Abenaki
American Heritage Dictionary:
Top
Ab·e·na·ki
(ä'bə-nä'kē, ăb'ə-năk'ē) 
or Ab·na·ki (äb-nä'kē, ăb-)
n., pl., Abenaki, or -kis, or Abnaki, or -kis. In all senses also called Wabanaki.
or Ab·na·ki (äb-nä'kē, ăb-)n., pl., Abenaki, or -kis, or Abnaki, or -kis. In all senses also called Wabanaki.
- Any of various Native American peoples formerly inhabiting northern New England and southeast Canada, with present-day populations in Maine and southern Quebec.
- A member of any of these peoples.
- A confederacy of Abenaki and other peoples formed in the mid-18th century in opposition to the Iroquois confederacy and the English colonists.
- A member of this confederacy.
- Either or both of the two Eastern Algonquian languages of the Abenaki peoples.
[Probably Montagnais wabanăkiwek, dawn land people, Abenaki.]
Related Videos:
Top
Abenaki
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
Top
Abenaki
Confederacy of Algonquian-speaking North American Indian peoples living mostly in Quebec, Can., and Maine, U.S. The contemporary Abenaki consider their home territory to be southern Quebec and the U.S. states of Vermont and New Hampshire, as well as parts of Maine and New York. Their name means toward the dawn or easterners. The name is applied to a number of groupsincluding Androscoggin, Kennebec, Malecite, Ouarastegouiak, Passamaquoddy, Patsuiket, Penobscot, Pigwacket, Mi'kmaq (Micmac), Pennacook, Rocameca, Sokoni, and Wewenocwho formed the Abenaki Confederacy in order to resist the Iroquois Confederacy, especially the Mohawk. In the 17th century the Abenaki sided with the French against the English, but, after severe defeats, they withdrew to Canada, many eventually settling at Saint-Franois-du-Lac and Becancour, near Trois-Rivires, in Quebec. There are also reservations in Maine and in New Brunswick, Can. Abenaki descendants numbered some 8,000 in the early 21st century.
For more information on Abenaki, visit Britannica.com.
Gale Encyclopedia of US History:
Top
Abenaki
At first contact with Europeans, Abenaki peoples occupied most of northern New England. The Abenakis included the Penobscots, Norridgewocks, Kennebecs, and Androscoggins in Maine; Pennacooks and Pigwackets in the Merrimack Valley and White Mountains of New Hampshire; Sokokis and Cowasucks in the upper Connecticut Valley; and the Missisquois and other groups on the shores of Lake Champlain in Vermont. Abenakis were primarily hunters, but their subsistence economy also included fishing, gathering, and corn agriculture.
English expansion northward after King Philip's War in 1675–1676 drove many Abenakis to seek refuge at French mission villages like Odanak on the St. Lawrence. In the imperial wars between 1689 and 1763, most Abenakis made common cause with the French against the English. The English retaliated with bounties on Abenaki scalps and raids on Abenaki villages, most notably the Rogers' Rangers attack on Odanak in 1759. The fall of New France opened Abenaki country to English settlement. Although many Abenakis supported their colonial neighbors in the American Revolution, encroachment on Abenaki lands continued.
After European diseases, the fur trade, and invasion disrupted their subsistence patterns, many Abenakis continued traditional ways of living in the more remote areas of their homelands. Others found work as farm laborers, basket makers, trappers, loggers, and mill workers. Some served as guides for travelers and tourists. Many married non-Indians. Most lived in poverty. By the nineteenth century, most New Englanders assumed the Abenakis had effectively "disappeared."
But Abenaki people "resurfaced" in the late twentieth century. In 1980 the Penobscots and Passamaquoddies won $81.5 million in compensation for lands taken illegally by Maine and Massachusetts. Abenakis in Vermont promoted awareness of Native issues as they fought to protect human remains, preserve the Abenaki language, and revive traditional dances and crafts. They challenged the state on issues of sovereignty and petitioned the Bureau of Indian Affairs for federal recognition, which remained undecided at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Bibliography
Calloway, Colin G. The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600–1800: War, Migration, and the Survival of an Indian People. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990.
Haviland, William A., and Marjory W. Power. The Original Vermonters: Native Inhabitants Past and Present. Rev. ed. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1994.
Wiseman, Frederick Matthew. The Voice of the Dawn: An Auto-history of the Abenaki Nation. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2001.
—Colin G. Calloway
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Top
Abenaki
Abnaki or Abenaki (both: ăbnä'kē), Native North Americans of the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). The name Abnaki was given to them by the French; properly it should be Wabanaki, a word that refers to morning and the east and may be interpreted as those "living at the sunrise." The Abnaki lived mostly in what is now Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Abnaki legend has it that they came from the Southwest, but the exact time is unsure. The Abnaki resided in settled villages, often surrounded by palisades, and lived by growing corn, fishing, and hunting. They were early involved in the French fur trade. Their own name for their conical huts covered with bark or mats, wigwam, came to be generally used in English. After a series of bloody conflicts with British colonists in the late 17th and 18th cent. (see French and Indian Wars), the Abnaki and related tribes (the Malecite, the Micmac, the Passamaquoddy, the Pennacook, the Penobscot, and others) withdrew into Canada, where they received protection from the French. In 1990 there were some 1,500 Abnaki in the United States, mostly in N Vermont. About 1,000 live in Quebec and another group lives in Maine. There are also around 2,500 Passamaquoddy, mostly in Maine (see separate entries for other related tribes).
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
Gale Encyclopedia of US History
Encyclopedia of American History Copyright © 2006 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Read more
