In Search of Maine's Red Paint People

Book excerpt: In the early 1890's Maine became the focal point for the newly developed scientific methods used in archaeology. The Peabody Museum of Harvard, and the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, sent Assistant Curator Willoughby and later Professor Warren K. Moorehead to investigate a mysterious race of people, unknown at that time. Remarkable stone artifacts were discovered in Red Ochre Burials in Bucksport, Orland and surrounding towns. For a hundred years these Prehistoric people would be researched, investigated and argued over by any and all professionals. In the 1990's laws were passed that returned all grave goods to those who claimed them. Museums across the country were cleaned out and artifacts were returned to those who lived in the same areas 5,000 years later. The history of the Red Paint People is being lost, ignored and actively erased across the state of Maine. Those Professionals in charge, are retiring, looking the other way, or forgetting the importance of those who have come before.It is my goal with this book to raise awareness of the history that is being lost. The sites that are being destroyed and the locations that are being constructed on, without any state professionals attempting to save the history behind these people, that once called Maine their home and are now becoming lost to time.