I want to start this off by saying that I’m not an American Indian or otherwise Indigenous person. I am not a member of the Abenaki, Passamaquody, Penobscot, Maliseet or Mi’kmaq nations, nor by any means am I an expert on Wabanaki studies. But, as a lifelong resident of Maine, a graduate of Maine’s school system and an aspiring educator, I hope to lend my voice in support of properly enforcing Maine’s education laws.

Wabanaki studies, a requirement in Maine’s education standards, are sorely absent in Maine’s schools — denying the rights of our Wabanaki neighbors and robbing our students of a full, comprehensive education.

It may come as a surprise to you that Maine law has required integration of Wabanaki history for over two decades. In 2001, Maine’s legislature passed LD 291, with the amendment to Section 4706 stating this in no uncertain terms.

Clause 3 reads: “Maine Native American history and culture must be taught in all elementary and secondary schools, both public and private.”

Despite its crystal-clear diction, this law has simply not been enforced by Maine’s government in any capacity. Schools with means to do so, such as Portland’s public schools, have taken it upon themselves to devise and standardize programs that align with the act. Due to an absence of curricular support, most of Maine’s underfunded public schools simply haven’t prioritized such efforts. Unless Maine’s government follows through on its promises, the words of LD 291 will likely remain hollow.

But before we understand why, we need to know how we got here. Here’s a brief overview for anyone who, like me, was never taught about the peoples native to this region. I will once again stress that this is by no means a complete summary and I strongly encourage you to visit the websites of Wabanaki REACH and the Wabanaki Alliance.

The alliance of Wabanaki nations is composed of the Passamaquody, Penobscot, Maliseet and Mi’kmaq peoples. These nations are not strictly confined to reservations; their boundaries extend across New Hampshire and Canada’s borders as well. The citizens of this area’s five Indigenous nations hail from a line of peoples who have lived on this land for up to 100,000 years. Before the colonization of North America, the Wabanaki and their ancestors engineered and stewarded their surroundings with an immense degree of insight. They also, of course, named a bunch of places where we live today, from Casco Bay to Katahdin and beyond.

Although the place names remain, European colonialism did everything it could to kill and erase the Wabanaki.

Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, European colonists regularly kidnapped and sold countless Wabanaki people into slavery. For centuries their land would continue to be stolen, either through the colony’s refusal to acknowledge treaties or by outright violence. In 1755, the king of England issued a bounty calling for the severed scalps of Penobscot Indians, illustrating the same genocidal sentiments that would later be adopted by the United States government when it officially declared all Native Americans to be enemies of our nation. I would add here that folks today have the ability to watch a film about this titled “Bounty.” It is freely available online and installed at the Old State House in Boston.

Schools themselves have had a violent relationship with Indigenous peoples of this continent. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, to dismantle American Indian nations around the country, many Wabanaki children were forcibly taken from their homes in Maine and sent to schools hundreds of miles from their families. This was part of an effort by leaders in education to “kill the Indian and save the man (or child).” Children were stripped of traditional clothes, their hair was cut, and they were beaten for speaking their languages. Hundreds of kids died in these schools. Neither the Indian, nor the child was spared.

Despite the atrocities they have endured, Wabanaki nations have managed to sustain numerous aspects of their culture and lifeways in addition to forging a path in contemporary society. Louis Sockalexis was the first non-white member of a Major League Baseball team over 100 years ago and Wabanaki advocates of today are key players in areas of environmentalism and public health.

It likely goes without saying, but no, Wabanaki peoples don’t live in wigwams. In fact, there’s a good chance you went to school with a Wabanaki person, as Maine’s population has the highest percentage of American Indian people in New England. We learn about Italian, Irish, Latin and African American histories in our textbooks. So why don’t we learn about this region’s own Indigenous peoples?

Well, with the help of Maine’s educators, we have a chance to achieve implementation of Wabanaki studies. Maine recently held a hearing on LD 1474, which contains a legislative act whose aim is to allocate state resources so we can make this happen. It’s currently sitting in the House waiting to be voted on. We are lucky enough in this state to have direct access to our representatives; give them a call. In the meantime, Maine hosts a website with some basic materials on Wabanaki history and culture, which is where I and my fellow educators have a chance to begin setting things right.

Knowledge is power and power means responsibility. Let’s show our students what responsibility really looks like.