Abenaki

• CATEGORY: Tribe
• CULTURE AREA: Northeast
• LANGUAGE GROUP: Algonquian
• PRIMARY LOCATION: New England, Quebec
• POPULATION SIZE: 1,257 Abenaki (2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates American Indian and Alaska Native Detailed Tables: Abenaki Tribal Grouping Alone); 3,818 (2024, The Canadian Encyclopedia)

The Abenaki form a cross-border ethnic group organized in several autonomous communities. There are three reservation-based Abenaki bands: Odanak (St. Francis) and Wôlinak (Becancour) in southern Quebec and Penobscot (Old Town) in Maine. The St. Francis/Sokoki band of Abenakis of Vermont is a landless group headquartered in Swanton. The total population of these groups has been estimated between five and six thousand. Their Indigenous language, spoken by few, belongs to the Eastern Algonquian language family. Calling their homeland Wabanakik (“Dawnland”), they draw their name from Wabanaki (“Dawnlanders”). Because of cultural similarities between the Abenaki and their neighbors, Wabanaki has become a collective term for western Abenaki (Odanak, Wôlinak, and Swanton) and eastern Abenaki (Penobscot) as well as Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Micmac. Historically, it also embraced now-extinct communities at Moosehead Lake, Norridgewock (Kennebec River), Amesokanti (Sandy River), Amirkangan (Androscoggin River), Pequawket (Saco River), Pennacook (Merrimack River), Sokoki (Connecticut River), and Missisquoi (Lake Champlain).

Prehistory

While Abenaki legends recall a culture hero, the mythic giant Gluskap (or Odzihozo, for western Abenaki), as the creator of Dawnland humans, prehistoric evidence shows that Paleo-Indigenous Americans migrated to this area eleven thousand years ago. It appears that Abenaki ancestors first arrived some three thousand years ago. The region features mixed spruce-fir and hardwood forests, interrupted by swamps, lakes, and rivers; it also has a long, indented coastline. Abounding with fowl, fish, and game, the region offered the migratory Abenaki a rich subsistence based on hunting (bear, deer, moose, beaver, and seals), fishing (eel, salmon, and sturgeon), collecting shellfish (lobsters, oysters, and clams), and gathering (roots, berries, and nuts). Moving about, they walked on snowshoes and pulled toboggans during winter, and they paddled birchbark canoes the rest of the year.

Periodically, Abenaki families banded together in groups of up to three hundred people, their birchbark wigwams clustered in temporary settlements. Most of the year, however, they lived in smaller units of ten to fifty people, representing one or more extended families. They elected a band chief (“sakom”) to whom they turned for leadership. With the exception of pottery, introduced some twenty-five hundred years ago, Abenaki culture remained largely unchanged until the introduction of horticulture between 1200 and 1600 CE. In the fertile valleys from Lake Champlain to the Kennebec River, Abenaki women began to raise corn, squash, and beans in fields cleared by men. Becoming semipermanent sedentary communities of up to 1,500 people, some Abenaki groups began fortifying their villages against raiders. Because hunting, fishing, and gathering remained important, families shifted residence between these villages and temporary camps in their hunting territories.

