The Abenaki (Abenaki: Wαpánahki) are Indigenous People of Canada and the United States. The original name “Waban-Aki” or “Wobanakis” comes from the words “wabun” (light) and “a’Ki” (earth), meaning “Land of the morning”, “People of the East”, “Land of the rising sun”. Their history dates back thousands of years.
Also known as the “W8banakiak” of the “W8banaki” Nation, these natives of northeastern North America belong to the Algonquian linguistic and cultural family of the northeast coast. Their original language was spoken in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and northern Maine. By the time Europeans arrived in the 17th century, several groups were living along the St. Lawrence Valley, the Great Lakes and New England.
one under colonization; instrumentalized by the French and English colonial powers.
Before they began farming, they lived along rivers, which enabled them to access their winter hunting grounds in the forest and return to camp in the summer; a tradition typical of a nomadic culture before it was fragmented by colonization.
They produced baskets, birchbark objects and used to make canoes.
They were patrilineal, meaning that hunting territories were passed down from father to son, and were governed by wise men, chiefs called Sagamores (or sakimau; in Penobscot: civil chief). Animists, they venerated the spirits of nature and Kchini waskw, the Great Creator. It was this reference that facilitated evangelization, by being assimilated to the monotheistic god. Their shamans, the Medéoulin (Mdawinno), presided over the ceremonies.
It should be pointed out, however, that the term “shaman” is no longer appropriate. Today, indigenous peoples speak of “healing-man”, medicine-men dedicated to harmonization and healing, to avoid the negative connotations of shamanism.
Waban-Aki history goes back thousands of years. Like most aboriginal peoples, they experienced a loss of identity, culture and territory, moving from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary
