One Land, Two Worlds

2449.0001
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From the back cover: ''One Land - Two Worlds' views George Waymouth's voyage to Mid-Coast Maine from the English and Native American perspectives. What for Waymouth was the discovery of a great river that led ultimately to the English colonization of North America, was for Native Americans of the Northeast an event that triggered the tragic devastation of their people and culture: by the end of the following decade, the coastal villages of northern New England were virtually depopulated as a result of the spread of European diseases for which they had no immunity. ' 'While recounting the historical events of the voyage, which included the kidnapping of five Natives who were taken back to England, the documentary interweaves two, modern-day stories:' '1. Conventional wisdom and most modern historians agree that Waymouth chose the Saint George River as the sight for the first English colony. Retired lobsterman Sherwood Cook disagrees. To prove his point, he persuades the Apprentice Shop in Rockland, Maine to build a replica of the 32-foot 'kit boat' Waymouth brought with him in the hold of his ship and then used to explore the coast. This modern recreation of Waymouth's 'Light Horseman' then repeats Waymouth's 24-hour expedition up the Penobscot Bay to the mouth of the Penobscot River, solving one of Maine's earliest mysteries by proving Waymouth's 'great river' was the Penobscot and not the Saint George.' '2. A group of modern Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, and Maliseet natives, some of whom are descendants of the five natives Waymouth kidnapped, fight to keep their native culture and traditions from being swallowed up in the white man's world they inhabit. For them, the building of birch bark canoes is as important to their cultural survival as the speaking of their ancient languages. It has been 80 years since the last native birch bark canoe was built. Because there are no living native builders they have, ironically, turned to Steve Cayard, a white man, to teach them the craft of their ancestors.' Please note that some historians use the spelling, 'Weymouth.' Some historians use the spelling, George Weymouth, but Waymouth is used here to adhere to the DVD's spelling of the name.

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