Allen Sockabasin 2010 Winner of Sampson Catalyst for Change Honor
June 10, 2010
Allen J. Sockabasin of Princeton, a Passamaquoddy leader and author of the 2007 memoir “An Upriver Passamaquoddy,” is the winner of the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine’s 2010 Catalyst for Change Award.
Sockabasin, noted for his efforts to preserve his tribe’s native language, is the fourth to win the award, which is given annually by the Center to honor a Mainer who supports diversity, equality and human and civil rights. Past winners include Rabbi Harry Sky, a longtime civil rights activist; Dale McCormick, founder and first president of what is now EqualityMaine; and Sallie Chandler, the first African American woman elected to public office in Maine. The Sampson Center, based at the University of Southern Maine, will present the award to Sockabasin during its annual Catalyst for Change dinner to be held Thursday, October 21, at Keeley’s Banquet Center on Warren Avenue in Portland.
Sockabasin, born in 1944 in the Native American village of Peter Dana Point, has worked for decades to gain recognition of and fair treatment for his people. The 10th of 11 children, he grew up in eastern Maine when native people were denied voting rights and use of public restrooms, were refused service by white barbers and were segregated from whites in movie theaters.
After his mother died when he was 11, Sockabasin left school to work in a sawmill to help support his family. He went on to become a teacher, builder, logging contractor, musician, tribal chief, substance abuse counselor, child welfare director, landscaper, HIV prevention counselor, artist and author. He also was involved in the landmark legal case that brought about the Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement.
Fearing that the disappearance of the Passamaquoddy language poses a threat to the tribe’s self-sufficient culture, Sockabasin has made it his mission to save the language he spoke while growing up. As older tribal members die, fewer survivors are familiar with their native tongue due to pressure to speak English in order to succeed in the workplace.
Using a computer program that can sound out words, Sockabasin has worked for years to translate songs, poems and prayers into Passamaquoddy. He also performed as a singer, songwriter and storyteller, having recorded several albums and written a children’s book, “Thanks to the Animals,” which is based on a story he heard from his mother.
The Jean Byers Sampson Center is named for the Lewiston resident whose study of African Americans in the military during World War II set the stage for President Harry Truman’s 1948 order to desegregate the military. One of a handful of whites working on the staff of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People during the 1940s, Sampson later founded an NAACP chapter in Lewiston. She served as executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, and while chairing the University of Maine System Board of Trustees, allowed a gay organization to hold a meeting on the Orono campus over the objection of the then governor.
The Center was established in 1997, a year after Sampson’s death. It offers a range of outreach programs and houses collections of papers capturing the history of the state’s African American, Jewish and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender communities.
