INDEGIONUS PEOPLE OF THIS AREA IN 1820 By Dianne Sinclair

 The following is a small part of the exhibit at History House – 

1820 Maine Statehood, a Local View.  

Come see the whole exhibit at our

next open house  Sept. 11th

First Nation peoples living in our area were Abenaki.  The name refers to their location “toward the dawn.”  The Abenaki are one of the five members of the Wabanaki Confederacy (Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseet and Mi’kmaq (Micmac).  These other tribes have received Federal recognition and are currently active Downeast and in northern parts of Maine.

The Pequawket, were a local tribe of the Abenaki Confederacy, living on the headwaters of Saco River and about Lovell’s Pond, in Carroll County, New Hampshire, and Oxford County, Maine.  Their principal village, called Pequawket, was near the present Fryeburg, Maine.

 

The Haith – Porter Maine

“In Porter, The Heath (pronounced locally as The Hathe, as in old English) has historical significance as an Abenaki tribal gathering ground.  This information comes from one of the last members of the tribe who lived in this area. Curtis Chick wanted his friends and neighbors to understand the importance of this land to his ancestors, and to care for it accordingly.  During the 1950s and 1960s Curt was well-known to some residents living nearby, and some who were children at that time remember walking with him to The Heath, and his sharing of its importance to the local tribal members.” (Dan Hester, Hiram, ME)

Traditional Abenaki lived by hunting, fishing, trapping, berry picking and growing corn, beans, squash, potatoes and tobacco.  They lived in scattered bands of extended families for most of the year. The typical Abenaki dwelling was the birch-bark-covered wickiup occupied by several families. 

Each man had different hunting territories inherited through his father. Bands came together during the spring and summer at temporary villages on or near fertile river plains.  The Haith may have been one of those places.

(Sources: Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Brittanica online, accessgenealogy.com/maine/pequawket-tribe)