‍The Frog Monster story is a perfect example. It is a timeless story of the creation of the Penobscot River and how, with that creation, the clans that are within Penobscot communities and the nonhuman relatives in the river are shaped in relationship. The Frog Monster is about land, identity and community values - and these values include both oral and aesthetic expression. 
 
‍“You know that genocide would be fulfilled when we stop telling our stories.” - attributed to Donna Loring, Penobscot

‍Another example is with our basket making, a specific art form, but also an expression of Homeland based on narratives and traditions. With changing socio-economic conditions specifically tied to settler colonial projects of control and dispossession, Wabanaki survivance strategies are always adapting. We find ways to express identity at the very time that our sense of identity and connection to place is under continued threat of eradication. 

Our multiple forms of cultural expressions have always done this, they allow us to reinvent ourselves in different social material conditions beyond the gaze of colonialism. It’s just who we are. And this is exactly what this whole project is about.

On August 24th, 2016, President Barack Obama proclaimed the establishment of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument (the monument), which is situated in the traditional and present-day homeland of the Penobscot Nation. The land and waters hold special significance to the Penobscot Nation and are inextricably linked with Penobscot culture, ceremonies, oral traditions, language, history, and indigenous stewardship which continues the respectful relationship with the land and waterways that has gone back more than 11,000 years. Katahdin is a culturally significant place to the Wabanaki people where connecting watersheds provide important travel routes for Wabanaki people of Maine, comprised of Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Nations. 

The 87,500 acres of monument land was donated to the United States by Burt’s Bees founder, Roxanne Quimby, through Elliotsville Foundation, Inc. (EFI), marking the centennial of the National Park Service (“NPS”). The proclamation established “reservations of rights” for EFI to undertake certain infrastructure projects in the new monument.

Presidential Proclamation -- Establishment of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument

“Katahdin Woods and Waters's daytime scenery is awe-inspiring, from the breadth of its mountain-studded landscape, to the channels of its free-flowing streams with their rapids, falls, and quiet water, to its vantages for viewing the Katahdin massif, "greatest mountain." The area's night skies rival this experience, glittering with stars and planets and occasional displays of the aurora borealis, in this area of the country known for its dark sky.”

Presidential Proclamation

Chief Francis Letter of Support

"The Penobscot River in central and northern Maine is the heart of the cultural identity of the Penobscot Nation. We have been the caretakers of this great watershed since time immemorial, and we consider that responsibility a very serious priority for our tribe."

Download Letter

Exercise of Reserved Rights

In September, 2018, Elliotsville Foundation officially opened consultation with the National Park Service for the purpose of exercising its rights outlined in the Presidential Proclamation to build a visitor contact station in the new Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.

Download Document

Essential to the integrity of the visitor contact station project, Elliotsville Foundation (EFI) desired in-depth relationships with representatives of the Wabanaki Nations. In late 2018, the EFI team turned to David Goldstein, then NPS tribal and cultural affairs specialist in the Northeast region, who introduced the Abbe Museum and its Native Advisory Council to EFI. Following a visit to the Abbe, a “prospectus” for a potential relationship was outlined:

“Thank you for this opportunity to submit a prospectus for consideration as EFI plans a Visitor Contact Station in Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. This document offers the opportunity to share information about the Abbe Museum’s decolonizing approach to museum work. It also offers ways that EFI and the Abbe Museum may work together to ensure equitable consultation with Wabanaki advisors and in developing a decolonizing practice for the project.”

The Abbe’s Native Advisory Council (NAC) responded to the prospectus with the preference for a direct relationship with EFI. The NAC identified Suzanne Greenlaw, Maliseet, and Gabriel Frey, Passamaquoddy, to serve as a bridge and initially advise EFI on native engagement with development of the visitor contact station.

The NAC was interested in moving forward with a convening in the monument together with EFI and requested the inclusion of tribal government, tribal elders, and NPS staff. In November 2019, tribal members, EFI, and NPS representatives convened together for an evening dinner and gift exchange, project presentation, walk to the proposed visitor contact station site, tobacco ceremony, and conversation together at Lunksoos Camps.

