(Street noise) Living between cultures results in seeing double first from the perspective of one culture.

Then from the perspective of another.

Removed, you glimpse the sea in which you've been immersed, but to which you were oblivious.

No longer seeing the world the way you were inculturated to see it.

The United States is bordered by two friendly nations Canada and Mexico.

Just think, there are no fortifications on our land borders.

However, there are many customs stations and border patrols to enforce the immigration and customs laws.

The inspectors are courteous at all times but our keen judges of human nature on the Canadian side of the line, (Narration fades away) (Train horn) ♪ The creation story goes back to the very beginning of time for us.

Our DNA is linked to the very heart of the earth here.

The shape of the landscape might look different, but we were always from here.

You know, this is ocean going birch bark canoe right here.

It's made from one birch tree.

Everything's natural.

There's no iron, no metal at all.

And it's like a feather on water.

It's all about the river.

You know, we have, our last canoe trip.

We make this, like, a yearly trip.

There'll be about 70 of us that leave from here, and we go down the Saint Croix.

And go past McCourty Bay to the other community.

And, we're followed by anywhere from 2 to 10 eagles along the way.

There's no water there.

It's it's home.

You know, the river is home.

It's all part of the big picture of things.

♪ Acadian, refers to, the people who resided in Acadia.

But today there are Acadians throughout the world.

♪ A lot of Acadians were rounded up, their houses were burned, their livestock confiscated, and they were put on ships bearing different destinations.

♪ The name Acadia was taken off the maps.

Were used to pick all that by hand way back then.

we used to have barrel by hand and put it in the barrel and the truck would haul it.

Now they're all computerized.

All of them.

It's a bit different.

Once France had ceded all of its colonies in 1784, some Acadians petitioned the new Brunswick government for land in the Madawaska territory.

They settled on either side of the Saint John River.

So the river was always seen as a connecting point.

Actually, we're looking at one whole community and in the middle is the river.

♪ The Meduxnekeag river is right down the way here.

The reality is, it was colonial nations vying for our territory.

This land in particular was heavily disputed for over 50 years between Great Britain and the United States.

And we were caught in between when the American nation declared independence, 1776.

They couldn't figure out where the border should be.

It was a very long dispute, and it was the Webster Ashburton treaty 1842.

Well, Great Britain ceded this territory, which is now Aroostook County, to the United States.

It was never theirs to cede.

It was always ours.

I'm sure you've noticed when driving this land, you know, go up to New Brunswick, drive along this river.

It's desirable.

It's not hard to see why someone would want to take it.

(Street noise) ♪ Maine became a state in 1820, and the border didn't become real until the Webster Ashburton treaty, which was some years later.

So the folks of this area, we weren't really residents of Canada or the United States.

We were simply what were called Madawaskan's.

All of a sudden, there's this unceremonious division.

Folks who were one population weren't that anymore.

You had American citizens and you had Canadian citizens.

Families were divided.

A line was was drawn.

That was it.

Up until the age of five years old, I couldn't say a word of English.

When I went to high school.

They used to punish us because we were speaking, They didn't want us to speak French in school.

Like when I was speaking French in the locker room and the coach says, I told you not to talk French in the locker room.

He says, what did you tell your friend?

I said, I told them my grandma made better cookies than yours.

He said, okay, now for your punishment ten laps around the gym.

You know, stuff like that.

I felt my French was inferior because it was a French that is unique to northern Maine.

And so in high school, it was sort of well, we're going to teach you how to say this the right way, which, of course, by its implication in a 15, 16 year old means, well, I'm saying it incorrectly.

Coupled with the 1918 law that said instruction can only take place in English, so you can have French courses, but that's all.

This is a message that resonates loudly and deeply with individuals who are from here and who speak a language that they are taught to believe is inferior.

French was how they lived, was how their parents expressed not just emotions, but transmitted culture.

Songs, feelings of belonging, of being loved.

It was everywhere.

Even today, the area of the Saint John Valley has the highest number of French speaking people per capita in the United States.

