W8banaki | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Total population | |
| ~21,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Canada | 18,420(2021)[1] |
| Quebec | 16,400[2] |
| United States (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine), self-identified | 2,544(2000)[3] |
| Languages | |
| Abanaki, French, English | |
| Religion | |
| Abenaki mythology,Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| OtherAlgonquian peoples EspeciallyWolastoqiyik,Mi'kmaq,Passamaquoddy, andPenobscot | |
| People | Alnôbak (Wôbanakiak) |
|---|---|
| Language | Abenaki (Alnôbadôwawôgan), Plains Indian Sign Language (Môgiadawawôgan) |
| Country | Dawnland (Ndakinna) Wabanaki |
TheAbenaki (Abenaki:W8banaki[4]) are anIndigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are anAlgonquian-speaking people and part of theWabanaki Confederacy. The EasternAbenaki language was predominantly spoken inMaine, while the Western Abenaki language was spoken inQuebec,Vermont, andNew Hampshire.
While Abenaki peoples share cultural traits, they historically did not have a centralized government.[5] They came together as a post-contact community after their original tribes weredecimated by colonization, disease, and warfare.
The wordAbenaki and itssyncope,Abnaki, are both derived fromWabanaki, orWôbanakiak, meaning "People of the Dawn Land" in theAbenaki language.[3] While the two terms are often confused, the Abenaki are one of several tribes in theWabanaki Confederacy.
Alternate spellings include:Abnaki,Abinaki,Alnôbak,[6]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,Abonnekee.[7]
Wôbanakiak is derived fromwôban ("dawn" or "east") andaki ("land")[8] (compareProto-Algonquian*wa·pan and*axkyi) — the aboriginal name of the area broadly corresponding toNew England andthe Maritimes. It is sometimes used to refer to all theAlgonquian-speaking peoples of the area—Western Abenaki, Eastern Abenaki,Wolastoqiyik-Passamaquoddy, andMi'kmaq—as a single group.[3]
The Abenaki people also call themselvesAlnôbak, meaning "Real People" (cf.,Lenape language:Lenapek) and by theautonymAlnanbal, meaning "men".[5]
Historically, ethnologists have classified the Abenaki by geographic groups:Western Abenaki andEastern Abenaki. Within these groups are the Abenaki bands:
Smaller tribes:
Smaller tribes:
Wolastoqiyik and Passamaquoddy:
The homeland of the Abenaki, calledNdakinna (Our Land; alternately written asN'dakinna orN'Dakinna), previously extended across most of what is now northernNew England, southernQuebec, and the southernCanadian Maritimes. The Eastern Abenaki population was concentrated in portions ofNew Brunswick andMaine east ofNew Hampshire'sWhite Mountains. The other major group, the Western Abenaki, lived in theConnecticut River valley in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.[11] The Missiquoi lived along the eastern shore ofLake Champlain. ThePennacook lived along theMerrimack River in southern New Hampshire. The maritime Abenaki lived around theSt. Croix andWolastoq (Saint John River) Valleys near theboundary line between Maine andNew Brunswick.
English colonial settlement in New England and frequent violence forced many Abenaki to migrate toQuebec. The Abenaki settled in theSillery region of Quebec between 1676 and 1680, and subsequently, for about twenty years, lived on the banks of theChaudière River near the falls, before settling inOdanak andWôlinak in the early eighteenth century.[12]
In those days, the Abenaki practiced asubsistence 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 boiledmaple sap to make syrup.Basket weaving remains a traditional activity practiced by some tribal members.[13]
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 namedNescambuit (variant spellings include Assacumbuit), who killed more than 140 enemies of KingLouis 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 thetrapping was done by the people and traded to the English colonists for durable goods. These contributions by Native American Abenaki peoples went largely unreported.[citation needed]
Two tribal communities formed in Canada, one once known asSaint-Francois-du-lac nearPierreville (now calledOdanak, Abenaki for "coming home"), and the other nearBécancour (now known asWôlinak) on the south shore of theSt. Lawrence River, directly across the river fromTrois-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 7 km2 (2.7 sq mi). The unrecognized majority are off-reserve members, living in various cities and towns across Canada and the United States.[citation needed]
There are about 3,200 Abenaki living in Vermont and New Hampshire, without reservations, chiefly aroundLake Champlain.[citation needed] 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.[5]
In December 2012, the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation created a tribal forest in the town ofBarton, Vermont. This forest was established with assistance from the Vermont Sierra Club and theVermont Land Trust. It contains a hunting camp andmaple sugaring facilities that are administered cooperatively by the Nulhegan. The forest contains 65 acres (0.26 km2).[14] The Missiquoi Abenaki Tribe owns forest land in the town ofBrunswick, Vermont, centered around the Brunswick Springs. These springs are believed to be a sacred Abenaki site.
