Archaeologists have determined the first people arrived in certain regions of Maine over 11,000 years ago, including the Sebago Lake-Presumpscot watershed. After Columbus’ journey to the New World, European countries brought explorers, trade, intrusive practices, and bloodshed.
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| A memorial to Chief Polin, sagamore of the Wabanaki tribe, was dedicated in Westbrook in 2018. COURTESY PHOTO |
Ultimately, by 1763, Britain would be the victor. France, despite its strong alliance with the Natives, was defeated outright; for the Natives, it would be the beginning of the end. Over the next century they would be forced to sacrifice their numbers, their land, and their customs.
The early English settlers and the tribes of the Wabanaki battled for supremacy for nearly a century through four wars: King William’s War (1689-1697), Queen Anne’s War (1701-1713), King George’s War (1744-1748) and the French & Indian War (1754-1763). And to be clear, the intent of the English immigrants was to further an imperial policy of eliminating Indigenous people from the eastern frontier. Anthropologist Patrick Wolfe called it settler colonialism, or empire building with “the express purpose of taking and repurposing indigenous lands” and replacing the Native cultural landscape with one that was Anglo-American. The process became known as Eurocentrism. Further, the new power base could then scheme to reinvent itself as native born and characterize the new settlers as persevering and courageous as they turned a barren wilderness into a fruitful field while taming the savage Indian.
The wars over contested territory extended from the frontiers of western Massachusetts at North Adams to eastern Maine at Thomaston.
In addition to Britain’s imperialistic policies, disharmony between the settlers and local tribes aggravated and hastened hostilities. Chief Polin’s band of Sebago-Presumpscot Wabanaki fell into disaffection early on when the proprietors of early Windham, known as New Marblehead, voted to begin construction on the grounds of the new settlement.
Progress was well underway in the spring of 1738 on building a 40X30 foot meeting house for the purpose of public worship near the present-day Parson-Smith house, clearing for a road that would follow roughly the course of the Presumpscot River (to be known as River Road) and the construction of a sawmill at Mallison Falls (including claim on 10 acres around it). All work came to a halt with the sudden appearance of a contingent of the Sebago Natives who claimed ownership of all the land on both sides of the river, a claim that was disputed by Massachusetts Governor Belcher who stated that the Indians had given over deeds to the lands in question – he could not, however, produce such documents, claiming they had been lost in earlier wars.
But even if the documents had been revealed, it is doubtful the disagreement could have been resolved. Historian David Ghere points out the Wabanaki was an oral society and put little value on the written word that they could not read. Natives, he maintains, negotiated from a different perspective and never found that European translations reflected the terms as they remembered them. The Maine Historic Preservation Commission has written “…the Wabanaki viewed land sales as a means for cementing reciprocal social relationships with European people that included perpetual gift giving as well as cooperation.”
Chief Polin, sagamore (chief) of the Sebago band of Wabanakis, traveled to Boston and presented Governor Belcher with a list of grievances, including a complaint that a power dam constructed by Col. Thomas Westbrook, a wealthy landowner and entrepreneur, at Presumpscot Falls restricted the passage of salmon, a significant food source of the Sebago Indians. The governor responded by instructing Col. Westbrook to install a fish passage, but it never materialized. Further, the new settlers were clear cutting their lots which, according to the Indians, adversely affected game distribution and water quality. Essentially, colonialism seemed a serious threat to the lives and livelihood of the Presumpscot Wabanaki who claimed the Sebago region as their territory.
Finally, in what can be viewed as the crowning antagonistic event, the Massachusetts General Court (legislature) appropriated money for the construction of home garrisons and forts in the hostile territories of the eastern frontier. In New Marblehead, the block house was built on high ground near the present-day Parson Smith house.
To the Sebago Natives, the move was interpreted as an act of provocation. It was a message that the Massachusetts government intended to exercise complete authority over the Presumpscot-Sebago region. War ensued.
King George’s War would rage on the easter frontier from 1744 to 1748, then following a brief peace, the French & Indian War from 1754 to 1763, during which 46 destitute souls would live in fear and isolation within the defensive walls of New Marblehead’s province fort until the battle of 1756 on present-day Anderson Road. In that clash, Stephen Manchester would kill Chief Polin; as a result, the Presumpscot band of Wabanakis, after thousands of years, abandoned forever their settlement on Sebago Lake.
Following almost 80 years of warfare, Wabanaki communities on the eastern frontier suffered immensely. Abandoned and burned-out encampments emigrated to Canada. Townships like New Marblehead and Gorhamtown served as buffer zones for settlement expansion, including Naples, Raymond, and Sebago.
By the year 1900, census statistics recorded only a few Native American communities in Maine: Greenville, Calais, Perry, Indian Township and Old Town. In Cumberland County, just three individuals were identified as having Native American ancestry – all were incarcerated in the Cumberland County Jail in Portland. <
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