HAVERHILL, Mass. (AP) – She stands on a hill overlooking the Merrimack River, a fierce look on her stone face and the hatchet she used to scalp her enemies in her right hand.

This is Hannah Dustin, would-be ambassador for a new Haverhill.

A group of residents wants to use Dustin and her brutal story of escape from her Indian captors in 1697, depicted at the base of her downtown statue, as an unofficial symbol of revitalization in the old mill city.

Her story is empowering and she conveys tenacity and an edgy vitality that’s part of a re-emerging Haverhill, said Christine McCarron, a local boutique owner.

Others don’t think Dustin is the right symbol, adding Haverhill has plenty of historical figures without bloodstains to choose from, including the poet John Greenleaf Whittier and the creator of the Archie comic series, Bob Montana.

City Councilor Krystine Hetel said she admires Dustin, but her dark side makes her a difficult choice to “take you by the hand” and show you Haverhill. “She’s taking you by the hand in one hand and she’s got the ax in the other hand,” Hetel said.

Paul Pouliot, a member of the Sandwich-based Abenaki tribe, whose members Dustin killed, said his tribe’s version of the story is vastly different from the Colonial version, with Dustin a murderer and not a victim.

“I don’t think the story was an act of heroism, I think it was more a matter of revenge,” he said. “If you’re going to revitalize a community on that feature, I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do.”

At a Monday meeting, a volunteer group working to bring economic rebirth in the city called Team Haverhill will discuss broadening Haverhill’s promotion of Dustin through new events, such as a race from where Dustin was taken in New Hampshire, or by better tying her to Haverhill’s existing features or activities.

“People are drawn to more violent themes, more macabre themes, especially young people,” said Lynn Murphy, chair of the Haverhill Cultural Council and Team Haverhill member. “You need something to grab their attention.”

A version of the Dustin statue, showing her with a red guitar strapped around her neck, is already being used on posters around downtown Haverhill advertising a rock festival. This week, the City Council is scheduled to consider a resolution to place a real guitar over the statue’s neck.

Cedric H. Dustin Jr., a ninth-generation grandson of Hannah Dustin, said he’d have no problem with Haverhill pushing Dustin a symbol of the city, as long as they’re respectful and remember that while the city owns the statue, her family owns her memory.

“To do things that might poke fun at it or cast aspersions, I might have a different view,” he said.

Haverhill – a city of about 59,000 about 40 miles north of Boston – has a rich history, with Whittier its literary star and its business history highlighted by Louis Mayer, of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who opened his first theater there. The city flourished into the 20th century under a prosperous shoe industry, but when the shoe business collapsed by the 1970s, downtown Haverhill collapsed with it.

The bottom floors of old mill buildings along the Merrimack have since filled with restaurants and retail shops, but many of the top floors remain empty.

Haverhill needs to capitalize on unique features of its history to create a draw through which it can convey a message of opportunity and rebirth, Murray said. Dustin, who brings a lot more pizzaz than someone like Whittier, is the person to focus on, she said.

“It’s a grabber,” she said.

According to the Colonial version of Dustin’s story, she and her nursemaid were captured in a raid and the Indians killed her crying baby to quiet it.

Dustin was taken to New Hampshire where the Indians made camp on a river island near Concord, N.H. Dustin enlisted a 14-year-old boy who been a captive of the Abenaki for 18 months to ask an Indian the best way to kill a person, and how to take off a scalp. The Indian, considering the boy no threat, told him. Dustin, along with the boy and her nursemaid, used the information to kill and scalp 10 Indians.

Dustin escaped by canoe and foot to Haverhill, but only after returning for the 10 Indian scalps, which carried a bounty.

On its face, Pouliot said, the story of a woman killing 10 battle-hardened Indians used to hand-to-hand combat is not believable. According to Abenaki tradition, Dustin had befriended some of their people, but later, for unknown reasons, blamed them for the death of her baby. She incapacitated several by getting them drunk, then slaughtered them with a hatchet.

The popular version of the story was “war propaganda” designed to embolden Colonists, Pouliot said.

Cedric Dustin noted that Dustin told her story to the famous preacher Cotton Mather shortly after it happened.

“It probably was the most reliable (record) you could find,” he said. “Why he would write something like that if it wasn’t true, I don’t know.”

Regardless of which version is believed, it ends with several people dead, and that makes it too serious to take lightly, said Frank Novak, a Haverhill real estate agent and Team Haverhill volunteer. Promote Dustin’s courage and resourcefulness, he said, but pick your spots. For instance, two phrases that originally appeared on the rock festival poster – “You axed for it” and “No scalping” – were inappropriate, he said.

“That’s a lot of blood … to have some levity on,” he said.

Though she’s never been the face of Haverhill, the city has a long history of remembering Dustin in historical and commercial ways. A school, street and a nursing home have been named for her. Commemorative spoons, strawberry forks and whiskey have been made to honor her, said Gregory Laing, curator of the Haverhill library.

Why not promote her story even more, McCarron asked.

“If we don’t want her as an icon,” she said, “we should probably talk about it.”

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On The Net:

Team Haverhill: http://www.teamhaverhill.com/

AP-ES-08-18-06 1546EDT