New Hampshire’s Abenaki People Are Still Here

Art of Abenakis from a virtual presentation by Anne Jennison and Alexandra Martin on the People of the Dawnland exhibit at Strawbery Banke.

“Does the Abenaki tribe exist today? What is the difference between Abenaki and Wabanaki? Are there Abenaki people in New Hampshire anymore? How many Abenaki are there?”

These are the kinds of questions you’ll see if you do a quick Google search for the word “Abenaki.” Well, the answers to those questions are complicated.

Yes, there are Abenaki people living in New Hampshire today. “Abenaki” and “Wabanaki” both mean “People of the East” or “People of the Dawnland.” Both names come from the same root words: “waban,” meaning “east,” and “aki,” meaning “land.”

No one really knows exactly how many Abenaki people live in New Hampshire, but the numbers are likely to be far greater than census numbers indicate, because the U.S. Census isn’t a reliable source for this information. There’s no place on the census forms where Abenaki are asked to identify themselves and no compelling reason for Abenaki people to self-identify for the federal government, because there are no federally recognized Abenaki tribes in the United States. Did I mention this was complicated?

Although the Abenaki and their ancient ancestors have roots here that go back 12,800 years in New Hampshire, you might not be aware that today’s Abenaki descendants could be your neighbors, school teachers and local business owners, among many other possibilities. Today’s Abenaki people get up in the morning, drink their tea or coffee, and check their email just like everyone else. Cultures have to change and adapt over time in order to survive — and the Abenaki people are survivors.

“After the arrival of the people from across the ocean 500 years ago, the Abenaki lived on the societal edges of New Hampshire, along the marshes, the rivers and later on the ‘other side of the tracks,’” said Rhonda Besaw, an acknowledged master of traditional Wabanaki beadwork.

“The prevailing thought was that the Abenaki had all died out or had moved to Canada and never returned home. In spite of this, the Abenaki continued to dance upon the land, and their drums were not silenced. They continued to harvest the medicines, to greet the sunrise, to care for the land and fulfill their responsibilities to the elders and ancestors. Through the efforts of many in recent times, the beauty and vibrancy of Abenaki culture is beginning to be seen.”

Due to complicated historical factors, New Hampshire is the only state in New England without any state or federally recognized Native American tribes. However, there are currently three unrecognized Abenaki tribal groups in New Hampshire and two intertribal groups, many of whose members are Abenaki. Furthermore, there are many Abenaki descendants in New Hampshire who haven’t joined any of these organized Abenaki tribes or groups.

In addition to the Abenakis who live in New Hampshire, there are also four state-recognized Abenaki tribes in Vermont as well as two Abenaki reserves whose residents are recognized as a First Nations tribe in Quebec. Unsurprisingly, there are extended family relationships across state and international borders between all of these Abenaki peoples as well as the other related Wabanaki tribes: the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, M’ikmaq and Maliseet peoples.

Two more reasons that no one can say exactly how many Abenakis live in New Hampshire are intermarriage and acculturation. Intermarriage with the Scots, Irish, French, African slaves, free Blacks and the English during the colonial era and beyond impacted the Abenaki people.

Additionally, over time there was an understandable lack of willingness by Abenaki descendants to identify themselves as Abenaki for federal census records due to historic and severe colonial — and later federal — anti-Indian policies of war, overt prejudice, removal by means of forced migration or slavery, removal of Indian children from their parents’ homes to be adopted by white families or sent to Indian boarding schools — and other policies of erasure that threatened the very existence of the Abenaki people in New Hampshire.

American attitudes about Native Americans, though, have been in a state of change that began in the late 20th century with the enactment of new federal laws giving more protections to Native Americans between the late 1970s and early 1990s. These new federal laws and a renewed, more positive, public interest in Native Americans — and in the Abenaki people — began during the years surrounding the 1992 Columbus Quincentennial.

Since that time, an entire body of scholarship has been developing around the history and cultures of Indian tribes in New England and also around what has become referred to as the Abenaki “Hiding in Plain Sight” phenomenon — the strategy used by the Abenaki from the late 18th century up through the late 20th century in order to protect their lives, their jobs, their homes and have access to education for their children — all without their neighbors knowing their Abenaki identities.

In fact, Abenaki people became so adept at blending into white society by acculturating and assimilating that many stopped speaking Abenaki at home and stopped passing their history and culture on to their children and grandchildren.

