Giants of the Dawnland: Ancient Wabanaki Tales

Native people arrived in Maine at the end of the last Ice Age, around 13,000 years ago. They came in small family groups and survived unimaginably cold winters and animals such as the giant beaver and cave bear. Fortunately, they had their great god, Gluskape, who slowly melted the ice and rid the woods of terrifying serpents. But he was also a liar and a big tease!

It was a time when people, animals, and stones were equal; when Gluskape could be as large as a mountain or as small as a mouse, when the Star People traveled to the treetops. Slowly, things started to change. The tribes squabbled and Gluskape hated jealousy. It was m'teouin that people and animals needed-inner strength. The stories instruct people in the ways of hunting, the lore of plants, and the skills they needed every day. There is still much for us to learn about Maine as the next great climate change approaches. Will we hurt the land with our jealousy and greed? Or will we learn to be alone and appreciate the magic of every stone?

The Native storytellers who still remembered these tales 12 centuries later included Tomah Joseph, Marie Saksis, Louis Mitchell, and Noel Neptune. By then, few Wabanakis remained and efforts began to preserve the language and write down fragments, mostly from the Fundy area in Nova Scotia.