Recently in social studies class Mr. Charnley, our world languages teacher, taught about the Wabanaki tribes in Maine, out in the Oaks. Mr. Charnley talked about how they used the water ways and the land to survive. He brought in some artifacts that represented what they used in the old days like a canoe and baskets. We had questions for Mr Charnley. Here’s what he wrote:
Would they visit other tribes? Trade? The Wabanaki are culturally a part of the Algonquian language family which means that they have language connections to Native people from New England, up to the Maritimes in Canada and west to the Anishanabe in the Wisconsin area. They would certainly have visited among the tribes speaking similar languages but most Native people knew several languages and so could visit and trade with tribes all over the Eastern seaboard. Items have been found in Wabanaki archeological sites that were manufactured in the Southwest and vice-versa. Travel by canoe or by foot would have gotten these early traders where they needed to go. Europeans made use of Native knowledge of North America to set up their own trading routes. The Wabanaki today have many friends and family connections among many Native American nations and beyond.
How did they marry? What were the expectations? Did they choose their mate or were their marriages arranged? Marriage was every bit as serious and important among the Wabanaki as it is today. Some marriages appear to have been arranged to cement ties between tribes or elements of a tribe but others seem to have been by choice. The most basic expectation was to honor your partner and bring up your children well. In some tribes, women would signal the end of a marriage by placing the man’s belongings outside the home. Marriage was noted by a ceremony that family and associated tribal members might attend and having children to pass on the culture was its deepest goal.
What were the roles of men and women? What duties did each have? The roles played by men and women were structured but flexible. Women were hunters of small game and the gatherers / growers of 90% of all food consumed. They had primary responsibility for raising the children but men would also pass on the skills they had learned in various ways. Women could be “chiefs” and usually played an essential role in selecting leaders. Women learned to fight but most of the limited warfare was carried out by the men. Ceremonial practices and medicinal knowledge was shared by both genders with women having more information about women’s concerns and men about men’s. After Contact with Europeans, these roles changed and ultimately became more rigid. In many cases, European children and women who had been returned to colonial villages after having been captured by Native tribes later ran away to rejoin their captors because the gender roles were more relaxed than in English villages.
Leaders? Was there a single leader? Leaders were selected for the qualities they had for a certain role: trading, peace, war, hunting, traveling, etc. As the need changed, so would the role. Women were often “chiefs” or “sachems” depending on their skills. There was rarely a single leader - this was something the American government demanded when they started negotiating treaties with Native American nations. They also refused to negotiate with female sachems. In some Native nations today, it is still up to the women to select the single chief and they have the power to throw him out of power if he does not behave well.
How did they know where to hunt? Individuals and groups of big-game hunters, usually men, paid attention when they hunted to animal movements, migration patterns, changes in geography and feeding grounds. All the tribes would talk among themselves to about who could hunt where to avoid over-hunting an area and some regions would be left alone to rebuild animal herds. Attention to climate changes and seasonal changes were important in determining how successful they might be. Ceremonies were also held to bring the gods in their side were held and prayers to the animal, before and after the hunt, were generally practised.
When did children start hunting? The children, boys and girls, hunted as soon as they could handle a bow or set a trap. Their contributions to the village food pots were honored and skills that would lead to their becoming more successful hunters were practised in the form of games over many years.
Where would they sink their canoes? The canoes would be sunk near their winter encampment. Not all Wabanaki practised this way of preserving the canoe but is seems to be fairly common across the Eastern US and Canada.
What other rituals did they practice? Like any other complicated society, Native American peoples practised rituals around food gathering and use, war and peace, death and healing, trade and negotiations, marriages and childbirth. We tend to believe that Native peoples were simple and unsophisticated but all of the cultural elements of the most “advanced” societies were a part of every Indigenous culture everywhere, in the past and today, and on into the future.
What were their beliefs around “mythical” animals? The Wabanaki have great stories about giants, little people, talking animals, and Paloma, a creature that guards Katahdin. All stories teach a people how to live and how to continue their culture or adapt to new challenges. Animals, mythical or otherwise, play an important role in helping the Wabanaki understand who they are and who they might become.
