Molly Ockett’s Grave
Woodlawn Cemetery, Andover, Maine.
Molly Ockett was an Abenaki woman who lived in the mountains between Maine and New Hampshire in the early 19th century. Her Abenaki name was Singing Bird; she was baptised as “Marie Agatha” by French Catholic missionaries, hence her Americanized name. “Molly Ockett” has been incorporated into the names of schools, businesses, and natural features throughout the Androscoggin valley, and legends abound about her. She is cast sometimes as a healer, sometimes as a witch, and always as a complicated figure who moved at ease between the Native and English worlds.
I have, I think, a more respectful picture of her grave in a light-tight box in the basement, waiting for me to apply smelly chemicals to the 4×5 film.
Now see these:
- The Blue Notebooks from Wink
- Sailing Nantucket from Craig Persel
- Bad Weather II from Anne V.