Architectural, landscape, and exhibit designs resulted from a process between Elliotsville Foundation and representatives of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Mi’kmaq Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, and Penobscot Nation. All Wabanaki Cultural Knowledge and Intellectual Property shared within this project is owned by the Wabanaki Nations listed above.

In 2019, EFI initiated relationships with representatives of the Wabanaki Nations. Discussions began with the Abbe Museum’s Native Advisory Council in Bar Harbor. The Abbe team shared its experience operating in Acadia National Park and its efforts at decolonizing the museum, an ongoing process to share authority for the documentation and interpretation of Wabanaki culture.

These conversations identified the unique opportunity for Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument to create an interpretive site from the ground up that is imbued with Wabanaki worldviews, which are often erased, inadequate, or represented by colonized versions of Indigenous stories in public sites.
‍
Building on introductions facilitated by the Abbe, members of the Native Advisory Council soon began working directly with EFI. The members of this group now identified as the Wabanaki Advisory Board (full listing in Project Credits). In November 2019, when the Wabanaki Advisory Board, EFI, NPS, and the U.S. architect of record gathered to review initial design concepts, the advisory board members were disappointed. They explained that the designs, which were supposed to resemble a farmhouse and a silo, failed to
acknowledge the region’s Indigenous past — and instead underscored the history of colonization there.

This convening marked one of the turning points in the project. This point of potential fracture was turned into an opportunity: EFI directed Saunders Architecture to develop a new vision with input and sign-off from the Wabanaki Advisory Board, resulting in conceptual plans that were embraced in early 2020 and are manifested in the building today.

“We wrote off all of the work that had gone before. For if we were really serious that this project was to be a partnership and not an imposition, a genuine product of and celebration of Wabanaki culture both then and now, we needed to start again, to learn to carry only what was needed, wanted, and wished for.”
‍
-Todd Saunders, Norway, Design Architect

Following the Lunksoos convening, Wabanaki attendees wanted to ensure the proper authority to represent their Nations in the budding collaboration with Elliotsville Foundation (EFI). Following protocol, in December, 2019, EFI president Lucas St. Clair conveyed letters to each Chief requesting appointment of official tribal representatives:

"To ensure the Visitor Contact Station represents Wabanaki people appropriately, EFI is seeking the ongoing involvement, input, and advice of a group of Wabanaki advisors during the four years of the Reserved Rights period. They have requested a Chief-appointed council be created, separate from the Chief appointed Abbe Museum Native Advisory Council they currently serve on; so that they may act as advisors for the KWWNM Visitor Contact Station and associated EFI projects."

These letters went to Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation, Chief Clarissa Sabbatus of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Chief Edward Peter Paul of the Mi'kmaq Nation (then Aroostook Band of Micmacs), Chief Marla Dana of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik, and Chief William J. Nicholas Sr. of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahkomikuk.

Three of the five Chiefs made their designation prior to the onset of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding and support from the remaining two Chiefs came about verbally.

"We ran a 6 hour training for everybody, people who were core to the project to start with, and then we grew it out to the rest of the team. This is really meaningful, because it wasn’t just something internal or project leadership. The training was required for the entire project team because everybody who is non-native was dealing with indigenous knowledge. It was really important to continue this when new staff and contractors came to the project and we ultimately reached more than 75 people including campaign steering committee members and leadership donors.

We are building understanding about these relationships between culture and knowledge and property and the way in which some kinds of colonial frameworks are constantly making property out of indigenous knowledge and at times exercising exclusive control over it.”

- Dr. Jane Anderson

ICIP Training: Advance reading and listening

Writing Indians out of Existence in New England

Join your host, J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, for an episode that will feature an interview with Dr. Jean M. O’Brien (enrolled citizen of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation), author of a newly released book, Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians Out of Existence in New England (University of Minnesota Press, 2010), which she will discuss on the show.

Decolonizing Design

"You can have diversity, but it's not enough if you don't actually change the power structures of the institution," says the dean of design at Ontario College of Art and Design University
‍
Tunstall’s talk, given on Jan. 25, 2019, is part of the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation’s design conversations.

Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native

The question of genocide is never far from discussions of settler colonialism. Land is life—or, at least, land is necessary for life. Thus contests for land can be—indeed, often are—contests for life.

This book is a counter-story to Western ideas about the benefits of the pursuit of knowledge. Looking through the eyes of the colonized, cautionary tales are told from an indigenous perspective, tales designed not just to voice the voiceless but to prevent the dying - of people, of culture, of ecosystems.

Decolonizing Methodologies

"Lets Reconsider that Indigenous Tattoo"

In this episode, Tammy Eagle Bull, FAIA, spells out why cultural appropriation is wrong regardless of one's intent, how it perpetuates in the architecture and design community, and her own experiences with preconceptions in her everyday life.

All My Relations Podcast - Native Appropriations

In this episode, All My Relations explores the topic of cultural appropriation—it’s become such a buzzword, but what is it, really? Adrienne and Matika care deeply about Native representation, and talk constantly about this subject.

Protocols for using First Nations Cultural
and Intellectual Property in the Arts

This full-length protocol guide spells out clearly the legal as well as the ethical and moral considerations for the use of Indigenous cultural material in arts and cultural projects. It can help people do the right thing.

"So we opened up the question… what could we do in order to change this project - radically change it?"
-Dr. Jane Anderson
‍

"I would say that the MOU is really a tool for building trust in a different kind of way, in a way that hadn't been done in any project that we had ever come across previously, particularly within an architecture context. It also means that we had to go much deeper in defining the relationship. The MOU addresses who makes decisions: we wrote into the agreement that the Wabanaki Advisory Board is the primary decision maker for how and when cultural knowledge and intellectual property is shared… so establishing certain kinds of expectations, but making them very clear across the entire project. The MOU provides scaffolding that we needed to move into actually changing language in contracts. And this was willingly done with understanding and respect by all the parties involved."
‍
‍-Dr. Jane Anderson

Memorandum of Understanding

"The Wabanaki Katahdin Woods and Waters Working Council (aka Wabanaki Advisory Board) and EFI share a commitment to the development of a long-term relationship to support and create benefit for the Wabanaki Nations and to enhance EFI's mission to "advance the dynamic relationship of innovative land conservation and community-based economic development" (EFI Mission Statement 2020). The purpose of this MOU is to formalize the responsibilities and relationships between the current Wabanaki Council and EFl, a private nonprofit operating foundation. This is specifically regarding the sharing and subsequent use of Wabanaki cultural knowledge and intellectual property during development of the design, interpretation, promotion and fundraising for Visitor Contact Station (VCS) under EFI's Reserved Rights, referred to as 'the VCS Project' in the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument (KWWNM)."

The MOU addresses relationship dynamics and commitments regarding mutual governance, decision making, attribution and acknowledgement, and permissions and consents.

Once the MOU was in place, we rewrote contracts with non-indigenous contractors that had preceded its creation.

Download Memorandum of Understanding

Download Revised Contract

Flowing from the MOU, Elliotsville Foundation (EFI) first revised existing contracts, adding clauses explicitly protecting Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (“ICIP”) rights.

Updated Contractor Agreement

An example showing how a non-Indigenous design firm integrated attribution requirements, with redlined ICIP amendments.

Download Updated Contractor Agreement

Relationships, reciprocity, and accountability

Entering a new phase of the project, there was a felt need to move beyond amended standard agreements. The following presentation helped to inspire a new underlying framework based on the importance of relationships, reciprocity, and accountability.

While countless work sessions had focused objectives and outcomes, shared experiences and unstructured time built relationships, openness to each other's perceptions and ideas, honesty, and a creative whole. With wide ranging levels and types of expertise, leadership was fluid, everyone had the opportunity to build capacity, and a broad collective partnership emerged.‍

Canoeing together on East Branch of the Penobscot River, Credit: Landyn Francis, Penobscot

Representatives of the EFI Design Team, Wabanaki Advisory Board, and NPS viewing the Tekαkαpimək tree canopy, Credit: James Eric Francis, Sr., Penobscot

Representatives of the EFI Design Team and Wabanaki Advisory Board viewing alternate Eastern Lookout designs, Credit: Landyn Francis, Penobscot

