Penacook

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Former residential area of ​​the Penacook.

The Penacook , also Pennacook , were a group of Algonquin- speaking Indian tribes in northeastern North America , who linguistically and culturally belong to the Western Abenaki . In the early phase of European settlement, the Penacook, together with several neighboring tribes, formed a large loose tribal confederation named after them , the so-called Penacook confederation . With an estimated 12,000 tribal members, the confederation acted on a par with the various surrounding, sometimes hostile, tribal confederations. However, after several wars and devastating epidemics in 1620, they only counted around 2,500, most of them fled to the Western Abenaki and in the 18th century joined the newly formed Wabanaki Confederation (often incorrectly the Abenaki Confederation ) in the north as part of the Abenaki .

Their descendants are now organized in the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People and live in the states of Vermont , New Hampshire and Massachusetts , USA .

Surname

The name Penacook (or Pennacook ) comes from the Abenaki word Penokok , which means "on the steep bank" ', the name of the village that is now Concord on the Merrimack River in New Hampshire. The residents were called Penokoi , in the plural Penokoiak , which means "people from the steep bank". The Penacook appear in French sources as Penneng , Oupeneng , Oppenago and similar spellings.

Many later writers summarized the tribal group of the Western Abenaki under the term Openango (different spellings), which probably first referred to the Penacook, which, however, were considered Western Abenaki from the 18th century.

Their southern neighbors were the New England Algonquians - the powerful groups of the Massachusett , the Mahican Confederation, and the Pocumtuc Confederation . In the north lived the Abenaki and other northern tribes under French influence, who, despite their linguistic and cultural affinity, were often viewed by the Penacook as enemies.

Members of the Confederation and their Residential Areas

The tribes of the Penacook Confederation lived in about 30 settlements in the valley of the Merrimack River and its tributaries in southern and central New Hampshire, in southern Maine and in northeastern Massachusetts - therefore all members were often referred to as Merrimack . The tribes of the Confederation in the lower Merrimack River Valley were often called Pawtucket (Pentucket) , those in the middle Merrimack River as Penacook (Pennacook) and those in the area of ​​present-day Manchester , NH, often called Amoskeag . The individual tribes of the Confederation were usually named after their main village or after the river on which they settled.

  • Accominta (German: coastline, lived in the York County area in southwest Maine)
  • Agawam ( Angoam , Aggawom , their main village of the same name was near today's Ipswich on the Ipswich River, MA, their tribal area Wonnesquamsauke ( wonne - "pleasant", asquam - "water" and auke - "place") extended in the east along the north coast of Massachusetts, from Cape Ann to the Merrimack River and inland to North Andover, south of the Merrimack River and Shawsheen River , and Middleton, along the Ipswich River, and in the southwest to the Danvers River, which bordered the Naumkeag )
  • Amoskeag ( Amoskeay , abbreviated from Namoskeag - "good place to fish", their main village Amoskeag , today's Manchester , was at the waterfalls of Amoskeag on the middle Merrimack River in south New Hampshire)
  • Coosuc (on the Connecticut River, between the Upper and Lower Ammonoosuc Rivers)
  • Muanbissek ( Maunbisek , lived along the Merrimack River in New Hampshire)
  • Nashua ( Nashaway or Weshacumam , lived on the upper reaches of the Nashua River near Leominster and Lancaster, Massachusetts, sometimes referred to as Nipmuck or Massachusett , originally part of the Massachusett Confederation)
  • Naumkeag ( Naimkeak , Namaoskeag , Namaske , their main village Naumkeag ("fish reason", from namaas - "fish" and ki - "place", "reason") was near Salem at the mouth of the Naumkeag River to the Mystic River in the northeast of Massachusetts, originally part of the Massachusett Confederation)
  • Newichawanoc ( Newichawawock , lived on the Upper Piscataqua and Salmon Falls Rivers in Maine and New Hampshire)
  • Ossipee (lived along the banks of Ossipee Lake and along the Ossipee River in Ossipee County , east New Hampshire)
  • Pennacook ( Pentucket , Pawtucket , two main villages: Pawtuckett , today Lowell Falls, was on the lower Merrimack north of the confluence of the Concord River, and Penacook , today Concord, on the middle Merrimack, lived on both sides of the Merrimack River, north to the confluence of the Contoocook River, south to the Charles River near Boston , Massachusetts)
  • Piscataqua ( Pascataway , Pinataqua , Piscataway , lived on the Piscataqua River near Dover in southeast New Hampshire)
  • Souhegan ( Souheyan , lived on the Souhegan River near Amherst, which was previously called Souhegan)
  • Sqamscot ( Squam , Squamsauke , Wonnesquam , Msquamskek , lived near Exeter at the confluence of the Exeter River in the Squamscott River (from Msquam-s-kook or Msquamskek - "place of the salmon" or "place of the great water") in the southeast of New Hampshire)
  • Wachuset ( Wachusett , on the upper Nashua River near Mount Wachusett near Princeton in northern Massachusetts)
  • Wamesit (also Pawtucket , on the south bank of the Merrimack River , below the confluence of the Concord River)
  • Weshacum (main village: Waushacum , near today's Sterling near Mount Wachusett in northern Massachusetts, may originally have been linguistically and ethnically nipmuck )
  • Winnecowet ( Winnicunnet , in Rockingham County in southern New Hampshire)
  • Winnepesaukee ( Wioninebesek , Winninebesakik - "region of the land around the lakes", lived on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire)

Way of life in the sixteenth century

The Penacook lived primarily from agriculture, hunting and fishing. They grew corn, beans and pumpkins and hunted in the surrounding wooded areas. There was an annual cycle, the course of which could be reconstructed by historians. It was common practice in spring to tap maple trees to make syrup and sugar. To do this, an oblique cut was made in the bark and an elderberry branch from which the pulp had been drilled out was stuck into the lower end of the cut. The juice that ran out was collected in birch bark containers and boiled into syrup. The Penacook used bark buckets or clay pots for this.

