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89-641: The Nashaway's principal settlement was Waushacum (possibly meaning "surface of the sea"), a parcel of land in what is now Sterling that was located between two ponds of the same name. The territory of the Nashaway was bounded downstream (to the north) on the Nashua River by the Pennacook , a powerful tribe with which numerous alliances were formed, to the east by tribes related to the Massachusett , to

178-650: A family would. The age rank was based on the tribes proximity to the Caughnawaga Council, with the Penobscots being the closest. Before the massacre of the Norridgewock and the slow abandonment of their settlements and integration into their neighbor tribes, they were once seen as an older brother to the Penobscot. This system was not seen as something indicating superiority per se, but rather

267-455: A formal "grandchief" or single leader of the whole confederacy, and thus never had a single seat of government . Though Madockawando was treated as such in the Treaty of Casco, and his descendants such as Wabanaki Lieutenant-Governor John Neptune would maintain an elevated status in the confederacy, both officially had the same amount of power as any other sakom. This would continue throughout

356-462: A great fence; and in addition they put in the center a great wigwam within the fence; and also they made a whip and placed it with their father. Then whoever disobeyed him would be whipped. Whichever of his children was within the fence - all of them had to obey him. And he always had to kindle their great fire, so that it would not burn out. This is where the Wampum Laws originated. That fence was

445-472: A military advantage over English colonists from New England , but he decided to make peace with them rather than lose more of his people through warfare. They were caught up in King Philip's War , however, and lost more members. Although Wonalancet , the chief who succeeded Passaconaway, tried to maintain neutrality in the war, bands of Pennacook in western Massachusetts did not. After King Philip's War,

534-759: A number of ways but is most often translated into "Dawnland". The political union of the Wabanaki Confederacy was known by many names, but it is remembered as "Wabanaki" , which shares a common etymological origin with the name of the "Abenaki" people. All Abenaki are Wabanaki, but not all Wabanaki are Abenaki. The name of the political union during the time it existed had gone by other names both shared and unique to its members. The Mi'kmaq, Passamaquoddy, and Wolastoqey called it Buduswagan which translates into "convention council." The Passamaquoddy also had their own unique name being Tolakutinaya which translates into "be related to one another." Finally,

623-594: A positive encounter on Pemetic, meeting with sakom (title for community leaders) Asticou in his and his peoples' summer village. Asticou was a sakom with regional power over the eastern door of Mawooshen. He was subsidiary to sakom Bashaba, who led the entire Mawooshen Confederacy. Champlain went upriver to the Passamaquoddy, where he established another post at present-day Saint Croix Island, Maine . The French colonial region known as Acadia developed on existing tribal territory. The ethnic French of Acadia and

712-449: A sakom died, newly elected sakoms would be confirmed by allied Wabanaki tribes who would visit following a year of mourning in the village. An event to appoint a new sakom, known as a Nská'wehadin or "assembly", could last several weeks. Tribes had a lot of autonomy, but they built a culture which normalized being involved in each other's political affairs to help maintain unity and cooperation. This event would continue until 1861 when

801-458: A sakom was part of also had a "kinship" status, being that they are brothers some members were older and younger. The lack of a single centralized capital complemented the Wabanaki government style, as sakoms were able to shift their political influence to any part of the nation that needed it. This could mean bringing leadership near or away from conflict zones. When a formal internal agreement

890-573: A significant role as a political hub—for the future Wabanaki Confederacy, for example. In 1500, Portuguese explorer Gaspar Corte-Real reached Wabanaki lands. He captured and enslaved at least 57 people from modern-day Newfoundland and Nova Scotia , selling them in Europe to help finance his trip. The rich fishing waters full of cod in and around the Gulf of Saint Lawrence attracted many Europeans to this area. By 1504 French Bretons were fishing off

979-519: A single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Iroquois turned and fled. This action set the tone for poor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century, with conflicts arising over territory and the beaver trade. The next year the Battle of Sorel started on 19 June 1610. Champlain had convinced some tribes to fight in the war, amongst them was Wendat , Algonquin and Innu peoples, with some French regulars. They fought against

