By Barbara A. Walsh of The Maine Monitor.

A Portland parish is currently coming to grips with their history. According to The Maine Monitor, members of the First Unitarian Church in Portland are currently in shock after hearing about the churches founder and longest serving minister, Reverend Thomas Smith.

Back in the 1700’s, Smith organized a posse to go into the woods east of present-day Portland, then known as Falmouth, to hunt and scalp Wabanaki tribesmen. Adjusting for inflation, Smith made about $62,951.31 in “(his) part of scalp money”. Adding insult to injury, Thomas Smith also owned slaves.

The church, which is Portland’s oldest place of worship, said it will not hide the two plaques talking about Thomas Smith, to not hide history. Instead, they’ve brought in Wabanaki tribe members to do some workshops on how native land was taken. For one, participants stood on a large map of Maine, and were slowly squeezed into 3 parts by “settlers”. The church is also helping with collecting food for the Wabanaki, as well as putting up an exhibit acknowledging Thomas Smiths actions and what he did.

Leslie Runer, co-chair of the churches Wabanaki Alliance Team said “I mourn for what my forebears did. I don’t have direct ancestors that were involved but I need to be the one to be responsible now. I need to be the one who says, ‘This isn’t right’ and to work to change the future”.

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This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from the Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here