In the long term, this survival strategy led to generations of Abenaki descendants who survived but knew very little about their Abenaki ancestors. Many weren’t actually sure they had Abenaki heritage, even though they may have heard snippets of family stories that referred to one or more of their great-grandparents or earlier ancestors as having been Abenaki or Indian.

Shards of stone tools and ceramics found at Strawbery Banke are among some of the examples of Native American activity at the site.

The resulting lack of information and isolation between scattered pockets of Abenaki family groups and individual Abenaki descendants, especially in the southern parts of the state, contributed to the cultural disconnect. For example, I graduated from Portsmouth High School in New Hampshire in the early 1970s — at least 20 years before cellphones and the internet made it much easier to find and communicate with other Abenaki people. At the time, I never met anyone with Abenaki heritage anywhere in Portsmouth or the Seacoast (outside of my own family) until I happened to be sitting next to someone at a powwow planning meeting in 2019 and — comparing notes about our backgrounds — discovered that we’d been in the same Portsmouth High School graduating class and never met one another.

Increasingly user-friendly communication technology has helped overcome this isolation and has been a boon to Abenaki cultural revitalization. A growing use of videoconferencing, like Zoom, has allowed Abenaki language classes that used to take place only once a month near Burlington, Vermont, and occasionally during a week-long summer school, to take place online daily since 2020. A summertime Abenaki language immersion program is now part of the curriculum at Middlebury College in Vermont, directed by Jesse Bruchac, an acknowledged Abenaki language scholar.

After the late 1970s as it began to be safer to be publicly Abenaki in New Hampshire and New England, Abenaki descendants began to explore their own family histories to learn more about their Abenaki cultural heritage. Abenaki descendants began to reach out to find others with whom to share information and celebrate their heritage.

Initially, this took the form of Abenaki families and previously existing small Abenaki groups coming out of obscurity while new groups of Abenaki were formed or found one another. More cultural and historic information was shared. Annual powwows were initiated to celebrate Abenaki cultural heritage as well as the heritage of other Native Americans living in New Hampshire.

Those who were part of that early reawakening of Abenaki culture in New Hampshire comment on the process of cultural awakening that has seen tremendous change since the 1980s and 1990s. During those years many New Hampshire Abenakis who attended the powwows tended to wear bits and pieces of regalia that reflected the cultures of many other tribes, but especially the culture ways of the Lakota people from out West.

Denise Pouliot, Sag8moskwa (female head speaker) of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki People here in New Hampshire, remembers “the pan-Indianism times well. There was only one group of Abenakis dressing in culturally appropriate Northeast Woodlands clothing at the time. Now people are much more apt to be knowledgeable about what culturally appropriate traditional Abenaki clothing looks like and are wearing their regalia for special celebrations and powwows.”

A display on the wall of the People of the Dawnland exhibit explains the importance of handcrafted goods in the Abenaki tradition.

In 1991, the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum was opened in Warner by Bud and Nancy Thompson. From its beginning, the museum had a positive impact on New Hampshire Abenakis while it fostered respect for all Native American cultures. Over the years the museum became a nurturing cultural center, a source of information for the general public, and a place for Abenakis and members of other tribes to meet and learn from one another.

As time has passed and communications improved with the development of the internet, there has been, and continues to be, an efflorescence and revitalization of Abenaki culture in New Hampshire. Powwows and seasonal cultural celebrations are held year-round. Abenaki traditional dances, music, storytelling, clothing ways, foodways, beautifully crafted works of art and demonstrations of craft ways are shared with the general public. Everyone is welcome at powwows. New Hampshire Abenakis are celebrating the revitalization of their culture and also sharing their message that, “We’re still here.”

Through these last few decades of renewed and growing Abenaki identity, there have been several significant developments. In 2010, the New Hampshire Legislature created the New Hampshire Commission on Native American Affairs (NHCNAA). Since there are no state or federally recognized Native American tribes in New Hampshire, the commission has become the de facto point of contact to act as a facilitator and liaison for information and issues relating to New Hampshire’s Native Americans.

In addition to the creation of the NHCNAA, there have been several other fairly recent positive developments relating to supporting and educating the public about New Hampshire’s Abenaki people.

