Editing Penobscot (section)

===Contact and colonization===
[[File:Sarah molasses penobscot.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Sarah Molasses, c.1886, daughter of [[Old John Neptune|John Neptune]] and Molly Molasses, collection of [[Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology]]]]

During the 16th century the Penobscot had contact with Europeans through the [[fur trade]]. It was lucrative and the Penobscot were willing to trade pelts for European goods such as metal axes, guns, and copper or iron cookware. Hunting for fur pelts reduced the game, however, and the European trade introduced alcohol to Penobscot communities for the first time.

The Europeans carried endemic infectious diseases of Eurasia to the Americas, and the Penobscot had no acquired immunity. Their fatality rates from the introduction of [[measles]], [[smallpox]] and other infectious diseases was high. The population also declined due to further encroachment by settlers who cut off access to the Penobscot's main food source of running fish through the process of damming the Penobscot River, the loss of big game through the process of clear cutting of forests for the logging industry and through massacres carried out by settlers. This catastrophic population depletion may have contributed to Christian conversion (among other factors); the people could see that the European priests did not suffer from the pandemics. The latter said that the Penobscot had died because they did not believe in Jesus Christ.<ref name="wmm"/>

At the beginning of the 17th century, Europeans began to live year-round in Wabanaki territory.<ref name="wmm"/> At this time, there were probably about 10,000 Penobscot (a number which fell to below 500 by the early 19th century).<ref>[http://www.penobscotnation.org/museum/pana'wahb'skk'eighistory.htm "History"], ''Penobscot Nation''.</ref> As contact became more permanent, after about 1675, conflicts arose through differences in cultures, conceptions of property, and competition for resources. Along the Atlantic Coast in present-day Canada, most settlers were French; in New England they were generally English speaking.

The Penobscot sided with the French during the [[French and Indian War]] in the mid-18th century (the North American front of the [[Seven Years' War]]) after British colonists demanded the Penobscot join their side or be considered hostile. In 1755, [[List of colonial governors of Massachusetts|governor of Massachusetts]] [[Spencer Phips]] placed a [[Scalping|scalp]] bounty on Penobscot.<ref>[https://upstanderproject.org/firstlight/phips/ Phips Bounty Proclamation]</ref> With a smaller population and greater acceptance of intermarriage, the French posed a lesser threat to the Penobscots' land and way of life.<ref name="wmm"/>

After the French defeat in the [[Battle of the Plains of Abraham|Battle of Quebec]] in 1759, the Penobscot were left in a weakened position as they had lost their main European ally. During the [[American Revolution]], the Penobscot sided with the [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriots]] and played an important role in the conflicts which occurred around the border between British Canada and the United States. Despite this the new American government did not seem to recognize their contributions. Anglo-American settlers continued to encroach on Penobscot lands.<ref name="wmm"/>

In the following centuries, the Penobscot attempted to make treaties in order to hold on to some form of land, but, because they had no power of enforcement in [[Massachusetts]] or Maine, Americans kept encroaching on their lands. From about 1800 onward, the Penobscot lived on [[Indian reservation|reservations]], specifically, Indian Island, which is an island in the Penobscot River near Old Town, Maine. The Maine state government appointed a [[Indian agent|Tribal Agent]] to oversee the tribe. The government believed that they were helping the Penobscot, as stated in 1824 by the highest court in Maine that "...imbecility on their parts, and the dictates of humanity on ours, have necessarily prescribed to them their subjection to our paternal control."<ref name="wmm"/> This sentiment of "imbecility" set up a power dynamic in which the government treated the Penobscot as wards of the state and decided how their affairs would be managed. The government treated as charitable payments those Penobscot funds derived from land treaties and trusts, which the state had control over and used as it saw fit.<ref name="wmm"/>