Colonial Period

In the early 1600s, the Abenaki began regular trade with European newcomers, bartering beaver and other pelts for commodities such as steel knives, axes, copper kettles, woolen blankets, and alcohol. Contact brought a series of epidemics (especially smallpox) and stunning mortality rates (90 percent), reducing Abenaki numbers from about 25,000 to 2,500 in a century. By the 1620s, English colonists had begun settling “widowed” coastal lands. Meanwhile, Abenaki survivors regrouped and armed themselves with muskets acquired from French and English merchants. Paying for trade goods with furs, the Abenaki and neighboring groups soon faced shortages and competed for hunting grounds. This resulted in conflicts known as Beaver Wars, pitting Abenaki warriors against Iroquois and other enemies. From the 1640s onward, French missionaries converted the Abenaki to Christianity, and the baptismal ritual gave expression to their alliance with the French, which lasted throughout the colonial era. From 1675 onward, the Abenaki fought repeatedly against British aggressors: King Philip’s War (1675–76), King William’s War (1688–99), Queen Anne’s War (1702–14), Governor Dummer’s War (1721–26), King George’s War (1744–48), and the so-called French and Indian War (1754–63). During these colonial wars, they were joined by Micmac, Maliseet, and Passamaquoddy, with whom they formed the Wabanaki Confederacy. Raids by English militia and scalp bounty hunters forced the Abenaki to flee most of their traditional settlements in New England. Their famous mission village at Norridgewock, where Jesuit missionary Sébastien Râle had been active since the 1690s, was attacked and burned to the ground in 1724.

Modern Period

When France surrendered Canada to the British, thousands of White settlers invaded Abenaki lands. In New England, only the Abenaki residing in the Penobscot Valley could secure a reservation (in 1796). Having found refuge in Catholic mission villages in French Canada since the 1670s, the Abenaki at Odanak and Wôlinak also gained title to the small tracts where they had their settlements. In the nineteenth century, no longer able to subsist as hunters, some tried farming. Most turned to seasonal wage labor (lumbering), guiding sport hunters, or making splint-ash basketry. Others drifted to cities such as Boston or Montreal for industrial employment.

Since the 1960s, the Abenaki have embarked on a process of cultural revitalization. Fighting for Indigenous rights, they have made numerous achievements. In 1980, the Penobscot settled an immense land claims case against the state of Maine, which gave them federal recognition and $40.3 million, mostly earmarked for land acquisition. By the mid-1990s, they owned 200 islands in their river and 55,000 acres of trust land in nearby Penobscot County. On a spiritual level, they have revived the sweat-lodge ritual and other ancient ceremonies. Similar efforts are made by their Abenaki relatives in Vermont and Quebec. In the twenty-first century, the Abenaki continue to live in New England and the Quebec area. In Vermont, the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation, the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, and Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation have state recognition. Most groups, however, lack federal recognition as Indigenous nations. The Odanak First Nation and Wôlinak First Nation continue to thrive in Canada. In the contemporary era, most Abenaki are engaged in modern occupations and practices, and preserving their culture and heritage remained important.

Bibliography

Calloway, Colin G. The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600-1800: War, Migration, and the Survival of an Indian People. University of Oklahoma Press, 1990.

Day, Gordon M. "Western Abenaki." Handbook of North American Indians, edited by Bruce G. Trigger, vol. 15, Smithsonian Institution, 1978.

Evancie, Angela. “What Is The Status Of The Abenaki Native Americans In Vermont Today?” Vermont Public, 4 Nov. 2016, www.vermontpublic.org/programs/2016-11-04/what-is-the-status-of-the-abenaki-native-americans-in-vermont-today. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

Heald, Bruce D. A History of the New Hampshire Abenaki. History Press, 2014.

Morrison, Kenneth M. The Embattled Northeast: The Elusive Ideal of Alliance in Abnaki-Euramerican Relations. University of California Press, 2021.

Prins, Harald E. L., and Bruce J. Bourque. "Norridgewock: Village Translocation on the New England-Acadian Frontier." Man in the Northeast, vol. 33, 1987, pp. 263-78.

Snow, Dean, and Michelle Filice. “Abenaki.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 1 Nov. 2025, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/abenaki. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

Snow, Dean. "Eastern Abenaki." Handbook of North American Indians, edited by Bruce G. Trigger, vol. 15, Smithsonian Institution, 1978.

Speck, Frank G. Penobscot Man: The Life History of a Forest Tribe in Maine. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.

“2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates American Indian and Alaska Native Detailed Tables: Abenaki Alone.” US Census Bureau, data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5YAIAN2021.B01003?q=abenaki. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.