John Bear Mitchell, Penobscot Nation

When: Thursday, September 19

Time: 6pm

Format: In-person and Virtually on Zoom

In-Person Location: Wilson Museum’s Hutchins Education Center,
112 Perkins Street, Castine ME

Program Description

Indigenous people’s story began long before Europeans arrived in what we now call Maine. For thousands of years, the ancestors of present-day Indigenous people have made their lives here. Known today as the Abenaki, Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet), Mi’kmaq, Peskotomuhkati (Passamaquoddy), and Pαnawάhpskewi (Penobscot), these tribal nations are collectively the Wabanaki, People of the Dawnland.

John Bear Mitchell is a citizen of the Penobscot Nation from Indian Island in Maine. During this program, he will share traditional Wabanaki stories. These stories teach us about the way in which we hold ourselves in this world and energizes our ability to understand the ancient wisdom of our ancestors. These stories are timeless and have relevance to whatever space we hold.

John Bear Mitchell presently serves as the University of Maine System Office Native American Waiver and Educational Program Coordinator, University of Maine’s Wabanaki Center Outreach and Student Development Coordinator, as well as a Lecturer of Wabanaki Studies and Multicultural Studies at the University of Maine in Orono. He has served on numerous museum and educational boards throughout the state with missions based on Maine’s Wabanaki people. For 15 years John visited schools in Maine as a Maine Touring Artist delivering an Arts in Education program. During that time, he visited over 150 schools. While working his way through college, he toured with the Native American Storytellers of New England. He presented a traditional and contemporary program in Native American Stories and Song. His singing and storytelling can be heard in many Maine PBS, tribal-sponsored awareness videos, independent film, HBO Lionsgate TV, and many documentaries with topics on Native People in present-day Maine.

Visit the Wilson Museum’s calendar of events to register to attend virtually: www.wilsonmuseum.org/calendar.

This program is part of the Wilson Museum’s program series Connecting to Collections: Curiosity, Culture, Climate made possible through the generous support of Bangor Savings Bank.