The Abenaki language is closely related to thePanawahpskek (Penobscot) language. Other neighboring Wabanaki tribes, thePestomuhkati (Passamaquoddy),Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet), andMi'kmaq, and otherEastern 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 nearPierreville, Quebec, and throughoutNew Hampshire,Vermont, andNew York state.
The language ispolysynthetic, 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 wordsawani meaning "who" anduji meaning "from". Thus, the word for "white man" literally translates to "Who is this man and where does he come from?"
There is archaeological evidence of Indigenous people in what is today New Hampshire for at least 12,000 years.[15][16]
InReflections in Bullough's Pond, historianDiana Muir argues that the Abenakis' neighbors, pre-contact Iroquois, were an imperialist, expansionist culture whose cultivation of thecorn/beans/squash agricultural complex enabled them to support a large population. They made war primarily against neighboringAlgonquian 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.[17][page needed]
In 1614, Thomas Hunt captured 24 Abenaki people, includingSquanto (Tisquantum) and took them to Spain, where they were sold intoslavery.[18] During the European colonization of North America, the land occupied by the Abenaki was in the area between the new colonies of England in Massachusetts and the French in Quebec. Since no party agreed to territorial boundaries, there was regular conflict among them. The Abenaki were traditionally allied with the French; during the reign ofLouis XIV, ChiefAssacumbuit was designated a member of the French nobility for his service.
Around 1669, the Abenaki started to emigrate to Quebec due to conflicts with English colonists andepidemics of new infectious diseases. The governor ofNew France allocated twoseigneuries (large self-administered areas similar tofeudal fiefs). The first, of what was later to becomeIndian reserves, was on theSaint Francis River and is now known as theOdanak Indian Reserve; the second was founded nearBécancour and is called theWôlinak Indian Reserve.
When theWampanoag under King Philip (Metacomet) fought the English colonists in New England in 1675 inKing Philip's War, the Abenaki joined the Wampanoag. For three years they fought along the Maine frontier in theFirst Abenaki War. The Abenaki pushed back the line of white settlement through devastating raids on scattered farmhouses and small villages. The war was settled by a peace treaty in 1678, with the Wampanoag more than decimated and many Native survivors having been sold into slavery in Bermuda.[19]
DuringQueen Anne's War in 1702, the Abenaki were allied with the French; they raided numerous English colonial settlements in Maine, fromWells toCasco, killing about 300 settlers over ten years. They also occasionally raided into Massachusetts, for instance inGroton andDeerfield in 1704. The raids stopped when the war ended. Somecaptives were adopted into theMohawk and Abenaki tribes; older captives were generally ransomed, and the colonies carried on a brisk trade.[20]
The Third Abenaki War (1722–25), called theDummer's War or Father Rale's War, erupted when the FrenchJesuit missionarySébastien Rale (or Rasles, ~1657?-1724) encouraged the Abenaki to halt the spread of Yankee settlements. When the Massachusetts militia tried to seize Rale, the Abenaki raided the settlements atBrunswick,Arrowsick, andMerry-Meeting Bay. The Massachusetts government then declared war and bloody battles were fought atNorridgewock (1724), where Rale was killed, and ata daylong battle at the Indian village near present-dayFryeburg, Maine, on the upperSaco River (1725).Peace conferences at Boston andCasco Bay brought an end to the war. After Rale died, the Abenaki moved to a settlement on theSt. Francis River.[21]
The Abenaki from St. Francois continued to raid British settlements in their former homelands along the New England frontier duringFather Le Loutre's War (seeNortheast Coast campaign (1750)) and theFrench and Indian War.
