TEACHERS TAKE NOTE

Remember Me:
Tomah Joseph's Gift to Franklin Roosevelt

Donald Soctomah and Jean Flahive

Illustrated by Mary Beth Owens

Hardcover, $16.95, ISBN 978-0-88448-300-7

9 x 10, 32 pages, illustrations

Children / Biography / Native American; Grades 3-6

There is a canoe on Campobello Island that has a story to tell. The story involves no less than a future president, the Indian who taught him, and an owl who symbolically joins the past to the future.

Remember Me is a fictional story based on the real-life friendship of the young Franklin Roosevelt and the distinguished Passamaquoddy guide and artist Tomah Joseph. Beginning on the summer morning Franklin waits for Tomah Joseph to teach him how to paddle a canoe, Remember Me imagines what the friendship between a sensitive white child and a kind and generous Native person might have been like.

Inspired by the owl-etched canoe at the Roosevelt summer home on Campobello Island—a canoe built by Tomah Joseph—authors Donald Soctomah and Jean Flahive have created a glimpse into another time, when life as the Passamaquoddy knew it was shifting. Tomah Joseph exemplifies the adaptive qualities of the Native peoples of Maine and the Maritimes. His kind openness toward Franklin underscores Tomah Joseph's love of his natural world and his hope that the stories of his people—and all they honored—would be remembered always.

(We use the word "peoples" when referring to the indigenous population of Maine because many different tribes have made up the indigenous people living in Maine. Currently, the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseet, and Micmac people collectively comprise the Wabanaki Indians of Maine.)

Remember Me can be used for classroom conversations in the following areas:

For American History, Remember Me might prompt discussions about:

• Native Americans in Maine and the Maritimes during the Victorian Age (approximately 1857-1912)
• Native American adaptability
• Storytelling in indigenous cultures
• Birchbark basketmaking and canoe building
• Seasonal migration of Native peoples
• Modes of transportation in the Victorian Age
• The importance of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• The importance of Tomah Joseph

For Art:

• What does it mean to be an artist vs. a craftsperson
• Birchbark basketry and canoe building
• Pictorial stories

For Science:

• Birchbark and trees in Native American culture
• Life cycle of birch tree
• Tides (Passamoquoddy Bay has a tidal shift of 20 feet)
• Natural habitats of saltwater marshes (where sweetgrass grows)

Additional Books

Muskrat Will be Swimming by Cheryl Savageau, illustrated by Robert Hynes

This story is a quiet tale of a Native American girl who, with the guidance of her grandfather, learns to find strength, not fear, in her identity as a Native person living in an Anglo society. This book is a treasure for all who have dealt with the fear of being different.

Thanks to the Animals by Allen Sockabasin, Passamaquoddy Story teller, illustrated by Rebekah Raye.

A contemporary fable, this story upholds paternal love along with the debt we humans have to the animal kingdom. You can hear Allen read the story on our webpage devoted to Thanks to the Animals.

Additional Books for Teachers

Faulkner, Gretchen Fearon, & Theresa Secord Hoffman. 1998. "The Basketry of Maine," Indian Artist, IV(2), Spring, 1998, pp. 45-49.

Friends Society. The Wabanakis of Maine and the Maritimes. American Friends Service Committee. (Maine Indian Program: Bath, Maine. 1989)

For grades 4-8, this curriculum written about and by the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, Micmac, and Abenaki peoples of Maine and the Maritimes is rich in historical and cultural information and projects.

Leland, Charles G. Algonquin Legends. 1992. Dover Publications, Inc., New York, NY. (Originally published 1884)

Contains both stories told by Tomah Joseph and etchings by Tomah Joseph illustrating those stories.

Lester, Joan. "Art for Sale: Cultural and Economic Survival," in Enduring Traditions: The Native People of New England. Edited by Laurie Weinstein. (Bergin & Garvey, 1994)

Lester, Joan. History on Birchbark: The Art of Tomah Joseph, Passamaquoddy: An exhibit at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University, Bristol, RI, March 7-August 31, 1993. (Robert Abbe Museum, 1993)

This book is a wonderful exploration of Tomah Joseph's work. Joan Lester's brought his art to a larger audience with the exhibit that prompted the book.

Lester, Joan A. We're Still Here. Art of Indian New England, The Children's Museum Collection "We're Still Here. Art of Indian New England, The Children's Museum Collection." (The Children's Museum, Boston, MA, 1987)

Emphasizing New England Indian culture as a living culture, Lester separates her book into sections such as "Root Clubs" and "Fancy Baskets," telling the past and present of these art forms. One chapter is entirely devoted to Tomah Joseph. It is called "The Birchbark Art of Tomah Joseph," and is filled with beautiful photographs of his work.

Activity: Native American Storytelling

Usually storytelling among Native American peoples is reserved for wintertime, when there is less outdoor work and more time to sit together with hand-held projects such as needlework or basketry. Donald Soctomah believes that Tomah Joseph might have purposely overlooked this tradition in his desire to share the values of his people with Franklin, which is why he tells Franklin the story of the Mother Bear and the Lost Boy despite it being mid-summer.

Please see bibliography and web resources for legends you could read or tell to your students.

Through his artwork Tomah Joseph recorded the origin stories of his people. He often added the words Mikwid hamin—variously translated as "remember me" or "I remember"—to his illustrations of the legends. He also told his stories to folklorist Charles Leland, who published Tomah Joseph's Passamaquoddy tales along with those of other Wabanaki Indians in his book Algonquin Legends of New England (1884). Leland listed Tomah Joseph first among his sources. Clearly Tomah Joseph wanted his people's stories to survive.

• Why would Tomah Joseph want his people's stories to survive?
• What happened to the Native American populations throughout the country as more and more European settlers arrive and set up their homes?
• Do you think all of the origin stories have survived? Why or why not?
• Charles Leland was not Native American. Do you think this fact affects how he recorded Native American stories?

Activity: Adapting to New Needs

In Remember Me, young Franklin wonders if Tomah Joseph missed his old way of living.

• Do you think he did? Why?
• What scenes from the book show that Tomah Joseph might have missed his old way of living?

Tomah Joseph used his skills to forge a new way of making a living when European settlers arrived and changed the socio-economic system. He used his hunting, fishing, and canoeing skills when he hired himself out as a guide. He also adapted his birchbark work to meet the needs of Victorian tourists and summer visitors. Instead of traditional workbaskets, which the tourists were less likely to buy, he could make handkerchief boxes and sewing kits, which they highly valued.

Many people describe the ability Native American people have to function within their own culture, while also adapting to a dominant culture as "walking in two worlds." "Walking in two worlds" is a metaphor for functioning in more than one cultural system. (Many people, in fact, walk in more that two worlds!)

• Are there any ways you walk in two (or more) worlds?
• Do you know anyone else who might walk in two worlds? Maybe a family who has recently immigrated?
• What are the benefits of walking in two worlds?
• What are the costs of walking in two worlds?
• Do you need to be smart to adapt and to survive?

Activity: Research a Game

• See if you can find a game that Native American children might have played during the time period of Remember Me.
• Now try to find one European American children might have played.
• How are they the same?
• How are they different?
• Play the games.

Activity: Tell a Story with Pictures

Using Tomah Joseph's art as an example, invite your students to tell a family story with pictures. The story might have happened yesterday, four years ago, or a lifetime ago during grandparents' time. Ask your students to first write the story down. Now, after looking at some of Tomah Joseph's art, invite your students to tell the story in pictures. Remind your students that stick figures are absolutely OK to use and point to Tomah Joseph's stick figures as an example.

• Objective: Understand a story has a beginning, a middle and an end. Use of consecutive scenes to convey the passage of time.
• Look at the examples of Tomah Joseph's etchings in Remember Me. And look up his work online or in the books listed in the bibliography below. You can go to www.abbemuseum.org/pages/collections/curator-features/handkerchief-box.html for an illustration of Tomah Joseph's handkerchief box.

Activity: Basketmaking

The Hudson Museum at the University of Maine at Orono website has a pattern for a birchbark basket made out of card stock www.umaine.edu/hudsonmuseum/bir.php. You might have your students make this basket after they have decorated it with their picture stories.

Maine Native Americans use more than just birchbark for their basketmaking. For information about the Brown Ash and Maine Native American basketmaking, especially historical patterns vs. contemporary patterns, please see www.umaine.edu/hudsonmuseum/tree.htm

Basketmaking was (and still is) an important activity for Native Americans in Maine because without baskets, carrying and storing food and goods would be very difficult. One creation story tells how people emerged from the heart of the brown ash tree, the tree used most for the strong work and storage baskets made for thousands of years. That the people were created out of the basket tree indicates the great importance of the trees and the baskets to the people. They are all interwoven.

The baskets the Native peoples made were functional; they did their jobs well. They were very beautiful, and some were decorated with traditional designs. With the Victorian Age, tourists showed interest in buying Native American baskets. Basketmakers quickly realized that if they adapted their style to the needs of the tourists, they would sell more baskets. So instead of only producing work baskets, they created sewing and handkerchief boxes, magazine racks, and wood baskets, all highly decorated.

• Why did Maine Native Americans change the kinds of baskets they made?
• Why do you think Native Americans decorated their baskets?
• How do you imagine people figure out how to make baskets in the first place?
• See if you can gather the information about how a basket is made from tree to basket. You can use the Internet, the library, or ask a person who is a basket maker.
• Basketmaking continues as an important art form among many Wabanaki people. You can view contemporary baskets at www.maineindianbaskets.org, the website for the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance.
• Design a new kind of basket that would fit the needs of people today

Activity: What Does It Mean to Be an Artist?

Tomah Joseph (1837-1914) distinguished himself as an individual artist by signing his etched birchbark baskets and canoes. Very few Native Americans before had signed their work. Tomah Joseph also stretched beyond the traditional geometric and naturalistic designs of his Passamaquoddy people, to pictorial representations of daily life and Origin Stories. That is, he etched pictures of people and animals and items such as wigwams onto his baskets. The pictures he etched actually tell stories in sequential scenes. Tomah Joseph created a whole new and different art form.

• How would you define "art," "artist," "craft," and "craftsperson."?
• Can a person be both an artist and a craftsperson? How?
• Can an object be both a piece of art and a craft?

Activity: Writing in Place

With Passamaquoddy Bay as the setting, write a creative essay with as many accurate nature details as you can find about:

• Flying as an eagle over Passamaquoddy Bay
• Swimming with your porpoise sibling
• Being a fish caught in a fish weir
• Traveling through the woods with your cubs as a Mama bear

Activity: Researching the Tides and Their Potential

Passamaquoddy Bay has a tidal shift of 20 feet.

• Is this unusual?
• How do tides work? Why do we have tides?
• What are the benefits of tides?
• What is a tidepool?
• What would you be likely to find in a tidepool in Passamaquoddy Bay?

Research some of the controversy around harnessing the Passamaquoddy Bay tides for hydroelectricity.

• What is hydroelectricity?
• How does it work? Can you draw a diagram?
• What are the benefits of hydroelectricity?
• How would a hydroelectrical facility affect Passamaquoddy Bay or any flowing water source?
• What kinds of alternative energy sources (renewable resources) can you name?