Historians once thought they could totally reconstruct the past, so as to tell about it as it really was. Happily, few today still believe that is possible, and most instead seek the closest approximation of the past that is currently feasible. Interpreting facts is a relative matter, not an absolute one, and sometimes facts must be recognized as few indeed. Ethnohistorians try to add inputs from the Native perspective (if & when such are known; & shared by the Natives), both to add depth in depicting frontier encounters, and to help verify the written accounts of the Newcomers.
Yet, for the Sebagoland frontier, much of what is now known is really not verifiable currently as facts. And no matter how comforting it may be to keep the old nostrums alive, mere repetition of some of them will not make them the kind of Folklore that can be teamed-up with History for the new-&-better understandings of the Encounter being sought here. In a word, currently our Sebagoland data are weak.
So, in this report, I have presented the most meaningful interpretation of the very limited available data that I can, currently, about Polin & the Presumpscot people. My study of him & them is only a work-in-progress, but at least it is a start. Clearly, Sebagoland had numerous prehistoric Indians, but no one yet can explain in detail the apparent scarcity of resident Native Americans there in the 1600s & 1700s.
Ideally, a professional team of archaeologists, ethnohistorians, folklorists, & historians - with dozens of eager student-assistants - should set up residence in Sebagoland and work continually until all sources of data have been processed thoroughly. In practice, however: Only occasional archaeological work is done there, usually only when-&-where required, in brief contracts, in limited spots; My own ethnohistorical study is only a one-man retirement project; Folklorists & historians seem to become uninterested in the Sebagoland area of the Wabanaki Frontier, after initially visiting the opportunity to research it, as some indeed have done briefly.
Yet this situation may change for the better, maybe even soon. Perhaps my smoke-signals here will be seen by some others who can & will help supply additional data for an eventually fuller interpretation. I certainly hope so; such help would be very welcome indeed.
In this situation of scarcity of professional
attention, the need increases for amateurs teaming-up with professionals.
Archaeological research by law requires professional control - but amateurs
frequently alert professionals to new sites in need of investigation,
and often can assist at a dig, & in the lab afterward. If you know of
an uninvestigated archaeological site in Sebagoland, I can get you in contact
with an archaeologist, if you will contact me. All three of the other disciplines
just mentioned (ethnohistory, folklore, & history) also often start
new research with amateur alerts & interviews. So, if you have family-traditions
about encounters with Sebagoland's Historic-Period Native Americans, I would
very much welcome hearing from you. [SEE NOTE 
11]
As a self-test of where your input(s) might fit in, please
try to figure out
(by using NOTES 3
| 4
| 6
& 7
herein)
what category/ies your information represent(s). Our common goal should be
to try to get Chief Polin & the Presumpscot people out of the hearsay-shadows
into documentable-substance - or at least to enlighten those shadows to the
utmost extent that we possibly can*.
**Herbert G Jones (1946): Sebago Lake Land In History, Legend, & Romance. Freeport ME: Bond Wheelwright Co. This book is only a tertiary-source, for reasons I have described in NOTE 4. For the Noble-Savage idea, see NOTE 8. Heartbroken Minnehaha (Jones calls her Polin's daughter) appears on Jones' page 23. (Read it and weep, but not just with Minnehaha - more so for History!)
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