Abenaki

The Abenaki, whose name means “People of the Dawnland,” lived in northern New England when Native Americans first met Europeans.

Before 1492, Abenaki territory extended from Lake Champlain on the west to the White Mountains on the east. From north to south it reached from southern Quebec to the Vermont-Massachusetts border. Soon after contact with Europeans the Abenaki suffered from devastating epidemics. The rate of depopulation from these epidemics, which struck before sustained contact with Europeans, is unknown but may have exceeded 75 percent. Because of these death rates and because the first European explorers to visit the Abenaki homeland left few accounts of their journeys, Abenaki history is difficult to reconstruct.

The Indians of New England shared many cultural traits. Many of the groups, including the eastern and western Abenaki, the Maliseet, the Micmac, and the PASSAMAQUODDY nation, referred to themselves collectively as the Wabanaki. The eastern Abenaki lived in Maine; the western Abenaki in

New Hampshire and Vermont. The Abenaki did not have the kind of formal tribal structure that Europeans looked for among the peoples whom they met. Instead, they traveled in small bands made up of related families. These bands might come together for a common purpose, such as planting, preparing for war, or holding religious ceremonies, but the Abenaki did not recognize any central authority over all the bands. The Abenaki did have chiefs, some of whom were powerful. More commonly, chiefs had limited powers and could not coerce their followers.

Because the growing season in northern New England is short, the Abenaki did not rely on agriculture. They grew corn, beans, tobacco, and squash, but the staples of their diet came from hunting, fishing, and gathering. Abenaki men hunted, while the women prepared food and clothing. The Abenaki lived in conical wigwams or longhouses. In either case, men constructed the frame, which the women then covered with sewn bark pieces.

The Abenaki believed that the world was full of spiritual forces, some of which were hostile to people. They believed that shamans, or medeoulin, could offer protection against dangerous forces. Such shamans might be dangerous themselves, since they could use their powers either to help or to harm the people.

The first known Europeans to visit the area arrived with Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524, though the Abenaki did not participate in the fur trade until the 17th century. By the early 17th century the eastern Abenaki and the Micmac were fighting over access to European trade goods.

Further reading: Colin G. Calloway, The Abenaki (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989);-, The West

Ern Abenakis of Vermont, 1600-1800: War, Migration and the Survival of an Indian People (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990); Gordon M. Day, “Western Abenaki,” in Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, gen. ed., vol. 15, Northeast, ed. Bruce G. Trigger (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1978), 148-159; Dean R. Snow, “Eastern Abenaki,” in Northeast, ed. Trigger, 137-147.

—Martha K. Robinson

Abyssinia See Ethiopia.