AUGUSTA – Everything Rep. Matthew Dunlap learned about the American Indian he learned from James Arness and John Wayne in television and movie westerns, the Old Town Democrat admitted to the Legislature’s Education Committee on Thursday. It wasn’t until he found an arrowhead on the beach one day that his interest in Indian culture was sparked.

On Thursday, Dunlap joined a long line of speakers to endorse LD 291, a bill to require the teaching of American Indian culture in Maine schools. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Donna M. Loring, the representative of the Penobscot Nation, would create a study commission to develop the curriculum.

“Maine history and Maine Indian history are interwoven. You cannot teach one without the other. Make no mistake, we are unlike any other ethnic group,” Rep. Loring told the committee. The Wabanaki tribes – the Penobscots, Passamaquoddys, Houlton band of Maliseets and Aroostook band of Micmacs – had their own government, traditions, language and culture long before the Europeans arrived, she said.

The tribes played a prominent role in the American Revolution and the 1820 agreement that created Maine stipulated that the state must honor the existing Indian treaties with Massachusetts, Loring said. “That 180-year relationship has gone unnoticed in the history books as well as in the classrooms. Only recently has it started to come to light,” she said.

Loring admitted that it wasn’t until she was elected to the Legislature in 1997 that she became fully aware of the history of the tribes in Maine. “I was never taught one word about my tribal history in Maine schools. I realized that the average Maine citizen knew nothing about Maine history, let alone current Indian issues,” Loring said.

Maine is the only state which had Indian representatives to the state Legislature and is looked at as a model for other states, she said. “The state of Maine and the Wabanaki tribes have a history together and this needs to be recognized through education,” she said.

Loring found plenty of support for her bill in more than two hours of testimony. Teaching the history and culture of the “first people of Maine” would “pass the roadblock of ignorance through education,” said Rep. Donald G. Soctomah, the Passamaquoddy tribal representative.

Co-sponsor Rep. Mary Cathcart, D-Orono, admitted her education on American Indians also came from cowboy movies. She endorsed the Loring bill because, “We all should value our history and customs.”

“The children need education. So do we,” said Rep. Linda Rogers McKee, D-Wayne, a high school English teacher who stresses multicultural curriculum in her classes.

Establishing an American Indian curriculum “will allow us all to celebrate diversity,” said Rep. Joanne T. Twomey, D-Biddeford.

The public has come a long way in understanding Indian culture said Barry Dana, chief of the Penobscots. “But it has a long way to go. The question should not be if the courses should be taught, but how,” Dana said.

More than a half-dozen student members of a civil rights team from Lisbon Falls schools and their teacher Mary Griffith also testified in support of the measure.

Trenton school psychologist Peter Reese said ignorance of American Indian ways breeds prejudice, which he translated as “being down on something you are not up on.” Reese said Indian tribes “are emerging from a long period of darkness. We should share the light.”

A work session on the bill will be scheduled.