In town here, we'll say, (Speaking French) That that's not French.

Real French is (Speaking French) Okay that's French.

See over here half and half.

It's not French, it's not English.

It's mixed.

(Street Noise) Originally, in 1950, my grandfather Paul started the business, and he named it LaVex Market.

LaVex market did not do well at all.

And, a year later, he was losing his shirt and thinking of closing the business.

Back then, many Canadians, were coming down from Canada and going to Lewiston, Maine, Biddeford, Maine, Augusta and taking jobs away from Americans.

Americans did not like Canadians.

So he had the idea to change the name of the business.

He changed the name of the business to Bishop's, which is the English translation of Levac.

And it was an overnight success.

So he thought so much about it and, changed his name to Paul Bishop.

A historic change in U.S. foreign policy toward the maintenance of peace and order may well shape the future destiny of all the people of the world.

That both sides begin anew, the quest for peace before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science, engulf all humanity in banned or accidental self destruction.

So let us begin anew.

♪ Loring was built as a strategic base.

Loring was the biggest nuclear armament in the world.

I mean, if a nuclear weapon would explode, it would take the whole Upper East Coast.

Loring had that much armament.

We are the closest to Russia when you consider that Loring was a part of the chrome dome.

So the chrome dome is the top of the earth.

United States didn't fly around the world.

We flew over it.

There was a bowling alley on the base.

There was a movie theater.

There was, NCO club, an officer's club, a dental clinic.

There was a rec center.

I mean, it was like a community all in itself.

That's what I miss more than anything is having all the people that I met and we became close.

That's the biggest thing.

Here, at last, was what we've been waiting to see.

Our new home.

This is part of the housing units recently completed hundreds of units to house personnel on the base.

The housing, like the rest of the base, has all been built since World War two.

Hello?

Somebody's been here.

So there's a kitchen.

See, the cupboards are not in bad shape.

See, we actually have some in our museum.

Not in bad shape.

And that probably would have been where your stove was.

Refrigerator here.

Look, there are hangers still hanging.

So Loring at its peak in the 80s.

Had 10,000 people that worked, served, were contractors or lived on the base.

And the military people and the civilians in the area, they got along so well.

Everybody kind of intertwined their lives around each other.

I used to babysit on the base when I was growing up as a teenager.

Limestone, Maine used to be a big town.

And it was a sad day when they closed down.

Yeah, when the base left, it changed the entire dynamics of the area.

Even the farmers, in the wintertime, they were out at Loring, plowing.

So when they closed, unfortunately it took a lot of it with it.

It was a different way of life that we had to get used to.

And it hurt a lot.

Years ago, many years ago, before all our times, buckwheat was grown on almost every farm.

Because that's what people used for their bread, milled the flour, and that would make their flour to make this ploye mix.

I'm the fifth generation, my son, who's 25, 26, he's going to be the sixth, and it looks like he's going to going to want to continue.

So that's, that's a good thing.

Yeah.

It's a long time to be farming the same, same ground.

You know, this is this is old.

That mill is a newer mill.

Our older mill, like I told you I had to replace, is back there.

That's the one that was, repaired in 1898.

This one here, I'm assuming it's 1910.

Much newer, newer model.

Still no computers.

That truck is usually full.

You know that view, maybe once or twice a year, I come across I come over the Hill.

And I say, wow that that's a pretty view.

You would see it every day because you're not from around here.

I don't appreciate it because I live here.

But it's different for you because you work the land.

You're part of the landscape.

That's too bad.

That's too bad.

But I appreciate it.

Growing up with the same landscape because I was just across the border in Claire.

I mean, I see mountains and, but I've always felt like the valley we're embracing, protecting us.

And I guess that's still true in a lot of ways.

I remember crossing into Fort Kent on a daily basis.

Everybody knew each other.

But since 911, it's, taken on a very, a very harsh reality.

The big deal was when 911 happened.

♪ The border then really became a barrier.

This had a real marked impact on what I call border landers.

Individuals who live on a border.

Yeah.

And up here.

And so there's two different zones for Maine.

