For one day each November, we take a moment to remember the people who served in the U.S. military.
There is one group of people who live in what is now Maine, however, whose legacy of military service goes back to before the U.S. became a country, and who have served in every American war since: the Wabanaki people.
Members of the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Mi’kmaq tribes have lived on these lands for millennia. As Penobscot elder Donna Loring and Passamaquoddy tribal historian Donald Soctomah said in a Bangor Daily News opinion piece earlier this year, many Indigenous people serve in the U.S. military in order to protect their homeland, their freedoms and their way of life — even if the U.S. often does not return the favor.
There have been hundreds of Wabanaki veterans. In honor of this year’s Veterans Day, here are just a few of their stories.
Revolutionary War
In 1775, Chief Joseph Orono of the Penobscot Nation traveled to Massachusetts and pledged support for the cause of American independence from the British. Historically, the Penobscot fought against the British, especially after 1755, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony issued a scalp proclamation that allowed colonists to kill Penobscot people at will.
It’s not known how many Penobscot warriors fought during the Revolutionary War, but there is some documentation that survives, including the story of a man known only as White Francis. According to a petition filed by his daughter in 1836, Francis was killed in battle during the Penobscot Expedition, the ill-fated naval battle on the Penobscot River in 1779, which saw British forces defeat the Americans in the worst U.S. naval defeat until Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Civil War
More than 73,000 Mainers served during the Civil War, but little is known about exactly how many Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Mi’kmaq or Maliseet people served. One fascinating record held at the Maine State Archives is a photo that shows a Passamaquoddy Civil War veteran, Peter W. Mitchell, who mustered in from Pleasant Point in March 1864 to fight in the war.
Mitchell served in Company G of the 7th Maine Infantry and Company G of the 1st Maine Veteran Infantry. In the photo, he is shown alongside his wife wearing his Grand Army of the Republic uniform, the Civil War veterans organization that was a precursor to the American Legion.
Another photo, held by the Passamaquoddy Tribe, shows a group of Civil War soldiers from the 7th Maine Infantry. According to Donald Soctomah, the two standing soldiers in the photo are Wabanaki.
World War I
According to Soctomah, eight Passamaquoddy people joined the 103rd Infantry — part of the famed “Yankee Division” of mostly New England soldiers — during World War I, as well as few who enlisted in the U.S. Navy. At least two Passamaquoddy soldiers were killed in action, including Charles Lola and Moses Neptune, both of Pleasant Point, according to a list of Maine soldiers killed during World War I. And according to Penobscot tribal historian James Francis, Penobscot soldiers Sylvester Francis and Lawrence Mitchell also served during World War I.
World War II
The story of Wabanaki service during World War II is long and significant. It ranges in scope from people such as Mary Therese “Patsy” Nelson, a Penobscot veteran who was one of the first women in Maine to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps, to Charles Norman Shay, a Penobscot veteran and World War II combat medic, who served at D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge and who today, at age 100, remains an honored tribal elder and internationally respected activist for Indigenous veterans. And in an incredible coincidence, another Penobscot soldier, Melvin Neptune, happened to be on the same transport ship before D-Day as Shay.
There were so many Wabanaki veterans of World War II, in fact, that in the Sept. 25, 1944 edition of the Bangor Daily News, nearly a full page was devoted to showcasing most of them, including 85 individual photographs of Penobscot and Passamaquoddy service members. It also highlighted Staff Sgt. Walter Meader Jr, a Passamaquoddy soldier who was the first Wabanaki person to be killed during the war — a list that would grow to include several others, including Donald Francis, a Penobscot soldier who was killed in the Philippines.
The legacy of Wabanaki service in World War II was one of the many reasons that in 2009 the Maine Legislature voted to name June 21 as Native Americans Veterans Day in Maine — along with the fact that June 21 was the day Chief Orono pledged to support American Independence back in 1775.
Korean War
Among the Wabanaki people who served during the Korean War was John Stevens, who served as a Passamaquoddy chief and later tribal councilor for more than 40 years, and who died last year at age 89. Stevens often spoke of his time in Korea, where he proudly served in the U.S. Marine Corps. According to the Wabanaki Alliance, Stevens once said that when he marched through a Korean village he was reminded of his home on the reservation — both the village itself, and that the children there were starving.
Vietnam War
Many of the Wabanaki people who served during the Vietnam War did not enlist, but were drafted, such as Andrew Phillips, a Mi’kmaq tribal member who served a two-year tour of duty in Germany between 1965 and 1967. Others did enlist, such as Donna Loring, a Penobscot Nation tribal representative, writer and longtime activist for Wabanaki causes, who served in the Women’s Army Corp as a Communications Specialist at Long Binh Army Base between 1967 and 1968.
And one, Penobscot Nation member Lawrence Shay, did not come back, after he was killed in Quang Nam in 1966. He was the only Penobscot casualty of the war.
Conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq
A number of Wabanaki people served during the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Among them was Brig. Gen. Diane Dunn, the adjutant general of the Maine National Guard and commissioner of Maine’s Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management. Dunn served as a battalion commander of the 286th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion in both Bangor and Afghanistan. She is also a Wabanaki descendent, as her mother is an enrolled member of the Penobscot Nation. In 2020, she became the first female general officer in the 200-year history of the Maine Army National Guard, and in 2024 became the first woman to lead it outright.
