Lucy Nicolar Poolaw
Research compiled by Tahloni Yearwood and Savannah Mirisola-Sullivan, with thanks to James Eric Francis Senior and Jason Pardilla
A legacy of performance and advocacy
Lucy Nicolar Poolaw, casting the first Wabanaki ballot in Old Town, 1955, after Wabanaki peoples’ right to vote in federal elections was finally recognized.
Lucy Nicolar Poolaw (1882–1960), born to Joseph and Elizabeth Nicolar, began performing at a young age. Each summer, Lucy and her family reclaimed the Penobscot peoples’ ancestral seasonal migration, camping along the Kennebunk River. Lucy and her sisters sold baskets that they made with their mother in Kennebunkport, where Lucy performed for the first time, dancing in regalia for tourists.
Lucy’s performance always existed in service of cultural-continuity and activism for Indigenous peoples. At 17, she traveled to New York City to speak at a debate on immigration. Surrounded by arguments purporting that immigration was “dangerous and threatening to all true Americans,” Lucy flipped this narrative upside down to frame settler-colonists as the dangerous immigrants, and named Indigenous people as the only true Americans. She followed her speech with piano performance and singing.
“I believe I am the only true American here. I think you have decided rightly. Of all my forefathers’ country, from the St. John to the Connecticut, we have now but a little island one-half mile square. There are only about 500 of us now. We are very happy on our island, but we are poor. The railroad corporations, which did their share of robbing us of our land, are now begrudging us half-rate fare. But we forgive you all.”
Lucy Nicolar Poolaw
In the 1910s, Lucy left her year-round home on Indian Island to study music in New York and Chicago. She toured the vaudeville circuit as Princess Watahwaso, or Bright Star, performing her own program of songs and dances in pan-Indian dress. She recorded on Victor Records, and performed across the U.S. against the backdrop of the 1883 Code of Indian Offenses. This federal legislation was an assimilation tool designed to erase cultural identity by banning traditional Indigenous religious and cultural practices, including certain dances, songs, and ceremonies. Lucy danced carefully around these laws by presenting her events as tourist entertainment.
Lucy Nicolar dressed as Princess Wahtawaso
While touring, she married Bruce Poolaw, a Kiowa entertainer, and returned to Indian Island, where she continued to share her love of performing. “Aunt Lu” to her many nieces and nephews, she taught Penobscot spiritual songs and dances to children on the reservation. The Poolaws operated Chief Poolaw’s Teepee, a gift shop and cultural site, now a museum celebrating the Nicolar family’s legacy.
Lucy and her sisters were fierce advocates for Indigenous rights. They fought for suffrage for Indigenous peoples, and when Wabanaki people gained the federal right to vote in 1954, Lucy Nicolar was the first to cast her ballot, well before state and local voting rights were recognized in 1967.
“Aunt Lu brought more than one bridge to the Penobscot people, creating cultural and educational opportunities through her musical talents... During a time when it was illegal to [share Penobscot spiritual songs and dances], she disguised the events as tourist performances.”
Reflection Questions
How might you honor Lucy’s legacy when you cast your ballot?
How does Lucy show us that song, music, and performance can exist in service to activism?
Why might Lucy have chosen to wear pan-Indian regalia featuring fringe and headdresses when she performed across the country, rather than traditional Penobscot regalia?
How can we understand the importance of Lucy’s performances and recordings in the context of the Code of Indian Offenses?
This research was compiled as part of the Just History Walk: Lives Between Two Rivers which took place on November 8, 2025. For more information about this walk, click here. For more research related to this area, click on the tags below. To download a hi-res version of the posters below for educational use, please contact where@atlanticblackbox.com.
Poster design by Meadow Dibble