Theresa Secord: A Penobscot Basket Artist Keeps Tradition Alive

From the July 2021 issue

Theresa Secord made this basket for the Sante Fe Indian Market. It’s a replica of a glove box made by her great-grandmother more than a century ago. Photo by Steve Wewerka

The centuries-old proverb, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” still holds true today.

One skill—basketmaking—has provided functional containers and income for Native Americans for many years. Baskets have been woven for hunting, fishing, gathering crops, and even decorative purposes. Like quilting and some other crafts, however, basketmaking almost became obsolete. By the early 1990s, there were fewer than a dozen practicing basket- makers in Maine under 50 years old.

Today, through the efforts of Penobscot basket artist and advocate Theresa Secord and the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, there are more than 200 basket-makers in Maine. Their average age is 40 years old. Secord was the first U.S. citizen to receive the Prize for Creativity in Rural Life from the Women’s World Summit Foundation, granted at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The prize was for helping to revive traditional basketmaking among Native American tribal peoples and teaching them how to become self-sufficient.

Theresa Secord’s baskets have been on display throughout the country. Photos courtesy Theresa Secord

Secord was introduced to the art of basketry as a child while visiting her grandparents on Indian Island. She grew up in the Portland area but enjoyed visiting relatives and learning more about the culture. Secord admired her ancestors not only for their proficiency in making baskets but also for their ability to persevere in difficult circumstances and earn a living selling baskets. Her great grandmother, Philomene Saulis Nelson, was a well-known weaver who sold baskets on Indian Island.

“I admire the resilience of my ancestor basketmakers, especially my great grandmother, who actively practiced economic self-sufficiency as an Indigenous woman entrepreneur,” Secord said.

Although Secord was interested in basketry as a youth, she decided to pursue a career in geology. However, her life took a different turn when she accepted a position as staff geologist for the Penobscot Nation on Indian Island. It was there that she became acquainted with the well-known Penobscot basketmaker and speaker Madeline Tomer Shay. For five years, Madeline

Tomer Shay instructed Secord in the tribal language and men- tored her in the fundamentals of weaving baskets.

Theresa’s Son Caleb with a braid of sweet grass. He’s one of the next generation that she’s mentored in basket weaving to keep the tradition alive. Photo courtesy Theresa Secord

“Ours is a community art form in that the mentoring and the economy surrounding the traditional material’s access take place within the Wabanaki community,” Secord said.

MAINE INDIAN BASKETMAKERS ALLIANCE

In 1993, a group of tribal basketmakers from the four federally recognized tribes in Maine expressed concern about the declining number of basketmakers among the young- er generation. Secord assisted them in founding the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA) to help preserve their traditional basketmaking practices through mentoring and workshops.

According to the Native Cultures and Arts Foundation website, MIBA programs have included a 10-year-long traditional arts apprenticeship program in which apprenticeships were awarded to basketmakers and also a series of tribal community basketmaking workshops rotated through reservation communities. Mentors instructed youth in the process of mak- ing baskets, from the gathering of materials to the weaving of a basket.

Theresa Secord held training sessions for Native American artists at the Red Lake Nation reservation in Minnesota in conjunction with the First People’s Fund. It was one of the many sites across the U.S. where she worked with emerging artists. Photo courtesy Theresa Secord

BUILDING A BETTER INFRASTRUCTURE

First People’s Fund reports that approximately 40 percent of Native Americans earn income from arts-and-culture-based practices. First People’s Fund is an organization whose purpose is to help artists in tribal communities access critical resources they need to succeed. Secord has worked with First People’s Fund to build a better infrastructure for tribal artists. She has traveled to tribal nations across the U.S. to coach emerging artists and small art business owners. She has conducted trainings on Indian reservations in Minnesota, Washington state, Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota, and up- state New York.

“Most of my trainings take place at large rural Indian reservations,” said Secord. “The largest was the 1.2-million-acre Colville Confederated Tribes in Washington state, near Grand Coulee Dam.”

One of the next generation artists trained by Secord is Lauren Good Day. She is now a trainer herself and a successful entrepreneur actively marketing her artwork (pictured in the photo). She is also involved with indigenous fashions.

Lauren Good Day; Photo courtesy First People’s Fund

PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS

In addition to the Prize for Creativity in Rural Life awarded by the Women’s World Summit Foundation, Secord has received numerous other prestigious awards. The National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her the National Heritage Fellowship at the 2016 Tribal Nations Conference at the White House (an annual meeting held between U.S. presidents and tribal leaders to discuss economic, health, and cultural issues affecting tribes).

Earlier this year, Colby College in Waterville presented an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree to Secord. She’s a member of the Colby College Museum of Art Board of Governors. She said that Colby featured the first standalone Wabanaki art exhibition ever to be presented in an art museum. Some museums have exhibited individual Wabanaki pieces as part of a mixed collection, but Colby was the first to present a Wabanaki standalone collection, Secord said.

Theresa Secord with her niece Shannon Secord, whom she mentored in basketmaking. Photo courtesy Theresa Secord

In June 2021, Secord was among 13 “culture bearers” selected for the Luce Indigenous Knowledge Fellowship, which is a program created in 2019 to honor intellectual Native lead- ers. She was the recipient of a $75,000 cash award and will have access to educational resources for training and profes- sional development. She will work with an apprentice demon- strating ash and sweetgrass basketry. She will also organize Wabanaki basketry terms into a written document for use in tribal communities and help to preserve the Wabanaki language for generations to come.

FUTURE PLANS

Regarding other plans for the future, Secord said the current pandemic has caused her to re-evaluate her life. One of her top priorities, she said, is ensuring sure that her son Caleb is thoroughly trained in all aspects of Penobscot basketmaking to carry on the tradition. She has also been focusing more on her own creative art expression and marketing her work, which recently included participating in a virtual market. She won first-place ribbons for her basketry at the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Eiteljorg Indian Market in Indianapolis, and the Heard Museum Indian Fair and Market in Phoenix.

WEATHERING ADVERSITY

Secord has been actively involved in educating the public about the invasion of the Emerald Ash Borer Beetle into Maine. The beetle, which originated in Asia, is a serious threat to the ash trees used by many Native American basket makers.

“What is in Maine’s favor is that the ash trees do not grow here in large contiguous forests, like they do in the Midwest, so the spread is not as easy,” said Secord. “The foresters tell us there will be pockets of ash that will survive the invasion.”

In response to the threat of the Emerald Ash Borer Beetle, Secord pioneered the use of cedar bark overlay on ash to conserve ash. She also taught the technique to the next generation of basketmakers. She is now making her baskets smaller to help conserve ash as well. She’s following in the footsteps of her ancestors who demonstrated the ability to withstand many kinds of adversity.

“The resilience of my ancestors to withstand pandemics and all kinds of adversity, as they wove baskets and kept our culture alive, inspires me,” Secord said.

For more on Theresa Secord and her basketry art work, please visit her website at www.theresasecord.com. •