Skowhegan Community History

by Dana Bulba

The Abenaki Native Americans lived peacefully in Norridgewock and the surrounding areas before the Europeans came and eventually destroyed their way of life.

During the many years that the Abenakis inhabited the Norridgewock area, they did many things in order to live. Each season they carried out different rituals.

Spring - They would use tree bark that was peeled from trees to make containers, wigwam sheathing, and moose horns made for calling moose. They also would plant what little food that would grow, including pumpkins, squash and a lot of corn. The Native Americans would make nets, weirs and spears to catch eels and fish. The women and children sometimes traveled to the water's edge to pick fiddleheads. They also grew Jerusalem artichokes, which were well liked among the Indians.

Summer - In the summer the Abenakis would travel to the coast to clam, fish, and collect seafood. They would sometimes have big seafood feasts, where they would cook on hot rocks, and seaweed. The Abenakis dried their seafood they caught during the summer, and brought it back to the villages to eat. Some would stay home and go river fishing, and night fishing. They were able to go night fishing with birch bark torches. The children would hunt sea birds and spear crabs and lobsters. The men went deep sea spearing for (Passamaquoddy) porpoises and seals.

Fall/Winter - Before the frosts came, the women and children went into the forests to forage nuts and berries. The men would ready their snow equipment, and set out at different times to go deep forest hunting. From deep wood teepees they would track deer, caribou, moose, and bear. They would use a bow and arrow to catch the animals in a snow drift. Out in the wilderness all of the water was frozen, so there was no way to clean themselves. They made sweat baths or lodges, by heating stones in a cold lodge until very hot, and then cooling them to create steam.

In the life cycle of the Abenakis, the way doctors and people delivered babies was very different from today. Giving birth meant young women going into the forest alone for 1-2 hours. They would then come back to the village and continue their everyday work. Some would even dig in the clam beds with the infants. Newborn babies would be diapered in absorbing spagnum, moss, cattail or milkweed fluff, and wrapped in a soft fir.

Boys practiced marksmanship with scaled-down bows and arrows. The girls would gather nuts, greens, roots and firewood. They also would help with the cooking and carrying of the household goods to the summer or winter quarters. By the age of 10, boys and girls were skilled canoeists who used paddles fashioned by their fathers.

Their way of life changed as a result of the coming of the Europeans and they were never to go back to that peaceful existence that they enjoyed.

Sebastian Rasle, A Friend to the Abenakis of Norridgewock

By Jill Cole and Kasey Knowles

Father Rasle was a catholic priest originally from France, who lived in Norridgewock, helping the Abenakis.

Letters that Father Rasle had written to his nephew have been gathered with the purpose of keeping for further generations to read and learn about the past.

Father Rasle wrote to his nephew from Nonrantsouack, meaning Norridgewock:

For thirty years I've lived in the midst of the forest and with the savages. I have instructed them and inform [ed] them to their Christian virtues. I'm in the district that lies between Acadia and New England. By mixing berries with an equal quantity of tallow, you can make beautiful candles that are firm and excellent for use. I have composed some prayers to alter the minds of the savages. These prayers are of the natures. I teach catechism to the children and young people. The rest of the morning is set for listening to the people that need to talk to me. Usually people want to talk to me about their pains, their anxieties, jobs, their marriage and personal affairs. In the afternoons I visit the sick and check the cabins to check who needs some special attention. At night, for dinner we have huge feasts, which whoever is invited MUST bring one plate of wood or bark and then I give the benediction upon the meats. Some nights I hardly have time to say my prayers and get rest. The savages go to the sea in pursuit to find geese and birds. Then they build a church on the island, which is next to their little cabin for their residence. My food is simple and light. I've never been able to taste meat and smoked fish, my nourishment is nothing, but Indian corn.

Father Rasle was a strong believer in Christianity. Not only did he teach religion, he devoted his time totally to the well being of the Abenakis. Father Rasle lived among the Norridgewocks for 34 years.

Father Rasle built a chapel and furnished it with objects needed for celebrating mass. He was an artist and he painted pictures of religious subjects. The natives were fond of a bell that Father Rasle had. The natives wished that when they rang the bell, it sang as sweetly as it did when in father Rasle's hands.

One day the English took his strong box full of incriminating letters. These letters were to said to have encouraged the Norridgewocks to fight against the English. The English felt that Father Rasle was stirring up the Native Americans and encouraging them to be violent against them. Father Rasle wanted to represent the wishes of the Abenakis and be their spokesman to stand up for what was right. The definition of land ownership was very different for the English than the Abenakis so land deals never worked. The Abenakis believed that the lands were there to share, and to hunt on, as needed to live but the English wanted to own it and keep anyone off that they chose.

Finally, the English under the leadership of Captain Moulton and Harmon decided in 1724 to leave Swan's Island to go up the Kennebec and attack the village of Norridgewock. On the evening of August 21 the soldiers surprised Chief Bomazeen and his maiden. They killed the woman and a child and Bomazeen ran to warn the others in the village. He was shot down in the river where it is still today called "Bomazeen Rips." Around noon on August 22, the soldiers circled the small village. They found that most of the men were out hunting and the only ones left were women, children, and old people. They opened fire and the sight that followed was terrible. The Abenakis ran towards the river and were shot down turning the river red with blood. Eighty innocent people were killed that sad day. None of Moulton or Harmon's men were killed. They took a few captive young boys and 28 scalps including Father Rasle's to parade around Boston and brag of the killing. The Abenakis went back to Canada after that but returned years later. However, the village was never the same, and eventually they all went to other parts of Maine.

Material used for research includes Maine Dirigo "I Lead" by Dean B. Bennett, Black robe on the Kennebec by Mary R. Calvert, and Dawn Over the Kennebec by Mary R. Calvert.