St. Mary’s Parochial School
Home of the Wabanaki Alliance Newspaper
In 1967, St. Mary’s Parochial School closed after serving as a school for over 50 years. After renovations, in 1973 the Catholic Diocese of Portland opened an Indian Resource Center and an Indian Youth Organization program, both run by the diocese’s Division of Indian Services Program in the former school building. This was a temporary measure put in place while critical infrastructure was under construction on Indian Island after federal recognition had been secured.
The first issue of the Wabanaki alliance newspaper was published in 1977. It ran for five years before folding in 1982.
During this time, the Diocese asked members of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Mi’kmaq Nation, Penobscot Nation, and the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahkomikuk and Sipayik what they would like to see most from these programs. One request was a way for communications between the Wabanaki Nations to improve.
To achieve this, in 1977 a new monthly newspaper was published called the Wabanaki Alliance. The newspaper ran through October 1982 publishing 62 consecutive issues. Plagued by financial problems, the paper closed after the October 1982 issue.
Though it was never a tribal-led newspaper, the paper did meet its goal of communicating news among the four Wabanaki Nations in Maine. The paper reported on state and federal matters that concerned Wabanaki community, as well as community news, wedding announcements, and obituaries. At a time when there was little to no reporting on Wabanaki concerns in the local or national news, the paper was an important vehicle for inter-tribal communications.
The time period in which the paper was published was a particularly important one, coinciding with the lawsuit brought by the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, and Maliseet nations against the State of Maine claiming that all treaties granting land to Maine were null and void because they were never ratified by Congress. The paper reported on this issue extensively.
This research was compiled as part of the Walk to Honor Wabanaki Veterans, which took place in Orono on June 21, 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.
This event was part of the Walk for Historical and Ecological Recovery (WHERE), a series convened by Atlantic Black Box devoted to grassroots truth-seeking and transformation. It was organized under the leadership of James Eric Francis, Sr. in collaboration with the Penobscot Nation Cultural & Historic Preservation Department, the Town of Orono, the City of Old Town, the UMaine Wabanaki Center, Bangor Public Library, Orono Public Library, RSU 26, The Wabanaki Alliance, The Abbe Museum, Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness, The Wilson Center, The Church of Universal Fellowship, Ça C’est Bon, and Orono Arts Fest.