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The French writers' reference to a tribe between the Abenaki and the New England Indians is interesting from two points. They
were in alliance with the Iroquois, which leads to the inquiry whether
they may not have been a branch of that group, sprung from some of their
war parties who overcame the tribe occupying the location where the
French found them, slaughtered the warriors, and took the women to their
own wigwams, and settled down upon the conquered territory. Were they the
Tarratines? The warlike propensity of the Iroquois manifests itself in the
Tarratine raids; but against this theory is the fact that the Iroquois
were advanced agriculturalists, and the "Tarratines raised no corn"; and
the further fact that the region where nothing was planted was at the
mouth of the Kennebec and east of it, while this mysterious tribe, which
appears to have escaped the notice of the English writers, lived west of
that river. I do not advance any opinion, but simply call attention to
this matter as an interesting subject for speculation.
If we attempt to reconcile all the apparently
conflicting statements concerning these people, we are forced to the
conclusion that the Etchemins or Almouchiquois were the dwellers along the
coast, experts in handling their frail barks, daring navigators of various
tribes, but not a distinct tribe; that Abenaki was a term applied
generally to a large group of tribes covering Maine, New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia, the name undoubtedly being derived from the same root as as
"Wabanaki" which as already noted means light; that Tarratine was not the
name of any tribe but a term applied to the raiding parties which visited
the Massachusetts coast; and if the statement in the Planter's Plea that
they planted no corn is correct, and Champlain's definite location of the
people who planted nothing is reliable, then the Tarratines were Abenaki,
living east of the Kennebec River or at its mouth; they were Etchemins, or
bold navigators; they planted nothing, not as said in the Planter's Plea
"on account of the climate," for the tribes "farther inland cultivated
maize"; but because they preferred to secure their supply of corn by
reaping their neighbors' harvest.
The
Pennacooks - Gookin, Drake
and Schoolcraft speak of the federation, sometimes called Pennacooks, as
Pawtuckets, but in his last speech, Passaconaway, their sachem, uses the
term Pennacooks in such a way as to indicate that this was the name
applied to all his people. It may, however, be' that Passaconaway or some
of his predecessors, was originally the sachem of the Pennacooks, and that
this was the dominant tribe in the Pawtucket federation, just as appears
to have been the situation with relation to the Pokanokets and the
Wampanoags. As we shall not have occasion again to refer particularly to
the Pennacooks, a word about its aged sachem, Passaconaway, and his son
and successor, Wonolancet, may well be written here in passing.
Passaconaway resided at Pawtucket Falls (Lowell), had an alliance with the
Penobscots, and was a friend of Eliot, the celebrated preacher among
the Indians, but did not appear to be particularly interested in the
religion he preached until 1648. It appears that in 1642, the settlers,
becoming distrustful of Passaconaway in consequence of rumors that he was
stirring up discord among the Indians, sent men to arrest him and his son
Wonolancet.
Passaconaway succeeded in evading them through the
intervention of a storm that raged with considerable violence, but they
took Wonolancet and led him away with a rope around his neck, for by such
acts they sought to inspire terror in the hearts of the natives rather
than, by acts of consideration, to inspire confidence. Wonolancet escaped
but was retaken and brought to Boston. This act made Passaconaway
suspicious of the English and of their motives, and undoubtedly served to
widen the breach between the two races that had already resulted from some
arbitrary acts on the part of the English, and which finally culminated in
King Philip's war; and it is given by some early writers as a reason for
Passaconaway's refusal to see Eliot when he made a visit to the Falls in
the fishing season of 1647. The following year, however, he heard him
preach, and publicly announced his belief in the God of the English.
In 1660 he turned over the active direction of the
affairs of his tribe to Wonolancet, his son, and soon after died, it is
said at the age of one hundred and twenty years. Wonolancet wielded the
scepter until 1667 and maintained friendly relations with the whites
during all that time. In 1660, probably on the occasion of his
surrendering the tomahawk of authority to Wonolancet, a great feast was
given at Pawtucket Falls in his honor, which was attended not only by his
own people but by chiefs and warriors from other tribes. On this occasion,
he delivered his farewell address as reported by early writers as follows:
Passaconaway's Speech
| "Hearken to the words of your father! I am an
old oak that has withstood the storms of more than a hundred
winters. Leaves and branches have been stripped from me by the
winds. My eyes are dim; my limbs totter; I must soon fall. When
young, no one could bury the hatchet in the sapling before me. My
arrows could pierce the deer at a hundred rods. No wigwam had so
many furs, no pole had so many scalplocks as Passaconaway's. Then I
delighted in war. The whoop of the Pennacooks was heard on the
Mohawk, and no voice as loud as Passaconaway's. The scalps upon the
pole in my wigwam told the story of Mohawk suffering. The English
came; they seized the lands; they followed upon my footpaths. I made
war upon them but they fought with fire and thunder. My young men
were swept down before me when no one was near them. I tried sorcery
against them but they still increased, and prevailed over me and
mine; I gave place to them and retired to my beautiful island,
Naticook. I, who can take the rattlesnake in my palm as I would a
worm without harm - I, that have had communication with the Great
Spirit, dreaming and awake - I am powerless before the pale faces.
These meadows they shall turn with the plow; these forests shall
fall by the axe; the pale faces shall live upon your hunting grounds
and make their villages upon your fishing places. The Great Spirit
says this and it must be so. We are few and powerless before them.
We must bend before the storm. Peace with the white men is the
command of the Great Spirit and the wish-the last wish-of
Passaconaway." |
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