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Summertime in the BelgradesContentsfor Printing
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The Life and Times of a Legendary Maine IndianMaine is a mosaic of many Indian names, legends, and places, every so often chronicled and woven together by an author who successfully interconnects some of these fragments into their rightful place in history. Such is the case with Mollyockett, a fictionalized reconstruction of her life and times by Pat Stewart. Mollyockett, the last of her tribe, the Pequawkets, Pat writes, tells her own compelling story. For more than eighty years she traveled the woodland trails and waterways of New England, experiencing the terror and ambiguity of the French and Indian War. As her people became more and more marginalized, Mollyockett created a unique place for herself in the white man's world without losing her faith or her character. Mollyockett was born in Fryeburg (c.1738) and died in Andover in 1816. Although she frequented a large area of New England and Canada throughout her active life, it is especially in Western Maine where she remains a local heroine. Several area businesses and the local chapters of the Sweet Adelines and the DAR have appropriated her name. Every summer the Town of Bethel holds Mollyockett Day, a festival complete with parade and a frog-jumping contest. After Greenwood resident Pat Stewart retired and settled permanently in Maine, she became more and more interested in this remarkable woman. She resolved to find out as much as she could about Mollyockett in order to write a book based on her story. Research took her to the Odanak settlement near Quebec City, to Old Town, Maine, to local historical sites, and even to sources in Boston. The reference library and staff of the Bethel Historical Society and Regional History Center provided invaluable information and assistance. Stewart describes the book as a fictionalized reconstruction. She relates the known facts and stories surrounding Mollyockett, fills in gaps with what might have happened and imagines relationships between Mollyockett and her friends, family and other characters, both real and invented. The book includes maps and illustrations. Renowned as a storyteller, Mollyockett herself tells much of the story. She lies on her deathbed, cared for by Sarah Bragg, a fictitious niece of the Bragg family, who actually did take on Mollyockett's care in her final days. To make Sarah's job easier, Mollyockett decides to tell the girl stories of her life. Highlights include: living with Wampanoags in Plymouth when Governor Shirley promised Mollyockett's father and other Abenaki men safekeeping for their women and children while the men helped the English fight the French; witnessing Rogers' brutal raid on Odanak (a markedly different perspective from Kenneth Roberts' version in Northwest Passage; and tricking a greedy priest into releasing her first husband's soul from purgatory. She also describes her long and ultimately stormy relationship with Sabattis, a famous Indian guide; her struggle to reconcile Native American spirituality, Catholicism, and the Protestant faith of her white neighbors; saving the life of a friend targeted for murder by a renegade Indian as part of the Last Indian Raid in 1781; her curse bestowed on a dam site when the miller refused her shelter from a storm; and her medical skill in saving the life of the infant Hannibal Hamlin, who later became governor of Maine and Abraham Lincoln's vice president. Stewart says she wrote Mollyocket for a broad audience. Readers interested in Native American culture or regional history will especially enjoy the book. Educators who have read Mollyocket have observed that younger readers will identify with twelve-year-old Sarah Bragg, to whom Mollyockett tells her story, and will find Mollyockett herself an inspiring figure. Pat Stewart is a graduate of Douglass College, Rutgers University and holds Masters and Doctoral Degrees from Harvard University. She taught at the high school, college and graduate level and then began a career as a management development executive. After retiring she studied at the Museum of Fine Arts and co-authored a book on decorative painting. Stewart has a studio in her home on Indian Pond in Greenwood, Maine where she paints and writes. Mollyocket is available at selected stores and museums. To order directly from the author, write to pstewart@megalink.net. | ||