The Abenaki (Abenaki: ) are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predominantly spoken in Maine, while the Western Abenaki language was spoken in Quebec, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
While Abenaki peoples share cultural traits, they historically did not have a centralized government. They came together as a post-contact community after their original tribes were decimated by colonization, disease, and warfare.
Names The word Abenaki and its syncope, Abnaki, are both derived from Wabanaki, or Wôbanakiak, meaning "People of the Dawn Land" in the Abenaki language. While the two terms are often confused, the Abenaki are one of several tribes in the Wabanaki Confederacy.
Alternate spellings include: Abnaki, Abinaki, Alnôbak,A Time Before New Hampshire by Michael J. Caduto Abanakee, Abanaki, Abanaqui, Abanaquois, Abenaka, Abenake, Abenaki, Abenakias, Abenakiss, Abenakkis, Abenaque, Abenaqui, Abenaquioict, Abenaquiois, Abenaquioue, Abenati, Abeneaguis', Abenequa, Abenkai, Abenquois, Abernaqui, Abnaqui, Abnaquies, Abnaquois, Abnaquotii, Abasque, Abnekais, Abneki, Abonakies, and Abonnekee.
Wôbanakiak is derived from wôban ("dawn" or "east") and aki ("land")Snow, Dean R. 1978. "Eastern Abenaki". In Northeast, ed. Bruce G. Trigger. Vol. 15 of Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, pg. 137. Cited in Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pg. 401. Campbell uses the spelling wabánahki. (compare Proto-Algonquian *wa·pan and *axkyi) — the Indigenous name of the area broadly corresponding to New England and the Maritimes. It is sometimes used to refer to all the Algonquian-speaking peoples of the area—Western Abenaki, Eastern Abenaki, Wolastoqiyik-Passamaquoddy, and Mi'kmaq—as a single group.
The Abenaki people also call themselves Alnôbak, meaning "Real People", and by the autonym Alnanbal, meaning "men".
Historically, ethnologists have classified the Abenaki by geographic groups: Western Abenaki and Eastern Abenaki. Within these groups are the Abenaki bands:
Western Abenaki
Arsigantegok, (Arrasaguntacook, Ersegontegog, Assagunticook, Anasaguntacook), lived along the St. Francis River in Quebec. Principal village: St. Francis (Odanak). The people were referred to as "St. Francis River Abenakis", and this term gradually was applied to all Western Abenaki.Colin G. Calloway: The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600–1800: War, Migration, and the Survival of an Indian People, University of Oklahoma Press, 1994, Cowasuck (also Cohass, Cohasiac, Koasek, Koasek, Coos – "People of the Pines"), lived in the upper Connecticut River valley. Principal village: Cowass, near Newbury, Vermont. Missiquoi (also Masipskwoik, Mazipskikskoik, Missique, Misiskuoi, Missisco, Missiassik – "People of the Flint"), also known as the Sokoki. They lived in the Missisquoi River valley, from Lake Champlain to the headwaters. Principal village around Swanton, Vermont. Pennacook (also Penacook, Penikoke, Openango), lived in the Merrimack Valley, therefore sometimes called Merrimack. Principal village Penacook, New Hampshire. The Pennacook were once a large confederacy who were politically distinct and competitive with their northern Abenaki neighbors. Sokoki (also Sokwaki, Squakheag, Socoquis, Sokoquius, Zooquagese, Soquachjck, Onejagese – "People Who Separated"), lived in the middle and upper Connecticut River valley. Principal villages: Squakheag, Northfield, Massachusetts, and Fort Hill.
Smaller tribes: Amoskeay Cocheco Nashua Ossipee, lived along the shores of Ossipee Lake in east-central New Hampshire. Often classed as Eastern Abenaki. Pemigewasset Piscataqua Souhegan Winnipesaukee (also Winnibisauga, Wioninebeseck, Winninebesakik – "region of the land around lakes"), lived along the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire.
Wabanaki Nation Odanak (also known as Pierreville, in the regional county municipality of Nicolet-Yamaska), lived southwest of Trois-Rivières, Centre-du-Québec, and included settlements along the Saint-François River and Magog River. Wôlinak (also Becancour, in the regional county municipality of Becancour), lived around Trois-Rivières, Centre-du-Québec, and included settlements along the Bécancour River.
Eastern Abenaki
Androscoggin (also Alessikantekw, Arosaguntacock, Amariscoggin), lived in the Androscoggin River valley and along the St. Francis River, therefore often called "St. Francis River Abenaki". Kennebec (also Kinipekw, Kennebeck, Caniba, later known as Norridgewock), lived in the Kennebec River valley in central Maine. Principal village: Norridgewock (Naridgewalk, Neridgewok, Noronjawoke); other villages: Amaseconti (Amesokanti, Anmissoukanti), Kennebec, and Sagadahoc. Penobscot (also Panawahpskek, Pamnaouamske, Pentagouet), lived in the Penobscot Valley. Principal villages: Penobscot (Pentagouet), now Indian Island, Old Town, Maine; other villages: Agguncia, Asnela, Catawamtek, Kenduskeag, Mattawamkeag, Meecombe, Negas, Olamon, Passadumkeag, Precaute, Segocket, and Wabigganus. Now a separate federally recognized tribe. Pequawket (also Pigwacket, Pequaki), lived along the Saco River and in the White Mountains. Principal village Pigwacket was located on the upper Saco River near present-day Fryeburg, Maine. Occupied an intermediate location, therefore sometimes classed as Western Abenaki.
