Town Myth

To understand the history of the land that Keene State College sits on, we first have to understand the land from Native Americans point of view. We do this by looking at the misinterpretation of who, what, when, where, and why and seek how these concepts affected the Native Americans of this area. I mention the misinterpretation first and foremost because it is this precise misunderstanding that has caused the demise of the Abenaki to become forgotten and all but missing in New Hampshire’s history books. We also take in oral history, gather reading references and documents that reflect the Native and colonist’s viewpoint, and collectively combine what we have learned of the local Native Americans with that of what we’ve amassed throughout the semester thus far.

Below I mention two local myths and then provide a rebuttal, or a reply if you would, to that myth in the hopes of shedding light on a more accurate account of the events that happened during that time.

Myth: The Native Americans that inhabited the area left before the arrival of the colonists.

Reply: This myth is false. In fact, it’s documented in The Historical Society of Cheshire County that pre-1650 the Squakeag Indian culture (a common mispronunciation and misspelling of the Sokwaki Indians) “were intact and inhabiting the Connecticut and Ashuelot River valleys.” It is this frequent misspelling of Native American surnames by the colonists and receiving new surnames that were easier for the colonists to pronounce that has led to the Abenaki populace to “disappear” from New Hampshire’s historical records, as you will see in my second myth.

What I’ve discovered is that the first Native Americans in the area were known locally as the Ashuelot Indians. The Ashuelot Indians are better known as the Abenaki who belong to the Wabanaki Confederacy. This group did not leave collectively, however, upon or before the arrival of the colonists. Author, Gordon Day, points out that the Abenaki often traveled to numerous locals based on the changes in the season. Warmer, summer days would bring them closer to the coast and while colder, winter months would push them inland as they sought shelter from the cold.

So although it may seem to the colonists that the Abenaki fled before initial contact, there are more documents to prove other wise. Yet these documents are not readily known and discussed.

Myth: The Native Americans never returned to this land after the arrival of the colonists.

Reply: Also false. Keene’s Native American community didn’t vanish, as myth would have you believe. Some hid in plain sight. Many died from colonist-host diseases and wars, some unfortunately enslaved, and others “disappeared” by marrying into colonists families. Even having done so, they were faced with extreme adversity of their cultural background and forced to hide or move. By hiding in plain sight, the Abenaki had to neglect who they were as a people and assimilate to the colonist life style. They couldn’t practice their Native American traditions or speak their native language. It is believed that eugenics was practiced at this time, as well, in order to rid the colonist population of Native American bloodline as a result of these inter-racial marriages.

As a side note, I want to mention that The Abenaki would later separate into two entities when one group migrated to Canada (Western Abenaki) and the other half migrated to Maine (Eastern Abenaki.) Ashuelot River was more than a just a river for the Abenaki. When translated, Ashuelot means “land between place”. It referred to the flat land between mountains, a well-traveled route to points south, an identifier, and a meeting place. The importance of the Ashuelot can be seen as the length and demography of the river determined how it would later be divided and labeled by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1733. They devised two townships alongside the river, Upper and Lower Ashuelot (now known as modern day Keene and Swanzey.)

We can conclude that the town myths mentioned above have been fairly debunked and scholarly fact checked by my sources cited below.

 

Sources

Day, Gordon M, et al. In Search of New England’s Native Past: Selected Essays. U of Massachusetts P, 1998.

Griffin, Simon G, et al. A History of the Town of Keene from 1732: When the Township Was Granted by Massachusetts, to 1874, When It Became a City. Sentinel Print. Co, 1904.

A History of West Hill-Keene, N.H: By Rich Grumbine, Antioch/New England Graduate School, Horatio Colony Trust Project, December 1987

Bruhac, M (2006). Abenakis at Ashuelot: The Sadoques Family and Keene. Historical Society of Cheshire County Newsletter, 22 (2), Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_papers/150

Oral history of The Abenaki as shared by Anita Weldon, curator of the Horatio Colony Museum.

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