Joseph Orono (25 November 1688 — 5 February 1801) was a

Penobscot The Penobscot (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewi'') are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic p ...

Indian chief or

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Alg ...

who lived on the

Penobscot River The Penobscot River (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's W ...

in present-day

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

. The town of

Orono, Maine Orono ( ) is a New England town, town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. Located on the Penobscot River, Penobscot and Stillwater River (Maine), Stillwater rivers, it was first settled by Province of Maine, American colonists in 1774. ...

, which contains the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...

, is named for him. By the time Orono was born, the

Penobscot people The Penobscot (Abenaki language, Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewi'') are an Indigenous people in North America from the Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a List of federally recogniz ...

had been in close contact with French Catholic

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

and traders for over a generation, and Orono was himself of mixed ancestry, probably the grandson of

Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie, Baron de Saint-Castin (; 1652–1707) was a French military officer serving in Acadia and an Abenaki chief. He is the father of two prominent sons who were also military leaders in Acadia: Bernard-Anselme and Joseph. He ...

, The 3rd Baron Castin, who had settled at the mouth of the

(the site of the present town of

Castine, Maine Castine ( ) is a town in Hancock County in eastern Maine, United States.; John Faragher. ''Great and Nobel Scheme''. 2005. p. 68. The population was 1,320 at the 2020 census. Castine is the home of Maine Maritime Academy, a four-year institut ...

) in the 1660s. Saint-Castin married the daughter of Penobscot sachem

Madockawando Madockawando (born in Maine c. 1630; died 1698) was a sachem of the Penobscot, an adopted son of ''Assaminasqua,'' whom he succeeded. He led the Penobscot on the side of the French against the English during King William's War. Biography The Pen ...

. In 1774

American colonists The colonial history of the United States covers the period of European colonization of the Americas, European colonization of North America from the late 15th century until the unifying of the Thirteen Colonies, Thirteen British Colonies a ...

founded a village called Stillwater, Maine, just below "Indian Old Town" at the site of a falls. Relations between the colonists and Indians were sufficiently peaceful that, when Stillwater incorporated as a town in 1806, it named itself Orono after the recently deceased Penobscot sachem, who had lived to the age of 112.

References

*Indian Tribes of New England" in Alvan Lamson, Ezra Stiles, et al. ''Christian Examiner and Religious Miscellany'', v. 62 (Boston, 1857), pp. 27–54 (full text accessible through Google Book Search)
Sprague's journal of history of Maine, p. 9
Native American leaders Native American people in the American Revolution People from colonial Massachusetts Penobscot people 1688 births 1738 deaths Orono, Maine People from Hancock County, Maine {{NorthAm-native-bio-stub