Pennacook

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Pennacook Territory

The Pennacook or Merrimack Tribe were a people that formerly inhabited the Merrimack River Valley of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and portions of southern Maine. The name roughly translates (based on Abenaki cognates) as "at the bottom of the hill." The Pennacook, unlike most tribes of Massachusetts, were more closely related to the Abenaki than to the Algonquian tribes such as the Massachusett or Wampanoag. This similarity was both linguistic and cultural, but during the time of early European settlement, the Pennacook were a large confederacy that were politically distinct and at odds with their northern Abenaki neighbours. The Pennacook farmed maize, corn, and squash along fertile river beds, and hunted the wooded, less fertile areas.

One of the first tribes to encounter European colonists, the Pennacook were decimated by introduced diseases, raids by Mohawk and Micmac. Passaconaway, despite his military advantage over the colonists, decided to make peace with them rather than lose even more lives through warfare. King Phillip's War, however, would make their numbers fall even further. Although Wonalancet, a chief of the Pennacook, tried to maintain neutrality, western bands in Massachusetts did not.

The Pennacook fled north with their former enemies, or west with other tribes, where they were hunted down and killed by English colonists. Those that survived, joined other scattered tribespeople at Schaghticoke, New York. Those that fled northward eventually merged with other displaced New England tribes and Abenaki. Although no longer a distinct tribe, many bands of Abenaki in New Hampshire, Canada, and Vermont have Pennacook blood in their veins.