About Atlohkewi and the Discussion Project series

This series will take place at Bangor Public Library in the Crofutt Community Room and online on December 22, January 5 & 19, February 2 & 16, and March 2 and 16, Wednesdays at 3:00 pm.

The first 25 registrants will receive a copy of Carol's book Still They Remember Me to read and use as a text.  If registration is full, please register to be on the waiting list.  If you are on the waiting list and would like to attend via Zoom,  the login link will be emailed to you.   

**Please note: Because of production issues, copies of Still They Remember Me may not be available until our 2nd or 3rd meeting.  Stories or sections of the book to be read and discussed will be provided in pdf form if necessary.

Carol Dana (Penobscot) will share traditional Penobscot stories through Atlohkewi, "Tell Me a Story," during this multi-week series as well as presenting the cultural significance of this annual tradition that takes place between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.  This year we are partnering with the Maine Humanities Council through their Discussion Project program. Registrants for this series will receive a copy of Carol's new book Still They Remember Me to read and use as a text.  The co-authors of this book, Margo Lukens and Conor Quinn, will take part in the meetings at the beginning of the series.  The book will be yours to keep.

Please register for this event by clicking the blue Begin Registration button below. Once you register, you will be signed up for all seven storytelling sessions. A reminder email will be sent to those who register two days prior to each session date. 

Sources of material for Carol's stories are:

• The Algonquin legends of New England by Charles G. Leland
• Fannie Hardy Eckstorm
• 200 stories she gleaned from the UMO library
• Molly Dell’s stories
• the web
• Legends of the Micmac by Silas T. Rand, Volume 1 & 2 that Frank T. Siebert recorded
• Gluscabe and Other Tales by Horace Beck

Carol Dana is a Penobscot language master for the Penobscot Nation. Margo Lukens is a professor of English at the University of Maine and Conor M. Quinn is an adjunct assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Southern Maine.

About Carol

Carol Dana was born in 1952, two years after a bridge connected her home community, Indian Island, to Old Town. She was first exposed to language at a young age. She heard Passamaquoddy spoken at her maternal Grandmother's home and the desire to learn the language was born. As a teenager, Carol made the conscious effort to visit speaking elders to learn the language. Carol lived at Peter Dana point, for a time, a nearby Passamaquoddy community, where the language was spoken daily. Later, Carol lived at Akwesasne, a Mohawk community, and was inspired by how they 'lived' their language. When Carol returned home in 1973, in 1981 she began working as a research assistant to Dr. Frank T. Seibert. Dr. Seibert had devised a written system for the Penobscot Language and began recording the remaining speakers in the community. Carol assisted Dr. Seibert in the creation of the Penobscot Dictionary. She attended college to earn her Masters in Education degree and began to teach language at Indian Island school at all grade levels. 

Carol has continued her own education by attending St. Thomas College in Fredericton, New Brunswick on language immersion methods. She has also completed workshops from the Indigenous Language Institute and received a certificate on Second Language Learning methods through the University of Maine. 

Carol currently works at the Cultural and Historic Preservation Department for the Penobscot Nation where she uses her skills as a language master to teach and continue learning the language teaching methods. She teaches at the Penobscot Nation Daycare center, Boys and Girls Club, and with the elders in the community. In 2010 at the Algonquian Language Conference, Carol was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her dedication to the Penobscot Language.  

About Still They Rember Me from the University of Massachusetts Press

Newell Lyon learned the oral tradition from his elders in the Penobscot Nation in Maine and was widely considered to be a “raconteur among the Indians." The thirteen stories in this new volume were among those that Lyon recounted to anthropologist Frank Speck, who published them in 1918 as Penobscot Transformer Tales. Transcribed for the first time into current Penobscot orthography and with a new English translation, this instructive and entertaining story cycle focuses on the childhood and coming-of-age of Gluskabe, the tribe's culture hero. Learning from his grandmother Woodchuck, Gluskabe applies lessons that help shape the Wabanaki landscape and bring into balance all the forces affecting human life. These tales offer a window into the language and culture of the Penobscot people in the early twentieth century.

In Still They Remember Me, stories are presented in the Penobscot language and English side-by-side, coupled with illustrations from members of the tribal community. For the first time, these stories are accessible to a young generation of Penobscot language learners and scholars of Native American literatures at all levels, from grade school to graduate school.  

For more information and details about this book, visit the publisher's website by clicking here.

Thank you to the Maine Bicentennial Commission and Maine Humanities Council Discussion Project for financial support of this series. 

Contact Candis if you have questions: (207) 922-6054 or candis.joyce@bangorpubliclibrary.org.