Design stakeout Tekαkαpimək footprint for walls and beams, Credit: Susan Adams

Wabanaki community members casting clay tiles, Credit: Erin Hutton

Wabanaki Advisory Board members Kasq (Natalie) Dana-Lolar, Passamaquoddy/Penobscot and Suzanne Greenlaw, Maliseet on Wabanaki Appreciation Day at Tekαkαpimək, Credit: Jane Anderson

Jane Anderson, ICIP consultant, and Gabriel Frey, Passamaquoddy on Wabanaki Appreciation Day at Tekαkαpimək, Credit: Jane Anderson

Exhibitions bring an interpretive plan to life through tactile and interactive elements, immersive photography, illustrations, video, and sound. EFI and the Wabanaki Advisory Board chose WeShouldDoItAll (WSDIA) as the right design firm to join the team, based on the firm's commitment to cross-cultural collaboration and design accomplishments. Ongoing dialogue with the Wabanaki Advisory Board ensured clear communication, ultimate respect and understanding, and encouraged decolonization within the design process. Rather than the standard practice of a lead exhibition writer coming from the design firm, WSDIA welcomed Wabanaki Advisory Board member Jennifer Neptune, Penobscot, in that role.

Spending countless hours together on the project site, in creative workshops, break out teams, in Zoom meetings, and solo in their studios, the collective expertise was brought to bear. Gradually, the exhibition design emerged, and more and more became visible.

‍
‍“I hope that Wabanaki tribal members are able to see themselves reflected in the exhibits and be proud of who they are and the culture that our ancestors saved for us. I hope that all visitors come away with a deeper understanding, respect, and relationship to these woods and waters and to the places they call home.” - Jennifer Neptune, Penobscot

‍In the end, the exhibition generously welcomes visitors while celebrating the resilience, creativity, and contributions of ancestors and Wabanaki people today.

Tekαkαpimək, Credit: James Florio

Creative Program

Recommended by members of the Wabanaki Advisory Board, artists representing each of the four Wabanaki Nations created commissioned works of art that are integrated with the building architecture, landscape design, and exhibition themes. These works of master craftsmanship intuitively engage people with Wabanaki symbols, language, and culture as visitors move among themed areas relating to the monument’s lands, waters, and its many inhabitants. While the completed works will be transferred to the Department of the Interior, individual artists shall retain associated intellectual property and rights.

The deeply symbolic and time-honored double curve design appears throughout Tekαkαpimək. The Wabanaki Advisory Board worked with artist and historian James Eric Francis Sr., Penobscot, to create new double curves. These were then combined into a unified circular design to symbolize the strength of the tribes united in support of each other, yet each separate, sharing history, kinship ties, culture, and connections. The individual double curves and unified design appear in overt and subtle ways: etched in granite as the centerpiece of the eastern Gathering Circle; cast in bronze as entry, interior, and balcony door handles carved by Gabriel Frey, Passamaquoddy; installed in a water station area on ceramic tiles handmade by Wabanaki artisans; on exterior signage; and incorporated as features to be discovered in additional works.

Tekαkαpimək, Credit: James Florio

Gabriel Frey, Passamaquoddy, carves the wooden mold for casting the bronze door pulls of Tekαkαpimək Contact Station, Credit: Erin Hutton

Gabriel Frey, Passamaquoddy, with his wood carvings for door handle casting, Credit: Erin Hutton

Finished door handle casting, Credit: James Florio

As visitors move through the Contact Station building they are oriented to the Penobscot Watershed. Concrete etched tiles spanning Tekαkαpimək’s floor area depict a map from the river’s headwaters to the Penobscot Bay estuary. Essential landmarks, placenames, and elements, such as portage routes, are featured. Researched, designed, and drawn by James Eric Francis, Sr., Penobscot, and fabricated by Spring Valley Corp., the floor design highlights that waterways are central to the Monument and an ongoing way of life. 