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1068-416: A successful guerrilla war for the following two decades, never being caught, and successfully deterring settlers entering his lands. Kinship metaphors like "Brother", "Father", or "Uncle" in their original linguistic context were much more complex than when they were when translated into English or French. Such terms were used to understand the status and role of a diplomatic relationship. For instance, for

1157-569: A threat to the sovereignty of Indigenous nations and part of a larger pattern of settler self-indigenization. William James Sidis hypothesized in his book The Tribes and the States (1935) that the Pennacook tribes greatly influenced the democratic ideals which European settlers instituted in New England. The Boy Scouts of America 's Boston -based Spirit of Adventure Council adopted

1246-558: A way to perceive a relationship in a manner that reflected the cultural norms of the Wabanaki. When the Wabanaki called the French Canadian governor and King of France "our father", it was a relationship built upon a sense of respect and protective care that reflected a Wabanaki father-son relationship. This was not well understood by diplomats from France and England who did not live with the peoples, seeing such terms as acknowledgment of subservience. Miscommunication over these terms

1335-712: The Gaspé Bay . These are now believed to have been independent of the Five Nations of Iroquois that developed the Iroquois League further south. By the early 1600s, the St. Lawrence Iroquoian villages were abandoned. Historians now believe they may have been defeated by the Mohawk in competition over hunting. They may also have been defeated by Algonquins from further east in the St. Lawrence Valley. Cartier traded with

1424-555: The Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River region. By the 1660s, tribes of Western Abenaki peoples as far south as Massachusetts had joined the league. This defensive alliance would not only prove to be successful, but it helped repair the relationship among the Eastern Algonquians, promoting greater political cooperation in the coming decades. This growing tension with two large and organized political adversaries,

1513-546: The Mohawk people at present-day Sorel-Tracy , Quebec . Champlain's forces were armed with the arquebus . After engaging their opponent, they slaughtered or captured nearly all of the Mohawk. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawk for twenty years. In and around this time, more French arrived as traders in Nova Scotia. The French migrants formed settlements such as Port-Royal . At many of these settlements,

1602-577: The Odanak First Nation , an Abenaki government in Canada. Several groups in present-day Vermont claim to be Pennacook bands. The Odanak Abenaki Band Council has denounced them. Contemporary scholarship indicates that most members of such groups have a single Indigenous ancestor many generations removed or no Indigenous ancestry at all. Indigenous activists and their allies strongly critique this phenomenon, sometimes called race-shifting, as

1691-537: The Treaty of Casco , which forced all the tribes to recognize the property rights of English colonists in southern Maine. In return, English colonists recognized "Wabanaki" sovereignty by committing themselves to pay Madockawando , as a "grandchief" of the Wabanaki alliance, a symbolic annual fee of "a peck of corn for every English Family." They also recognized the Saco River as the border. The Caughnawaga Council

1780-533: The Alemousiski would soon come into permanent contact with English settlers moving into Massachusetts , as well as their lands in southern Maine under the colonizing efforts of people directed by Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason, respectively. Pannaway Plantation near modern-day Kittery, Maine would both be founded in 1623. Originally founded as fishing and lumber villages, over the decades they developed larger economies and became major population centers in

1869-465: The Confederacy, often being older men who were called nebáulinowak or "riddle men." "They have reproached me a hundred times because we fear our Captains, while they laugh at and make sport of theirs. All the authority of their chief is in his tongue's end; for he is powerful in so far as he is eloquent; and even if he kills himself talking and haranguing he will not be obeyed unless he please

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1958-753: The Confederation. Native tribes such as the Norridgewock , Alemousiski, Pennacook, Sokoki, and Canibas , through massacres, tribal consolidation, and ethnic label shifting were absorbed into the five larger national identities. Members of the Wabanaki Confederacy, the Wabanaki , are located in and named for the area which they call Wabanakik ("Dawnland"), roughly the area that became the French colony of Acadia . The territory boundaries encompass present-day Maine , New Hampshire , and Vermont , in

2047-524: The French fur trading site of Tadoussac in 1599. During one of his trips back in 1603 he would bring Samuel de Champlain with him, and he would lead to a new era of Wabanaki/French relationships. When Champlain established contact during an expedition to the Mawooshen in Pesamkuk (present-day Mount Desert Island , Maine) in 1604, he noted that the people had quite a few European goods. Champlain had

