181 Abnaki, Etchemin, and Malecite James Dennis Wherry University of New Brunswick
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181 Abnaki, Etchemin, and Malecite James Dennis Wherry University of New Brunswick The casual reader of accounts of European-Indian contacts in the northeast is struck by a bewildering array of tribal names. The serious student of the northeastern Algonquian literature is no less plagued by this problem of deciphering the identities of groups so variously named. What soon becomes readily apparent is that French chroniclers supplied appellations independent of the English and that any particular Indian group might have at least two names in the literature, one supplied by the French and one supplied by the English. In addition, the two European groups were in fundamental disagreement about the basic categories of Indians. This meant that as their knowledge of the country side grew, the English supplied a separate name for each band that they encountered. French literature generally applied terms to groups of Indians of a considerably wider provenience than any term supplied by English literature, except for the English blanket terms applied to unknowns, such as "Eastern Indians" (Hubbard 1682 in 1815:31). Within French literature the names came from informants either within the group or outside of the group. This shifting perspective at times produced changes in the appellations that were applied to groups and created some confusion among French and English writers. This approach can be applied to the appellations, Abnaki and Etchemin. The Handbook of American Indians (Hodge 1907) suggests three categories in the classification of groups commonly associated with the term, Abnaki. First, it has been used by the English and French of the colonial period to designate a confederacy of the Algonquian speaking groups centered in the present state of Maine. Second, Algonquian-speaking groups tended to refer to other groups of their own stock resident on the Atlantic seaboard witn the generic Abnaki. This seems to imply a geographically descriptive classifi cation suggesting something like the eastern Indians. This would fit the commonly cited gloss for this term: The word generally received is spelled thus, Abnaki, but it should be 'Wanbanaghi,' from the Indian word 'wanbanban,' designating the people of the Aurora Borealis, or in general, of the place where the sky commences to appear white at the breaking of the day, from 'wanbighen,' it is white (Vetromile 1859: 209) . And finally it has come to be applied to the emigrant Oneida, Stockbridges, and Munsee from around Green Bay, Wisconsin usethseeme(Hodged earldet ot 1907:2-6)yorefe Frencsuggesr thot .modern-dawriter aA wides fosr (BiardyproveniencEtchemi Malecite-Passamaquoddy, nChamplain one e extendinfind,s anigdt Lescarbothafro,s mbee thougthen h) , 182 MARITIKES HIP Y/ITH PLACE NAMES REFERRED TO IN TEXT 183 Saint John River to at least the Kennebec River. A survey of the early literature may help to discover the source of this confusion. The earliest reference to an Abnaki group appears to be Champlain's observation on April 19, 1629, from Quebec: That savage, Erouachy, told us that he had passed some months among a nation of savages called Obenaquiouoit, who live about seven or eight days' journey to the south of our settlement, and who cultivate land (Champlain in Biggar 1933:313). Champlain's earliest reference to the Etchemins is dated on May 27, 1603. At this time they were near Tadoussac celebrating with the Algonquins and the Montagnais their collective victory in a war against the Iroquois (from Champlain in Biggar 1922:103). It was during Champlain's explorations along the coastline of Maine and New Brunswick in 1604 that he established the provenience for Etchemin. It included at least the coastline from the Saint John River to the Kennebec River (Champlain in Biggar 1922:269-297). Having located the Etchemins in time and space with Champlain's description it might be helpful to consider the source of the term Etchemin. The literature on native North America is replete with cases of tribes having various names, some derived from what other groups called them and some derived from terms they used to describe themselves. Etchemin seems to be derived from a term they used to describe themselves. Our best information on Etchemin comes from the originator of the term in Western literature, Champlain, who says: "We proceeded to a river on the mainland, called the river of the Etchemins, from a tribe of Indians so named in their own country" (Champlain in Biggar 1922:269). To interpret this to mean that Champlain was told Etchemin by none other than an Etchemin informant would seem suspiciously simple if modern evidence did not suggest a surviving form. And indeed H.P. Biggar, the general editor of the modern reprint of The Works