The development of tourism projects has allowed the Canadian Abenaki to develop a modern economy, while preserving their culture and traditions. For example, since 1960, the Odanak Historical Society has managed the first and one of the largest aboriginal museums in Quebec, a few miles from the Quebec-Montreal axis. Over 5,000 people visit the Abenaki Museum annually.[citation needed] Several Abenaki companies include: in Wôlinak, General Fiberglass Engineering employs a dozen Natives, with annual sales exceeding C$3 million.[citation needed] Odanak is now active in transportation and distribution.[citation needed] Notable Abenaki from this area include the documentary filmmakerAlanis Obomsawin (National Film Board of Canada).[22]
ThePenobscot Indian Nation,Passamaquoddy people, andHoulton Band of Maliseet Indians have beenfederally recognized as tribes in the United States.[23]
Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation,Koasek Abenaki Tribe,Elnu Abenaki Tribe, and theMissisquoi Abenaki Tribe are, as of 2011, allstate-recognized tribes in the United States.
The Missisquoi Abenaki applied for federal recognition as an Indian tribe in the 1980s but failed to meet four of the seven criteria.[24][25] TheBureau of Indian Affairs found that less than 1 percent of the Missisquoi's 1,171 members could show descent from an Abenaki ancestor. The bureau's report concluded that the petitioner is "a collection of individuals of claimed but mostlyundemonstrated Indian ancestry with little or no social or historical connection with each other before the early 1970s."[26]
State recognition allows applicants to seek certain scholarship funds reserved for American Indians and to for members to market artwork as American Indian or Native American-made under theIndian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.[27]
In 2002, the State of Vermont reported that the Abenaki people have not had a "continuous presence" in the state and had migrated north toQuebec by the end of the 17th century.[28] Facing annihilation, many Abenaki had begun emigrating to Canada, then under French control, around 1669.[29]
The Abenaki Nation, based in Quebec, claim that those self-identifying as Abenaki in Vermont are settlers making false claims to Indigenous ancestry.[30][26][31][32] While the Odanak and Wolinak Abenaki First Nations in Quebec initially believed claims from residents of Vermont who said they were Abenaki, the Odanak reversed their position in 2003, calling on the groups in Vermont to provide them with genealogical evidence of Indigenous ancestry.[26]
Scholars have not been able to find credible evidence of the Vermont Abenaki's claims of Indigenous ancestry.[26] Anthropological research from the first half of the 20th century indicates that no Abenaki community actively existed in Vermont during that time period.[33]
Researcher Darryl Leroux characterizes the Vermont Abenaki's claims of Abenaki ancestry as "race-shifting", arguing that genealogical and archival evidence shows that most members of the state-recognized tribes are descended from whiteFrench Canadians.[33] Leroux found that only 2.2 percent of the Missisquoi Abenaki membership has Abenaki ancestry, with the rest of the organization's root ancestors being primarily French Canadian and migrating to Vermont in the mid-19th century.[33] The Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi's shifting claims about its root ancestors as well as loose membership criteria are consistent with race-shifting patterns.[33]
Leroux's research prompted renewed calls by the Abenaki First Nations to reassess Vermont's state recognition process.[34]
New Hampshire does not recognize any Abenaki tribes.[24] It has no federally recognized tribes or state-recognized tribes; however, it established the New Hampshire Commission on Native American Affairs in 2010. The variousCowasuck, Abenaki, and other Native and heritage groups are represented to the commission.[35]
In 2021, a bill was introduced to the New Hampshire legislature to allow New Hampshire communities to rename locations in the Abenaki language.[36] This bill did not pass.[37]
There are a dozen variations of the name "Abenaki", such as Abenaquiois, Abakivis, Quabenakionek, Wabenakies and others.
The Abenaki were described in theJesuit Relations as notcannibals, and as docile, ingenious, temperate in the use of liquor, and not profane.[38]
Abenaki lifeways were similar to those ofAlgonquian-speaking peoples of southern New England. They cultivated food crops and built villages on or near fertile river floodplains. They also hunted game, fished, andgathered wild plants and fungi.[5]
Unlike theHaudenosaunee, the Abenaki werepatrilineal. Each man had different hunting territories inherited through his father.
