Wabanaki Confederacy/Alliance Wabana'ki Mawuhkacik | |
|---|---|
| 1680s–1862, 1993–present | |
 Wampum belt  Seal | |
.png) | |
| Capital | Panawamskek,Odanak,Sipayik,Lakeland Ridges, andEelsetkook |
| Recognised regional languages | Abenaki Wolastoqey-Passamaquoddy Mi'kmawi'simk English French |
| Religion | Traditional belief systems, includingMidewiwin andGlooscap narratives; Christianity, mainlyJesuits |
| Demonym | Wabanakiyak[note 1] |
| Constituent countries | |
| Government | TribalConfederation |
| History | |
• Established | 1680s–1862, 1993–present |
| Today part of | Canada United States |
TheWabanaki Confederacy (Wabenaki, Wobanaki, translated to 'People of the Dawn' or 'Easterner'; also:Wabanakia, 'Dawnland'[4]) is aNorth AmericanFirst Nations andNative American confederation of five principal EasternAlgonquian nations: theAbenaki,Mi'kmaq,Wolastoqiyik,Passamaquoddy (Peskotomahkati) andPenobscot.
There were more tribes, along with many bands, that were once part of the Confederation. Native tribes such as theNanrantsouak, Alemousiski, Pennacook, Sokoki, andCanibas, through massacres, tribal consolidation, and ethnic label shifting were absorbed into the five larger national identities.[5]: 117
Members of the Wabanaki Confederacy, theWabanakiyak,[note 1] are located in and named for the area which they callWabanaki ("Dawnland"),[note 2] roughly the area that became the French colony ofAcadia.[6][7] The territory boundaries encompass present-dayMaine,New Hampshire, andVermont, in the United States, andNew Brunswick, mainlandNova Scotia,Cape Breton Island,Prince Edward Island and some ofQuebec south of theSt. Lawrence River,Anticosti, andNewfoundland 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:[8]
| Algonquian word | English meaning |
|---|---|
| Wabi | He sees/sight |
| Waban | East |
| Wában | Sunlight |
| Wabish | White |
| Bidaban (Bid-waban) | Dawn |
| Wasseia | The light |
Waban-aki can be translated into 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.
During the time it existed, the political union went by other names, some shared and some unique to individual members. The Mi'kmaq, Passamaquoddy, and Wolastoqey called itBuduswagan ("convention council"). The Passamaquoddy also had their own unique name:Tolakutinaya ("related to one another"). Finally, the Penobscot interchangeably called itBezegowak ("those united into one") andGizangowak ("completely united").[9]
.jpg)
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 modernBangor, Maine, would play a significant role as a political hub—for the future Wabanaki Confederacy, for example.[11]
In 1500, Portuguese explorerGaspar Corte-Real reached Wabanaki lands. He captured and enslaved at least 57 people from modern-dayNewfoundland andNova Scotia, selling them in Europe to help finance his trip.[12][13] The rich fishing waters full ofcod in and around theGulf of Saint Lawrence attracted many Europeans to this area. By 1504, FrenchBretons were fishing off 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.[13]
After the establishment of theTreaty of Tordesillas by which Catholic Europe established spheres of influence for exploration, Portuguese explorers commonly believed that Newfoundland and Wabanaki lands were on the Portuguese side of theInter caetera, entitling them to the land. Portuguese explorerJoão Álvares Fagundes attempted to establish the first European colony in Wabanaki lands in 1525. He brought families totaling almost 200 people, mostly from theAzores, 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 the settlement is unknown, but the people would have interacted with the local Mi'kmaq.[14]
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 explorerEstevan Gomez reached Wabanaki lands in 1525, kidnapping a few dozen people and taking them back to Spain, where he was forced to release them. The Crown did not arrange their passage back.[14]
Italian explorerGiovanni da Verrazzano also reached Wabanaki lands. He was documented capturing a native boy to bring back to France around 1525.[15] Around 1534 French explorerJacques Cartier would explore the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and traded with Mi'kmaq people living inChaleur Bay. He encountered people now known asSt. Lawrence Iroquoians on theGaspé 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 theMohawk in competition over hunting. They may also have been defeated by Algonquins from further east in the St. Lawrence Valley.[16]
Cartier traded with 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 theNorth American fur trade.[17]
More Europeans entered Wabanaki lands over the coming decades, where they started as traders to meet 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.[18] This would lead to the desire for the French to establish permanent trade posts in and around Wabanaki lands for furs. French fur traders likeFrançois Gravé Du Pont would often travel to Wabanaki lands to obtain furs, establishing the French fur trading site ofTadoussac in 1599. During one of his trips back in 1603 he would bringSamuel 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-dayMount Desert Island, Maine) in 1604, he noted that the people had quite a few European goods. Champlain had a positive encounter on Pemetic, meeting withsakom (title for community leaders) Asticou in his and his peoples' summer village.[19] 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.[19] Champlain went upriver to the Passamaquoddy, where he established another post at present-daySaint Croix Island, Maine. The French colonial region known asAcadia developed on existing tribal territory. The ethnic French ofAcadia and the peoples of Wabanaki coexisted in the same territory with independent, yet allied governments.
