Co-authors: Dr. Darren Ranco, Chair, Native American Programs, University of Maine, and Matt Mullen, Associate Director, UMaine Foundation
Shirley Hager:
In the 1980s and ‘90s, I was the co-coordinator, along with my friend gkisedtanamoogk, of a series of gatherings between Indigenous and non-Native individuals, held in Maine and the Maritimes. We wanted to find out if it was possible to come to know one another as individuals, and to begin to repair the tragic history between our peoples caused by generations of colonization. Could we find ways forward, together, to address the critical social, economic and environmental issues affecting us all? Participants attended from throughout New England and the Maritimes, and many (though certainly not all) of the non-Native participants were Quakers. These gatherings were held over long weekends in a traditional Council circle format that was directed and led by the Native attendees. These were deeply moving experiences, as if we were doing something so right with Creation that you could feel it.
Many of the connections formed in these gatherings continued long after the gatherings ended in 1993. In 2008, a group of us came together to write a book in order to describe our experiences together and to share the lessons we learned. That book, The Gatherings: Reimagining Indigenous-Settler Relations, was published in 2021 by the University of Toronto Press, and is now in paperback and available as an audiobook. At various stages in the creation of this book, Quakers throughout New England provided critical spiritual and financial support, most notably Portland Friends, Farmington Friends and Winthrop Center Friends Meetings in Maine. gkisedtanamoogk and I dialogued about our experiences as keynote speakers at New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM) Sessions in 2021.
During the creation of the Gatherings book, over a span of 10 years or so, I often had opportunities to travel to New Brunswick to meet with several of the co-authors. During that time, two of the Wabanaki co-authors, Gwen Bear and Miigam’agan, became Elders-in-Residence at two universities in Fredericton, the University of New Brunswick (UNB) and St. Thomas University, respectively. In our visits, I listened to Gwen as she recounted her experiences counseling both Indigenous students and non-Native faculty at UNB. On several occasions, I had the pleasure of tagging along with Miigam’agan as she engaged the Indigenous students in activities that recalled their home communities or introduced them to Wabanaki traditional experiences that strengthened their ties to their culture. I was deeply moved by these students who so eagerly engaged with the activities and support being offered to them. And I observed non-Native faculty and staff at these universities taking part in programming designed to increase their understanding and sensitivity to their Indigenous students.
Years passed and, in 2021, at the memorial service for his father Wayne, I had a conversation with Chris Newell, Passamaquoddy educator currently serving in Native American Cultural Programs at the University of Connecticut. We started talking about the experience of Indigenous students in college, what supports exist and what obstacles remain. Chris recounted his own, as well as his father’s, struggles with their first experience at a university. I asked about tuition waivers and financial support. Chris replied, “Money’s great, but you can find money; what keeps kids in school is relationships.” My thoughts immediately went to what I had observed and experienced in the New Brunswick universities with their Wabanaki Elder-in-Residence programs. I thought, “there should be Elders-in-Residence at every public university!”
Last year, nearly three years after that conversation with Chris, that thought resurfaced again, only with more urgency. My Meeting, Winthrop Center Friends, had begun a process of thinking about to share recently acquired resources. We had funds from the sale of our building in 2023; our pastor had retired that same year; and our expenses were greatly reduced without her salary and the building to support. I didn’t want to intrude on the Meeting’s process of discernment, but this idea of an Elder-in-Residence, possibly at the University of Maine, had begun to nudge me with greater frequency. So, it was at a Ministry and Counsel meeting (Ministry and Counsel has served as my support and clearness committee for the book project), I nearly blurted out my idea. It was the first time I had said it out loud.
Without saying one way or another what they thought of the idea, they encouraged me to pursue it to some logical next step. That logical next step was to contact the Chair of Native American Studies at the University of Maine, Darren Ranco. Even with my enthusiasm for the idea, I was clear that if Darren felt the idea was not feasible for any reason, then that was the end of it, as the creation, design and direction of the program would be the purview of his department. Darren’s response: “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time.”
Darren thought that it would be most feasible to start with a pilot program, part-time, and to aim for three years so it could have a chance to develop, hoping it might ultimately be endowed. I said that I would like to see Quakers take the lead in raising the funds for this pilot. His response: he thought that would be well received in Wabanaki communities because Quakers were known and respected.
Darren offered to contact Matt Mullen at the UMaine Foundation, whom he had worked with on other projects. The three of us had a Zoom call and I began to explain to Matt that if Quakers supplied the funding for this pilot it might take a while, as we had a certain process of discernment and decision-making. Matt replied that he understood...he had worked previously at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC! Not only that but, as it turned out, he grew up in Winthrop, Maine and therefore knew members of our Meeting. It was a lovely moment of serendipity, or perhaps another “way opening,” to have this connection with the person who would be in charge of managing the funds we would raise.
Darren and Matt left that meeting with a plan to come up with a proposal for the pilot, along with a budget, which they presented a few weeks later. The projected cost: $30,000/year for three years, or $90,000.
In July, I returned to my Ministry and Counsel with the proposal for the program, and they urged me to bring the proposal to the full Meeting for Business to be held later that month, which I did. I asked for my Meeting’s support to bring the proposal to other Quakers in Maine. From the minutes of that meeting: “Shirley has imagined her leading as strongly in alignment with Quaker values and asks for our prayerful support, as she discerns the various aspects of outreach to the wider Quaker community. Friends voiced support of Shirley's leading, and the Meeting was in unity in supporting Shirley to continue to pursue this effort.”
At that Meeting for Business, one Friend asked, “And how much do you want from us?” I hesitated. It felt audacious to ask my Meeting for financial support when they had not yet had time to go through their planned process of discernment as to how to use our resources. I said I would need time to consider this. Over the next few days, I searched for what felt “right” in terms of a request. I settled on the following figure: $6,000 a year for each of the three years of the pilot, totaling $18,000 or 20% of what was needed. It felt like a bold request--a stretch—and yet it felt like the amount needed to demonstrate the viability of the idea and to spark energy in others. My request was approved at a subsequent special called Meeting for Business in August, and the minutes read: “We, as a Meeting, are aware that the program will greatly benefit Indigenous students, enhance the diverse culture within the University system, and, indeed, blesses us with an important opportunity for which we have prayed for clearness; our pledge fulfills our commitment to share our faith, extending beyond our Meeting, to the wider community. We thank Shirley for sharing this opportunity with us, as we continue to hold her and the proposal in the Light.” The Meeting now considered my involvement “under their care,” and I felt affirmed to bring this leading to other Meetings in Maine.
Shortly after this meeting, I was invited to present the proposal as part of the program at our Fall Gathering of Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting, held the first Saturday in September. The response was overwhelmingly positive. One attendee commented that here was the opposite of Quaker involvement in “Indian boarding schools,” pointing out that the boarding schools were “education” imposed upon Indigenous youth by a colonizing government in order to destroy their culture, and here was an example of a request by an Indigenous entity to enable students to better preserve and share their culture even while participating in our Western-style educational institutions.
Throughout the fall, I shared this leading and presented the proposal to Falmouth Quarterly Meeting, as well as to several Monthly Meetings in both Quarters. In October, my Meeting went one step further and approved a minute asking both Vassalboro and Falmouth Quarters (representing the entirety of Maine) to officially endorse my leading, to encourage Monthly Meetings and individuals to contribute to the fundraising for the proposal, and to write a letter of support to be sent to NEYM and its Legacy Gift Committee and Right Relationship Resource Group. That minute was approved by both Quarters.
In recent years, Friends in New England have been seeking paths to offer honorable and appropriate reparations for their involvement in (i.e., support for) “Indian boarding schools.” The desire to find ways to repair, or to at least begin to address, the generational harm caused by these institutions has grown stronger among New England Friends after the release of the report last summer from the NEYM Quaker Indian Boarding School Research Group. This group labored for two years to bring the truth to light that Friends directly operated, or supported, a number of these “schools” through staffing, financing, sending supplies, clothing, etc. throughout the existence of these institutions. In my presentations, I frequently received comments that this project felt “rightly ordered” and a model for what reparations for Quaker involvement in these “schools” could look like.
To summarize our fundraising efforts to date, which began with the contribution from Winthrop Center Friends last August, we have currently raised $105,000.00 in total commitments for the project. This is tremendous and gratifying news to have reached and even exceeded our goal in such a short amount of time! Any funds received beyond the original goal means that the Elder will have more hours available to work and/or the program could be shared with other UMaine campuses close to other Wabanaki communities, and/or monies can be rolled over to subsequent years or added to an endowment fund. Gifts have ranged from $25 to $30,000 and have come from eight Friends’ Meetings in Maine and from numerous individuals. All of the donations have come from Quakers in Maine except one: an anonymous contribution of $30,000 from a household known to support Wabanaki efforts in the past, and which was inspired to contribute funds to be applied to the third year of the pilot as an incentive for others to make the first two years viable.
