Sorrowfully Dissolving Our Louis Sockalexis Statue Fund
For almost 15 years after first publishing my biography of Louis Sockalexis, BASEBALL’S FIRST INDIAN, in 2003, I dreamed of seeing a statue to him built in my home state of Maine. And then I acted upon it. Between 2017-2018, as a non-Native American, I put together a wonderful coalition, with three well-respected Native Americans from Maine: John Bear Mitchell, Penobscot storyteller, actor and long-time faculty member for the Native American Studies Program at the University of Maine at Orono; David Slagger, Ph.D. candidate and former Maliseet tribal representative to the Maine State Legislature; and the late Theodore “Wayne” Bear Mitchell, the last Penobscot Nation representative to the Maine State Legislature.