After that, large quantities of fish were caught from the rivers using pots, traps, rods and nets. The Penacook collected spring plants, for example the tubers of earth pears or wild potatoes. They hunted wild pigeons ( passenger pigeons ), which migrated in huge bird migration through the country to the north. As unbelievable as it sounds, these migrating pigeons have been extinct since 1914.

Field work and gardening were mostly done by women who tilled the fields with corn, beans and pumpkins in May, while men only planted the tobacco in small separate gardens. In summer weeds were weeded in the corn fields and wild berries were collected, of which blueberries were particularly valued. In winter, larger hunting groups formed and killed elk, deer, caribou and bear using spears and bows and arrows, while beavers, muskrats, otters and other fur-bearing animals were caught in traps. The winters were snowy and hard. The hunt required great agility, which could be achieved with snowshoes and sledges.

history

Statue of Passaconnaway in Edson Cemetery in Lowell

The Penacook Confederation was formed to cope with the powerful Mi'kmaq Confederation in the north and the Mohawk , the guardians of the eastern gate of the Iroquois League , in the west. The southern tribes were among the first to have contact with European immigrants. Many members of the tribe fell victim to the diseases that were introduced, such as measles , smallpox and cholera , against which they had no defenses.

A famous sachem of the Penacook was the charismatic Passaconaway (approx. 1580–1666), which was revered by both the Indians and the whites. He lived near what is now Merrimack in New Hampshire. His son and successor Wannalancet led the Pennacook to Canada at the end of the King Philip's Wars .

During this war (1675–1676), most of the Penacook initially remained neutral, but the alliance between the English and the Iroquois drove them to the side of the French. Before the war began, the Penacook were not only concerned about the English support for the Iroquois, but increasingly also about the land grabbing of the British colonists. Large numbers of Puritans immigrated in the 1660s and there was an increased expansion of white settlements into Native American lands. The most popular areas were, of course, the fertile banks of the rivers. Trapped between the Mohawk in the west and the growing British settlements in the east, the Indians in southern New England united under the leadership of Chief Metacomet , or "King Philip", and launched a general attack on the young colonies in 1675. Although many tribes sympathized with Metacom, the Arosaguntacook , some Sokoki and Pennacook were the only Abenaki who initially participated directly in the uprising. The majority of the Abenaki remained neutral, but presumably they supplied firearms and ammunition to King Philips warriors, while others fed them and hid them from the enemy.

The colonists suffered heavy losses and in their desperation they took revenge in blind rage on all Indians, whether they were neutral or not. Only two Penacook tribes had joined King Philip, the Nashua and the Wachuset, while the rest, under Sachem Wannalancet, stayed out of the fighting. However, the English were convinced that the Penacook were supporting the insurgents, and a punitive expedition under Captain Samuel Mosely attacked them in 1676. 200 Nashua were killed and the survivors were sold as slaves; the escaped Penacook either fled to Canada or then fought under King Philip. Later that year, Penobscot and Kennebec, who lived further north, were drawn into the war. In the end, the colonists triumphed, but even in their own accounts they admitted their cruelty. Thousands of indigenous people were killed or starved to death. After 1676 there were only about 4,000 Indians left in southern New England. During the "Great Displacement", the survivors were forced to leave their homes, but some did not have to go far. Some accepted the asylum offered by the Governor of New York , Edmund Andros , and settled under the Mahican at Schaghticook on the Hudson River . Others found refuge with the Lenni Lenape in New Jersey and Pennsylvania , but most of the Penacook fled to Canada with their sachem.

In Canada they first settled near Québec . Later some tribesmen from Schaghticoke joined them and in 1685 they got a land allocation at Cate de Lauzun . From there they went to Saint Francis around 1700 , where they met other Abenaki refugees from New England. The Saint Francis Indians were soon seen as the bitterest enemies of the English colonists, and this remained so until the end of French rule in North America.

Current situation

Even today one can find some descendants of the Penacook in the Odanak reservation (English Odanak Indian Reserve), the former Saint Francis. Others now live in small groups, mostly in the states of New Hampshire and Vermont. However, neither New Hampshire, Vermont, nor the United States has ever recognized land claims or the tribal status of the Abenakis living there. The Penacook and Cowasuck, today organized in the Cowasuck Band of the "Pennacook-Abenaki People" , filed numerous claims for ownership of parts of their old residential area, but all of them have so far been rejected.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15: Northeast, p. 159
  2. ^ Douglas-Lithgow, RA: Native American Place Names of Massachusetts , Applewood Books, page 2, September 2000, ISBN 978-1-55709-542-8
  3. ↑ Not to be confused with the Agawam near present-day Springfield, MA, who belonged to the Pocumtuc Confederation , as well as the Agawam near Wareham, Massachusetts, who lived on the Agawam River and Wareham River in southeast, MA, and were part of the Wampanoag Confederation ( or Wôpanâak )
  4. ↑ Bruce G. Trigger (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15: Northeast, p. 153
  5. ↑ a b c d e Pennacook History
  6. ↑ Cowasuck Band