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| Category: Fiction:Historical |
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| About the Book | |
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The last of the great Wabanaki tribes, the Norridgewock tribe during the 1600 to early 1700 era, in what is now Maine was wiped out on August 23, 1724, after years of struggle with the Colonial Boston English government under the rule of the English Crown. The author, a descendant of survivors of that massacre, uses her personal experience having grown up on the Penobscot tribal land to write her book. She tells her family story passed onto her through oral tradition. The story centers around the documented, thirty years of Father Sebastien Rale's life while serving the Norridgewock Indians. His diaries and journals are preserved today. After three years of research, the author provides the reader with a little known period of time of early French and English encounters with the indigenous people of the northeast, Atlantic part of the country. The people see through their eyes the one who comes to live with them as their teacher and giver of Sacraments. By 1700 the first school in Maine is established. The tribal leaders begin to deal with the Colonists as they learn to read and write English. Following Orders from England, the Colonists must conquer those in their way to take Quebec, Canada, and all lands and natural resources that abounded in those lands. With a bounty of silver on his head, Father Rale and the Indian Chiefs were massacred by the English soldiers in a surprise attack at the Norridgewock village ending years of conflict.
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| Reviews | |
The death of this most famous Jesuit in Colonial New England caused his enemies throughout the region to rejoice in their triumph. This is the inspiring story of Maine's first, early Roman Catholics, the Wabanaki tribes and their saintly leader which Louise Ketchum Hunt has wonderfully captured in this comprehensive little volume. "I didn't know about this early history of our country. Louise Hunt's book should be in every school library." "Louise makes an important contribution to the story of early indigenous people living on the east coast of the United States and Canada, as she blends her ancestral stories with solid historical data. She does this as she tells us a beautiful love story of God's love and her Catholic faith."
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| About the Author | |
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Louise Ketchum Hunt, member of the Penobscot Indian Nation of Old Town, Maine, former US Army Nurse, and US Public Health Officer wrote her story from personal experiences as an Indian woman, keeper of stories. She gave many talks on her book after spending three years researching historical data. |