Spinning Wampum: Reclaim-memorating the Treaty of Casco Bay as Wabanaki Practice

A reading of an in-process play, written as street theater in the style of commedia dell’arte by Mihku Paul, followed by a group discussion on the Treaty of Casco Bay and the group behind Spinning Wampum, a multi-year project centering Wabanaki perspectives through multidisciplinary artworks engaging the public.

SPINNING WAMPUM: Reclaim-memorating the Treaty of Casco Bay as Wabanaki Practice is a Waponahki-led public art initiative working to bring historical awareness of the Casco Bay Treaty negotiations (1726-1727) to Maine communities. This cross-cultural group of artists and scholars — led by Lilah Akins, Mihku Paul and Darren Ranco — gathers monthly to collaboratively design events that reclaim and commemorate the treaty negotiations through a contemporary Waponahki lens. These ways of seeing have continued relevance for current and future Settler-Waponahki relations. Spinning Wampum aims to create arts events that center Wabanaki experiences, stories, and perspectives to engage communities around the state with the Treaty of Casco Bay, and its place in the continuing story of the Dawnland.

In the summers of 1726 and 1727, Penobscot leaders traveled from Panawahpskek to Casco Bay to meet in peace treaty negotiations with representatives of the colonial Massachusetts government and of several major land companies. Led by Penobscot speaker Saugaaram (Loron), the gatherings continued decades of negotiation processes between Wabanaki communities and colonial leadership, while responding directly to ongoing wars caused by the continuous infringement of colonists in Wabanaki territories. In 1727, Loron and Penobscot leadership were joined in Caskoak by Wabanaki participants who traveled from communities throughout the Dawnland, gathering within the boundary of present-day Portland. The resulting Council, employing Wabanaki treaty-making protocols alongside documentation signed and ratified according to English colonial custom, created conditions for a brief period of upheld agreements between the colonial Massachusetts government and Wabanaki land stewards.

To increase public awareness of these historical events and their ongoing relevance for contemporary relationships wαpánahkik (in the Dawnland), Spinning Wampum will draw attention to the stories surrounding the Casco Bay Treaty processes of 1726 and 1727. Our primary goal is to support Wabanaki artists in creating new multidisciplinary works in public space that center Indigenous perspectives. This project makes a case for public history engagement through artistic practice.

Spinning Wampum was a recipient of a 2023 Kindling Fund grant administered by SPACE as part of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts’ Regional Regranting Program.