海角社区

Micah Pawling

Associate Professor of History and Native American Studies
History

As an ethnohistorian of the far Northeast, my research focuses on the Wabanaki people of 鈥渢he dawnland,鈥 including the Passamaquoddy (Peskotomuhkati), Penobscot, Maliseet (W蓹last蓹kwiyik), and Mi鈥檏maq in the nineteenth century. Wabanaki homeland encompasses present-day northern New England and eastern Canada. My first edited book, Wabanaki Homeland and the New State of 海角社区: The 1820 Journal and Plans of Survey by Joseph Treat (University of Massachusetts Press and the Penobscot Nation, 2007, paperback 2017), was a cross-cultural collaborative project with the Penobscot Nation. The book reproduces the journal of a survey expedition across Wabanaki homeland where Indigenous cultural practices and knowledge of their lands and waters prevailed.

My work has appeared in American Indian Quarterly, AcadiensisEthnohistory, and the Historical Atlas of 海角社区. The 2017 article received the 2018 Canadian Historical Association鈥檚 prize for the best article in Indigenous history. As a recipient of the Whiting Public Engagement Fellowship, I work with the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Indian Township (Motahkomikuk) on community history. My forthcoming book is on Wabanaki waterscapes in the nineteenth century.

Courses taught

HTY 103: Creating America to 1877

HTY 220: NAS 220: North American Indian History

HTY 222: NAS 230: 海角社区 Indian History in the Twentieth Century

HTY 311 : NAS 201: Junior history seminar on Native American History

HTY 464: America at the Crossroads: The Era of the Civil War and Reconstruction, 1840-1877

HTY 481: NAS 401: Amerindians of the Northeast: A History

HTY 498: Senior history major seminar on Native American History

HTY 550: Readings in Indigenous Legal History

HTY 580: Indigenous History of North America

HTY 599: Native American History & the Environment

Books

Pawling, Micah, A., ed., with an introduction,聽Wabanaki Homeland and the New State of 海角社区: The 1820 Journal and Plans of Survey of Joseph Treat聽(Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007, paperback 2017) a volume in the series聽Native Americans of the Northeast: Culture, History, and the Contemporary,聽edited by Colin G. Calloway and Barry O鈥機onnell, in conjunction with the Penobscot Indian Nation, Indian Island, 海角社区.

Articles

Pawling, Micah A. 鈥.鈥 海角社区 Policy Review 34.1 (2025) : 22 -27,聽https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol34/iss1/8.

Pawling, Michah A., 鈥溾楢 labyrinth of uncertainties鈥: Penobscot River Islands, Assignments, and Indigenous Women Proprietors in Nineteenth-Century 海角社区.鈥澛American Indian Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 4 (Fall 2018): 454-487.

*Pawling, Micah, A., 鈥奥蓹濒补蝉迟蓹办飞别测听(Maliseet) Homeland: Waterscapes and Continuity within the Lower St. John River Valley, 1784-1900,鈥澛础肠补诲颈别苍蝉颈蝉,听vol. XLVI, no 2 (Summer/Autumn 2017): 1-30. (*2018 Canadian Historical Association prize for best Indigenous history article in 2017)

Pawling, Micah A., 鈥淲abanaki Homeland and Mobility: Concepts of Home in Nineteenth-Century 海角社区,鈥澛Ethnohistory, vol. 63, no. 4 (October 2016): 621-643.

Book Chapters

Pawling, Micah A., and Donald G. Soctomah, 鈥淗istorical Commemoration in Indigenous Homelands: The Wabanaki Encampment at the 海角社区 Centennial of 1920,鈥 in What we Know, What we Wish: 海角社区 Statehood, Historical Commemoration, and the Urgency of Public History, edited by Liam Riordan and Richard W. Judd (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2025), 201-232 (chapter 8).

Areas of Expertise

19th and 20th Century U.S. History
Canadian History
Indigenous History of North America
Northeast Borderlands History
Tribal Community History

Education

Ph.D., University of 海角社区, 2010
M.A., University of 海角社区, 1999
B.A., University of Delaware, 1996
Portrait of Micah Pawling
Associate Professor of History and Native American Studies