Mary Mitchell Gabriel
{{short description|American basketmaker}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Mary Mitchell Gabriel
| image = MaryMitchellGabriel1993.png
| alt = An older Native American woman with grey set hair, wearing glasses
| caption = Mary Mitchell Gabriel, from a 1993 newspaper
| other_names =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = November 12, 1908
| birth_place = Princeton, Maine
| death_date = July 10, 2004 (aged 95)
| death_place = Indian Township, Maine
| occupation = Artist
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
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}}
Margaret Mary Mitchell Gabriel (November 12, 1908 – July 10, 2004) was a Passamaquoddy basket maker from Maine. She was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship in 1994.
Early life
Mary Mitchell was born on the Passamaquoddy reservation near Princeton, Maine,{{Cite news |last=Anstead |first=Alicia |date=1994-06-02 |title=Decades of artistry recognized by NEA |pages=11, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106874429/princeton-woman-gets-national/ 12] |work=The Bangor Daily News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106874573/decades-of-artistry-recognized-by/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |via=Newspapers.com}} the daughter of Joseph Mitchell and Margaret Mell Mitchell. She and her sisters were raised by their grandparents, and learned Passamaquoddy traditions of making baskets of sweetgrass and ash splints from their mother and grandmother.{{Cite web |title=Mary Mitchell Gabriel |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/mary-mitchell-gabriel |access-date=2022-08-02 |website=National Endowment for the Arts |language=en}}{{Cite book |last1=Congdon |first1=Kristin G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MYUuFDEHmlsC&dq=Mary+Gabriel+baskets&pg=PA47 |title=American Folk Art: A Regional Reference |last2=Hallmark |first2=Kara Kelley |date=2012 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-34936-2 |pages=47–48 |language=en}}
Career
Gabriel worked at the Emple Knitting Mill in Brewer, Maine. She moved back to Princeton when she received money from the Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement, and made and sold her baskets there. "Every person who looks at my basket asks, 'How long did it take you to make this?'" she said in 1995. "You could say forever", she answered.{{Cite news |last=Zimet |first=Abby |date=1995-07-16 |title=Basketmakers' Lament |pages=17, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106871446/basketmakers-lament-continuedabby/ 32]; quote on 32 |work=Portland Press Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106871787/basketmakers-lamentabby-zimet/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |via=Newspapers.com}}
In 1993 she won the Maine Arts Commission's Individual Artist Award,{{Cite news |date=1993-02-20 |title=Artist wins fellowshp from state |pages=11 |work=The Bangor Daily News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106872728/artist-wins-fellowshp-from-state/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |via=Newspapers.com}} and she was one of the founders of the Maine Indian Basket Makers Alliance. In 1994, she was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Maryann Hartman Award from the University of Maine. At the Hartman Awards ceremony, she delivered her acceptance speech in Passamaquoddy.{{Cite news |date=1994-10-22 |title=UMaine to Present Hartman Awards |pages=11 |work=Sun-Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106872849/umaine-to-present-hartman-awards/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |via=Newspapers.com}} The Center for the Study of Lives at the University of Southern Maine made a documentary, "Gabriel Women: Passamaquoddy Basketmakers" (1999), about Mary Gabriel and her daughters Sylvia{{Cite news |last=Dolloff |first=Aimee |date=2003-09-09 |title=Basket master Gabriel dies at 73 |pages=19 |work=The Bangor Daily News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106872130/basket-master-gabriel-dies-at-73aimee/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |via=Newspapers.com}} and Clare.{{Cite web |date=1999 |title=Gabriel Women: Passamaquoddy Basketmakers |url=https://oldfilm.org/content/gabriel-women-passamaquoddy-basketmakers |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=Northeast Historic Film}}{{Cite web |last=Senator Susan Collins |first=Senator Tom Allen |date=2000 |title=Wabanaki Basketry |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/legacies/loc.afc.afc-legacies.200003129/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=Library of Congress: Local Legacies}}
Personal life and legacy
Mitchell married Simon Anthony Gabriel. She had seven children. She died in 2004, aged 95 years, at her home in Indian Township, Maine.{{Cite web |date=2004-07-14 |title=Passamaquoddy basket maker dies |url=https://www.sunjournal.com/2004/07/14/passamaquoddy-basket-maker-dies/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=Lewiston Sun Journal}} Her baskets are in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Abbe Museum,{{Cite web |last=Clark |first=Julia |date=March 18, 2011 |title=The Gabriel Women: A Family Tradition |url=https://www.abbemuseum.org/blog/2011/03/gabriel-women-family-tradition.html |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=Abbe Museum |language=en-US}} the Hudson Museum,{{Cite news |last=Higgins |first=A. Jay |date=1995-12-14 |title=Neat Stuff |pages=21 |work=The Bangor Daily News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106871946/neat-stuffa-jay-higgins/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |via=Newspapers.com}} and the Bangor International Airport.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2008-09-25 |title=Margaret Mary (Mitchell) Gabriel |url=http://www.bangordailynews.com/2008/09/25/obituaries/margaret-mary-mitchell-gabriel/ |access-date=2022-08-02 |website=Bangor Daily News |language=en-US}} Her daughter Deborah Gabriel Brooks's Sweetgrass Basketry continues producing baskets based on Gabriel's teachings.{{Cite web |title=About Us |url=https://sweetgrassbasketry.org/about-us/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=Sweetgrass Basketry |language=en-US}}
References
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Category:People from Washington County, Maine
Category:Native American women artists
Category:Native American basket weavers
Category:20th-century American women artists