181 Abnaki, Etchemin, and Malecite James Dennis Wherry University of

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 . 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-, 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 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 tboEtcheminen usnexpectei es Indiaunusuaa ,ter dna msl fogroups deriveglosseronl thy e,d i ntermthougb froyit m,Biggarsh 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, thesronSeptemberthe 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. He is an occasional visitor to Quebec, yet Champlain's chronicles give him frequent mention. The reader is told that Erouachy is a chief (Champlain in Biggar 1933:305). Furthermore, he is of the same group that the murderers of two Frenchmen are from (Champlain in Biggar 1929:190, 1933:305, and 1936:6). And helpfully Champlain does mention "...Mahiganaticois, who belonged to the same nation as the men who had unhappily killed some of our men" (Champlain in Biggar 1933:217). Therefore Erouachy was a chief of the Mahiganaticois or Mahicans. A group which in Hodge 1907: (786) is located on the upper reaches of the Hudson River, extending nearly to Lake Champlain. Even though the French had a tendency to lump all of the southern and western New England groups as either Loups or Mahicans, Champlain's Mahiganaticois were clearly west of the Abnaki. Given their geographic relationship to the Abnaki, Mahiganaticois might well describe the Indians of the Kennebec River as Abnaki, glossed as "sun-rise" or "eastern people." The preceding etymological argument on the early use of Abnaki and Etchemin suggests a rough equivalence for the people described by these two terms of different origin. But the ongoing differentiation of Abnaki and Etchemin can be viewed as a result of a historical process. The brief lacuna of official French involvement in New France produced by the English capture of Quebec initiated this process. With the signing of the treaty of St. Germain in 1632, France's possessions in the New World were restored. Champlain was again appointed governor of New France and in 1633 returned to Quebec. From the time of his return until his death in 1635, Champlain directed the missionaries to witbeeJohthconcentratshifintehno tStcouplehostilitieabeyanceGilmar .in Lawrenc missionareyd theiwit.She se harLacwer iyfpointdistastactivitie ke activitythe ofordereys intereseoutreturned sfod ,: ramon interest"...somtothem g.retirei n, thth Thetefor ewhy Hurons,iAbnak n,weroan thadscame i ththreatene.eAbnak considere eseemWitt ohistoria ihstrad tfelthidod e lshavnoa ns e 186

