The Missiquoi (or the Missisquoi or the Sokoki) were a historic band of

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 ...

Indigenous peoples 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 ...

from present-day southern

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 formerly northern

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. This Algonquian-speaking group lived along the eastern shore of

Lake Champlain , native_name_lang = , image = Champlainmap.svg , caption = Lake Champlain-River Richelieu watershed , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = New York/Vermont in the United States; and Quebec in Canada , coords = , type = , ...

at the time of the European incursion. Today, they are part of the

Conseil des Abénakis d'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 conflu ...

, a First Nation in Quebec. Missiquoi is also the name of a 17th-century Abenaki village in northern Vermont, for which the sub-tribe was named.

Name

The name ''Missisquoi'' comes from ''mazipskoiak'' meaning "flint people," which comes from ''mazipskoik'' or "at the flint," meaning a

chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...

quarry near what is now Swanton, Vermont. It's also spelled ''Missiassik'' or ''Masipskoik'' a word that means "where there are many big rocks or boulder" in

History

Prior to European contact, some Western Abenaki founded villages at the mouth of the

Missisquoi River The Missisquoi River is a transboundary river of the east shore of Lake Champlain (via Missisquoi Bay), approximately long, in northern Vermont in the United States and southern Quebec in Canada. It drains a rural area of the northern Green Mount ...

. By the 17th century, Western Abenaki from across

consolidated into the main village at Missisquoi in northern

, so historians began to use the term "Missisquoi tribe" for all

Champlain Valley The Champlain Valley is a region of the United States around Lake Champlain in Vermont and New York extending north slightly into Quebec, Canada. It is part of the St. Lawrence River drainage basin, drained northward by the Richelieu River into ...

Abenakis.Gordon M. Day, "Western Abenaki," page 149. The Sokoki people, who had lived along the

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Island ...

, founded Odanak, also known as the village of St. Francis in Quebec. The Western Abenakis, including those living along the

Merrimack River The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Mas ...

and the Champlain Valley, moved north to the Saint-François River in

Quebec, Canada 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 thirteen p ...

. There they joined the local

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 ...

community of Abenaki people. After enduring French and English colonists, the Missisquoi withdrew from areas of conflict during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

.Gordon M. Day, "Western Abenaki," page 151. Linguist and historian Gordon M. Day wrote, "After this war, the Western Abenakis did not return to any of their former locations in force but rather united or reunited with their brethren at Saint Francis." Some held on to land claims in the United States and even collected rent.Gordon M. Day, "Western Abenaki," page 152. In 1805, the British Crown deeded lands near Durham, Quebec, to Abenaki people who fled the American Revolutionary War; these lands became the Durham Reserve. By 1850, this group became part of the large St. Francis village (Odanak).

State-recognized tribe

The

St. Francis-Sokoki Band of the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi The Missisquoi Abenaki Tribe is a state-recognized tribe in Vermont, who claim descent from Abenaki people, specifically the Missiquoi people. They are not federally recognized as a Native American tribe. Vermont has no federally recognized tr ...

is state-recognized by Vermont and claim to be Missiquoi descendants. The group is based in Swanton, Vermont. The group applied for but was denied

federal recognition This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

as a

Native American tribe In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, tribal nation, or similar concept is any extant or historical clan, tribe, band, nation, or other group or community of Native Americans in the Unit ...

in 2007. The summary of the proposed finding (PF) stated that "The SSA petitioner claims to have descended as a group mainly from a Western Abenaki Indian tribe, most specifically, the Missisquoi Indians" and went on to state: "However, the available evidence does not demonstrate that the petitioner or its claimed ancestors descended from the St. Francis Indians of Quebec, a Missiquoi Abenaki entity in Vermont, any other Western Abenaki group, or an Indian entity from New England or Canada. Instead, the PF concluded that the petitioner is a collection of individuals of claimed but undemonstrated Indian ancestry 'with little or no social or historical connection with each other before the early 1970's'...."

Notes

References

External links

Counseil des Abénakis d'Odanak
official website
Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, Swanton, VT
a state-recognized tribe
"An Act to enfranchise the Indians of the commonwealth."
Federal status / Provincial status {{authority control Abenaki Algonquian ethnonyms First Nations in Quebec Native American tribes in Vermont Native American history of Vermont