Indigenous Peoples' Day

Unfortunately, Massachusetts has failed to rename October's second Monday, Indigenous Peoples' Day as at least six states have. The entire nation should follow suit, perhaps after the election this will have a chance to pass in each state.

"History buffs know that honoring Columbus for discovering America makes sense only if you define “discover” as wading ashore, confusing your location for Asia, and finding people who’d lived here long before you came. If it’s discovery by Europeans you want to honor, ours is the wrong country to honor an explorer who, as mentioned, never set foot here." www.wbur.org


So, I will showcase some of my photographs from Machiasport, Maine taken on Clark's Point, a spit of land where my maternal grandfather was born. It's lined with Cape Cod style houses with attached barns inhabited by many of my maternal ancestors. The shoreline and ledges, dotted with petroglyphs, have been rhythmically washed by eons of salty tides. It was once and is now again under the protection of human inhabitants who first lived, held sacred ceremonies and fashioned their flint points there. 


The site, known as the Picture Rocks, lies on the Machias Bay in Downeast Maine. In 2006 it was returned to its original peoples, The Passamaquoddy Tribe. The carvings and "peckings" in the photographs date back 3000 to 5000 years, some may be as old as 10,000 years. They will eventually be lost, washed by sand, stones and a relentless tide. I have seen great changes in since I was a child and played on them.


"We're still here, We still speak our language. We still hear the drum. We still dance. Melvin Francis, Passamaquoddy


Maluhsihikon: a Passamaquoddy name for an area where petroglyphs are found, as (a place of) "chopped" (pecked) "rocks on a shoreline."


It is one of my favorite places on earth. I spent childhood vacations there, heard stories of the sea captains who lived there when not at sea. It was the vista my maternal grandparents enjoyed from their honeymoon, Birch Knoll Cottage windows in 1920. The weathered gravestones of my 3rd great grandparents sit at the crest of the grassy hill as it slopes to the shore. The land now belongs rightly, once again to The Passamaquoddy People, the People of the Dawn.


Extras, My grandfather on the Picture Rocks and the gravestones of my 3rd great grandparents. The third is us, some years ago on the Picture Rocks as the tide was flowing in.


For the Record,
This day came in cloudy and cool. We cleaned up our traffic island for the winter and hung up a large Biden sign on the front of our piazza before tomorrow's rain.


All hands wary