Unitarian/Universalist Church to host McGown/Mowitanej Epitji

    CARIBOU, Maine — Jeanie McGowan, executive director of the Nylander Museum of Natural History in Caribou, will be a guest speaker on Sunday, Nov. 29, at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Caribou.     McGowan will deliver a short presentation on recent work being accomplished at the Nylander Museum in support of Maine’s LD291, a mandate for the accurate and culturally sensitive inclusion of American Indian history in public schools.
The museum designed and implemented an Aroostook County Bibliography Bingo workshop — a library resource review that identified inappropriate resource materials in our public libraries. The museum’s current project is building educational trunks specific to the Mi’Kmaq and Maliseet cultures with the help of the Aroostook County bands. Director McGowan will discuss the Nylander’s ongoing cultural project and share the knowledge and understanding she personally gained through her recent work with LD291 goals.
Women members of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, in a drum group call Mositanej Epitjig (Gathering of Women) will share elements of the Mi’Kmaq culture by singing and drumming at the beginning of the Sunday, Nov. 29, 10 a.m. service.
McGowan was born and raised in Presque Isle. She was educated at UMPI in the field of environmental geology and has been director of the Nylander Museum in Caribou for the past 10 years. Her interest in American Indian cultures began in the desert Southwest where she lived for some time, studying historical Southwestern ceramic arts.
After returning to New England in the 1990s, she expanded her interest to the Northern Woodland cultures and has worked in archaeological field and museum work for the past five years in Aroostook  County. McGowan was invited to attend the Maine Department of Education Social Studies work group in Augusta that has addressed the needed curriculum changes to implement LD291.
All adults and children are welcome to attend the Nov. 29 service and children are invited to engage after the services in a short hands-on, clay workshop in which they will make a small turtle sculpture or turtle bead and learn about American Indian turtle legends.
Special harvest-theme refreshments will be offered following the 10 a.m. services and one of the Nylander’s two “Indigenous Foods,” of the Northeast educational trunks will be on display.
The Unitarian/Universalist Church is located on South Main Street in Caribou.