Champlain continued to establish settlements throughout Wabanaki territory, includingSaint John (1604) andQuebec 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 theSeven Years' War.[20] Asticou approved the founding of aJesuit mission in 1613 in the present-day location onSomes Sound, Maine.
The following year the mission village was destroyed by CaptainSamuel Argall during a resupply visit to nearby English fishing outposts.[21] French and English colonists would long compete for territory in North America.[19] In the same year, Captain Thomas Hunt kidnapped 27 people from present-day Massachusetts to sell as slaves in Spain. The famousTisquantum was among the captives.
English colonists established contacts with the Mawooshen in 1605. CaptainGeorge Weymouth met with them in a large village on theKennebec River. He took five people as captives to take back to England, where they were questioned about settlements by SirFerdinando Gorges. Sakom Tahánedo was the only one of those captives known to have returned home. He accompanied settlers of the short-livedPopham 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.[22]: 83–84 [23]
In 2020 journalistAvery 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 ofnut milks and nut butters."[24][25]
Champlain forged strong French relations with Algonquin tribes up until his death in 1635. Somewhere in the area nearTiconderoga andCrown Point, New York (historians dispute the site), Champlain and his party encountered a group ofIroquois (likely mostlyMohawk, 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 hisarquebus and killing two of them with a single shot, after which one of his men killed the third. The Iroquois turned and fled. This action set the tone forpoor French-Iroquois relations for the rest of the century, with conflicts arising over territory and the beaver trade.[26]
The next year theBattle of Sorel started on 19 June 1610. Champlain had convinced some tribes to fight in the war, amongst them wasWendat,Algonquin andInnu peoples, with some French regulars. They fought against theMohawk people at present-daySorel-Tracy,Quebec. Champlain's forces were armed with thearquebus. After engaging their opponent, they slaughtered orcaptured nearly all of the Mohawk. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawk for twenty years.[26]
In and around this time, more French arrived as traders in Nova Scotia. The French migrants formed settlements such asPort-Royal. At many of these settlements, the French tradedweapons and other Europeangoods to the localMi'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 existingkinship ties among clans and reduced the reciprocal exchange that had supported thelocal economy.Subsistence hunting shifted into a competition for animals likebeaver and for access to European settlements. Population movements, and intraband and interband disputes were affected.[5]: 124
Allied with 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 the war. The war was then followed by apandemic known as "The Great Dying" (1616–1619), which killed around 70-95% of the local Algonquin population left after the war.[27][11]
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 the Alemousiski would soon come into permanent contact with English settlers moving intoMassachusetts, as well as their lands in southernMaine under the colonizing efforts of people directed byFerdinando Gorges and John Mason, respectively.[23] Pannaway Plantation near modern-dayKittery, 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 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 theAlgonquian (tribe west of Quebec City), theInnu, and French to manage separately. Aided by FrenchJesuits, this led to the formation of a large Algonquian league against the Iroquois, who were making significant territorial land gains around theGreat 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 politicalcooperation in the coming decades.[5]: 124
This growing tension with two large and organized political adversaries, the Iroquois and especially English colonists, over the next 20 years would lead to an Algonquian uprising duringKing Philip's War (1675–1676), followed by theFirst Abenaki War (1675–1678). Soon after the many Algonquian tribes fought together in an effort to strengthen bothdefensive anddiplomatic power, a push to make a formal political union would take place leading to the development of the Wabanaki Confederacy.[28]
TheFirst Abenaki War saw native peoples throughout the Eastern Algonquian lands face a common and powerful enemy, encroaching English colonists. The fighting led to large-scaledepopulation of English colonial settlements north of theSaco River in the district ofMaine, while Wabanaki people south of the river like the Almouchiquois, would be forced from their ancestral lands. The political situation was complicated, when theMassachusetts Bay Colony was forced to relinquish control of Maine to the heirs ofFerdinando Gorges in 1676.[29] 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.[30] 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 theTreaty 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 payMadockawando, 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.[31]
TheCaughnawaga Council was a large neutral political gathering in theMohawk 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 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.[5]: 125–126 In this new union, the tribes would see each other as brothers, as family.[32] The union helped challenge Iroquois hostilities along theSaint Lawrence River over land and resources which 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.[5]
The political union incorporated many political elements from other local confederacies like the Iroquois andHuron, 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 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.[5] These events would lead to the formal creation of what is now called the Wabanaki Confederacy.