Most of the year, Abenaki lived in dispersed bands of extended families. Bands came together during the spring and summer at seasonal villages near rivers, or somewhere along the seacoast for planting and fishing. During the winter, the Abenaki lived in small groups further inland. These villages occasionally had to be fortified, depending on the alliances and enemies of other tribes or of Europeans near the village. Abenaki villages were quite small with an average number of 100 residents.[5]
Most Abenaki crafted dome-shaped, bark-coveredwigwams for housing, though a few preferred oval-shapedlonghouses.[5][39] During the winter, the Abenaki lined the inside of their conical wigwams with bear and deer skins for warmth.
The Abenaki were a farming society that supplemented agriculture with hunting and gathering. Generally the men were the hunters. The women tended the fields and grew the crops.[40] In their fields, they planted the crops in groups of "sisters". The three sisters were grown together: the stalk of corn supported the beans, and squash or pumpkins provided ground cover and reduced weeds.[40] The men would hunt bears, deer, fish, and birds.
The Abenaki were a patrilineal society, which was common among New England tribes. In this they differed from thesix Iroquois tribes to the west in New York, and from many other North American Native tribes who hadmatrilineal societies.
Groups used theconsensus method to make important decisions.
Storytelling is a major part of Abenaki culture. It is used not only as entertainment but also as a teaching method. The Abenaki view stories as having lives of their own and being aware of how they are used. Stories were used as a means of teaching children behavior. Children were not to be mistreated, and so instead of punishing the child, they would be told a story.[41]
One of the stories is of Azban the Raccoon. This is a story about a proudraccoon that challenges awaterfall to a shouting contest. When the waterfall does not respond, Azban dives into the waterfall to try to outshout it; he is swept away because of hispride. This story would be used to show a child the pitfalls of pride.[42]
The Abenaki smash the flowers and leaves ofRanunculus acris and sniff them for headaches.[43][44] They consume the fruit ofVaccinium myrtilloides as part of their traditional diet.[45] They also use the fruit[46] and the grains ofViburnum nudum var. cassinoides[47] for food.[48]
Many other plants are used for various healing and treatment modalities, including for the skin, as a disinfectant, as a cure-all, as a respiratory aid, for colds, coughs, fevers, grippe, gas, blood strengthening, headaches and other pains,rheumatism,demulcent, nasal inflammation,anthelmintic, for the eyes,abortifacent, for the bones,antihemorrhagic, as asedative,anaphrodisiac, swellings, urinary aid, gastrointestinal aid, as ahemostat, pediatric aid (such as for teething), and other unspecified or general uses.[49]
They useHierochloe odorata (sweetgrass),Apocynum (dogbane),Betula papyrifera (paper birch),Fraxinus americana (white ash),Fraxinus nigra (black ash),Laportea canadensis (Canada nettle), a variety ofSalix species, andTilia americana (basswood, or American linden) var.Americana for making baskets, canoes, snowshoes, and whistles.[50] They useHierochloe odorata and willow to make containers,Betula papyrifera to create containers, moose calls and other utilitarian pieces, and the bark ofCornus sericea (red osier dogwood) ssp. sericea for smoking.[51]
They also useAcer rubrum,Acornus calamus, an unknownAmelanchier species,Caltha palustris,Cardamine diphylla,Cornus canadensis, an unknownCrataegus species,Fragaria virginiana,Gaultheria procumbens,Osmunda cinnamomea,Phaseolus vulgaris,Photinia melanocarpa,Prunus virginiana,Rubus idaeus and another unknownRubus species,Solanum tuberosum,Spiraea alba var.latifolia,Vaccinium angustifolium, andZea mays as a tea, soup, jelly, sweetener,condiment, snack, or meal.[52]
The Abenaki use the gum ofAbies balsamea for slight itches and as an antiseptic ointment.[53] They stuff the leaves,[54] needles and wood into pillows as apanacea.[55]
