My frustration towards our state’s political and educational systems continues. I’ve spent 20 years researching numerous prehistoric shell middens along the MidCoast of Maine. Out of more than 2,000 statewide, from Port Clyde to Pemaquid Point over 214 of various shapes and sizes exist. And, using my own time and finances, I’ve been able to show that we know far less of these coastal people than once thought. Yet we have surveyed only one percent of total shell midden volume within this area. And due to erosion from Global Warming, I estimate no more than thirty years remain before one of this state’s greatest education resources will disappear. A number of the outer sites already have.

Putting aside the fact that sites containing an Archaic lens embedded within an eroding midden face (with few exceptions) are all but gone, what remains are ancient living platforms going back 2,700 years B.P. Within my 20 years as an experienced avocational archaeologist, I’ve shown that these early people steamed shellfish, used numerous simple tools not before identified, discovered an incomplete fishhook made from a deer mandible, and located a probable whale kill-site containing a ceramic pot with rocker-dentate decoration. And I now have discovered a site in Friendship, once used to process shells for trade; namely mother-of-pearl from horse mussel, and wampum from quahog shell. Something not seen before.

I warned, fifteen years ago, what would happen if no action was taken. And at that time, as I do today, submit, that a project involving the University of Maine system, a million dollars, under a trusted administrator, along with assistance from the Maine Conservation Corps, could accomplish a Phase I inspection of all sites. And once priority sites were determined, further studies would be made. Throughout my 20 years of digging, I’ve contacted the state, local, educational, political, and even federal officials to warn of this growing loss, with virtually nothing more than the great “pass it on” reply. Without oversight, who really cares about a prehistoric culture that once thrived along our Maine coast? A culture wiped out by pandemic diseases brought over from Europe, small tribal clans, seasonal migrators, adapted to coastal environmental fluctuations, connected by lineage to upriver tribes, yet who created their own beliefs and ways to survive.

I turn 71 this year. I wish I had the time, resources, and could find the interest to complete this extraordinary task. And I continue to wonder why people, who have the power to do something really important, remain distant and uninterested, in a hidden knowledge of a culture that still has so much to teach us. But then, look at the continued mistreatment of Indigenous People which continues today. Will anyone listen, or care?

Alan G. Button lives in Waldoboro.

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