John Bear Mitchell is a citizen of the Penobscot Nation from Indian Island in Maine. He presently serves as the University of Maine System Office Native American Waiver and Educational Program Coordinator, University of Maine’s Wabanaki Center Outreach and Student Development Coordinator, as well as, a Lecturer of Wabanaki Studies and Multicultural Studies at the University of Maine in Orono which is, like the Penobscot Reservation, just upriver from Bucksport. He has served on numerous museum and educational boards throughout the state with missions based on Maine’s Wabanaki people. In this capacity, he will advise and guide us in the development of a Wabanaki exhibit as we strive to honor the first, present, and future inhabitants of the Penobscot River Valley whose sacred land and water this river and place were prior to the paper mill's location here.

For 15 years John visited schools in Maine as a Maine Touring Artist delivering an Arts in Education program. During that time, he visited over 150 schools. While working his way through college, he toured with the Native American Storytellers of New England. He presented a traditional and contemporary program in Native American Stories and Song. His singing and storytelling can be heard in many Maine PBS, tribal-sponsored awareness videos, independent film, HBO Lionsgate TV, and many documentaries with topics on Maine’s Native People. John Bear is a member of the Penobscot tribe's Bear Clan, grandson of the esteemed late Ted Mitchell who installed the overhead duct work at the paper mill. He is a familiar knowledge keeper and scholar in this region, the State of Maine, through-out New England, and Maritime Canada. "I'm happy to be part of this project!!" he writes.