Old John Neptune

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|name = John Neptune

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|birth_date = 1767

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|death_date = 1865

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|resting_place = Indian Island

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|nationality = Penobscot

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|occupation = vice-chief

|years_active = 1816-1867

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Old John Neptune (Penobscot, (July 22, 1767 – May 8, 1865) was elected Lieutenant-Governor at Indian Island, Old Town, Maine, in 1816, a life-time position. Born into the Eel clan, John had a powerful father, John (Orsong) Neptune, who had been the tribe's war chief. As the most powerful leader of the Penobscot for almost half a century, he was popularly (but incorrectly) known as "the Governor."{{cite book |last1= Prins |first1= Harald E.L.|last2= McBride |first2= Bunny.|title= Asticou's Island Domain: Wabanaki Peoples at Mount Desert Island 1500-2000, Vol.1 |year= 2007 |publisher= National Park Service |location= Boston}} Also feared, he had the reputation of being a medicine man (m'teoulino, in the Penobscot language).{{cite book |last1= Eckstorm |first1= Fannie Hardy |author-link1= Fannie Hardy Eckstorm |title= Old John Neptune and Other Maine Indian Shamans |year= 1945 |publisher= Southworth-Anthoensen Press |location= Portland, Maine |pages= 254–257}}

Shortly after Maine achieved statehood, the areas of the Penobscot and St. John rivers were mapped with important guidance from Penobscot Indian Lt. Gov. John Neptune. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhgfPd0u9T4 Maine State Archive].

In The Maine Woods (1864), writer Henry David Thoreau described an 1853 visit to Neptune at his Old Town home.{{cite book |last1= Thoreau |first1= Henry David |author-link1= Henry David Thoreau |title= The Maine Woods |url= https://archive.org/stream/mainewoods00thorrich/mainewoods00thorrich_djvu.txt|format= Project Gutenberg text |access-date= 10 October 2009 |date= 1864 |isbn= 978-1420927146 |oclc= 437036255 |quote= He told me that he was eighty-nine ; but he was going a-moose-hunting that fall, as he had been the previous one.}}