Jill Breen, interviewed by Pauleena MacDougall

3066 Jill Breen, interviewed by Pauleena MacDougall, September 22, 2002, at the Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine. Breen talks about the choice to move to Troy, Maine, instead of Vermont in 1972; the attraction of organic farming as a way of life; apprenticing on a vegetable farm; moving to St. Albans, Maine; becoming a midwife; financial hardship; apprenticing as a means of learning a trade; the “Birth Tent” at the Common Ground Fair; isolation from the local community in Central Maine; raising children; meeting people in a rural community; operating a booth at the Common Ground Fair; and growing and selling organic melons with husband Peter DeBethune. Text: 15 pp. transcript. Recording: C 2110, CD 2174 30 minutes. mfc_na3066_c2110_01 3067 Theresa Hoffman, interviewed by Anu Dudley, September 20, 2002, at the Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine. Hoffman talks about being a Maine native and member of the Penobscot Tribe; becoming staff geologist for the Penobscot Nation at Indian Island; formation of the corporation of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA) in 1993; an invitation from the folk arts area at the Common Ground Fair to do demonstrations of basketmaking and Native Arts; the Native American Festival at College of the Atlantic; she talks briefly about baskets and traditional arts; MIBA association with the Hudson Museum at the University of Maine; the tools used to make the baskets; some history of basketmaking and signature style of baskets; Hoffman talks about her perspective of MOFGA and its mission; the economic development of basketmaking; the education of the general public about the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Micmac and Maliseet tribes; the association with Folk Arts; the Wabanaki Arts Center Gallery in Old Town, Maine; development of an online website; her favorite memory of the fair being the young drummers. Text: 11 pp. transcript. Recording: C 2111. mfc_na3067_c2111_01