Description
The Pequawket were a Native American band of Abenaki people. In the 18th century, they lived in New Hampshire and Maine. The Pequawket lived near the headwaters of the Saco River and near what is now Carroll County, New Hampshire and Oxford County, Maine. Their primary town, also called Pequawket, was near Fryeburg, Maine. Their name is also spelled 'Pigwacket and many other spelling variants, and Dean Snow suggests it may have come from Eastern Abenaki apikwahki, "land of hollows").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.
Language
Abenaki, also known as Wôbanakiak, is an endangered Eastern Algonquian language
Culture
They cultivated food crops and built villages on or near fertile river floodplains. They also hunted game, fished, and gathered wild plants and fungi. Bands came together during the spring and summer at seasonal villages near rivers, or somewhere along the seacoast for planting and fishing. They were a farming society that supplemented agriculture with hunting and gathering. Generally the men were the hunters. The women tended the fields and grew the crops. In their fields, they planted the crops in groups of "sisters". The three sisters were grown together: the stalk of corn supported the beans, and squash or pumpkins provided ground cover and reduced weeds. The men would hunt bears, deer, fish, and birds.