Tekαkαpimək Penobscot River floor map, artwork by James Eric Francis, Sr., Penobscot, Credit: Jason Pardilla, Penobscot

James Eric Francis, Sr., Penobscot, drafting the Tekαkαpimək Penobscot River floor map, Credit: Jason Pardilla, Penobscot

Over the Contact Station welcome and information desk, a rippling woven copper ceiling showcases the talent and artistry of basket techniques adapted by a team of Wabanaki weavers. The integration of startlingly beautiful weaving into the ceiling and wall of the main reception space communicates "we are still here."

Tekαkαpimək welcome and information desk, Credit: James Florio

Qahqolunsqey "Something Made of Clay" tells the story of clay tile making for Tekαkαpimək and how the project became an opportunity to reengage the Wabanaki ceramic tradition.

Interpretation and Exhibition Design

Tekαkαpimək's exhibits serve as a gateway, orienting visitors to the monument and inspiring exploration of Katahdin Woods and Waters. Showing peaks, trails, rivers, and celestial panoramas, exhibits celebrate the land and its non-human relatives, offering a view of changing foliage and brilliant night skies. Interpretation is rooted in Wabanaki perspective—focusing on culture, knowledge, language, arts, and heritage—presented in a contemporary context. This honors the past and today’s vibrant, sustainable Wabanaki communities moving forward.

Interpretive themes and the Exhibition Plan were co-created with Wabanaki and other regional partners, Penobscot exhibition writer Jennifer Neptune, Tūhura Communications, Elliotsville Foundation, and the National Park Service. Exhibition design was led by Erin Hutton Projects of Maine and WeShouldDoItAll (WSDIA), with fabrication by Split Rock Studios and Wabanaki artisans.

Tekαkαpimək Black Bear Sculpture: Tim Shay, Penobscot , Credit: James Florio

Contributing Artists

Double Curve Bronze Door Handles: Gabriel Frey, Passamaquoddy
Double Curve Design: Wabanaki Advisory Board with James Eric Francis, Sr., Penobscot
Penobscot Watershed Floor Map: James Eric Francis, Sr., Penobscot
Fireplace Storytelling Art & Poetry: Exhibition Writer, Jennifer Sapiel Neptune, Penobscot
Birchbark Canoe: Ruben “Butch” Phillips, Penobscot
Talking Sticks: Erik Sappier, Penobscot
Beaded Bag: Jennifer Sapiel Neptune, Penobscot
Canoe Paddles: Joe Dana, Penobscot
Pack Basket: Richard Silliboy, Mi’kmaq
Canoe Setting Pole: Jason Pardilla, Penobscot
Mini Birch Bark Canoes: Gayle Phillips, Penobscot
Hiking Stick: Erik Sappier, Penobscot
Root Club: Erik Sappier, Penobscot
Clay Mural: Suzanne Greenlaw, Maliseet
Atlantic Salmon Sculpture: Tim Shay, Penobscot
Carvings - Face: Luke Joseph, Maliseet
Carvings - Eagle: Darrell Clement, Mi’kmaq
Fishing Spear: Jason Pardilla, Penobscot
Water Famine Painting: James Eric Francis, Sr., Penobscot
Katahdin from the West Branch of the Penobscot, Painting, 1870: Vigil Williams 1830–1886
Clay Mural: Gabriel Frey, Passamaquoddy
Black Bear Sculpture: Tim Shay, Penobscot
Artisan Clay Tiles:
Fiddlehead, Katahdin Arctic Butterfly and Ash - Cricket Grifth, Maliseet
Flag Root - Gabriel Frey, Passamaquoddy
Bear and Katahdin - Natalie Dana-Lolar, Passamaquoddy/Penobscot
Pollock, Whale Tail and Canoe - Stephanie Francis Soctomah, Passamaquoddy
Canadian Lily and Salmon - Suzanne Greenlaw, Maliseet
Mi'kmaq Double Curve - Tania Morey, Mi'kmaq/Maliseet
Owl - Nolan Altvater, Passamaquoddy
Reflections of a Woodland Walk, Wallpaper Mural: Sarah Sockbeson, Penobscot
Sweetgrass Braid Bronze Handles: Gabriel Frey, Passamaquoddy
Copper Desk Weaving: Gabriel Frey, Passamaquoddy; Geo Neptune, Passamaquoddy; Richard Silliboy, Mi’kmaq; Sarah Sockbeson, Penobscot; Shane Perley-Dutcher, Wolastoq (Maliseet), Neqotkuk Wolasqiyik (Tobique First Nation) in New Brunswick
Welcome Desk Carved Fish: Shane Perley-Dutcher, Wolastoq (Maliseet), Neqotkuk Wolasqiyik (Tobique First Nation) in New Brunswick
Indigenous Language Speakers: Carol Dana, Penobscot; John Dennis, Mi’kmaq; Newell Lewey, Passamaquoddy
Exhibition Photography: James Eric Francis, Sr., Penobscot; Jason Pardilla, Penobscot; Nolan Altvater, Passamaquoddy; Anita Mueller; Jarrod Rory McCabe and Dominic Francis Casserly: Giant Giants; Mark Picard; Jamie Walter; Jennifer Sapiel Neptune, Penobscot
Illustrations: Rebecca Hoskins (exterior waysides); Madelyn Goodnight, Chickasaw (interior)

