A Brief History of Our Journey Thus Far
(compiled by the Indigenous Relations Resource Group)
The difficult circumstances and the longstanding injustices endured by the Penobscot,
Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Mi’kmaq Peoples of Maine and the Canadian Maritime Provinces
(known collectively as the Wabanaki) have been a concern of New England Friends since the
early nineteenth century (at least). Beginning in the 1950s the AFSC Waponahki (Wabanaki)
program evolved to become an indigenous-led organization supporting Native grassroots
movements in Maine focusing on restoration of Waponahki languages, ceremonies, and
traditional healing practices.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Shirley Hager (Winthrop Center MM) and Wampanoag activist
gkisedtanamoogk convened a series of gatherings between Indigenous and non-Native
individuals, held in Maine and the Maritimes, to explore if it was possible to come to know one
another as individuals, and to begin to repair the tragic history between our peoples caused by
generations of colonization. Participants attended from throughout New England and the
Maritimes, and many of the non-Native participants were Quakers. (See The Gatherings:
Reimagining Indigenous-Settler Relations, Hager and Mawopiyane, 2021.)
The Friends Committee on Maine Public Policy formed in 1992 to focus on state-level issues,
especially support for Wabanaki self-determination and sovereignty.
Native leaders, with support from Quakers in Maine, established Wabanaki REACH to support
the work of the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This
involvement continues as Wabanaki REACH has evolved in its work for Truth Healing and
Change in Native and non-native communities. The historic Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was officially seated in 2013, investigating child
welfare practices over a 27-month period by interviewing over 150 individuals.
Informed by their work and the experiences of a small but growing network of individual and
Meeting connecting with local Native groups, New England Friends began studying, praying, and
wrestling with the meaning of our participation in the colonization and settlement of what is
now called the United States. This came into sharp focus in 2013 with our reflections on the
foundational “doctrine of discovery.” We found this amalgam of papal and royal proclamations
that are embedded in the American legal framework to be morally and theologically indefensible.
(Minute 2013-52).
Several years of discussion and prayer over what might be an appropriate way to make
substantive our repudiation of the “doctrine of discovery” followed. Guided in part by local
Indigenous elders, NEYM discerned that the foundation of a new kind of relationship between
ourselves, mostly the descendants of European settlers, and the Native people who continue to
call New England home would be a respectful, candid acknowledgement of the history and an
explicit, uncomplicated apology.
After two years of study and reflection by local Meetings, Sessions 2019 approved a “Letter of
Apology to Native Americans” that named our complicity and recounted some of the grievous
harms that followed. After further consultation that included local Native elders and Friends whose lineage includes Settler and Indigenous ancestors, the “Apology” was sent to the leaders
of all the Indigenous Tribes and Bands in New England.
In 2021, Shirley Hager and gkisedtanamoogk talked about their experiences as keynote speakers
at New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM) Sessions, and the book The Gatherings: Reimagining
Indigenous-Settler Relations was published. This book describes the experiences together and the
lessons learned during the conservations in the 1980s and 90s mentioned above.
That same year, a number of New England Friends became aware of the deeply disturbing
research of Paula Palmer, Boulder Friends Meeting, into the role of Quakers in the funding and
operation of approximately forty boarding schools whose primary purpose was to assimilate
Indian children and disrupt the ties of family and Tribe. Ostensibly intended to equip Native
People to function in the dominant culture, the underlying goal was to sever their connections to
the land and make millions of acres available for homesteading by White settlers.
Directed by Sessions and under the care of Permanent Board, a working group spent two years
(2022-23) examining countless federal records and local histories, and years of Yearly Meeting
Minutes and reports of the Associated Executive Committee of Friends for Indian Affairs. To the
surprise and dismay of many, this working group identified a number of schools located in what
had been the Quapaw and Sac and Fox Indian Agencies, in what is now eastern Oklahoma, and a
number of New England Friends who played important roles on the ground in Indian Country
and in federal policy-making. NEYM Quaker Indigenous Boarding Schools Report.
Since 2024, Mary Zwirner, Suzanna Schell, and Gordon Bugbee have been following a leading to
implement the recommendation of Sessions 2023 that directed that efforts be made to open
communications with the thirteen Tribes and Bands most directly affected by the assimilationist
efforts of New England Friends. Undertaking three trips so far, these Friends have conducted
research in the federal archives in Fort Worth (TX) and Oklahoma City (OK) and have made
overtures to all of the affected Tribes. New and promising relationships are developing with the
Modoc, Wyandotte, Iowa, Eastern Shawnee, and Seneca Cayuga Nations. Reports for 2024,
2025, 2026 (need IRRG page link)
At the 2024 NEYM Sessions, the Legacy Gift Committee presented a 10-year review of their
funding program with a recommendation to continue for another 10 years. In addition, the
Legacy Review Committee recommended that a significant portion of the Funds be set aside for
financial reparations. Friends were not yet clear to set aside funds but asked the Right Relations
Resource Group (now the Indigenous Relations Resource Group) to lead conversations and
discernment about reparations and “If NEYM becomes clear to make financial reparations, a
significant draw from Witness and Ministry Fund and/or the undesignated funds could be used
for this purpose.” Minute 2024-62
That same year, Friends in Maine raised over $105,000 to support a part-time Wabanaki Elderin-Residence program on the University of Maine campuses in Orono and Machias. Carol Dana,
recognized as a Penobscot language master in 2002, was named the inaugural Elder-inResidence.
In 2025 we returned to the question of Reparations in response to the report from the Quaker
Boarding School Research Group report. 2025-49 Revised Minute on Quaker Indigenous
Boarding Schools Research Group
Again, the YM asked us to continue to “support continuity in the reparative relationship-building
and knowledge-sharing that has already begun. This should be the foundation for next steps we
take toward retrospective justice.”
In September 2025, on the recommendation of the IRRG, NEYM became an affiliated member of
the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS). The proposal emerged
from recognition that while NEYM has engaged in important research and education about
boarding school history, we have not yet taken substantive steps toward repair with affected
communities.
As a result of ongoing outreach efforts, in 2026, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma requested financial
support for their program of language reclamation.
Local efforts to build right relations with Indigenous Peoples by individual Friends and local
Meetings in Wellesley, Hartford, Providence, Burlington (VT), Sandwich and Dover Quarters,
among others, continue.
More information and resources are available on the NEYM website at https://neym.org/rightrelationship-indigenous-peoples-resources-engagement