English Indians purchasing furs for the market" (Shea 1857:307). This was not a totally unreasonable deduction made by the French, since the Kennebec River region was under the jurisdiction of the Plymouth Colony. As foreign Indians, they were not well known by the French, and the suggestion is that the Champlain map of 1632 was used to name them Abnaquiois. Champlain, though he had never seen the Abnaquiois, located them in the region of the headwaters of the Kennebec River. Following this reconciliation with the Champlain map, the French generally applied the term Abnaquiois to the Kennebec River Indians and Etchemin was applied to the Indians east of the Kennebec, exclusive of the Micmac. English writers had an early tendency to lump the same groups together as Tarratines or Eastern Indians, but as their knowledge of the country grew, they tended to create a new name for each band that they encountered. The term Etchemin, never a part of the seventeenth century English literature, had disappeared from French usage by the beginning of the eighteenth century. This demise of the use of the term Etchemin has led a few modern writers to conjecture the demise of the people Etchemin and their replacement by immigrant Abnaki. This hypothesis is a result of the innovative ethnohistorical work of Bernard G. Hoffman (1955b). He has argued that the early seventeenth century Abnaki and Etchemin represented distinct political units and that the Abnaki: "...seem to have been located at the beginning of the seventeenth century in the interior valleys of the Kennebec and Riviere Liniere Headwaters" (Hoffman 1955b:68). According to Hoffman, evidence for the demise of the Etchemin rests on two points: that the New England epidemics of around 1617, which were reported for southern New England, devastated northern New England Indians as well; and that the population lacuna created by this devastation was temporarily filled by the Tarentine, here to be identified as Micmac. Evidence for this consists of references to raiders into the Plymouth area by Indians who were called Tarentines, as cited by Mourt (1622 in 1832:57). An early reference which tells us a little more about the Tarentines or Terentines occurs in an account of northern explorations given by Captain John Smith of later Virginia fame who says: "The principall habitations I saw at Northward, was Penobscot, who are in warres with the Terentines, their next northerly neighbors" (Smith 1631 in 1833:21). Based on Smith's observations, it would seem correct to identify the Terentines with the Micmac, and indeed Siebert satisfactorily demonstrates the correctness of that identification (Siebert 1973:71). But it should be remembered that chroniclers from the New England colonies exhibited an early tendency to lump the northern New England groups together as Terentines or Eastern Indians. The writing of the Reverend William Hubbard can serve as an example of this lumping tendency: "...at Kennebecke itselfe, where was a great number of them (Indians) when it was first discovered, who were only knowne to those of the Masachusetts by the name of Tarratines, or eastern men" (Hubbard 1815:31). So it is possible that 187 Mourt, as an early seventeenth century observer, may have lacked the clarity of observation that Siebert demonstrates and that therefore his use of the term Tarentines may not be equivalent to the Micmac. With reference to wars with Penobscot River Indians, Captain John Smith says: "The Massachusets, they report, sometimes have wars with the Bashabes of Pennobskot,..." (Smith 1616 in 1887:119). So Penobscot River Indians mistaken for (or lumped together with) Tarentines, could have been in the Plymouth area as raiders. But while it is possible that English writers generalized their application of the term Tarentine, the possibility still remains that Mourt heard Tarentine from his native informant, the sachim Obbatinewat (Mourt 1622 in 1832:57). Had Obbatinewat said Tarentine and indeed meant Micmac, it is still unnecessary to posit the collapse of an Etchemin buffer, as Hoffman has done. Champlain (Champlain in Biggar 1922:442-446) and Lescarbot (Lescarbot in Grant 1911:354) amply describe the war that the Micmac from around Port Royal, Nova Scotia, had with the Almouchiquois of the Saco River. Given these recorded cases of war parties travelling great distances, Micmac raiders into Plymouth area must be viewed as a possibility. And finally the term Etchemin continued to be a part of French literature until its ultimate demise during the late seventeenth century. The last decade of the seventeenth century saw a new Governor in Acadia, Villebon, who was the first French chronicler to live with the Indians on the Saint John River. It seems to have been Villebon who introduced the term Malecite into European literature. Interestingly, he seems to have applied it in the same manner as earlier writers used the term Etchemin. Apparently his source of informa­ tion was a Micmac informant. The Governor's headquarters at Jemseg on the Saint John River was also the site of a Micmac client village, and the term, Malecite appears to be of Micmac origin. Chamberlain gives "ma-li-si'-tchik" to be a Micmac word meaning "the broken talkers" (Chamberlain 1899:27). This meaning accords with Vincent Erickson's gloss for Malecite: "The word is from Micmac and means 'he speaks badly'" (Erickson n.d.:2). The term Malecite, then, represented a new perspective on an old French concept, that the Indians from the Saint John River to the Kennebec River constituted a single political and cultural entity until circa the 1640's, they then became a single entity, excluding the Kennebec River Indians. One last point still needs to be considered. The various appellations that occur in such a bewildering array in the northeast have all been equated with tribal organizations. The fact that the individuals to whom these names were meant to apply seem unconcerned that a shift in the Europeans' appellatiothusedleasperspectivfirsfointeractioner tearlacceptanc, buasee ytdegrem en historicaals sstrange useproduceeowit dodivergeih fn byEuropeannativ.thdl ethmateria Furthermoreadboundee echang Frencfrodsem del factseem hWester nodoeunitantos,ds sonltacceptancthnono Englise sye criteriaoimpl facdescribedifinnhyt dthe achievetha ea .itnativn appellation ,eacthNowherthei demuse hr acriterit e atins a 188 informant correcting a European's use of a particular appellation. Help can be found in Morton H. Fried s discussion of The Notion of Tribe: Far from being a reliable 'natural' guide to the existence and composition of tribal groups, names point the way to confusion or worse. This is not to question the use of names in the continual political process of affirmation and assertion of distinct character on the part of diverse population groups and aggregates at various levels of organizational complexity. The use of ancient names or the coining of new ones for this purpose is an aspect of the formation of tribes and ethnic groups as a secondary phenomenon, usually in conjunction with colonial or imperialistic pressures. These, in turn, are most familiarly, but not exclusively, rooted in the political economy of capitalism (Fried 1975:38). For the New England Algonquian, the array of tribal names was rendered more complex by the presence of the two colonial powers. For the array of appellations to be informative to the modern student, the fact should then be stressed that the named units could and in many cases did run up and down the scale of inclusion and exclusion. This seems to imply that the pre-contact period must not have been a time of strict bounded units in the north­ east. The inhabitants of the various river systems may have been gradually distinct culturally and politically, with the Kennebec River Indians more distinct from the St. John River Indians that either was from the Penobscot River Indians. The Etchemin as a bounded homogeneous tribe probably existed only in the minds of the French. With the passing of official French presence in the north­ east, the concept Etchemin evaporated.

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