Geo Soctomah Neptune

Geo Soctomah Neptune is a Passamaquoddy Two-Spirit, master basket maker, activist, storyteller, model, and educator from Indian Township, Maine. Neptune uses they/them pronouns.

Geo Neptune
Niskapisuwin
Born	1988 (age 32–33)
Nationality	American, Passamaquoddy Tribe
Education	Indian Township School, Gould Academy, Dartmouth College
Known for	black-ash basketry, Indigenous rights activism, Drag performance
Elected	Indian Township School Board

After graduating from Gould Academy and earning a theater degree from Dartmouth College, Neptune felt an intuitive pull to return home. Neptune changed their plans of becoming an actor in New York City and instead volunteered at reservation schools, embracing customary basket making techniques that were taught to them by their grandmother, Molly Neptune Parker, a Passamaquoddy elder and master basket weaver. Neptune began making baskets with their grandmother Neptune Parker when they were just four years old.[1]

At four years old, Geo was already asking their grandmother Molly Neptune Parker to teach them how to weave baskets. She told them to wait till they were older. So Geo found another elder that would teach them, then they showed my grandmother their first completed basket. Later that year, after they turned five years old, Geo wove their first basket with their grandmother. That began a lifelong apprenticeship. Geo experimented with their family's signature woven flowers mixed with natural elements of twigs and branches, they began forming what would eventually be known as their signature sculptural style of whimsical, elegant, traditionally-informed basketmaking. Passamaquoddy baskets have been made from a variety of materials including birch, basswood, maple, spruce, and cedar, it is brown ash, also known as black ash, that figures most prominently in basketry today. Prior to European contact, the Passamaquoddy people in Maine were hunters and gatherers, who moved seasonally and utilized bark, wood, and tree roots from the forests along with aromatic sweetgrass and cattails from the coastal wetlands to craft utilitarian bags, boxes, and other containers. But European colonization and economic hardship spawned a new tradition, “fancy baskets,” which were decorative in nature and marketed to white tourists. Typically, men would make the utility baskets and women would make fancy baskets. For Geo, weaving baskets with my grandmother and the women of their tribe was a sacred thing, a crucial first step in understanding their[2] identity as Two Spirit.

When an international movement for native rights emerged in Canada and spread worldwide called Idle-No-More, Neptune found their calling as an advocate against government abuse of Native people and lands.[3][4][5][6]

In 2018, they created a video for the publication Them to educate readers about the meaning of Two-spirit.[7] In September 2020, Neptune became the first openly transgender elected official in Maine after getting elected for school board in Indian Township, and the first Two-spirit person to run for any office for the state at large.[8][9][10] In their role on the school board, Neptune hopes to "increase student and teacher access to Passamaquoddy culture and ceremonial teachings, and work towards revitalising [sic] the native language."[11]