Native culture focus of Indian Island kids’ club

INDIAN ISLAND – John Neptune had one piece of equipment seven years ago when was hired as the recreation director for the Penobscot Nation – a basketball. And, he paid for it himself because the tribe only had enough money to pay his salary.

Slowly, he was able to get more equipment, increase the number of activities, get more of the island’s children involved in programs based at the Community Center. It was a long, slow journey, but things started snowballing last year when the tribe opened the first Boys and Girls Club for Native Americans in the Northeast.

Through the national organization, Neptune won two grants for a total of $55,000 to beef up the after-school program. Last month, the tribe received a $100,000 grant from the Libra Foundation to pay for renovations at the Community Center, including a new gym floor, new basketball hoops and backboard and a major kitchen renovation, as well as a new floor and furniture in the game room.

“A year or two ago, you’d go into the gym in the late afternoon and there’d be no children there,” said Craig Sanborn, chairman of the board of directors for the club and the nation’s housing director. “Now, there are always kids there and there’s a lot of positive energy all over the island about what’s going on there.”

Some 40 young people between the ages of 6 and 18 visit the center between 2 and 9 p.m. each day. Children are provided with nutritious snacks and meals by the volunteer cook. They play basketball, pingpong, pool, air hockey and pinball. Some take a break and flop down on a couple of couches in front of a TV in the kitchen. Others zip around on in-line skates asking Neptune endless questions about upcoming activities.

“What makes our club unique here is our focus on the cultural aspects of Penobscot life,” he said. “We having classes in drumming, carving, basket weaving and canoeing. In the summer, we teach the kids the Penobscot language and offer a whole range of outdoor activities.”

Michael Socoby, 17, stops by the center once or twice a week to play basketball and talk to Neptune. The Orono High School junior said that he’s been participating in the tribe’s recreation programs since he was in the fourth grade, and he remembers the days when there was just one basketball.

“There’s a lot more equipment here now,” he said. “I come by a couple of afternoons a week, stay for an hour and a half or two hours. If I’m in the mood, I’ll play with the younger kids, give ’em some good competition. It keeps ’em out of trouble.”

That is the kind of interaction and role modeling that is essential for the tribe’s survival, said Chief Barry Dana, who wandered into the gym one afternoon last week after a Tribal Council meeting.

He said that the club’s activities help build self-awareness, self-esteem and self-respect in young people. The club also is a place where they can experience their culture, which could be forgotten if it is not passed on to the next generation.

“Tribally speaking, whenever we make decisions, the framework in which those decisions are made is taken into account for the next seven generations,” said Dana. “What we have in this center, our forefathers did for us back in the 1970s. They were ensuring our future.

“The cultural programs get to the core of who we are as a people. When they learn drumming, basket making, canoeing, the kids get a sense of who we are as a Penobscots and they could hold their head up high and be proud as the first people of this state,” he added.

The children who use the center, naturally, aren’t thinking about their chief’s hopes and dreams from them when they bound into the center after school.

The favorite activity for third-graders and best friends Chloe Sockbeson, 8, and Cheyanne Douchette, 9, is “running away from the boys.”

“We run, we play outside and then, the boys chase us,” said Chloe, listing a typical afternoon’s activities. “Inside, we play air hockey, pinball, pool, pingpong and basketball. Definitely basketball.”

On the rare afternoon when the girls don’t go to the community center, they go to Chloe’s house, said the elder girl.

“We jump on her trampoline, and, the boys chase us,” said Cheyanne with a giggle, as the girls run off to play basketball.

The club on Indian Island is a unit of the Waterville Boys and Girls Club at the Alfond Youth Center. Ken Walsh, chief executive officer of the club, said that there are more than 100 Boys and Girls Club that serve Native Americans in the United States, primarily in the West. When the national organization received $70 million in federal funds to provide more child care and after-school care, Walsh thought that it could be an opportunity for the Penobscot Nation.

“Our goal is to help them develop a strong board within the community so that they can sustain the program themselves,” said Walsh. “Diversity is a key issue for our organization and it’s nice that we can help provide this opportunity for the state’s Native [American] population. We just started having conversations with the Passamaquoddy Tribe about starting a program on Pleasant Point.”

As the weather improves, Neptune and his staff, Mali Dana and Carla Fearon, will lead more outdoor activities, including canoeing, in preparation for the upcoming race season. Daylong activities will be offered in the summer, including visits to Acadia National Park and overnight camping trips.

Celebrities from Colin Powell to Denzel Washington have given glowing testimonials about the difference a Boys and Girls Club made in their lives. The children on Indian Island are, for the most part, focused on the here and now, just as Powell and Washington probably were when the club was their home away from home.

For Brittney Fields, the Indian Island club has helped her connect not only with her cultural heritage, but with a new community as well. The 14-year-old moved to the island from Slippery Rock, Penn., last fall. She spends every afternoon after school at the center.

“I started playing basketball last fall,” said the seventh-grader. “My shot’s improved a lot since then. I was on the school team, but I didn’t get much playing time. If I keep working on my shots, I’ll get more next year. There’s a lot of different things to do here. I stay ’til 5 or 5:30, then go home, have supper and do homework.”

Sanborn said in a phone interview that the goal of Boys and Girls Clubs was to provide a safe place where kids can play, grow and learn, and have positive relationships with caring adults who can be role models for them.

That sounds a lot like the place where Brittney Fields is perfecting her jump shot.