Word: penobscots
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...TINY ISLAND in the middle of the Penobscot River in northern Maine lives a band of four hundred Native Americans. The island, dubbed Indian Island to notify the tourists, is a picturesque spot for a Sunday drive. But behind the plywood wigwams that advertise "REAL MOCCASINS" and "REST ROOMS" the Penobscot Indians subsist in tattered shelters that the tourists never manage to discover. For the Penobscot are among the poorest of the Native American tribes...
Poor, that is, until a federal judge awarded the Penobscot Indians 180 years back rent on two-thirds of the state of Maine. Indian Island has been the sparse, rocky home of the Indians for many generations--but not forever. Before 1794, the Penobscot roamed the Maine woods freely from the Canadian border down to what is now Massachusetts. In that year the Indians, fearing loss of their land as white settlements encroached on their territory, petitioned Massachusetts, which then included Maine, for a title to their land. Massachusetts generously obliged with a title to a 23,000-acre region...
...conscience is in coping with the land claims and welfare of the sadly neglected native Americans. About a million strong, with the highest birthrate in the U.S., the Indians are ravaged by illness, alcoholism and despair. Many are also affected by a new militancy. In Maine, the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes have laid claim to 2.5 million acres of land−two-thirds of the state. Claims are pending against other tracts within the original 13 colonies. Dealing with this and other demands for native justice will require all of Andrus' considerable diplomatic ability...
...case is only the latest battle in a new Indian uprising against the white man-fought this time in the courts. It started in Maine, where Attorney Tureen, now 32, arrived from St. Louis with an interest in Indian legal problems. In 1971, with Tureen's help, the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes set out to sue the state, claiming title to 12.5 million acres-two-thirds of Maine. The estimated value of the property, which the Indians had handed over to the state in a series of ancient agreements: $25 billion. Last December a federal appeals judge ordered...
Ford also visited another Penobscot Bay community, and made two television appearances, as part of what he called "bringing the debate to the village square...