Abenaki Tribe

Basic Facts
Location: New England; Southeastern Quebec

Language: Algonquian

Eastern Abenaki: Penobscot and Passamaquoddy (two largest tribes), Houlton, Maliseet, Androscoggin, Kennebec, Ossipee, and Pigwacket.

Western Abenaki: Vermont Abenaki

Well known Leaders: Massasoit, son of Massasoit Metacom (King Phillip), Samoset,

Tribal Headquarters
Abenaki Tribal Council P.O. Box 276 Missiquoi, Vermont 05488

Brief Timeline
War, famine and disease depopulation the tribes in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

1524: French expediton led by Giovanni da Verranzano was early recorded contact with non Indians

1600's: Fur trading began with the French and English

1600'S: Their villages raided by the Iroquois.

1604: Samuel de Champlain a fur trader encounterd many of the Abenaki tribes.

1675-1676: King Phillip's War

1689-1697: Joined the French against the English

Intertribal conflict with the Micmac

Jesuit missionaries were the first, with the Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries following

1702-1713: Queen Anne's War

1722- 1727: Dummer's War / Lovewell's War; initally an effort to defend their rights to their land supported anf the French Jesuits.

1744-1748: King George's War -- the Abenaki, Missisquoi, St. Frances and Sokoki joined the French in fighting the English.

1756-1763 Seven Years' War or French and Indian War

1776-: During the Revolutionary War the St. Francis Abenaki served with the British; the Panobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Micmac supported the colonists

Migration into Canada as Vermont denied land to the Abenaki

1805: The British gave land to the Abenaki (Canada)

1980: President Carter signed a bill granting Passamaquoddy and Penobscot millions in restitution for the loss of their homelands.

1982: Vermont Abenaki applied for federal recognition

Reservations
Penobscot Reservation

Old Town, Maine

Additional References to the History of the Tribe and/or Band
Abenaki Indian Legends, Grammar and Place Names. by Henry Lorne Masta, Victoriaville, P.Q, La Voix des Bois-France 1932.

Abenaki Indians: Their Treaties of 1713 and 1717, and a Vocabularty, with a Historical Introduction. by Frederic Kindder,

Records
Census Records census of various Abenaki groups, early 1800-1852.

Important Web Sites

 * Constitution of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People of the Greater Abenaki Nation of the Wabanaki Confederation of N'dakinna approved 2005
 * Abenaki Nation Official Website
 * Abenaki Wikipedia describes subdivisions, history, culture, maps, notable people, and external links.
 * Abenaki Genealogy -- Ne-Do-Ba a website devoted to biography, genealogy, and history of the tribe.