2136-563: The French traded weapons and other European goods to the local Mi'kmaq . The influx of European goods changed the social and economic landscape, as local tribes became more dependent on European goods. This new economic reality harmed their existing kinship ties among clans and reduced the reciprocal exchange that had supported the local economy . Subsistence hunting shifted into a competition for animals like beaver and for access to European settlements. Population movements, and intraband and interband disputes were affected. Allied with

2225-467: The Haudenosaunee. In the Wabanaki context, such terms indicated concepts like the Penobscot looking out for the well-being of the younger brothers, while younger brothers would support and respect the wisdom of an older brother. The idea of being related helped establish unity and cooperation in Wabanaki culture, using family as a metaphor to overcome factionalism and to quell internal conflicts like

2314-527: The Iroquois and especially English colonists, over the next 20 years would lead to an Algonquian uprising during King Philip's War (1675-1676), followed by the First Abenaki War (1675-1678). Soon after the many Algonquian tribes fought together in an effort to strengthen both defensive and diplomatic power, a push to make a formal political union would take place leading to the development of

2403-536: The Merrimack Valley and its tributaries like the Souhegan, Piscataquog, and Suncook, would have been densely populated, the environment carefully maintained. David Stewart-Smith (1998:19) estimated that the Merrimack Valley had 8,000–25,000 people before the epidemics, with a median of around 16,500 for the central area around Pennacook. The major and permanent Pennacook towns and villages were built along

2492-618: The Merrimack. Many Pennacook villages were built just above natural waterfalls that trapped fish and made it easier to catch them in the late spring. Fiddlehead season would be followed by others still known today, like blueberry and raspberry seasons. During the summers, families would disperse to summer villages and hunting camps. Women did most of the work of building and maintaining homes as well as farming. Their main crops were varieties of maize/corn and squash, which they planted along rivers and in meadows. While they found it difficult to clear

2581-626: The Mi'kmaq, and returned to France with furs of North American animals such as beaver, which became high-demand items. Cartier brought back numerous goods from the First Nations from his three trips to the St. Lawrence, but the furs had the greatest demand. French colonists went to the area to work in what became the North American fur trade . More Europeans entered Wabanaki lands over the coming decades, where they started as traders to meet

2670-542: The Miꞌkmaq in the Wabanaki Confederacy. In 1715 the Miꞌkmaq attacked fishing vessels off Sable Island . The Miꞌkmaq declared "the Lands are [ours] and [we] can make War and peace when [we] please". The Wabanaki Confederacy did not fight under the leadership of a commander, but nevertheless implemented a strategy that was aimed to clear their land of intruders. Between 1722 and 1724 the Penobscot attacked Fort St. George four times,

2759-847: The Nashaway is not known. The remnants of the tribe fled the area and merged with other tribes, such as the Pennacook or the Nipmuc proper, intermarrying. The Nashaway tribe is now extinct, although their descendants live among the Native Americans. Many of the Nashaway died while exiled on Deer Island in Boston Harbor. Their descendants can be found among the Abenaki of Canada or the Schaghticoke of Connecticut and New York and other tribes. The Nashaway have left their imprint in many hydronyms and topographical features, such as

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2848-591: The Penobscot would interchangeably call it either Bezegowak or Gizangowak which can be translated into "those united into one" and "completely united" respectively. Small-scale confederacies in and around what would become the Wabanaki Confederacy were common at the time of post- Viking European contact. The earliest known confederacy was the Mawooshen Confederacy located within the historic Eastern Penobscot cultural region. Its capital, Kadesquit , located around modern Bangor, Maine , would play

2937-672: The Portuguese side of the Inter caetera , entitling them to the land. Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes attempted to establish the first European colony in Wabanaki lands in 1525. He brought families totaling almost 200 people, mostly from the Azores , and founded a fishing settlement in Cape Breton, within Mi'kmaq territory. The settlement lasted at least until 1570, as fishing ships brought news of them back to Europe. The fate of