Before the Abenaki, except the Pennacook andMi'kmaq, had contact with the European world, their population may have numbered as many as 40,000. Around 20,000 would have been Eastern Abenaki, another 10,000 would have been Western Abenaki, and the last 10,000 would have been Maritime Abenaki. Early contact with European fishermen resulted in two major epidemics that affected Abenaki during the 16th century. The first epidemic was an unknown sickness occurring sometime between 1564 and 1570, and the second one wastyphus in 1586. Multiple epidemics arrived a decade prior to the English colonization of Massachusetts in 1620, when three separate sicknesses swept across New England and theCanadian Maritimes. Maine was hit very hard during the year of 1617, with a fatality rate of 75 per, and the population of the Eastern Abenaki fell to about 5,000. The more isolated Western Abenaki suffered fewer fatalities, losing about half of their original population of 10,000.[5]
The new diseases continued to strike in epidemics, starting withsmallpox in 1631, 1633, and 1639. Seven years later, an unknown epidemic struck, withinfluenza passing through the following year. Smallpox affected the Abenaki again in 1649, anddiphtheria came through 10 years later. Smallpox struck in 1670, and influenza in 1675. Smallpox affected the Native Americans in 1677, 1679, 1687, along withmeasles, 1691, 1729, 1733, 1755, and finally in 1758.[5]
The Abenaki population continued to decline, but in 1676, they took in thousands of refugees from many southern New England tribes displaced by settlement andKing Philip's War. Because of this, descendants of nearly every southern New England Algonquian tribe can be found among the Abenaki people. A century later, fewer than 1,000 Abenaki remained after theAmerican Revolution.
In the1990 US census, 1,549 people identified themselves as Abenaki. So did 2,544 people in the2000 US census, with 6,012 people claiming Abenaki heritage.[3] In 1991 Canadian Abenaki numbered 945; by 2006 they numbered 2,164.[3]
Lydia Maria Child wrote of the Abenaki in her short story, "The Church in the Wilderness" (1828). Several Abenaki characters and much about their 18th-century culture are featured in theKenneth Roberts' novelArundel (1930). The filmNorthwest Passage (1940) is based on a novel of the same name by Roberts.
The Abenaki are featured inCharles McCarry's historical novelBride of the Wilderness (1988), andJames Archibald Houston's novelGhost Fox (1977), both of which are set in the eighteenth century; and inJodi Picoult'sSecond Glance (2003) andLone Wolf (2012) novels, set in the contemporary world. Books for younger readers both have historical settings:Joseph Bruchac'sThe Arrow Over the Door (1998) (grades 4–6) is set in 1777; and Beth Kanell's young adult novel,The Darkness Under the Water (2008), concerns a young Abenaki-French Canadian girl during the time of the Vermont Eugenics Project, 1931–1936.
The first sentence inNorman Mailer's novelHarlot's Ghost makes reference to the Abenaki: "On a late-winter evening in 1983, while driving through fog along the Maine coast, recollections of old campfires began to drift into the March mist, and I thought of the Abnaki Indians of the Algonquin tribe who dwelt nearBangor a thousand years ago."
Letters and other non-fiction writing can be found in the anthologyDawnland Voices, edited by Siobhan Senier. Selections include letters from leader of the early praying town,Wamesit in Massachusetts Samuel Numphow,[clarification needed] Sagamore Kancamagus,[clarification needed] and writings on the Abenaki language by former chief of the reserve atOdanak in Quebec,Joseph Laurent, as well as many others.[citation needed]
Accounts of life with the Abenaki can be found in thecaptivity narratives written by women taken captive by the Abenaki from the early New England settlements:Mary Rowlandson (1682),Hannah Duston (1702);Elizabeth Hanson (1728);Susannah Willard Johnson (1754); andJemima Howe (1792).[56]
Maps showing the approximate locations of areas occupied by members of theWabanaki Confederacy (from north to south):
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Please list living people under their First Nation or state-recognized tribe.
After having lived for several decades around the city of Lévis, the Abenaki settled in Odanak and Wôlinak in 1700 in one of the most picturesque and rich farming districts in Québec.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Other grammar books and dictionaries include:
Media related toAbenaki at Wikimedia Commons
