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The trail leads sometimes leisurely, sometimes hurriedly through many departments, and divisions of government; the Treasury, the State, the land office, the Forestry, Education, and now to the Department of Social Welfare, which was given general supervision over the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Tribes by Act of Legislature, March 28, 1933. Then, there are the legislative records, judicial decision, reports and communications of the several agents from the field, and the records of the Sisters of Mercy, who for long years have ministered to the cultural and Spiritual needs of the tribes. While above all, and approving all, are the records of the Governor and his Council. The search, interesting in itself, takes on an added fascination when one realizes that it is linked with the very heart-blood of a people, with their future, and even perhaps, their very existence as such, itself.

The project to end July 1st., will be still in the first phase of the undertaking, that of unearthing the material. There are fair indications that the survey of the Council records, some 166 manuscript volumes, approximating 40,000 pages, can be completed by this time. Much scattered gathering had also been done on accessible printed documents found in the State Library. At the end of this period, July 1st., there will still remain of the unearthing phase; the finishing of various documentary sources in the library, and annotating of 90 years of Council reports, 60 years of which are filed in boxes in the top of a large two story vault. These reports containing