It has been humbling and deeply moving to experience the response to this proposal and the support for me personally as I have tried to listen and to faithfully respond to the promptings along the way. Several times when I expressed hesitancy to “put myself out there” so publicly, I was gently reminded, “it’s not you...it is through you.” I gratefully turn this article over to Darren Ranco and to Matt Mullen, both who so enthusiastically responded to this idea, to share with you their thoughts on what the project means for Indigenous students and the University as a whole, and for Darren to introduce the new Elder-in-Residence.
Dr. Darren Ranco, Chair, Native American Programs, University of Maine:
As an Indigenous scholar and academic, one of my dreams has been to have academic institutions recognize the genius, knowledge, and contributions of our elders who care for our cultural traditions and nurture our communities. The reasons for this dream are multiple and reflect why I am called to the work that I do. Historically, academic institutions and disciplines have played both active and passive roles in colonial projects, including advocating for forced assimilation of Indigenous people, various forms of scientific racism, and narratives of “progress” that have theorized the eventual disappearance of us as Indigenous people. This is particularly true of Land Grant Universities, such as the University of Maine, whose funds were raised in the 1860s with the sale of Indigenous peoples lands to homesteaders. It is also true of the academic discipline I have my PhD in, socio-cultural anthropology, whose originators sought to salvage “authentic” Indigenous cultures before they disappeared. Moreover, anthropology created a system whereby the “knowers” and “experts” of Indigenous cultures became the outsiders who studied them for a short while.
Into this space, since the 1990s, the University of Maine has made strides to correct these historic and colonial legacies. With the founding of the Wabanaki Center at the University of Maine by the Board of Trustees in 1995 and the institutionalization of Native American Studies in 1997, we have created spaces to understand and teach about these legacies, as well as recognize the immense contributions of Wabanaki people and cultures to the University and what is now called the State of Maine. Furthered by the 2001 law requiring the teaching of Maine Indian history and culture in K-12 schools across the state, the University has committed to recognizing Wabanaki cultures and scholars as a key part of the ongoing fabric of knowledge taught and studied at the University of Maine. This includes a landmark 2018 Memorandum of Understanding signed by the President of the University of Maine and the Chief of the Penobscot Nation recognizing the roles and responsibilities of both entities to work together to protect, care for, and create access to the University’s holdings of Penobscot cultural heritage items and collections. It also includes a 2018 University plan creating bilingual English and Penobscot signs, furthering the recognition of the historic and ongoing relevance of Penobscot language in the heart of Penobscot territory on Marsh Island, where the University of Maine sits.
As the next step in these actions to de-colonize the University and support Wabanaki students, faculty, staff, and systems of knowledge, we have the unique opportunity, as a result of this funding, to recognize a Wabanaki elder as a leader and educator, furthering the education of both Native and non-Native students. Our choice for the inaugural Elder-in-Residence, Carol Dana, is someone I consider a national treasure. Recognized as our first Penobscot language master in 2002, Carol has dedicated her life to the teaching and sharing of our language. She is a celebrated poet and co-editor of the 2021 collection, "Still They Remember Me”: Penobscot Transformer Tales, Volume 1, as well as a renowned storyteller and teacher. Her presence on campus as Elder-in-Residence will serve to bolster and support our Indigenous students as well as create visibility in the broader community that Wabanaki elders are as valuable as anyone with a PhD to the University of Maine community, and that we are the true experts and holders of our cultures.
Matt Mullen, Associate Director, UMaine Foundation:
Working alongside Shirley and Darren on the Wabanaki Elder-in-Residence initiative has been a profoundly insightful experience. In my role on behalf of the UMaine Foundation, I witnessed firsthand the power of community-driven philanthropy and the importance of relationship-building. Shirley's dedication and unwavering commitment to this project, rooted in cross-cultural dialogue and a deep respect for Wabanaki traditions, were truly inspiring.
For me, this project held a unique, personal significance with the serendipitous connections of being a Winthrop native and my past experience working at Sidwell Friends School, a Quaker-founded institution in Washington D.C. Witnessing the organic growth of support, fueled by genuine connections and a shared vision, reinforced my belief that impactful change often stems from authentic, personal engagement. Furthermore, I’ve worked with other donors who deeply care about the success of Wabanaki students, and this project beautifully aligned with those philanthropic goals.
The success of the fundraising effort, exceeding the initial goal in such a short time, speaks volumes about the resonance of Shirley's vision and the community's readiness to support it. Seeing the diverse range of contributions, ranging from small to substantial, of individual gifts and donations from Meetings, underscored the collective desire to honor and uplift Wabanaki culture within the university setting. Shirley's humility and unwavering focus on the project's purpose, rather than personal recognition, were central to its success. Her ability to articulate the importance of relationships, rather than just financial support, resonated deeply with everyone involved, making this initiative a testament to true meaning of philanthropy and its transformative power.