Book signing, reading scheduled

    HOULTON — On Wednesday, Nov.14, at 3 p.m. at Visions Art Shop, 66 Main Street, Author and storyteller Allen Sockabasin will share his children’s book, “Thanks to the Animals,” in both English and  
Passamaquoddy language. Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing.
    “Thanks to the Animals” is derived from a story that Allen Sockabasin’s mother, Molly Zoo Sap, used to tell him. It’s a family story, set around 1900, about the annual migration from a summer home on the coast — where fish and shellfish were abundant, fruits and berries could be gathered, and vegetables could be grown — to a winter home in the deep woods. In the story, Little Zoo Sap and his family are traveling to their winter home on a big bobsled pulled by horses through the snow. When Zoo Sap falls off the sled unnoticed, the forest animals hear his cries. First to come are the beaver, who put  their tails together to cradle him. Then all the other animals circle  round — everyone from the tiny mouse to the giant moose to the great bald eagle — keeping him warm and safe until his father comes back to find him.
    Allen Sockabasin was born in the Passamaquoddy village of Mud-doc-mig-goog, or Peter Dana Point, near Princeton. When Sockabasin was a child in the 1940s and 1950s, his village was isolated and depended largely on subsistence hunting and fishing, working in the woods, and seasonal harvesting work for its survival. Passamaquoddy was its first language, and the tribal traditions of sharing and helping one another ensured the survival of the group. To the outside world they lived in poverty, but Sockabasin remembers a life that was rich and rewarding in many ways. Their traditions and values were passed on by example and by storytelling, and his elders were generous with their time and their skills, teaching him and the other young people the survival skills of hunting and fishing and canoeing, the value of hard work, and the beauty of their traditional arts.
    Sockabasin is a talented musician who performs in a distinct style he calls Native Folk. In addition to his work as a musician, he has worked as a logger, builder, landscape contractor, tribal chief, HIV/AIDS program coordinator, and a substance abuse and child welfare director.
    But his primary interest is the preservation of the Passamaquoddy language and culture. He teaches immersion courses to Passamaquoddy students at the University of Maine, incorporates the language into all of his performances, and presents workshops in schools throughout Maine. Every summer Sockabasin invites 35 Native American children in need to his rural camp, where they sleep in tents, paddle a fleet of canoes, and learn traditional skills as well as their Native language. In the process, they also learn to take pride in themselves and in their Native culture.
    For more information on the event, please call 532-9119.