Penobscots: Remember history

country, even the dark and uncomfortable parts, it would help us to get along better and to understand each other better,” said Maulian Dana, who co-directed the film with Neptune Adams.

Both Europeans and Native Americans engaged in scalping, but English colonists greatly expanded the practice when the government sanctioned the effort with bounties, the filmmakers said.

The first known colonial scalping order is from 1675. That’s just a few short decades after the first Thanksgiving in 1621, when Pilgrims gathered with Wampanoag people for a harvest celebration, said Chris Newell, who is Passamaquoddy and wrote “If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving.” said. “Pretty much any Native American man, woman or child was considered fair game at times, and sometimes by the government.”

Collaborating with the Massachusetts-based Upstander Project, the filmmakers released “Bounty” in November during National Native American Heritage Month.

Neptune Adams and Dana, along with Tim Shay and their families, were filmed at the Old State House in Boston. It’s the same location where Lt. Gov. Phips’ scalping order was signed.

In “Bounty,” the three participants describe having nightmares of Penobscots being chased through the woods, and discuss the dehumanization and massacre of their people.

“When you learn about a people’s humanity, that affects how you treat my kids, how you vote on public policy, how you may view my people,” Dana said.

Accompanying the short video is a 200-page study guide aimed at teachers. Several school districts, including Portland Public Schools in Maine’s largest city, are purchasing licenses for the video and plan to use the study guides to assist instruction.

In Portland, the scalp bounties will be included as one element in a curriculum that will bring the school district into compliance with a 2001 law.

Robert F. bukaty / ap dawn neptune adams stands on the banks of the Penobscot river on nov. 23 on Indian Island, maine. When adams was a child she was one of the many Penobscot and Passamaquoddy people who were removed from their homes by the state of maine and placed with white foster families.

Robert F. bukaty / ap dawn neptune adams holds a copy of the Phips Proclamation of 1755 on nov. 23 in bangor, maine. adams recently co-directed a film that focuses on the proclamation, which directed colonial settlers to hunt, scalp and kill Indigenous people for money.