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Teaching our culture
Preserving Our Culture
The Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe is serious about achieving economic self-sufficiency and stability for our people which means controlling our own destinies. With energy, determination, vision, and a commitment to the larger community, our sights are set upon utilizing our own resources and abilities to grow in the realm of economic development, more specifically, cottage industry and cultural tourism.
The revitalization, preservation, and protection of our cultural, historic, and physical values and resources is the foundation upon which we stand. Teaching our young ones the skills and customs of our ancestors keeps our heritage alive. We empower our children, not only to survive, but to thrive during economic hardships by utilizing the traditions and practices of our ancestors, such as organic agriculture and permaculture.
Chief Don Stevens with his mother
Site Content
Nulhegan Mound Gardening
Nulhegan mound gardening has been passed down through generations and is alive and well. Often referred to as "Three Sisters" gardening - corn, squash, and beans are planted together and have complimented one another for centuries. Large amounts of healthy, organic food can be grown on even small parcels of land. Living sustainable lives and keeping our customs and traditions alive is the only way we know to ensure continuity.
Mounds prepared for Three Sisters Garden
our history
Historical Timeline
Early and modern historical references
1772-1775
Henry Tufts documents his life living among the Coosuck Abenaki. He lived among 2 family bands that ranged between Lake Memphremegog and Lake Umbagog with Old Philip, Mali Orcutt, Swasson, Susap and Tomhegan.
Winter 1783-1784
An Abenak named “Foosah” claims to have killed 27 moose and large #’s of beaver and otter at Barton Pond in VT
Winter 1779
Captain Susuap and a small band of Abenaki join settlers in Troy, VT and build their winter camp on the river. They sell baskets, birch bark cups & pails while there. Molly Orcutt was among them and doctored many of the settlers while living next to them.
Autumn 1788
Pierre Sales de La Terrière while traveling by the Abenaki on Lake Memphremagog on his way from Three Rivers to Harvard Medical School, notes in his memoirs “This road is so frequented by the savages, that, from distance to distance there are huts made that each one repairs and maintains in turn: they serve all people……The head of the family came from salmon fishing and moose hunting…..provided us with enough flesh and well-smoked fish for the rest of our trip.”
June 30, 1796
Coosuk Chief Philip sells over 3,000 square miles straddling the border to four men; Thomas Eames and 3 associates that called themselves the Eastern Company. The price was a simple promise to keep Philip and his two wives well fed and clothed for the rest of their lives and allow all other band members fishing and hunting rights on the land in perpetuity. This deed was signed by Phillip, Molly Mussell, and Mooselock Sullsop.
The 3,000 square miles included: from Umbagog and Mooselookmeguntic Lakes in the East (the headwaters of the Megalloway and Androscoggin Rivers; South to the junction of the Ammonoosuc with the Connecticut; West to the western shore of Lake Memphremagog up the Clyde and along the Nulhegan; and North to the junction of the Salmon and St Francis Rivers.
This land sale was actually illegal since the Federal Non-Intercourse Act of 1791 prohibited any agency other than the US government from buying Indian lands within the territory claimed by the United States (as about half of this parcel did.) Also in 1793 the Continental Congress wrote up a law forbidding private citizens to buy land from the Indians. The state of NH had a similar law on the books as early as 1719.
June 1812
A band of Abenaki is reported living at Owls Head Mountain on Lake Memphremagog in Potton, QC
1907
An Abenaki burial ground is dug up during the excavation for Barton Academy (now Barton Graded School). No record of what happened to those artifacts appears to exist.
August 15, 1957
John C. Huden, in his book “Indian Place Names in Vermont”, mentions a band of Abenaki called Nulheganocks living in the Nulhegan River Basin of the North East Kingdom of Vermont. Huden lists his informatants as Stephen Laurent, Amboise Obumsawin, Alice Masta Wawanolett and Oliver Wawanolett of Odanak, QC
June 25, 1978
The first record of a 20th century repatriation and reburial of Abenaki remains takes place in Center Harbor, NH. *From 1978 to the mid 1980’s there were in-depth discussions with Stephen Laurent, Homer St. Francis and Richard Phillips about the repatriation of Abenaki burials in NH.
November 15, 1980
The first record of a repatriation and reburial of Abenaki remains takes place in VT after a set of Abenaki remains is discovered at the Putney Historical Society in Putney, VT. Blackie Lampman and Richard Phillips ask Beverly Bolding of Goffstown, NH to facilitate the repatriation.
May 3rd, 2006
The Vermont Legislature recognized the Abenaki as a “Minority Population” within the State of Vermont under Statute 853. This entitled the Abenaki protections as a disadvantaged race of people. However, since there were no recognized Abenaki Indian Tribes in Vermont, there were “legally” no Abenaki people under the law. This was an attempt to recognize our people without recognizing tribes which of course we would not accept.
March 16, 2008
The Vermont Indigenous Alliance is formed by Elnu Tribe, Koasek Tribe, Missiqoui Tribe and Nulhegan Tribe of Abenaki with the purpose of unifying the tribes and pursuing official state recognition from the state of Vermont.