There's a north zone and south zone.

And we're in the north zone right now.

Obviously there's Canada, but in northern Maine you're not allowed to use live bait.

So up here we I try to mimic as close as I can to a live fish to have the best possible chance of catching something.

How often do you go to Canada?

Oh, I haven't been to Canada yet.

I don't know my pass card right now.

Do you think you'll stay for a while?

Yeah.

I'm going to stay for the rest of my life.

I got a good job.

I like it up here.

Yeah.

It's been tough.

We had, we've had many Covid shutdowns.

You know, we couldn't cross the border.

Nobody could cross the border.

I have a friend that, his girlfriend actually lived in Canada, and he couldn't see her for, like, a year and a half.

So this spot here will give you views up and down the river.

So my father was tribal chief for 12 years.

When I was younger, I swore that I would never be involved in politics.

It was the furthest from my mind.

And then I started doing work in public health for all the tribes in Maine, and decided that I needed to maybe step into a a new, role that I wasn't necessarily comfortable with but felt like was needed.

I work a lot with the tribes in Canada, on the water, on the rivers, and restoring the natural fish habitat that had been here historically.

So salmon is is again at the heart of like our culture, and we don't see them in the Madawaska anymore.

And some of those barriers are on the Canadian side.

So we can't just engage with the tribes in Canada.

It's with tribal governments there, with the Canadian government, which with the United States government, we have been really trying hard to figure out a way to break down those barriers on the Canadian side that are keeping the fish from reaching us here in our river.

Most elders end up being kind of pranksters, kind of.

And I'm the only I'm the only Maliseet who doesn't eat salmon.

You know, that's what they would say because we'd have a big salmon feed.

And I'm like, I don't want salmon.

They're like, you're the only Indian that doesn't eat salmon, for crying out loud.

This is our football field, this is the high school field.

A lot of memories.

My kids all, you know, played football here.

And I can remember, like, I remember Noah scoring his first touchdown.

I can just remember every time, every game we had, every time I painted the field.

And it's.

And, you know, the tribe built this place, you know, for the community at large.

So there's more at play than just it's not really us and them.

We know that the better we make the area for ourselves.

It's also with the, you know, greater community in mind also.

We live in a place where, you know, we've seen just the greater area here in Houlton, a decline in our population.

So my hope is that we are able to get more of our youth to go to college and come home.

You know, there's been a lot of growth here, for our tribe.

And I just want that to continue.

And I work with the state legislature, and we're working with the federal government just to break down barriers so that we really can, you know, practice our sovereignty and self-governance and do it in a way that's not restrictive.

(Indistinct conversation and band practicing) Move it up, move it up.

Who's up next?

The high school band?

Yeah.

(Crowd noise) (Trumpet playing Taps) So I actually have a few things that are my favorites.

This is the only yearbook ever made in 63.

And when you open it up, you see, like, all these pictures, but then you get to the places where there's people.

You know, people come in and they'll stand here and they'll cry.

I'm gonna cry, sorry, but they'll stand here and they'll look at the face staring back at them and you'll just, oh, my God, that's my dad, or that's my mother or my grandfather.

And I haven't seen that face in forever.

And there they are.

So it's hard because we lived here.

The first time I heard the wax cylinders, I really, wept because I heard my ancestors.

I could hear my grandmother speaking.

I could hear other elders speaking in the in the village.

It was really profound.

And it's really, well, that particular border, it's always hindered our people from connecting with one another.

To keep us connected on who we are as skicin because that's who we are.

It's built in our language.

We are skicin, land dweller because of our deep connection to the land.

♪ There are unspoken places all around us.

Places we never see or see, but do not see.

There are hidden histories, haunted landscapes, forgotten graves, secret worlds surrounded by high walls.

Sometimes these places are unspoken.

Because the unspeakable happened or continues to happen there.

Speaking of the unspoken places, means speaking of the people who live and die in those places.

How do we make the invisible visible?

How do we sing of the world buried beneath us?

How do we soak up the ghosts through the soles of our feet?

♪