chapter one A Time before New England A History of Early Dawnland This chapter examines the history of the indigenous peoples who lived in the area we today call New England from roughly about 13,000 years ago to around 1000 CE. The New England of today is part of a culture area that archaeologists, anthropologists, and Native American studies scholars refer to as the “northern Eastern Woodlands” as well as the “Atlantic Northeast,” two terms that help us to discuss a diverse array of indigenous peoples and places in a regional context. The Native American groups who lived in this region had different ceremonials, languages, and ways of living, but at the same time they also shared many cultural similarities. Categories such as the northern Eastern Woodlands and the Atlantic Northeast help us to gain a better understanding of the Native American past and the trends and tenden- cies that shaped it. Geographically speaking, these culture areas encompass what are today New England, the mid-Atlantic region, and southeastern Canada and, in the case of the northern Eastern Woodlands, also the Great Lakes region and the Midwest.1 Some of the Wabanaki peoples who live in northern New England, a grouping of indigenous nations that includes today’s Penobscot, Passama- quoddy, and Maliseet nations as well as several other Native American groups in the northeastern United States, refer to the region we today call New England as “Dawnland,” or “Land of the Dawn.” This chapter adopts this indigenous nomenclature as a place-name for New England. The name “Dawnland” stems from the region’s easterly geographic location on “Turtle Island” (a name used by several indigenous peoples to describe the Ameri- cas) because the sun rises there in the morning. Thus, in the minds of many Native Americans in the region, it is one of the first places on Turtle
Previous Page Next Page