Mary Mitchell Selmore, Pleasant Point, 1901

Contributed by Maine Historical Society

Description

Mary Mitchell Selmore, also called Mary and Mali Mitchell, lived from circa 1829 to 1911 and was an emblematic and respected member of the Passamaquoddy Nation. Selmore was a healer and artist who carried and taught traditional knowledge including by singing and dancing during community events at Sipayik, or Pleasant Point.

Mary Mitchell Selmore was second wife of long-time Passamaquoddy Chief Sapiel Selmore, the traditional wampum keeper for the Passamaquoddy Nation who died only a few years prior to Mary at the approximate age of 100 years. Fluent in Passamaquoddy, English, and French, Mary Selmore excelled at trading and diplomacy, and together with Sopiel made a life creating baskets, moccasins, and other items that they sold to settler-colonialists visiting their territories. Both Sapiel and Mary Selmore were medicine people, and understood the special properties of plants for good health, and as medicines for physical and spiritual healing.

In her 1911 obituary, the Bangor Daily news noted Mary Mitchell’s leadership qualities calling her the “Queen of the Passamaquoddy” and described her attire, similar to her outfit in this photograph, including, “heavy ornaments of beaten silver, costly buckles and head dress of silver and other metals”. The silver ornaments are gorgets, or trade brooches, viewed as objects of status and power for Wabanaki people, and worn by both men and women. Historically, both Indigenous and European silversmiths created the brooches, which were presented as diplomatic gifts and tokens of goodwill. This practice followed Indigenous traditions of reciprocity associated with wampum protocols. Wampum beads made of quahog shells, and when strung as a necklace, belt, or collar, they historically indicated acts of diplomacy. According to Mary Selmore’s great grandson, Passamaquoddy historian Donald Soctomah, “Wampum belts have a powerful meanings for Tribal communities that use them. They are symbolic of the stories from the past, about agreements; about peace and friendship; and war and politics.” Therefore, the gorgets and wampum collar around Mary’s neck note her as a dignitary and leader of Passamaquoddy peoples.

The rise of the discipline of Anthropology and museums during the turn of the 20th century led to a practice called “salvage anthropology” where scientists traveled to Indigenous communities and collected heritage items, often under duress or without consent of the tribes. Mary’s obituary stated, “In recent years, the souvenir hunters have called at the settlement and with Uncle Sam’s money bought up many of these valuable ornaments, so that when Mary Mitchell died this week, she left only a few of these old time novelties behind.” In this photo, Mary Selmore wore a wampum collar around her neck, in the collections of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology as of 2023.

About This Item

Title: Mary Mitchell Selmore, Pleasant Point, 1901
Creator: Charles E. Brown
Creation Date: circa 1901
Subject Date: circa 1901
Locations:
- Eastport, Washington County, ME
- Sipayik, Pleasant Point, Washington County, ME
Media: Photographic print
Dimensions: 21 cm x 16 cm
Local Code: Browse--People--Selmore; 2002.500.044
Object Type: Image

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For more information about this item, contact:

Maine Historical Society
485 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101
(207) 774-1822 x230
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