In 2016, faculty members of the UNH Anthropology Department working in cooperation with the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki People formed a group of activist Indigenous allies called the Indigenous New Hampshire Collaborative Collective (INHCC). This group of mostly non-Indigenous students and professionals, working in partnership with Abenaki advisors, have undertaken many projects to help educate the public about the history, culture and ongoing presence of New Hampshire’s Abenaki people.

“As a person with Indigenous heritage in the Northeast Woodlands peoples, I greatly appreciate the inclusion, camaraderie, deep historical, archeological and scientific research which has helped bring light to the true story of the thousands of generations of Indigenous peoples who have called this land their home,” said Kathleen Blake, former chair of the New Hampshire Commission on Native American Affairs. “It is so very helpful to work with others, Indigenous and not, who care deeply about truth, honesty and cultivating understanding.”

A display of books by Abenaki and other Indigenous authors serves as library for staff and as a visitor reference at Strawbery Banke.

In keeping with its goal to educate the public about New Hampshire’s Abenaki people, the INHCC has created a set of curriculum materials and Teachers’ Guide about the Abenaki for New Hampshire educators to use with their students. The guide has a tremendous list of resources: books, websites, etc. that will be interesting to not only teachers, but for anyone who wants to learn more about the Abenaki/Wabanaki peoples.

The INHCC has also created several videos, blogs and a collection of written articles on topics ranging from land acknowledgements to Indigenous mascots, to environmental issues, and traditional Abenaki cultural information. The INHCC website makes all of these materials available at no cost.

In 2017, the Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth began a modest Abenaki interpretation program that in 2019 grew into a permanent exhibit called “People of the Dawnland.”

Alexandra Martin is a historical archaeologist
and anthropologist. She is the archaeologist
at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth and
curated the People of the Dawnland exhibit.

In her role as the archaeologist at Strawbery Banke Museum and the coordinator of their Abenaki Heritage Initiative — which includes the permanent “People of the Dawnland” exhibit as well as the museum’s expanding Abenaki history and cultural programming — Alexandra Martin sees her work as an Abenaki ally “as an opportunity to work with Indigenous partners to decolonize the Abenaki history of New Hampshire and Northern New England.”

Martin notes that she “grew up in New Hampshire being fascinated with Abenaki history, but not getting much exposure to Abenaki people or current issues. Today, as a grown-up museum professional and educator, we have a responsibility to educate the public in an engaging way about events in the present as well as the past.”

She also noted that the museum, having committed to acting as an ally to Abenaki, Wabanaki and other Indigenous peoples, has expanded the “People of the Dawnland” exhibit from one room to two, and grown the Abenaki Heritage Initiative to include outdoor interpretation with a wigwam frame (2020) and a “Three Sisters” teaching garden (2021), an additional exhibit room and an intertribal powwow event (2023), as well as public presentations on Abenaki language revitalization efforts and a traditional Native American Storytelling Festival. All of these efforts have had far reaching impact.

In 2019, the University of New Hampshire in Durham created a Native American and Indigenous Studies Minor program that offers courses on a variety of Indigenous-related topics, including introducing the history of New Hampshire’s Abenakis. These and other new Abenaki public education initiatives around the state are far reaching.

Proof of the New Hampshire public is becoming much more aware of New Hampshire’s Abenaki heritage and the Abenaki people who are still living here can be seen in the queries that come in from schools, libraries, historical societies, museums and the general public, seeking accurate information about the Abenaki people.

There is still much that needs to be done, though, to educate about and support New Hampshire’s Indigenous peoples as their existence and their culture reemerge from obscurity. When speaking of what it feels like to be a New Hampshire resident with Abenaki heritage, Abenaki people will often share how disheartening it is to continually be told that they don’t exist because “there are no Abenaki people in New Hampshire anymore.” That erasure — be it intentional or just from the lack of accurate information — is deeply felt.

When asked how the public can be of help, a consistent message from New Hampshire’s Abenakis is that the place to begin is by acknowledging the Abenaki people who are living in New Hampshire now:

“Please don’t speak of us only in the past tense. We’re still here.”

This article is featured in the spring-summer 2024 issue of 603 Diversity.

603 Diversity’s mission is to educate readers of all backgrounds about the exciting accomplishments and cultural contributions of the state’s diverse communities, as well as the challenges faced and support needed by those communities to continue to grow and thrive in the Granite State.

More stories from 603 Diversity.

Order a copy of the print edition.