Abenaki

The Sovereign Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi is named after the Missisquoi, the traditional summer fishing and hunting grounds of the western Abenaki people. This tribe is based loosely around the descendants of the original Sokoki Abenaki, who ranged throughout most of Vermont (especially along a northwest-southeast axis), western Massachusetts, southwestern New Hampshire, and southern Quebec. The Abenaki call(ed) their land Ndakinna (pronounced 'n-da'-ki-nna), which means 'our land'. The tribal name, Abenaki, means 'people of the dawn'.

The Abenaki call(ed) themselves Alnobak, which means human being. They traditionally honor all others as Alnobak as well. The Iroquois say, however, that Abenaki means 'eaters of the bark of trees', and indeed there is a tradition in the tribe that the bark of certain trees can be used as sustenance in time of hardship.

The hardiness of the Abenaki and their ability to survive in the not-particularly-lush environment of the Green Mountains gave a great early advantage to Grey Lock, who was their mightiest and best-known chief because of his wars against English colonists in Massachusetts. Grey Lock acquired a grudge against the English after he was wounded as a young man by settlers in western Massachusetts, where he was born. He fled that area and moved north to Missisquoi (modern-day Swanton, on Lake Champlain near the Canadian border). Based there, Grey Lock's raiding parties sortied south and southeast along the western tributaries of the Connecticut River to raid settlements in Western Massachusetts, notably Brook- field, Northfield, Deerfield, etc. He carried on his guerrilla wars of defense and reprisal for several decades after King Phillip's War ended the 'honeymoon' between the English colonists and the Massachusetts tribes. Grey Lock lived until he became too old to range the hills and fight, and then he married, settled down, and fathered many children, remaining 'productive' for his tribe in this special way well into his 70s. Massachusetts' highest peak is named after him

By some accounts, the English were initially so hard-put to fight Grey Lock on equal terms that they cannibalized Abenaki children for nourishment on the return home south after raiding Abenaki bands in northern Vermont. The settler's strategic position improved after they moved northward along the Connecticut, destroying Abenaki villages and camps as they went and establishing fortifications such as the one at Brattleboro, VT (Abenaki: Wantastiquet, or gathering place by the waters), where I now live. The last substantial Abenaki fortification on the Connecticut was at Hinsdale, NH ... they 'fell back' to that position after colonists displaced them from their large historic village home at Squakheag (modern-day Northfield, MA - 'Squakheag' is derived from the same word as 'Sokoki', which means 'people who went their own separate way'). Eventually those Sokoki Abenaki who still lived as a tribe and followed tribal ways were forced out of southern Ndakinna into Quebec, particularly after they sided with the French in the 'French and Indian' wars in the mid 18th century.

After settling in Quebec, many of the Abenaki converted to Catholicism as a result of the ministrations of French missionaries. The French even established the first church in Vermont at Missisquoi. Most of the remaining tribal Abenaki were re-named(or renamed themselves, perhaps) after saints (St. Francis, St. Germain, etc.). The current Grand Chief, Homer St. Francis, is said to be Grey Lock's direct descendant. He has shown me proof in writing (historical documents) of a campaign to eradicate Abenaki bloodlines (including, or course, his own) in Vermont under the guise of 'eugenics', an effort that proves that Vermont's settlers had publicly-organized hostile and genocidal intent toward the Abenaki well into this century.

Of course, over the centuries many or most of the Abenaki have 'passed' as European ... some of them they were fairly light- skinned to begin with, perhaps due to Norse or Celtic incursions into North America (evidence of which is still being discovered).
Your ancestors may not have gone to Canada, or perhaps may not have remained there. People of Abenaki descent are scattered all around New England, and many have followed the historic mass migration into cities (such as Boston) that accompanied the industrial revolution.