The Penobscot are an Indigenous population who have inhabited what is now central Maine for the past 11,000 years. The Penobscot faced dramatic fatality rates through the 16th and 17th centuries as white settler-colonists introduced new diseases and encroached on Penobscot land. Through the late 18th century, the Penobscot ceded the majority of their lands to the US government and were forced to live on the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation, which provides the setting for the majority of Night of the Living Rez. In the 1970s, the Penobscot sued the US government because these land claims were in violation of the Nonintercourse Act, which stated that such land transfers had to be approved by Congress. The resulting Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (referenced in the collection as “the Settlement Act”), gave the tribe a settlement with which they purchased more tribal land.

The Penobscot language, a dialect of Eastern Abenaki, was historically an oral language. The last known fluent speaker of the language died in the 1990s. Efforts have been made to reintroduce the language to Penobscot youth. The written language uses a modified Roman alphabet, with distinct letters added to represent sounds that do not exist in the Roman alphabet.