Penobscots Don't Want Ancestors' Scalping to Be Whitewashed

Dawn Neptune Adams holds a copy of the Phips Proclamation of 1755, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021, in Bangor, Maine. Adams recently co-directed a film that focuses on the proclamation, one of the dozens of government-issued bounty proclamations that directed colonial settlers to hunt, scalp and kill Indigenous people for money. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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By Associated Press

December 4, 2021 at 12:54 PM UTC

Updated on

December 4, 2021 at 8:36 PM UTC

Portland, Maine (AP) -- Most Americans know about atrocities endured by Native Americans after the arrival of European settlers: wars, disease, stolen land. But they aren’t always taught the extent of the indiscriminate killings.

Members of the Penobscot Nation in Maine have produced an educational film addressing how European settlers scalped — killed — Indigenous people during the British colonial era, spurred for decades by cash bounties and with the government’s blessing.