300:
return to hunting grounds and burn their grounds to turn over nutrients in the soils for later cultivation. In late spring the rivers and creeks would swell as the great fish like salmon and shad made their way up the
Merrimack. Many Pennacook villages were built just above natural waterfalls that trapped fish and made it easier to catch them in the late spring. Fiddlehead season would be followed by others still known today, like blueberry and raspberry seasons. During the summers, families would disperse to summer villages and hunting camps. Women did most of the work of building and maintaining homes as well as farming. Their main crops were varieties of maize/corn and squash, which they planted along rivers and in meadows. While they found it difficult to clear the massive old-growth trees, the Pennacook were experts at manipulating beavers to move their dams and ponds up and down creeks and brooks, thereby clearing and opening up land for farms that would be essential to the first Europeans who arrived and found cleared fields ready for cultivation. Many of these fields were scattered with the bones of the Pennacook who had recently died of smallpox or other diseases. The fall was an important hunting and nut harvesting season (butternuts, hickory nuts, black walnuts, and beech nuts were all tasty, and several southern, fire-resistant species were propagated farther north when possible). The presence of southern, fire-resistant species of nut trees like hickories and black walnuts in New Hampshire today is thanks to the Pennacook. The forests would generally be burned again in the late fall before families returned to the more permanent winter camps to wait out the long winter. In addition to being farmers, hunters, and foragers, it is important to remember that the Pennacook and the peoples of the Merrimack River Valley were also long-distance traders, and their major towns of Pennacook and Amoskeag drew people from around the region in the late spring and summers. For more, see Michael Caduto's 2004 book,
313:
83:
70:
57:
296:
its tributaries like the
Souhegan, Piscataquog, and Suncook, would have been densely populated, the environment carefully maintained. David Stewart-Smith (1998:19) estimated that the Merrimack Valley had 8,000–25,000 people before the epidemics, with a median of around 16,500 for the central area around Pennacook.
295:
played important roles in organizing long-distance kin and trade networks with allied neighbors (his own children were all married to the children of allied political leaders). Before the major epidemics of the 16th and 17th century would kill 90% of the
Pennacook population, the Merrimack Valley and
404:
Several groups in present-day
Vermont claim to be Pennacook bands. The Odanak Abenaki Band Council has denounced them. Contemporary scholarship indicates that most members of such groups have a single Indigenous ancestor many generations removed or no Indigenous ancestry at all. Indigenous activists
299:
The major and permanent
Pennacook towns and villages were built along the major rivers, and many were on the east side of the Merrimack, ostensibly for protection from the west. Life revolved around the seasons, and spring would begin with women collecting maple sap to make maple sugar. Men would
290:
Pennacook people were semi-sedentary. Families and bands had permanent claims to territory, and their hierarchical political structure from locally representative sagamores to more regionally representative sachems was fundamentally democratic and designed to reduce conflict and provide social
340:
One of the first Indian tribes to encounter
European colonists, the Pennacook were devastated by infectious diseases carried by the newcomers. Suffering high mortality, they were in a weakened state and subject to raids by
281:
in the 17th century. Because decisions to ally and become a part of such alliances were largely in the hands of the leaders of individual bands, the membership of these confederations and alliances fluctuated regularly.
405:
and their allies strongly critique this phenomenon, sometimes called race-shifting, as a threat to the sovereignty of
Indigenous nations and part of a larger pattern of settler self-indigenization.
513:
1011:
1001:
1026:
1016:
131:
212:
Pennacook territory bordered the
Connecticut River in the West, Lake Winnipesauke in the north, the Piscataqua to the east, and the villages of the closely allied
236:
The
Pennacook were a loose and fluid confederacy of village communities. Pennacook was a specific community within this confederacy that also included Accominta,
1006:
925:
1021:
996:
498:
936:
616:
380:. North-bound refugees eventually merged with other member tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy. In the north, some Pennacook merged into the
946:
365:, the chief who succeeded Passaconaway, tried to maintain neutrality in the war, bands of Pennacook in western Massachusetts did not.
918:
900:
773:
697:
832:
420:(1935) that the Pennacook tribes greatly influenced the democratic ideals which European settlers instituted in New England.
228:), which served as major population hubs and later fallback centers for people across the region during the colonial period.
986:
890:
201:
Historian David
Stewart-Smith suggests that the Penacook were Central Abenaki people. Their southern neighbors were the
991:
432:
357:, but he decided to make peace with them rather than lose more of his people through warfare. They were caught up in
818:
469:–1754), a veteran of King George's War and last known Native American living in the town of Suncook, New Hampshire
503:
147:
20:
225:
151:
659:"Pennacook-Pawtucket Relations: The Cycles of Family Alliance on the Merrimack River in the 17th Century"
424:
368:
After King Philip's War, the colonists of New England enslaved some Pennacook captives. Some joined the
264:, Piscatequa, Souhegan, Squamscot, Wambesit, Washacum, Winnepesaukee, Wachusett, and other villages.