The Passamaquoddy wampum record orWapapi Akonutomakonol[33] tells about the event that took place at theCaughnawaga 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 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 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.[5]: 125–126
The Wabanaki Confederacy were governed by a council of elected sakoms, tribal leaders who were frequently also the governors of thedrainage basin their village was built on. Sakoms themselves were more of respected listeners and debaters than simply rulers.[5]: 123–124
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 the Confederacy, often being older men who were callednebáulinowak or "riddle men."[32]: 499
"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 the [Indians]."[34]: A-13
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 a sakom was part of also had a "kinship" status, being that they are brothers some members were older and younger.[32][5]: 122–127 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 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.[34]: 167–172
Probably influenced by diplomatic exchanges with Huron allies and Iroquois enemies (especially since the 1640s), the Wabanaki began usingwampum belts in their diplomacy in the course of the 17th century, when envoys took such belts to send messages to allied tribes in the confederacy. Wampum belts calledgelusewa'ngan, meaning "speech", played an important role in maintaining Wabanaki political institutions.[32]: 507 [35][32] 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 calledputuwosuwin which involved a mix of oral history with understanding the context behind the placement of wampum on the belts.[5]: 116
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.[5]: 116–117
What was not recorded through wampum 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 followingDummer'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. GovernorWilliam Dummer, Wabanaki leadership 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.[34]: 167–172
The Wabanaki never had a formal "grandchief" or single leader of the whole confederacy, and thus never had a singleseat of government. Though Madockawando was treated as such in the Treaty of Casco, and his descendants such as Wabanaki Lieutenant GovernorJohn Neptune would maintain an elevated status in the confederacy, both officially had the same amount of power as any other sakom.[22]: 255–257 This would continue throughout 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.[32]
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 a sakom died, newly elected sakoms would be confirmed by allied Wabanaki tribes who would visit following a year of mourning in the village.[32]: 503 An event to appoint a new sakom, known as aNská'wehadin or "assembly", could last several weeks.[5]: 128 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.[32]: 498 This event would continue until 1861 when the last Nská'wehadin was held inOld Town, Maine, shortly before the end of the confederacy.[32]: 504 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 1722–1726Dummer's War, given that his Vermont lands were being settled by English colonists. He would hold a successfulguerrilla war for the following two decades, never being caught, and successfully deterring settlers entering his lands.[36]
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 the other tribes in the Wabanaki the Penobscot were called theksés'i'zena or "our elder brother". The Passamaquoddy, Wolastoqiyik, and Mi'kmaq in this order of "age" were calledndo'kani'mi'zena or "our younger brother".[32] The Wolastoqiyik referred to the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy asksés'i'zena and the Mi'kmaq asndo'kani'mi'zena. Concepts like this were also found in other confederacies like 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 a family would. The age rank was based on the tribes proximity to the Caughnawaga Council, with the Penobscots being the closest. Before themassacre 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.[37]
This system was not seen as something indicating superiority per se, but rather 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 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.[38]
The Wabanaki saw and called theOttawa "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.[5]: 126 This did not mean 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.[5]: 126 [33]
.svg)
Members of the Wabanaki Confederacy were the:
Nations in the Confederacy also allied with theInnu ofNitassinan, theAlgonquin people and with theIroquoian-speakingWyandot people. The homeland of the Wabanaki Confederacy stretches fromNewfoundland, Canada, toMassachusetts, United States. Members of the Wabanaki Confederacy participated in these seven major wars:[citation needed]
During this period, their population was radically decimated due to many decades ofwarfare, but also because offamines and devastating epidemics ofinfectious disease.[22] The number of European settlers increased from about 300 in 1650 to about 6,650 in 1750. European diseases such assmallpox andmeasles were introduced.[39]
TheMi'kmaq were among the first tribes to establish trade with European settlers and helped to establish abarter system along the coast.[40]: 145 Settlers and natives communicated in a language that mixed French andMikmawisimk.[40]: 24 The Mi'kmaq tradedbeaver,otter,marten,seal,moose, anddeer furs with European settlers.[40]: 13 The French missionaryChrestien Le Clercq complained that "they ridicule and laugh at the most sumptuous and magnificent of our buildings".[40]: 18
In 1711, theAcadians joined the Wabanaki Confederacy, whenFort Anne was besieged.[40]: 135 The British proceeded to raid the coastal settlements, demanding an oath of allegiance from the Acadians.[40]: 145 When British settlers encroached on the territory of theAbenaki,Penobscot, and thePassamaquoddy, theseFirst Nations joined theWolastoqiyik and the Mi'kmaq in the Wabanaki Confederacy. In 1715, the Mi'kmaq attacked fishing vessels offSable Island. The Mi'kmaq declared "the Lands are [ours] and [we] can make War and peace when [we] please".[41] 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 attackedFort St. George four times, the Wabanaki attacked British colonial settlements alongKennebec River, while westernMaine was attacked by thePigwacket and the Ammoscocongon. The Wabanaki Confederacy destroyed the Brunswick settlement as well as other British colonial settlements on the banks of theAndroscoggin River.[42]
Prior to theExpulsion of the Acadians (1755–1764), the Acadians living in Nova Scotia largely refused to swear allegiance to the British Crown.[43] When the Acadians in 1755 again refused to swear allegiance to the Crown, about 12,000 were deported toBritish North America, France andLouisiana.Quebec was taken by the British in 1759 and the French government effectively lost all influence inNorth America.[44]
The French were defeated by the British in 1763. The British colonial authorities marginalised Indigenous people as a matter ofpolicy, because the Mi'kmaq had supported the French. 13,000 Acadian settlers were evicted by the British and the land was occupied by settlers fromNew England, Britain, and otherEuropean countries, includingIreland andGermany.[39]
After 1783 and the end of theAmerican Revolutionary War,Black Loyalists,freedmen from the British North American colonies, were resettled by the British in this historical territory. They had promisedenslaved people freedom if they left their Patriot masters and joined the British. Three thousand freedmen were evacuated toNova Scotia by British ships from the colonies after the war.[45]
Oppressive policies instituted by successive colonial and federal administrations against theAcadians,Black Canadians, and Mi'kmaq people tended to force these peoples together as allies of necessity. The colonial government declared the Wabanaki Confederacy forcibly disbanded in 1862. However the five Wabanaki nations still exist, continued to meet, and the Confederacy was formally re-established in 1993.[citation needed]
The Wabanaki Confederacy gathering was revived in 1993. The first reconstituted confederacy conference in contemporary time was developed and proposed by Claude Aubin and Beaver Paul and hosted by the Mi'kmaq community ofListuguj under the leadership of Chief Brenda Gideon Miller. The sacred Council Fire was lit again, and embers from the fire have been kept burning continually since then.[46] The revival of the Wabanaki Confederacy brought together the Passamaquoddy Nation, Penobscot Nation, Wolastoqey Nation, and the Mi'kmaq Nation. Following the 2010Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the member nations began to re-assert theirtreaty rights, and the Wabanaki leadership emphasized the continuing role of the Confederacy in protectingnatural capital.[47]
There were meetings amongst allies,[48] a "Water Convergence Ceremony" in May 2013,[49] withAlgonquin grandmothers in August 2013 supported byKairos Canada,[50][51] and with other Indigenous groups.
