In 1806, the town of Orono named its settlement in honor of Penobscot Indian Nation Chief Joseph Orono.

Naming places after people is a European tradition, not something American Indians often, if ever, did.

At the time the settlement took on Orono as its name, the border between the United States and Canada hadn’t been established. By naming the town after Chief Orono, the Americans were hoping to gain an ally against the French,

Penobscot Nation historian James Eric Francis said.

“If there was conflict, they wanted the Native Americans’ help with that,” he said.

Chief Orono served as chief of the Penobscot tribe from about 1760 until he died in 1801. Although his exact age is debated, Orono was believed to have been more than 110 years old at the time of his death.

“He was known as the blue-eyed chief,” Francis said.

Chief Orono was the grand-son of Molly Mathilde, who was the daughter of Penobscot Chief Madockawando who sought peace between the Penobscots and the English during the time of King Philip’s War in the late 1600s.

Mathilde was married to the Baron of Castine, Jean Vincent de Abbadie, making Orono of both Penobscot and French nobility. The town of Castine was named after the baron.

At the time when Orono be-came chief, the Penobscots practiced the tradition of passing the position down from generation to generation through the bloodline.

“This was a practice we kept until the late 1850s when we went to an elected chief sys-tem,” he said.

Although the next chief was elected, he would have been the succeeding chief in line based on the hereditary system as well. This caused some debate, but chiefs have been elected to the post ever since.