Tribal culture-bearer remembered

A generous and unassuming Passamaquoddy man who has been one of the driving forces for the preservation of the tribe's language and culture passed away just before Christmas. Wayne Newell of Indian Township died on December 23 at the age of 79.
Newell received numerous awards and honors during his lifetime, and tribal historian Donald Soctomah comments, "It's a big loss for the community -- not just the community, but the county, the state and the nation."
"He was a motivator in the community for issues in the school, cultural and educational issues. He motivated a lot of young people to further their education," Soctomah says, adding, "He's motivated the next generation to move forward and to continue his work."
Soctomah recalls Newell's meeting with tribal members throughout his life to help with cultural and family issues. "That was a big thing in the community. He liked to talk about family trees. He always had a good story about a family member from the past, to make the past something to think about, with a smile and happiness." Also, Newell would help organize the ceremonial festivals and emcee them for many years. "What I remember most is his working with Joe Nicholas at the cultural days at Pleasant Point."
Soctomah also remembers travelling with Newell and Blanche Sockabasin when they performed at the Library of Congress, "sharing the songs of the Passamaquoddy with the nation."
Along with being a bilingual/bicultural educator at Indian Township, Newell wrote over 40 books in Passamaquoddy, and his last book, Stories Our Grandmothers Told Us, was "a highlight for him," says Soctomah. "It was his pride and joy to get the stories back out in the community."
Newell served on many boards and in numerous positions for the tribe, including on the negotiation team for the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, as the tribal representative in the Maine Legislature, on the Indian Township Tribal Council and Maine Indian Tribal State Commission and as president of the Northeastern Blueberry Company for many years. Soctomah says one of the reasons the tribe's blueberry company stayed so successful was because Newell "kept the business end going."
Soctomah recalls that, for every ancestral canoe trip from Indian Township to Sipayik, Newell was there at the beginning to drum the travel song, then would meet the canoeists halfway to drum other Passamaquoddy songs and then again at the end of the journey "he was there to greet us and drum. He reinforced a lot of cultural activities by doing things like that."
"He's like the voice of the Wabanaki," Soctomah says, as Newell would narrate some of the films about the confederacy, including the Song of the Drum. "Those will live on forever."
Wayne Newell's son, Chris Newell, relates that his father grew up during a time in which "there was such bad racism in the state" and the practicing of the tribe's culture was made difficult. "His life's work was to turn that around."
His father was "the engine" behind the tribe's language preservation and music preservation efforts. Newell grew up in a generation in which tribal members learned to speak Passamaquoddy at home and did not speak English until they went to school. However, that quickly changed with the coming of television into the homes in the '60s and '70s, and children no longer learned Passamaquoddy in their households. Instead, the language was being taught as an extracurricular program in the school. "He foresaw what was going to happen and the need to preserve the language," says Chris. His father worked with others to create the Passamaquoddy writing system, which led to the publishing of the Passamaquoddy-Maliseet dictionary, which has over 18,000 word entries. "He was the engine for that," says Chris, pointing to "the gifts he left us to have us connect with our culture. He wanted things to be passed on and for the cycle to continue." His last book, Stories Our Grandmothers Told Us, with translation of Passamaquoddy stories into English, provides "a key to how to speak the language."
Now there is a language immersion program for young Passamaquoddy children, and the system that had suppressed the tribe's culture "has started to flip itself over. He worked to make that system our own and for us to use it to our advantage for future generations."
"He did not get to see the fruition of his work," Chris notes, but he was focused on "the world we create for our children and their children -- the world we leave behind for them." He was so driven because he believed that the tribe's language and music "should be at the forefront of what we learn."
"The language tied him to the people" he knew from the past. "It's a very spiritual experience," Chris says. "His life's work was to leave behind the tools for those of us who want to have the same connection with our ancestors that he had." Those connections offer a healing power for tribal members to the effects of colonization.
On a personal level, Chris notes that his father had "a hell of sense of humor and loved music." He used to sing everywhere and, when Chris was of high school age, his father would often be singing a traditional song, perhaps changing some of words, as they would go into a store, embarrassing his son. "At this point of my life, I'm so thankful that he chose to keep annoying me," as he was able to absorb his father's knowledge. "He had a gift to be able to talk across cultures," points out Chris. "He could translate our culture to the English-speaking world so they could understand very deeply."
Chris Newell is now one of the founders of the Akomawt Educational Initiative, working with educators, professors and museum professionals to provide them with the tools to implement educational programs on Native history and Native contemporary issues. "There is no university that could teach me the skills I have. I went to the school of Wayne Newell to become an intercultural educator," says his son, adding that he now understands what his father was doing throughout his life to teach others about the Passamaquoddy culture. "It worked. I can cross those boundaries as well."
"There's so much for America to learn from what he left behind," says Chris. "From our small corner at the edge of the world, he was able to change the world for the better."