Alma Brooks represented the Confederacy at the June 2014United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.[52] She discussed the Wabanaki/Wolostoq position on theEnergy East pipeline.[53] Opposition to its construction has been a catalyst for organizing:
"On May 30 [2015], residents ofSaint John will join others inAtlantic Canada, including Indigenous people from the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet), Passamaquoddy and Mi'kmaq, to march to the end of the proposed pipeline and draw a line in the sand." This was widely publicized.[54]
These and other preparatory meetings set an agenda for the August 19–22, 2015, meeting[55] which produced the promised Grandmothers' Declaration[56] "adopted unanimously atN'dakinna (Shelburne, Vermont) on August 21, 2015". The Declaration included mention of:
On October 15, 2015, Alma Brooks spoke to the New Brunswick Hydrofracturing Commission, applying the Declaration to current provincial industrial practices:[57]
The Passamaquoddy will host the 2016 Wabanaki Confederacy Conference.[citation needed]
Since the 1990s, members of ThePenobscot nation and other members of the Wabanaki Confederacy gather at The Pines onFather Rasle Road in Madison, at the former Nanrantsouak village to remember and honor ancestors massacred by the British onAugust 22, 1724. A ceremony takes place and afterward a traditional Wabanaki meal of roasted corn, salmon, baked beans or moose stew is eaten. The tradition was begun by Barry Dana during an overnight sacred run. The ceremony began as a private Wabanaki remembrance but now the public is welcome to educate about this history.[58]
Members of the Wabanaki Confederacy are recognized for their fine art basket making. Well-known Wabanaki basket makersMolly Neptune Parker, Clara Neptune Keezer, and Fred Tomah have been recognized for their art.[59] Parker's grandchildGeo Soctomah Neptune is also a nationally recognized basket artist[60] who istwo-spirit and was featured inVogue magazine in 2022 for their style and earring collection.[61] Jeremy Frey received the Best in Class award in the Basketry category at the 2021Santa Fe Indian Market.[62]
Traditional Wabanaki healing has been practiced for thousands of years. The Healing Lodge in Millinocket supplies intense outpatient treatment using traditional healing for tribal members suffering from substance use disorder, trauma, and mental health struggles. The Healing Lodge is operated by Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness.[63] In 2024, The Mi'kmaq Nation used $50,000 of its national opioid settlement funds to build a Healing Lodge located in Presque Isle for use in traditional sweat ceremonies.[64]
Wabanaki cuisine, like otherIndigenous cuisine, is based on what can be grown and hunted locally.Corn, beans, squash, fresh-water fish, salt-water fish, moose, andwhite-tailed deer are common foods.[65] Maple syrup,wild blueberries,ground cherries, ground nuts, and sunchokes are also incorporated into many dishes. Wabanaki people traditionally made milks, butters, and infant formula from walnuts, cornmeal, and sunflower seeds for centuries before colonizers arrived.[66][67]
Wabanaki dishes include roasted parched sweet corn, hickorynut and hull corn salad, roasted groundnuts,cranberry sauce, grilled whitefish, Abenaki rose cornmeal pudding,[68]pemmican made from ground fruits, nuts, and berries,[69] Three Sisters soup,[70]dandelion greens,fiddlehead salad, creamy sorrel and fiddlehead soup,[71] clams withsunchokes,[72] miwikisoak stew,hazelnut cakes, salmon burgers, andmaple syrup pie.[73]
| Language | "Easterner(s)" literally "Dawn Person(s)" | "Dawn Land" (nominative) | "Dawn Land" (locative) | "Dawn Land Person" | "Dawn Land People" or the "Wabanaki Confederacy" |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naskapi | Waapinuuhch | ||||
| Massachusett language | Wôpanâ(ak) | ||||
| Quiripi language | Wampano(ak) | Wampanoki | |||
| Miꞌkmaq | Wapnaꞌk(ik) | Wapnaꞌk | Wapnaꞌkik | Wapnaꞌki | Wapnaꞌkiyik |
| Maliseet-Passamaquoddy | Waponu(wok) | Waponahk | Waponahkik | Waponahkew | sing.: Waponahkiyik plur.: Waponahkewiyik |
| Abenaki-Penobscot | Wôbanu(ok) | Wôbanak | Wôbanakik | Wôbanaki | Wôbanakiak |
| Algonquin | Wàbano(wak) | Wàbanaki | Wàbanakìng | Wàbanakì | Wàbanakìk |
| Ojibwe | Waabano(wag) | Waabanaki | Waabanakiing | Waabanakii | Waabanakiig/Waabanakiiyag |
| Odawa | Waabno(wag) | Waabnaki | Waabnakiing | Waabnakii | Waabnakiig/Waabnakiiyag |
| Potawatomi | Wabno(weg) | Wabneki | Wabnekig | Wabneki | Wabnekiyeg |
Maps showing the approximate locations of areas occupied by members of the Wabanaki Confederacy (from north to south):
The Wabanaki Confederacy is featured in the video game Secret World: Legends (formerly The Secret World)[74] via several NPCs who inform the player of the alternate history of the Confederacy and its relations with different groups, offer quests, provide items via Apothecaries, and are usually residing in locations that depict Wabanaki Confederacy culture.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
.svg)