3026-542: The Sholan area of Leominster, the city and river known by "Nashua", and Mount Wachusett. During King Philip's War, the Nashaway sachem (chief) Monoco kidnapped a Lancaster villager, Mary Rowlandson . She later wrote a best-selling narrative about her captivity, forced journey from Lancaster northwest to the Connecticut River, and eventual release at Redemption Rock in present-day Princeton, Massachusetts. It

3115-590: The United States, and New Brunswick , mainland Nova Scotia , Cape Breton Island , Prince Edward Island and some of Quebec south of the St. Lawrence River , Anticosti , and Newfoundland in Canada. The word Wabanaki is derived from the Algonquian root word "wab" , combined with the word for "land", being "aki" . "Wab" is a root that is used for the following concepts: Waban-aki can be translated into

3204-539: The Wabanaki Confederacy stretches from Newfoundland, Canada , to Massachusetts, United States . Members of the Wabanaki Confederacy participated in these seven major wars: During this period, their population was radically decimated due to many decades of warfare , but also because of famines and devastating epidemics of infectious disease . The number of European settlers increased from about 300 in 1650 to about 6,650 in 1750. European diseases such as smallpox and measles were introduced. The Mi'kmaq were among

3293-632: The Wabanaki Confederacy. The First Abenaki War saw native peoples throughout the Eastern Algonquian lands face a common and powerful enemy, encroaching English colonists. The fighting led to large-scale depopulation of English colonial settlements north of the Saco River in the district of Maine , while Wabanaki people south of the river like the Armouchiquois, would be forced from their ancestral lands. The political situation

3382-615: The Wabanaki ever saw themselves as subservient to the Ottawa in any way, this was the same with the French. The Ottawa were largely seen as a form of third party political oversight. Members of the Wabanaki Confederacy were the: Nations in the Confederacy also allied with the Innu of Nitassinan , the Algonquin people and with the Iroquoian -speaking Wyandot people . The homeland of

3471-844: The Wabanakis attacked British colonial settlements along Kennebec River , while western Maine was attacked by the Pigwacket and the Ammoscocongon. The Wabanaki Confederacy destroyed the Brunswick settlement as well as other British colonial settlements on the banks of the Androscoggin River . Prior to the Expulsion of the Acadians (1755–1764), the Acadians living in Nova Scotia largely refused to swear allegiance to

3560-638: The Wolastoquiyik (Maleseet) and Passamaquoddy, the Mi'kmaq fought with their Western Mawooshen (Western Abenaki/Penobscot) neighbors for goods as trading relations broke down. This power imbalance resulted in war starting around 1607. In 1615 the Mi'kmaq and their allies killed the Mawooshen Grand Chief Bashabas in his village. War was costly for the Mi'kmaq and their allies, but especially for their southern Abenaki/Penobscot adversaries. Many Abenaki villages faced great losses from

3649-407: The [Indians]." Wabanaki sakoms held regular conventions at their various "council fires" (seats of government) whenever there was a need to call each other together. In a council fire, they would sit in a large rectangle with all members facing each other. Each sakom member would have a chance to speak and be listened to, with the understanding that they would do the same for the others. Each tribe

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3738-430: The area near Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York (historians dispute the site), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois (likely mostly Mohawk , the easternmost nation). In a battle that began the next day, 250 Iroquois advanced on Champlain's position, and one of his guides pointed out the three chiefs. In his account of the battle, Champlain recounts firing his arquebus and killing two of them with

3827-491: The children of Pawtucket Bashaba Nanepashemet in the 17th century. Because decisions to ally and become a part of such alliances were largely in the hands of the leaders of individual bands, the membership of these confederations and alliances fluctuated regularly. Pennacook people were semi-sedentary. Families and bands had permanent claims to territory, and their hierarchical political structure from locally representative sagamores to more regionally representative sachems

3916-545: The coast of Nova Scotia. Norman fishermen began to arrive around 1507, and they too would start kidnapping people from the surrounding land. This would hurt relations with some tribes. But the fishermen also started slowly introducing European trade goods to the Wabanaki, returning to Europe with North American trade goods. After the establishment of the Treaty of Tordesillas by which Catholic Europe established spheres of influence for exploration, Portuguese explorers commonly believed that Newfoundland and Wabanaki lands were on

