New Hampshire, History, Native Americans

Four principal groups of Algonquian-speaking native peoples inhabited New Hampshire just before European settlement. By far the largest was the Pennacook, the name given both to the tribe centered in the Merrimack River Valley near the present site of Concord and to a larger association consisting of the central tribe and several smaller bands stretching north and south in the Merrimack Valley. The Pennacook lived in villages surrounded by cultivated fields, living by agriculture and hunting during much of the year but moving to the seacoast for fishing and gathering shellfish during the summer.

Other groups, also of the Algonquian culture, included the Sokokis north of the White Mountains, whose hunting grounds extended into what is now western Maine; a westward extension of the Maine-based Abenaki, known as the Pigwackets, in the upper Saco Valley on the southeastern edge of the White Mountains; and the Pocumtucks of western Massachusetts, whose hunting grounds extended into the lower Connecticut Valley of New Hampshire.

Because the native peoples had no written language and early contact with Europeans was limited, information about the native inhabitants is scarce and sometimes confusing. The total native population of the New Hampshire area was estimated at more than 12,000, but their numbers were sharply reduced in the early 1600s by warfare with the Mohawk people to the west and by epidemics that swept New England.

The native people lived cooperatively with the early European settlers, whose numbers were too small to pose a threat. The native groups taught the whites many skills that were essential to their survival: how to cultivate corn, tap maple trees for syrup, make canoes and many kinds of garments, and to locate the best trails. The Native Americans, in turn, sought to trade with the settlers for metal tools and utensils, blankets, and weapons, both for hunting and for resisting Mohawk attacks.

from: "New Hampshire," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The Pocumtuc

Like other New England Algonquin, the Pocumtuc were an agriculture people who lived in one of the most fertile farming areas in New England. Their homeland also abounded with game, and during the spring they were able to take advantage of large fish runs up the Connecticut and its tributaries. Besides the obvious north-south transportation provided by the Connecticut River (Quinnitukqut "long river"), the Pocumtuc homeland sat astride several important east-west trade routes, including the Mohawk Trail, which linked Native Americans in the interior with those on the Atlantic coast.

Population

Perhaps as many as 5,000 in 1600, the Pocumtuc population declined rapidly from epidemic and wars with the Iroquois and English. For the most part, the Pocumtuc were destroyed during the King Philip's War (1675-76). A mixed group of 600 Pocumtuc and Nipmuc refugees relocated to the Mahican village at Schaghticook on the Hudson River (New York). Others went north to the western Abenaki (Sokoki) at either Missisquoi or Odanak (St. Francois du Lac) in Quebec. By 1758 the last groups of Pocumtuc and Nipmuc at Schaghticook had left and joined their relatives living with the Sokoki. It can safely be assumed that the current populations of the Vermont Abenaki in the United States and the St. Francois and Bcancour Abenaki in Canada contain descendents of the Pocumtuc.

Sub-Tribes

• Pocumtuc Confederacy: Agawam (Agawome, Nayusset), Mayawaug, Nameroke, Nonotuck (Nonotuc), Norwottuck (Nalvotogy, Norwootuc), Pachasock, Pocumtuc (Pocomtook, Pocomtuc, Pocumtook, Pocutuc, Pokamtakuke), Scitico (Skittico, Squitkko), Squawkeag (Squaeg, Squakheag) (also considered Nipmuc or western Abenaki), and Woronoco (Waranoke, Woroanoke, Woronock, Woronoake)
• Connecticut Mattabesic associated with the Pocumtuc: Newashe (Nawaas), Peskantuk (Peskeomskut), Poquonock, and Sicaog (Saukiog, Sukiang).
• Other names associated with the Pocumtuc: Nawaas, Pangusset, Peskeomskut, Popuonock, and Saukiog.

Culture

Due to frequent warfare with the neighboring Mohawk, most of their larger villages were heavily fortified, and for mutual protection, the Pocumtuc tribes were politically organized under a loose confederation. Although still available for hunting, by 1630 the Berkshire Mountains immediately west of the Pocumtuc villages were mostly uninhabited due to constant war.

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