine is located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Its musical traditions extend back thousands of years to the music of the first peoples of Maine, the Penobscot Passamaquoddy, Wabanaki and other related Indigenous cultures.
The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. It is a one-time only award and fellows must be living citizens or permanent residents of the United States. Each year, fellowships are presented to between nine and fifteen artists or groups at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
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.
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.
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. Her most recent ethnohistory book is Indians in Eden: Wabanakis and Rusticators on Maine's Mt.Desert Island. 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.
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.
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.
Mary Kawennatakie Adams was a Mohawk First Nations textile artist and basket maker.
David Moses Bridges was a Native American environmentalist and artist known for his traditional birchbark canoes and baskets. He was a member of the Passamaquoddy tribal community on the Passamaquoddy Pleasant Point Reservation. Bridges fought for tribal environmental rights and was a co-founder of Mulankeyutmonen Nkihtakmikon, to preserve the Wabanaki culture.
Molly Neptune Parker was an American basket weaver. She became well known for her artistry, with her works selling for thousands of dollars. As a co-founder and president of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, she tutored young people in the traditional craft and also educated four generations of her own family. She was also the first woman lieutenant governor of Indian Township, one of the two governing bodies of the Passamaquoddy tribe.
Rebecca Sockbeson is a Wabanaki scholar and activist in the field of Indigenous Peoples' education.
Margaret Mary Mitchell Gabriel was a Passamaquoddy basket maker from Maine. She was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship in 1994.
Jeanne Brink is an Abenaki artist who specializes in traditional basket making, and the cultural and linguistic preservation of the Abenaki people.
Cape Rosier is a cape on the south central coast of the U.S. state of Maine, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. The peninsula reaches south and westward from the mainland into Penobscot Bay. It constitutes the western part of the town of Brooksville, in Hancock County, cut off from the rest of the town at a narrow neck where Orcutt Harbor extends from Eggemoggin Reach northward, and nearly reaches Smith Cove on the north side of the cape. To the west, it forms a part of the estuary of the Penobscot River. The head of the cape is at 44°18'43.2"N 68°49'36.6"W.