Are There Pieces To Pick Up After Two Worlds Collide?

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Are There Pieces To Pick Up After Two Worlds Collide?

The glaciers receded and melted to fill the Gulf of Maine, sea creatures multiplied and diversified. The land dried, produced vegetation, and proved itself susceptible to cultivation. Native Americans migrated to the area and created highly structured successful methods of surviving and thriving. At the same time, Europeans looked across the waters for lands to meld into their current holdings. A strong desire to increase holdings, power, and finances were the driving forces behind European exploration expeditions. With this stage set, imagine being an unvested third party observing the impending collision between the two worlds.

At the opening of the seventeenth century, Native Americans were firmly established around the Gulf of Maine. At least nine different tribes, from the Narragansetts in current day Massachusetts to the Passamaquoddies in Downeast Maine, and the Micmacs in Nova Scotia surrounded the Gulf. For the most part all tribes, and clans within each, lived in harmony with one another.

The native tribes were comprised of different families or clans, each working as an independent, but then again somewhat dependent unit. Annual gatherings and meetings took place, most usually in the spring months. These gatherings were venues for exchange of information, opportunities to settle disputes, as well as chances to meet future mates or spouses. The remainder of the year was spent either on the coast fishing and gathering shellfish or inland tending crops and gathering wood for cooking and winter warmth.

The Gulf provided seafood in the form of haddock, cod, lobsters, whales, clams, and herring. Inland food sources included deer, moose, caribou...

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...uropeans more than two-to-one. But with the loss of sustainable independent living, they had no choice but to become ‘colonized’. A very sad end to a long and distinguished lineage.

Works Cited
1. Prins, Harald E.L. and McBride, Bunny. “Asticou’s Island Domain: Wabanaki Peoples at Mount Desert Island 1500-2000”. Acadia National Park Ethnographic Overview and Assessment Volume 1. 2nd printing 2007. Boston: Northeast Region Ethnography Program National Park Service.

2. Russell, Howard S. Indian New England Before the Mayflower. 1980. Hanover, NH: University Press New England.

3. Wiseman, Frederick Matthew. The Voice of the Dawn; AnAutohistory of the Abenaki Nation. 2001. Hanover, NH: University Press New England.

4. Woodard, Colin. The Lobster Coast Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for A Forgotten Frontier. 2004. New York: Penguin Books.

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