Recovering thbe rosary Passamaquoddy man translates prayers into his native tongue

Nearly 350 years after the first Roman Catholic missionaries arrived in what is now Washington County, a Passamaquoddy boy learned to recite the most powerful words of his religion – in English.

Another 50 years would pass before Allen Sockabasin would learn to recite the rosary in his native language.

But first he would have to translate them into Passamaquoddy.

Sockabasin, 58, of Hampden, has devoted much of the past decade to keeping his native language alive. He has recorded traditional songs sung in Passamaquoddy, taught the language to a generation that has rarely heard it, and developed a computer program to help children learn Passamaquoddy words.

His latest project is translating and recording some of the rosary prayers into Passamaquoddy. So far, Sockabasin has completed work on the Our Father and Hail Mary portions, as well as the Apostles’ Creed. Because of the amount of time each translation requires, he decided not to include the four “mysteries,” or key events in the lives of Jesus and Mary, that are part of the rosary cycle.

Sockabasin, the HIV coordinator with the Wabanaki Health Association, has spent about eight months working on the translations. Once the project is completed, he plans to record the prayers in a professional studio, then distribute CDs and tapes free to tribal members.

Those first priests in North America three centuries ago taught Sockabasin’s ancestors to pray in Latin, and the decades since saw the Passamaquoddy language nearly eradicated. Today, there are only 500 to 1,000 fluent speakers left, and the language is still on the edge of extinction, he said.

Growing up Down East in a house without electricity, Sockabasin spoke Passamaquoddy at home. His mother, who died when he was 11, never spoke English. His father learned the language at the lumber camps he worked in as a young man.

“He learned to say the prayers in Latin, but I don’t think he understood them,” Sockabasin said recently. “I learned the prayers in English. The church discouraged the Passamaquoddy language, but it had a great influence on us.”

Until the 1970s when a large numbers of Catholics left religious life, the schools on the Passamaquoddy reservation were run by the diocese in cooperation with the state. The teachers were nuns and the administrators were priests.

During the past two decades, he said, the church’s attitude toward American Indian culture has changed dramatically. Efforts to include native spirituality in church ritual are visible in the parishes on the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot reservations. And Sockabasin’s project is being funded by grants from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland as well as the Maine Community Foundation and private donations.

Sockabasin pointed out that he is completing work begun by Rita Atvater, who died before she could complete the translations.

The translation is not literal. For example, the opening words to the Our Father – Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done – became “Father who is in Heaven, your name is the most high. May you always be our leader and whatever you teach, may it always be.”

He said that reaction from Catholic American Indians who have heard the prayers in Passamaquoddy has been emotional.

The Rev. Frank Morin, pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church at Indian Point, said the rosary is rarely prayed in Passamaquoddy these days. He and others in the congregation already know the Our Father in Passamaquoddy and are looking forward to learning the Hail Mary and the Apostles’ Creed.

“I’ve talked to our deacon George Stevens about this and he believes it will be a useful tool with the elders who do pray the rosary,” Morin said. “He and I expect that praying in Passamaquoddy will bring back a lot of memories and the language they were raised with.”

Once Socakabasin’s recording is completed, it will be used at St. Ann’s in religious education classes, he said.

Sockabasin is determined to continue his work to preserve his language. His next project is to translate numbers into his native language.

“A lot of the people who are most fluent in Passamaquoddy can’t count to 10 in their own language,” he said. “I believe that when you know the language, you are connected with your people.”