358:
158:
128:
97:
722:
312:
658:
472:
413:
393:
369:
362:
492:
220:
to the south. The Pennacook homeland was built around the upper Merrimack and the major towns at
146:. They were not a united tribe but a network of politically and culturally allied communities.
942:
914:
896:
804:
769:
703:
693:
670:
612:
346:
324:
and a separate settlement of Pennacook under an unknown sachem Mattacomen. The map also shows
261:
206:
333:
272:
253:
217:
213:
609:
Tribal Names of the Americas: Spelling Variants and Alternative Forms, Cross-Referenced
448:
444:
321:
221:
980:
746:
373:
342:
237:
170:
139:
135:
82:
77:
69:
64:
453:
350:
329:
325:
317:
292:
278:
268:
202:
162:
763:
574:
David Stewart-Smith, "The Pennacook Indians and the New England frontier," p. 1.
533:
David Stewart-Smith, "The Pennacook Indians and the New England frontier," p. 6.
354:
674:
707:
381:
174:
456:, 17th-century sachem, or leader, of the Pennacook proper in New Hampshire
508:
459:
249:
245:
166:
962:
692:. Illustrated by Adelaide Tyrol. Hanover: University of New Hampshire.
385:
257:
190:
968:
349:(Mi'kmaq) tribes from the north, who also took a toll of lives. Chief
428:
389:
377:
241:
930:(PhD dissertation thesis). The Union Institute – via ProQuest.
751:. Salem, MA: Essex Book and Print Club – via Internet Archive.
927:
The Pennacook Indians and the New England Frontier, Circa 1604–1733
862:"Pennacook Lodge, Order of the Arrow – Spirit of Adventure Council"
690:
A Time Before New Hampshire: The Story of A Land and Native Peoples
143:
56:
51:
892:
The Indian Population of New England in the Seventeenth Century
551:
The Indian Population of New England in the Seventeenth Century
435:
adopted the name "Pennacook" for its Order of the Arrow lodge.
185:
Pennacook is also written as Penacook and Pennacock. The name
150:
was also the name of a specific Native village in what is now
388:
group. Gordon M. Day suggested that Pennacook moved north to
157:
The Pennacook were related to but not a part of the original
724:
The south part of New England as it planted this yeare, 1634
590:
588:
586:
584:
582:
580:
861:
316:
A 1634 map by William Wood showing both Pennacook bashaba
765:
Native America: A State-by-State Historical Encyclopedia
848:
Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity
748:
The Indian Land Titles of Essex County, Massachusetts
353:
had a military advantage over English colonists from
850:. Winnipeg, Manitoba: University of Manitoba Press.
103:
90:
44:
34:
482:–1697), 17th-century sachem and son of Passconaway
819:"Denunciation of Self-Proclaimed Abenaki Groups"
336:who were politically aligned with the Pennacook.
805:"Darryl Leroux Translation of Odanak Statement"
392:in Quebec, and their descendants belong to the
345:of the Iroquois Confederacy from the west, and
594:
8:
895:. Berkeley: University of California Press.
768:. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 736.
29:
607:Clark, Patricia Roberts (21 October 2009).
361:, however, and lost more members. Although
16:Native American people from Northeastern US
447:, sachem, land proprietor, participant in
193:cognates) as "at the bottom of the hill."
28:
791:The Identity of the Saint Francis Indians
495:, named after a subtribe of the Pennacook
1012:Native American history of New Hampshire
1002:Native American history of Massachusetts
545:
543:
541:
539:
311:
1027:Native American tribes in New Hampshire
1017:Native American tribes in Massachusetts
562:
526:
514:New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 238
499:Native American tribes in Massachusetts
938:Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes
793:. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.
304:and the work of David Stewart-Smith.
7:
291:stability. Leaders and sachems like
224:(now Manchester) and Pennacook (now
45:Regions with significant populations
663:Actes du Congres des Algonquinistes
396:, an Abenaki government in Canada.
19:For the New Hampshire village, see
911:The Native Tribes of North America
271:intermarried with the children of
14:
734:– via Digital Commonwealth.
267:The children of Pennacook Sachem
1007:Native American history of Maine
81:
68:
55:
1022:Native American tribes in Maine
913:, Compendium Publishing, 1992.
889:Cook, Sherburne Friend (1976).
372:. Other Pennacooks fled to the
997:Extinct Native American tribes
1:
941:. New York: Checkmark Books.
924:Stewart-Smith, David (1998).
657:Stewart-Smith, David (1994).
476:
463:
189:roughly translates (based on
762:Murphree, Daniel S. (2012).
688:Caduto, Michael J. (2003).
433:Spirit of Adventure Council
302:A Time Before New Hampshire
1043:
119:, also known by the names
18:
970:The Tribes and the States
909:Johnson, M. and Hook, R.
611:. McFarland. p. 11.
418:The Tribes and the States
416:hypothesized in his book
134:who lived in what is now
108:
95:
49:
39:
400:Cultural heritage groups
846:Leroux, Darryl (2019).
745:Perley, Sidney (1912).
