Missisquoi
The Missisquoi , also Missiassik , Mazipskoik , Misiskuoi , Missique or Missico , are an Algonquin- speaking Indian tribe in northeastern North America and linguistically and culturally belong to the Western Abenaki. They belonged to the Abenaki - Confederation of. Their descendants are now organized in the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi and strive for federal recognition by the US government.
Name and area of residence
The name Missisquoi comes from the Abenaki word Mazipskoik and means on the flint , referring to a quarry near Swanton (Vermont) . The residents were called Mazipskoi , plural Mazipskoiak , which means people from the flint . Some variants are Michiskoui, Misiskuoi, Missiscoui, Masiassuck, Missisassik, Missisque and Missisco .
The Vermont coast of Lake Champlain was believed to have been inhabited by Western Abenaki since prehistoric times . Known are villages at the mouth of the rivers Wnooskoi , Lamoille and Missisquoi , on Grand Isle in Lake Champlain and elsewhere; but in the 18th century their population was particularly concentrated on the Missisquoi River, and the Missisquoi tribe were called Champlain-Valley-Abenaki in most reports . The tribes in the valleys of Lake Champlain, Connecticut, and Merrimack appear to have always been peaceful throughout the historical period. They were often allied with one another; they settled in the same refugee or missionary villages and there is further evidence that they essentially belonged to one people.
history
That was stupid
By 1717, English settlements grew rapidly on the Maine coast north and further into the Connecticut River valley into southern Vermont and New Hampshire . Many Jesuit missionaries wanted to defend the rights of their converted Abenaki and also of France and encouraged the Abenaki to resume the fight for their land. The spokesman for the Jesuits was Father Sébastien Rasles . Negotiations between the British and Abenaki 1717 and 1719 came to nothing and after several outbreaks of violence explained the governor of Massachusetts Samuel shuttle the Abenaki 1721 war, known as Dummer's War (1721-1725), Love Wells War or Father Rasles war , known and should last for five years. In 1724, the colonist army attacked Norridgewock , an eastern Abenaki village on the upper Kennebec River in Maine , burned it, killed Father Rasles, and maimed his body. Although the French did not participate directly in the war, their sympathies were clearly with the Abenaki, and the reaction to the circumstances surrounding Rasle's death nearly caused open rebellion among the French people.
Only 150 Kennebec refugees from Norridgewock managed to escape to safe Canada. After the Pigwacket were also defeated the following spring, the Abenaki resistance in Maine collapsed. In December they signed a peace treaty with Massachusetts.
Gray lock
However, the conflict with the Western Abenaki, also known as the Gray Lock's War , continued for two years. A Pocumtuc chief named Gray Lock found refuge in Schaghticook , New York , after the King Philip's War . He had been wounded by white settlers in western Massachusetts as a young man and hated them ever since. He left Schaghticook and went to the Western Abenaki in Missisquoi. After the outbreak of war he became war chief in 1722 and was very popular due to his successful raids against settlements of the colonists in the Connecticut River valley. The English were unable to track him down in his hiding place near Missisquoi and turned to the Iroquois for help. However, these refused and offered a mediator role.
After the war in Maine ended with the defeat of the Eastern Abenaki and the peace treaty in 1725, Massachusetts sent gifts and an offer of peace to Gray Lock that fall. The answer came in the form of more raids. New York, the Iroquois and the Penobscot tried to mediate, but Gray Lock ignored them. However, the Penobscot managed to get the Canadian Abenaki to make peace with New England in Bécancour and St. Francis. There is evidence that Gray Lock was absent when the peace treaty was signed in Montreal in July 1727 - but shortly afterwards he ended the war without ever signing a treaty with the English. Gray Lock was 70 years old and the highest mountain in Massachusetts bears his name.
20th century
Like most of the other Western Abenaki, many Missisquoi fled to Canada and settled in Saint Francis and Bécancour, where they converted to the Catholic faith and in some cases took on new names from saints of the Christian Church. Some Missisquoi have stayed in St. Francis and Bécancour, other groups have left these places over the years. Today members of the Missisquoi are scattered all over New England , many also went to the big cities like Boston and New York, live there and look like white Americans.
Neither the state of Vermont nor the United States has ever recognized land claims or the tribal status of the Abenaki resident there. The Missisquoi, now organized in the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi , filed numerous claims for ownership of parts of their old residential area, but all of them have so far been rejected. Even the application for state recognition submitted in 1982 has not yet been decided.
See also
swell
literature
- Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15. Northeast . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978, ISBN 0-16004-575-4 .