Several significant initiatives have emerged from the groundwork of this project. All embody authentic, power-sharing relationships, ensuring that the Wabanaki people have a meaningful and equitable role in decision-making. Public presentations have been key in educating the broader community about the power of collaboration between Native and non-Native communities, highlighting the importance of uplifting Indigenous voices. Adding momentum to future possibilities, a new Wabanaki Community foundation has been established to return significant financial resources to Wabanakik.

Ongoing Initiatives as an Outcome of this Work:

Wabanaki Benefit Foundation

Eastern Lookout, Credit: James Florio

Wabanaki Benefit Foundation was born out of the process and fundraising to support the creation of the new Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument’s Tekαkαpimək Contact Station. Upon receipt of $1 million added by donors' request as part of the Monumental Welcome fundraising campaign, the Tekαkαpimək Wabanaki Advisory Board decided to create a 501(c)(3) public charity, Wabanaki Benefit Foundation.

The $1 million serves as seed money for a permanent endowment, which they intend to grow with contributions from Maine philanthropists and regional and national foundations.

Wabanaki Benefit Foundation

Publications

Maine Public

Architectural Record

National Parks Traveler

Maine Biz

Wanderlust Travel Magazine UK

Birchbark Canoe

A cross-tribal group builds Aputamkon, a birchbark canoe featuring the Tekαkαpimək double-curve designs. Supported by Elliotsville Foundation during summer 2024, this endeavor helps ensure that age-old harvesting and canoe-building knowledge is passed on to a new generation. Photography and editing by Jason Pardilla, Penobscot.

Credit: Jason Pardilla, Penobscot

Credit: Jason Pardilla, Penobscot

Project Participants:
‍Pat Almenas (Penobscot)
Alan St. Jean (Maliseet)
Brooke Soctomah (Passamaquoddy)
Ed Bassett (Passamaquoddy)
Natalie Michelle (Penobscot)
Ryan Kelley (Penobscot)
Nick Pottle (Passamaquoddy)
Gabriel Frey (Passamaquoddy)
Nolan Altvater (Passamaquoddy)
Suzanne Greenlaw (Maliseet)
Sherry Soctomah (Passamaquoddy/Maliseet)
Jennifer Neptune (Penobscot)

‍Documentarians:
‍Nolan Altvater (Passamaquoddy)
Jennifer Neptune (Penobscot)
Jason Pardilla (Penobscot)
James E. Francis Sr. (Penobscot)

‍Project Support Team:
Steve Cayard – Master Birchbark Canoe Maker / Educator
Angela DeRosa - Project Support
Miriam Deauseault – Elliotsville Foundation
Susan Adams – Elliotsville Foundation
Mark Adams – Elliotsville Foundation
Erin Hutton – Elliotsville Foundation

Directors Order

On Nov 4, 2024, the National Park Service issued its first Director’s Order strengthening procedures for consultation with Indian and Alaska Native Tribes.

A fact sheet about the recent National Park Service work across Indian Country accompanied the release of the new Directors Order. It highlights the National Park Service, Wabanaki Nations of Maine, Friends of Katahdin Woods & Waters, and partner groups working together to construct Tekαkαpimək.

Directors Order

Fact Sheet