Henry Lorne Masta (born March 9, 1853) was an

Abenaki The Abenaki (Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predom ...

writer, teacher, and scholar of the

Abenaki language Abenaki (''Eastern: Alənαpαtəwéwαkan, Western: Alnôbaôdwawôgan'') is an endangered Algonquian language of Quebec and the northern states of New England. The language has Eastern and Western forms which differ in vocabulary and phonolog ...

. He was also a respected leader in the

community. Masta published ''Abenaki Legends, Grammar, and Place Names'' in 1932. He began writing the book in 1929 at 79 years of age. Abenaki is a member of the

Algonquian languages The Algonquian languages ( or ; also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous American languages that include most languages in the Algic languages, Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language f ...

family and is spoken in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

and neighboring US states. There are few native speakers—the language is spoken by only 3% of the current Abenaki population. Masta was fluent in French, English and the Abenaki language.

Early education and writing

He received his primary and secondary education at the Protestant school and church founded by his uncle, Pial Pol Wz8khilain, on the Saint Francis Indian reserve. His teacher there was

tribal chief A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribe The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia. Tribal societies are sometimes categorized as ...

of the Abenaki at

Odanak Odanak is an Abenaki First Nations reserve in the Central Quebec region, Quebec, Canada. The mostly First Nations population as of the Canada 2021 Census was 481. The territory is located near the mouth of the Saint-François River at its confluenc ...

Joseph Laurent Joseph Laurent ( abe, Sozap Lolô; 1839–1917), was an Abenaki chief, best known for authoring an Abenaki language dictionary. He also established a trading post in New Hampshire that is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Biog ...

. Following Wzokhilain's guide, the threesome published language texts and wrote text books for use within the community. Laurent, also known as Sozap Lolô, is esteemed as a Native American linguist who helped preserve his own language.

Ives Goddard Robert Hale Ives Goddard III (born 1941) is a linguist and a curator emeritus in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. He is widely considered the leading expert on the Algonqui ...

, a noted historian of linguistics, observed of Laurent, "This is a really remarkable case of native grammatical tradition emerging among

native people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

." The works that they wrote spanned the Five Nations and Native Americans by successfully translating Wabanki cosmology, demonstrating the continuance of names and stories associated with particular places in communal memory, even for those families who lived outside the original home territory in Quebec. In addition, Masta's ''Abenaki Legends, Grammar, and Place Names'' explains etymology pertaining to large areas of land, rivers, and traditions.

College, marriage and career

Masta later attended Sabrevois College near St-Johns, P.Q. While there, he studied Latin and Greek. In 1875, he married Caroline Tahamont. Her family was from the communities of Odanak, the

Adirondacks The Adirondack Mountains (; a-də-RÄN-dak) form a massif in northeastern New York with boundaries that correspond roughly to those of Adirondack Park. They cover about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2). The mountains form a roughly circular d ...

and

Saratoga Springs, New York Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over 2 ...

where she and other relatives lived each summer to sell their baskets in Congress Park For 31 years, Masta was the schoolmaster in the

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

school at Odanak where he introduced children to the grammatical rules governing their much-forgotten language. Henry Lorne Masta went on to become chief of The St. Francis Abenaki at Odanak, and served as such for 20 years.

Recognition

In ''The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous American Literature'', author James Howard Cox credits Masta for revitalizing the Abenaki language:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Masta, Henry 1853 births Abenaki people Canadian social sciences writers 20th-century First Nations writers Linguistics writers Year of death missing 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers First Nations academics