of Samuel De Champlain, notes: "The name Etechemins applied by these Indians to themselves represents obviously a form of the word skejim, still in use as the equivalent of Indian" (Biggar 1922:269). And Montague Chamberlain, the writer of the Maliseet Vocabulary, offers the gloss: "o-ski'-tchin, An Indian, (Lit., a human being)" (Chamberlain 1899:27). The glosses given by these earlier writers accords well with that given by Vincent Erickson, writing on the Malecite-Passamaquoddy for the as yet unpublished edition of Handbook of North American Indians, who says: "Etchemin is probably an incorrect rendering of skicin, meaning Indian in modern Malecite-Passamaquoddy" (Erickson n.d.:l). Referring to oneself as human cannot be considered an uncommon practice Whatobserverananotheamond ,gErickson rNortthen sgroup hcam, Americaca,e. n the tboEtcheminne usnexpectei es Indiaunusuaa ,ter dna msl fogroups deriveglosseronl thy e,d i ntermthougb froyit mBiggar,sh Abnaki usthusualle b,usagy ?Chamberlain yEuropeans e Europeaof n. , 184 Samuel Champlain was the first European chronicler to introduce the term into European literature. But as it turned out he was neither clear on whom he meant this term to apply to nor consistent with his orthography. His introduction of the term seems to have occurred on April 19, 1629, at Quebec when a chief named Erouachy told him that a group named Obenaquiouoit (Abnaki) were living eight days' journey to the south and that they would be willing to help the French with their corn in exchange for French support in their wars with the Iroquois. The French were finding during this period, that their little colony at Quebec was getting in trouble and running short of supplies. Champlain's attempts to make the colony self-sufficient met with total failure and the effectiveness of the English blockade was having its effect on the colony's stores. In this dire situation, in July, 1629, Champlain decided to send some of his men to the Abenaquiois (Abnaki) to live on their Indian corn (Champlain in Biggar 1936:45). It does not seem that this plan was ever accomplished, since the English captured the French at Quebec on July 19. Although Champlain never seems to have seen the Abenaquioits (Abnaki), he did send a man to investigate Erouachy's report: On the fifteenth of July the man whom I had sent to get information respecting the savages called Abenaquioits arrived and made a full report to me of his journey, in accordance with the memorandum I had given to him before he set out, namely: as to the number of rapids on the way, the difficulty of the land travel as far as the coast of the said Etchemins, the peoples and nations inhabiting those regions, and their modes of life. He assured us that all those tribes wished to form a close friend ship with us, and were prepared to take our men and feed them through the winter until such time as we should obtain relief through the arrival of our vessels; and that in a few days a chief would come from these tribes with some canoes, to confirm their friendship and even to aid us with their Indian corn; for they have large villages and also houses in the country, with many stretches of cleared land, in which they sow much Indian corn, and from which they harvest a sufficient quantity to their own maintenance, and also to enable them to assist their neighbors when there is a scarcity in a year that is poorer than usual (Champlain in Biggar 1936:43-44) . This report must have brought a glimmer of hope to the fail ing spirits of the French, but the hope was quashed by the English capture of Quebec in four days. Champlain never saw Abenaquioitthoughidentificatiothitime svisitee hAbenaquioi eno saiddt sbth y:n e(Abnaki) thtChamplaiEtchemin e (Abnakiname. nsAbenaquioits )Hwouleo fchief ma thdy ehav. Kennebe eI f.mad hearheFoce d rhad oRivefoif n, thesrontheSeptember eanem d wonder beforeat tha,s 1604, what t, 185 The people live like those near our settlement; and they informed us that the Indians who cultivated Indian corn lived far inland, and had ceased to grow it on the coasts on account of the war they used to wage with others who came and seized it (Champlain in Biggar 1922:321). Could these inland cultivators be the Abenaquioits of 1629? At the time of Champlain's contact with the Kennebec River Etchemins, no statement was ever made of any difference of language or culture of these inland Indians who cultivated the soil. Though no tribal name is applied to them, the impression is that they are also Etchemins. Finally, careful consideration of Champlain's primary source of information on the Abnaki can indicate more of the nature of this appellation. Champlain's primary source of information on the Abnaki was an Indian named Erouachy. Though Champlain never gives Erouachy's tribal affiliation, he does not seem to be an Abnaki or, as Champlain gives, an Abenaquioit.