Pequawket

Approximate original location of the Pequawket (Pigwacket) and other Abenaki groups, ca.
Total population
extinct as a tribe in the early 19th century[1]
Regions with significant populations
New Hampshire, Maine
Religion
Indigenous religion
Related ethnic groups
Other Abenaki peoples

The Pequawket were a Native American band of Abenaki people. In the 18th century, they lived in New Hampshire and Maine.^[2]

Territory

The Pequawket lived near the headwaters of the Saco River and near what is now Carroll County, New Hampshire^[2] and Oxford County, Maine. Their primary town, also called Pequawket, was near Fryeburg, Maine.^[2]

Name

The etymology of Pequawket is disputed but might come from pekwakik, which translates "at the hole in the ground".^[2]

Their name is also spelled 'Pigwacket and many other spelling variants, and Dean Snow suggests it may have come from Eastern Abenaki apíkwahki, "land of hollows").^[3]

History

18th century

On April 16, 1725, the Pequawket fought the Battle at Pequawket against Captain John Lovewell and 50 English troops. The Pequawket killed Lovewell; however, the British killed Chief Paugus. After that skirmish, the Pequawket and the Arosaguntacook withdrew to the Connecticut River. The Arosaguntacook migrated north to Canada, where they settled in Saint-François-du-Lac, Quebec, while the Pequawket stayed there through the American Revolutionary War. Some returned to their homeland in the late 18th century.^[2]

Notable Pequawket

• Nescambious, an 18th-century Pequawket chief
• Molly Ockett (ca. 1740–1816), herbal healer and craftswomen^[1]

See also

• Battle of Pequawket
• Pequawket Brook

References