4005-569: The colonists of New England enslaved some Pennacook captives. Some joined the Schaghticoke . Other Pennacooks fled to the Hudson Valley and on to Quebec . North-bound refugees eventually merged with other member tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy. In the north, some Pennacook merged into the Pigwacket people, an Abenaki group. Gordon M. Day suggested that Pennacook moved north to Odanak Reserve in Quebec, and their descendants belong to

4094-430: The confederacy agreement....There would be no arguing with one another again. They had to live like brothers and sisters who had the same parent....And their parent, he was the great chief at Caughnawaga. And the fence and the whip were the Wampum Laws. Whoever disobeyed them, the tribes together had to watch him. The Wabanaki Confederacy were governed by a council of elected sakoms, tribal leaders who were frequently also

4183-417: The confederacy. Wampum belts called gelusewa'ngan , meaning "speech", played an important role in maintaining Wabanaki political institutions. One of the last keepers of the "Wampum Record" and one of the last Wabanaki/Passamaquoddy delegates to go to Caughnawaga was Sepiel Selmo. Keepers of the wampum record were called putuwosuwin which involved a mix of oral history with understanding the context behind

4272-481: The entire history of the Wabanaki, as the confederacy remained decentralized so as to never give more power to any of the member tribes. This meant that all major decisions had to be thoroughly debated by sakoms at council fires, which created a strong political culture empowering the best debaters. The four/fourteen tribes were not completely independent from each other. Not only was it possible for sanctions to be placed on each other for creating problems, but also when

4361-603: The event that took place at the Caughnawaga Council that led to the formation of the Wabanaki Confederacy. Silently they sat for seven days. Everyday, no one spoke. That was called, "The Wigwam is Silent." Every councilor had to think about what he was going to say when they made the laws. All of them thought about how the fighting could be stopped. Next they opened up the wigwam. It was now called "Every One of Them Talks." And during that time they began their council....When all had finished talking, they decided to make

4450-401: The first tribes to establish trade with European settlers and helped to establish a barter system along the coast. Settlers and natives communicated in a language that mixed French and Mikmawisimk . The Miꞌkmaq traded beaver , otter , marten , seal , moose , and deer furs with European settlers. The French missionary Chrestien Le Clercq complained that "they ridicule and laugh at

4539-490: The fledgling economy. By the 1640s, internal conflicts within the region started to make Iroquois advances harder to combat for what would become the Wabanaki peoples, but also the Algonquian (tribe west of Quebec City), the Innu , and French to manage separately. Aided by French Jesuits , this led to the formation of a large Algonquian league against the Iroquois, who were making significant territorial land gains around

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4628-696: The founding of a Jesuit mission in 1613 in the present-day location on Somes Sound , Maine. The following year the mission village was destroyed by Captain Samuel Argall during a resupply visit to nearby English fishing outposts. French and English colonists would long compete for territory in North America. In the same year, Captain Thomas Hunt kidnapped 27 people from present-day Massachusetts to sell as slaves in Spain. The famous Tisquantum

4717-429: The governors of the drainage basin their village was built on. Sakoms themselves were more of respected listeners and debaters than simply rulers. Wabanaki politics was fundamentally rooted on reaching a consensus on issues, often after much debate. Sakoms frequently used stylized metaphorical speech at council fires, trying to win over others sakoms. Sakoms who were skilled at debate often became quite influential in

4806-443: The growing fur demand in Europe. The French established permanent trading operations with the Wabanaki around 1581 to obtain furs. Henry III of France granted a fur monopoly to French merchants in 1588. This would lead to the desire for the French to establish permanent trade posts in and around Wabanaki lands for furs. French fur traders like François Gravé Du Pont would often travel to Wabanaki lands to obtain furs, establishing

4895-598: The hill." Historian David Stewart-Smith suggests that the Penacook were Central Abenaki people. Their southern neighbors were the Massachusett and Wampanoag . Pennacook territory bordered the Connecticut River in the West, Lake Winnipesauke in the north, the Piscataqua to the east, and the villages of the closely allied Pawtucket confederation along the southern Merrimack River to the south. The Pennacook homeland

