Cushing Public Library to host talk on chapter of Maine indigenous history

CUSHING — In March, 1621, the colonists at Plymouth Plantation were welcomed in English by an Indigenous inhabitant. That man, Samoset, was a native of Maine’s Pemaquid peninsula. Jody Bachelder will  describe why he was there in a live presentation at the Cushing Public Library on Thursday, Sept. 1, at 6:30 p.m., cosponsored by the Cushing Historical Society. To register call Wendy Roberts at 207-691-0833 or email wrobertsmaine63@gmail.com.

Bachelder, who grew up on the Pemaquid Peninsula, began researching the issue in her quest to learn more about its Indigenous history, and Down East Books has published the results in her new book “Here First: Samoset and the Wawenock of Pemaquid, Maine.” In addition to that first meeting in Plymouth, Samoset’s life coincided with important events during the period of early contact with Europeans, and his home village of Pemaquid lay at the center of Indigenous-European interactions at the beginning of the 17th century. Bachelder, whose background is in library work, tells this story.