Horace Nelson

Horace Aloysius Nelson (February 16, 1878 – 1962)[1] was an American Penobscot political leader and the father of dancer and actress Molly Spotted Elk (born Mary Alice Nelson).[2]

Horace Nelson
Penobscot Representative to the Maine Legislature
In office
1921–1922
Personal details
Born
Horace Aloysius Nelson

February 16, 1878
Indian Island, Maine, U.S.
Died1962 (aged 84)
ChildrenMolly Spotted Elk
EducationDartmouth College

Early life and education

Nelson was born to Peter "Dindy" Nelson and Mary Francis Mitchell Nelson on Indian Island, a Penobscot reservation near Old Town, Maine. He attended Old Town High School and, at age 22, was the second Penobscot to graduate (after baseball player Louis Sockalexis).[1] He was the first to study at Dartmouth College,[3] graduating around 1904.[4]

Career

Nelson served as the Penobscot Representative in the Maine Legislature from 1921 to 1922 and as the Penobscot governor from 1939 to 1941.[1] In addition to trapping, fishing, and gathering sweet-grass for his wife, Philomene Saulis Nelson (1888–1977), to make baskets from,[4][5] which were standard tasks for Penobscot men, Nelson also contributed to the family household by keeping a vegetable garden and he had a variety of paid jobs such as ferry master to Indian Island, surveyor, security guard, and laborer working for a shipbuilder and a railroad company. Music was his hobby and he occasionally played for the Penobscot Indian Band and encouraged his children to play music.[1]

Sources
  1. McBride, Bunny (1997). Molly Spotted Elk: A Penobscot in Paris. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 14–19, 26–32, 285, 355. ISBN 978-0-8061-2989-1.
  2. "Molly Spotted Elk, From Poverty in Old Town, Maine, to Fame in Paris — and Back". New England Historical Society. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  3. "Mary Alice Nelson Archambaud (Molly Spotted Elk)". Penobscot: Culture & History of the Nation. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  4. Henderson, James S., ed. (2012). "Spotted Elk, Molly". Maine: An Encyclopedia. Harpswell, ME: Publius Research. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  5. Prins, Harald E.L.; McBride, Bunny (2007), "Asticou's Island Domain: Wanbanaki Peoples at Mount Desert Island 1500–2000" (PDF), Acadia National Park Ethnographic Overview & Assessment, Volume 2 (2nd printing ed.), The Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, Maine and Northeast Region Ethnography Program, National Park Service, archived from the original (PDF) on June 23, 2016, retrieved November 28, 2016


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