4984-411: The interior posed a problem for John Eliot , as the tribes were too far to visit and the area was still very much a frontier region. At the time of the first visits by John Prescott, the minister appointed to the tribe by the colony, power had been passed from Sachem Nashawhonan (Sholan) to Nanomocomuck ( Monoco ), a Pennacook chieftain descended from Passaconaway . Court records indicate that this sachem

5073-554: The last Nská'wehadin was held in Old Town, Maine , shortly before the end of the confederacy. Occasionally some sakoms were known to ignore the will of the confederacy, most often the case for tribes on the border of European powers who had the most to lose during peace after war. Gray Lock , who was among the most successful wartime Wabanaki sakoms, refused to make peace after the 1722-1726 Dummer's War , given that his Vermont lands were being settled by English colonists. He would hold

5162-547: The late fall before families returned to the more permanent winter camps to wait out the long winter. In addition to being farmers, hunters, and foragers, it is important to remember that the Pennacook and the peoples of the Merrimack River Valley were also long-distance traders, and their major towns of Pennacook and Amoskeag drew people from around the region in the late spring and summers. For more, see Michael Caduto's 2004 book, A Time Before New Hampshire and

5251-441: The major rivers, and many were on the east side of the Merrimack, ostensibly for protection from the west. Life revolved around the seasons, and spring would begin with women collecting maple sap to make maple sugar. Men would return to hunting grounds and burn their grounds to turn over nutrients in the soils for later cultivation. In late spring the rivers and creeks would swell as the great fish like salmon and shad made their way up

5340-424: The massive old-growth trees, the Pennacook were experts at manipulating beavers to move their dams and ponds up and down creeks and brooks, thereby clearing and opening up land for farms that would be essential to the first Europeans who arrived and found cleared fields ready for cultivation. Many of these fields were scattered with the bones of the Pennacook who had recently died of smallpox or other diseases. The fall

5429-589: The most sumptuous and magnificent of our buildings". In 1711 the Acadians joined the Wabanaki Confederacy, when Fort Anne was besieged. The British proceeded to raid the coastal settlements, demanding an oath of allegiance from the Acadians. When British settlers encroached on the territory of the Abenaki , Penobscot , and the Passamaquoddy , these First Nations joined the Wolastoqiyik and

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5518-526: The name "Pennacook" for its Order of the Arrow lodge. Wabanaki Confederacy The Wabanaki Confederacy ( Wabenaki, Wobanaki , translated to "People of the Dawn" or "Easterner"; also: Wabanakia , "Dawnland" ) is a North American First Nations and Native American confederation of five principal Eastern Algonquian nations: the Abenaki of St. Francis , Mi'kmaq , Wolastoqiyik , Passamaquoddy ( Peskotomahkati ) and Penobscot . There were more tribes, along with many bands, that were once part of

5607-406: The other tribes in the Wabanaki the Penobscot were called the ksés'i'zena or "our elder brother". The Passamaquoddy, Wolastoqiyik, and Mi'kmaq in this order of "age" were called ndo'kani'mi'zena or "our younger brother". The Wolastoqiyik referred to the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy as ksés'i'zena and the Mi'kmaq as ndo'kani'mi'zena . Concepts like this were also found in other confederacies like

5696-470: The other's villages along with organizing inter-tribal marriages, and a large-scale defensive alliance to fend off attacks in their now shared territory. Madockawando for instance would later move from Penobscot lands to Wolastoqey lands, living in their political hub of Meductic until his death. These events would lead to the formal creation of what is now called the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Passamaquoddy wampum record or Wapapi Akonutomakonol tells about

5785-457: The peoples of Wabanaki coexisted in the same territory with independent, yet allied governments. Champlain continued to establish settlements throughout Wabanaki territory, including Saint John (1604) and Quebec City (1608), among others. The trade and military relations between the French and the local Algonquin tribes, including the Mawooshen and later Wabanaki, lasted until the end of the French and Indian/Seven Years' War . Asticou approved

5874-401: The placement of wampum on the belts. Wampum shells arranged on strings in such a manner, that certain combinations suggested certain sentences or certain ideas to the narrator, who, of course, knew his record by heart and was merely aided by the association of the shell combinations in his mind with incidents of the tale or record which he was rendering. What was not recorded through wampum