504:Penacook, New Hampshire
214:Pawtucket confederation
21:Penacook, New Hampshire
935:Waldman, Carl (2006).
549:Sherburn Friend Cook,
337:
152:Concord, New Hampshire
425:Boy Scouts of America
315:
161:, which includes the
987:Algonquian ethnonyms
789:Day, Gordon (1981).
159:Wabanaki Confederacy
414:William James Sidis
394:Odanak First Nation
216:along the southern
109:Indigenous religion
98:Algonquian language
31:
992:Algonquian peoples
595:Stewart-Smith 1998
565:, pp. 220–21.
493:Lake Winnipesaukee
338:
40:extinct as a tribe
963:Pennacook History
618:978-0-7864-5169-2
439:Notable Pennacook
359:King Philip's War
132:indigenous people
113:
112:
1034:
967:Sidis, William.
952:
948:978-1-43811010-3
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906:
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481:
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256:, Newickawanoc,
86:
85:
73:
72:
60:
59:
35:Total population
32:
1042:
1041:
1037:
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1035:
1033:
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1031:
977:
976:
959:
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866:oapennacook.org
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730:
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721:Wood, William.
720:
719:
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619:
606:
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601:
593:
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573:
569:
561:
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532:
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516:: The Pennacook
489:
479:
466:
441:
411:
402:
310:
288:
234:
218:Merrimack River
199:
183:
142:, and southern
80:
75:
67:
62:
54:
27:
24:
17:
12:
11:
5:
1040:
1038:
1030:
1029:
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1004:
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989:
979:
978:
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957:External links
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954:
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901:
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838:
835:. 9 June 2019.
833:"Raceshifting"
824:
810:
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680:
649:
624:
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449:Deerfield Raid
445:George Tahanto
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390:Odanak Reserve
330:Sagamore James
322:Amoskeag Falls
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222:Amoskeag Falls
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777:
775:9780313381270
771:
767:
766:
758:
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741:
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699:1-58465-185-7
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374:Hudson Valley
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326:Sagamore John
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171:Passamaquoddy
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140:New Hampshire
137:
136:Massachusetts
133:
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126:
122:
118:
107:
102:
99:
94:
89:
84:
79:
78:New Hampshire
71:
66:
65:Massachusetts
63:northeastern
58:
53:
48:
43:
38:
33:
22:
969:
937:
926:
910:
891:
869:. Retrieved
865:
856:
847:
841:
827:
813:
799:
790:
784:
764:
757:
747:
740:
729:. Retrieved
723:
716:
689:
683:
666:
662:
652:
645:Accomynticus
644:
641:Accomintycus
640:
637:Accominticus
636:
632:
627:
608:
602:
570:
563:Waldman 2006
558:
550:
529:
454:Passaconaway
422:
417:
412:
403:
370:Schaghticoke
367:
351:Passaconaway
339:
318:Passaconaway
301:
298:
293:Passaconaway
289:
279:Nanepashemet
275:
269:Passaconaway
266:
240:, Amoskeag,
235:
211:
203:Massachusett
200:
186:
184:
156:
124:
120:
116:
114:
26:Ethnic group
480: 1619
467: 1700
384:people, an
355:New England
286:Subsistence
232:Confederacy
96:unattested
981:Categories
883:References
871:2016-01-12
731:2021-11-02
633:Accomentas
473:Wonalancet
376:and on to
363:Wonalancet
262:Piscataway
129:Algonquian
675:0831-5671
382:Pigwacket
273:Pawtucket
207:Wampanoag
197:Territory
187:Pennacook
177:peoples.
175:Penobscot
125:Pennacock
117:Pennacook
91:Languages
76:southern
50:southern
30:Pennacook
708:50285128
509:Plausawa
487:See also
460:Plausawa
334:Naumkeag
254:Naumkeag
246:Cowasack
167:Maliseet
148:Penacook
121:Penacook
104:Religion
553:, p. 13
431:-based
386:Abenaki
332:of the
308:History
276:Bashaba
258:Ossipee
226:Concord
191:Abenaki
163:Miꞌkmaq
127:, were
973:, 1935
945:
917:
899:
772:
706:
696:
673:
615:
429:Boston
409:Legacy
378:Quebec
347:Micmac
343:Mohawk
250:Nashua
242:Coosuc
238:Agawam
173:, and
727:(Map)
521:Notes
144:Maine
52:Maine
943:ISBN
915:ISBN
897:ISBN
770:ISBN
704:OCLC
694:ISBN
671:ISSN
613:ISBN
423:The
328:and
205:and
181:Name
123:and
115:The
631:Or
427:'s
320:at
983::
864:.
702:.
669:.
667:25
665:.
661:.
643:,
639:,
635:,
579:^
538:^
477:c.
464:c.
260:,
252:,
248:,
244:,
209:.
169:,
165:,
154:.
138:,
951:.
905:.
874:.
821:.
807:.
778:.
710:.
677:.
647:.
621:.
597:.
475:(
462:(
74:,
61:,
23:.
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