East Somerset County Register, 1911-1912-INDIAN ACCOUNT
Compiled and Published by CHATTO & TURNER
Auburn, Maine
Clarence I. Chatto
Clair E. Turner
pages 19-20
INDIAN ACCOUNT
The section of the State contained in this register is rich in
associations which recall the tribes which once hunted through
it forests and traveled in their birch canoes up and down its
streams. The last trace of these people from whom the fair
inheritance of the people of Somerset County was derived,
has long since passed away, and nothing is left to recall them
to mind except the occasional arrowhead which is turned up by
the plow, and the traditions which have come down from our
fathers, in regard to the early inhabitants of these towns.
The Indians of the whole State of Maine were divided at
the time of the first explorations into two main tribes, the Ab-
nakis and the Etchemins, the former of which held the lands
between the Piscataqua and Penobscot rivers, and is esti-
mated, at the time of the first coming of the English, to have
numbered about twenty thousand. It was a very fierce and
warlike tribe, and, in the Indian wars which ravaged so ter-
ribly the earliest settlements of the State, took sides with the
French against the English. This made their extermination a
matter of necessity for the English if they would themselves
live in their new homes, and so a war to the death was carried
on with them, to such effect that in 1800, practically nothing
was left of the once powerful tribe, and for that reason there is
little to be said of the experiences with the savages of the early
settlers of Eastern Somerset County. In Norridgewock, only
a few miles away, was the seat of the Norridgewock tribe, a
branch of the Abnaki nation, and it was here that the
famous battle of extermination was fought in 1724, in which
the whole tribe was practically destroyed and the French priest,
Father Rasle, who was blamed for instigating the attacks of the
savages on the English settlements, was killed. A monument
stands near the Kennebec River today to mark the spot where
Father Rasle met his death.
The Abnaki nation was divided into four tribes: The Ana-
sagunticooks, who occupied the territory about the Androscog-
gin River; the Sokokis, who had their haunts around the Saco
River; the Wawenoes, who dwelt along the coast, from Merry-
meeting Bay to the Muscongus River; and the Canibas, who
occupied the county from Merrymeeting Bay, along the whole
extent of the Kennebec River to Moosehead Lake. The latter
tribe was divided into three clans: The Norridgewocks, which
was mentioned above; the Taconnets, at Waterville; and the
Cushnocs, at Augusta. These clans had a slight difference in
dialect, but were essentially one people. Farther to the East
lived the great and powerful nation of the Etchemins, which oc-
cupied the whole eastern part of the State from the Penobscot
to the St. Croix. The most important tribe of this nation, in
relation to the territory in Eastern Somerset County, was the
Tarratines, which held all the lands about the Penobscot River.
It is the remnant of this tribe which is still gathered at Old-
town. No doubt the hills and valleys of Palmyra, Pittsfield
and the other towns included in this account were often the
scene of bloody battles between these rival nations, which were
almost constantly at war with one another, because of their
situation near the border line between their respective
grounds. When Capt. John Smith explored the coast of Maine
in 1614, the two nations were engaged in a general war, in
which the Great Chief of the Abnakis was killed, but later they
rallied and became much more powerful than the eastern na-
tion. It is from Capt. Smith we have the earliest account of
these tribes.
(c) 1998
Courtesy of Tina Vickery of Somerset Co, Maine USGenWeb Project
& The Androscoggin Historical Society
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