5963-432: The role of wampum council conduct being a major example. This political unit allowed for the safe passage of people through each of their territories (including camping and subsisting on the land), safer trade networks from the western agricultural centers to the eastern gathering economies (copper/pelts) through non-aggression pacts and sharing natural resources from their respected habitats, freedom to move to each and any of

6052-422: The settlement is unknown, but the people would have interacted with the local Mi'kmaq. Throughout the 1500s, Wabanaki people encountered many European fishermen along with explorers looking for the Northwest Passage. They were at risk of being captured and enslaved. For instance, Portuguese explorer Estevan Gomez reached Wabanaki lands in 1525, kidnapping a few dozen people and taking them back to Spain, where he

6141-515: The short-lived Popham Colony (1607–1608), who hoped to establish good relations with the local peoples by returning Tahánedo, but local tribes were uneasy about the English colony. In 2020 journalist Avery Yale Kamila wrote that the account of the Weymouth voyage has culinary significance because it "is the first time a European recorded the Native American use of nut milks and nut butters." Champlain forged strong French relations with Algonquin tribes up until his death in 1635. Somewhere in

6230-417: The south of the headwaters by Nipmuc bands and to the west by the Connecticut River where the Pocomtuc settled. The first reports of the peoples of Massachusetts' interior were scant. The subdivisions had their own sachems (leaders) and functioned independently of each other. Although they shared a similar L-dialect and other common customs, very little evidence is shown of any confederation except for

6319-428: The various skirmishes with English colonists that ultimately led to King Philip's War . The bands made alliances and were possibly confederated with the Pennacook . In 1643 Nashaway leader Sholan deeded a large tract of land to the early settlers who formed the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts (Nashaway Plantation), which was followed by further deeds in Sterling by his nephew George Tahanto in 1701. The tribes of

6408-496: The war. The war was then followed by a pandemic known as "The Great Dying" (1616-1619), which killed around 70-95% of the local Algonquin population left after the war. Not long after this widespread local depopulation, Pilgrim settlers from England arrived in November 1620. Algonquin peoples throughout what would become New England began to see Pilgrim settlers settling in their ancestral lands. Southern Abenaki people such as

6497-485: The work of David Stewart-Smith. One of the first Indian tribes to encounter European colonists, the Pennacook were devastated by infectious diseases carried by the newcomers. Suffering high mortality, they were in a weakened state and subject to raids by Mohawk of the Iroquois Confederacy from the west, and Micmac (Mi'kmaq) tribes from the north, who also took a toll of lives. Chief Passaconaway had

6586-461: Was a large neutral political gathering in the Mohawk territory that occurred every three years for tribes and tribal confederacies within and around the Great Lakes, East Coast, and Saint Lawrence River. At one of these councils in the 1680s, the Eastern Algonquians came together to form their own confederation with the aid of an Ottawa " sakom ." The Mawooshen Confederacy, of which Madockawando

6675-454: Was also the name of a specific Native village in what is now Concord, New Hampshire . The Pennacook were related to but not a part of the original Wabanaki Confederacy , which includes the Miꞌkmaq , Maliseet , Passamaquoddy , and Penobscot peoples. Pennacook is also written as Penacook and Pennacock. The name Pennacook roughly translates (based on Abenaki cognates) as "at the bottom of

6764-539: Was among the captives. English colonists established contacts with the Mawooshen in 1605. Captain George Weymouth met with them in a large village on the Kennebec River . He took five people as captives to take back to England, where they were questioned about settlements by Sir Ferdinando Gorges . Sakom Tahánedo was the only one of those captives known to have returned home. He accompanied settlers of

6853-470: Was an important hunting and nut harvesting season (butternuts, hickory nuts, black walnuts, and beech nuts were all tasty, and several southern, fire-resistant species were propagated farther north when possible). The presence of southern, fire-resistant species of nut trees like hickories and black walnuts in New Hampshire today is thanks to the Pennacook. The forests would generally be burned again in

6942-411: Was becoming a bigger problem for almost all the Eastern Algonquians to manage separately, but also provided political organization and might to push back collectively against growing English colonial expansionism, as well as mitigating large losses in the recent three-year war with them. The political union incorporated many political elements from other local confederacies like the Iroquois and Huron ,

7031-685: Was built around the upper Merrimack and the major towns at Amoskeag Falls (now Manchester) and Pennacook (now Concord ), which served as major population hubs and later fallback centers for people across the region during the colonial period. The Pennacook were a loose and fluid confederacy of village communities. Pennacook was a specific community within this confederacy that also included Accominta, Agawam , Amoskeag, Coosuc , Cowasack , Nashua , Naumkeag , Newickawanoc, Ossipee , Piscataway , Piscatequa, Souhegan, Squamscot, Wambesit, Washacum, Winnepesaukee, Wachusett, and other villages. The children of Pennacook Sachem Passaconaway intermarried with

7120-543: Was charged for debts incurred for goods bought on credit and the high prices charged to them for the colonists' goods. This ultimately led to the loss of land and tensions that resulted in King Philip's War. In 1674 Daniel Gookin , superintendent of the Praying Indians, sent Peter Jethro , a "grave and pious Indian" to work as a missionary minister in Nashaway ( Lancaster ) and Weshakim ( Sterling ). The fate of

7209-546: Was complicated, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony was forced to relinquish control of Maine to the heirs of Ferdinando Gorges in 1676. This required them to find the heirs to buy back the land making up Maine, and then to issue grants for people to settle once again. This conflict as a whole was not without significant losses for the soon-to-be Wabanaki peoples, and it became clear that the tribes would have to work together. The First Abenaki War ended with

7298-571: Was forced to release them. The Crown did not arrange their passage back. Italian explorer, Giovanni da Verrazano also reached Wabanaki lands. He was documented about 1525 as capturing a native boy to bring back to France, whom he was sailing for. Around 1534 French explorer Jacques Cartier would explore the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and traded with Mi'kmaq people living in Chaleur Bay . He encountered people now known as St. Lawrence Iroquoians on

7387-408: Was fundamentally democratic and designed to reduce conflict and provide social stability. Leaders and sachems like Passaconaway played important roles in organizing long-distance kin and trade networks with allied neighbors (his own children were all married to the children of allied political leaders). Before the major epidemics of the 16th and 17th century would kill 90% of the Pennacook population,

7476-453: Was of the genre called captivity narratives . Often writers would refer to their spiritual journey prompted by the captivity experiences. Pennacook The Pennacook , also known by the names Penacook and Pennacock , were Algonquian indigenous people who lived in what is now Massachusetts , New Hampshire , and southern Maine . They were not a united tribe but a network of politically and culturally allied communities. Penacook

7565-517: Was one of the biggest challenges in Wabanaki and European diplomacy. The culture and government style of Wabanaki would strongly push for a clear and mutual understanding of political matters, both internally and externally. The Wabanaki saw and called the Ottawa "our father" for both their role as a leader in the Caughnawaga Council and in being a tribe that helped found Wabanaki and issued binding judgments that help maintain order. This did not mean

7654-479: Was part, was put in a situation where it would be absorbed into a larger confederacy that incorporated the tribes into each other's internal politics and would start to hold their own councils as a new political union. In this new union, the tribes would see each other as brothers, as family. The union helped challenge Iroquois hostilities along the Saint Lawrence River over land and resources which

7743-432: Was reached, not one but often at least five representatives speaking on behalf of their respective tribe and nation as a whole would set off to negotiate. Probably influenced by diplomatic exchanges with Huron allies and Iroquois enemies (especially since the 1640s), the Wabanaki began using wampum belts in their diplomacy in the course of the 17th century, when envoys took such belts to send messages to allied tribes in

7832-407: Was remembered in a long chain of oral record-keeping which village elders were in charge of, with multiple elders being able to double check each other. In the 1726 treaty following Dummer's War , the Wabanaki had to challenge a claim that land was sold to English settlers, of which not a single elder had a memory. After much challenge with New England Lt. Governor William Dummer , Wabanaki leadership

7921-483: Was very careful and took their time to make sure there was as little misunderstanding of the terms of the land and peace as possible. The terms were worked out little by little each day, from August 1 through 5th. When an impasse was found, leadership would withdraw to talk about the matter thoroughly among themselves before reconvening to debate once more, with all representatives debating on the same page, with their most well thought-out arguments. The Wabanaki never had

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