Smaller tribes: Apikwahki Amaseconti, potentially related to the Androsgoggins, they lived between the upper Kennebec and Androscoggin rivers in western Maine, their central village was somewhere near modern-day Farmington. Kwupahag (also Kwapahag) Ossipee, lived along the shores of Ossipee Lake in east-central New Hampshire. Sometimes classed as Western Abenaki. Rocameca, they were one of the major bands of the Androscoggins, lived along the upper Androscoggin River, centred around Canton, Maine. Wawinak (also Ouanwinak, Sheepscot, Wawenock, Wawnock, Wewenoc), lived in the coastal areas of southern Maine. Wolastoqiyik and Passamaquoddy: Wolastoqiyik (also Walastekwyk, Maliseet, Malecite), lived in the inland of upper Maine and middle New Brunswick along the St. John River. Principal villages: Meductic, Aukpaque. Now a separate federally recognized tribe. Passamaquoddy (also Peskotomuhktati, Pestomuhkati), lived on the Passamaquoddy Bay coast and inland, between the St. John, St. Croix and Penobscot rivers, in present-day Maine and New Brunswick. Principal village: Machias. Now a separate federally recognized tribe.
Location
The homeland of the Abenaki, called Ndakinna (Our Land; alternately written as N'dakinna or N'Dakinna), previously extended across most of what is now northern New England, southern Quebec, and the southern Canadian Maritimes. The Eastern Abenaki population was concentrated in portions of New Brunswick and Maine east of New Hampshire's White Mountains. The other major group, the Western Abenaki, lived in the Connecticut River valley in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.Waldman, Carl. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes: Third Edition (New York: Checkmark Books, 2006) p. 1 The Missiquoi lived along the eastern shore of Lake Champlain. The Pennacook lived along the Merrimack River in southern New Hampshire. The maritime Abenaki lived around the St. Croix and Wolastoq (Saint John River) valleys near the boundary line between Maine and New Brunswick.
English colonial settlement in New England and frequent violence forced many Abenaki to migrate to Quebec. The Abenaki settled in the Sillery region of Quebec between 1676 and 1680, and subsequently, for about twenty years, lived on the banks of the Chaudière River near the falls, before settling in Odanak and Wôlinak in the early 18th century.
In those days, the Abenaki practiced a subsistence economy based on hunting, fishing, trapping, berry picking and on growing corn, beans, squash, potatoes and tobacco. They also produced baskets, made of ash and sweet grass, for picking wild berries, and boiled maple sap to make syrup. Basket weaving remains a traditional activity practiced by some tribal members.
During the Anglo-French wars, the Abenaki were allies of France, having been displaced from Ndakinna by immigrating English settlers. An anecdote from the period tells the story of a Wolastoqew war chief named Nescambuit (variant spellings include Assacumbuit), who killed more than 140 enemies of King Louis XIV of France and received the rank of knight. Not all Abenaki people fought on the side of the French, however; many remained on their Native lands in the northern colonies. Much of the trapping was done by the people and traded to the English colonists for durable goods. These contributions by Native American Abenaki peoples went largely unreported.
Two tribal communities formed in Canada, one once known as Saint-François-du-Lac near Pierreville (now called Odanak, Abenaki for "coming home"), and the other near Bécancour (now known as Wôlinak) on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, directly across the river from Trois-Rivières. These two Abenaki reserves continue to grow and develop. Since the year 2000, the total Abenaki population (on and off reserve) has doubled to 2,101 members in 2011. Approximately 400 Abenaki reside on these two reserves, which cover a total area of less than . The unrecognized majority are off-reserve members, living in various cities and towns across Canada and the United States.
There are about 3,200 Abenaki living in Vermont and New Hampshire, without reservations, chiefly around Lake Champlain. The remaining Abenaki people live in multi-racial towns and cities across Canada and the US, mainly in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and northern New England.
Language
The Abenaki language is closely related to the Panawahpskek (Penobscot) language. Other neighboring Wabanaki tribes, the Pestomuhkati (Passamaquoddy), Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet), and Mi'kmaq, and other Eastern Algonquian languages share many linguistic similarities. It has come close to extinction as a spoken language. Tribal members are working to revive the Abenaki language at Odanak (means "in the village"), a First Nations Abenaki reserve near Pierreville, Quebec, and throughout New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York state.
The language is polysynthetic, meaning that a phrase or an entire sentence is expressed by a single word. For example, the word for "white man" awanoch is a combination of the words awani meaning "who" and uji meaning "from". Thus, the word for "white man" literally translates to "Who is this man and where does he come from?"
History There is archaeological evidence of Indigenous people in what is today New Hampshire for at least 12,000 years.
In Reflections in Bullough's Pond, historian Diana Muir argues that the Abenakis' neighbors, pre-contact Iroquois, were an imperialist, expansionist culture whose cultivation of the corn/beans/squash agricultural complex enabled them to support a large population. They made war primarily against neighboring Algonquian peoples, including the Abenaki. Muir uses archaeological data to argue that the Iroquois expansion onto Algonquian lands was checked by the Algonquian adoption of agriculture. This enabled them to support their own populations large enough to have sufficient warriors to defend against the threat of Iroquois conquest.
In 1524 Portuguese explorer Estêvão Gomes kidnapped 58 Abenaki and brought them back to Europe to be sold into slavery.