American culture

Abenaki

The Abenaki (also Wabanaki), meaning people of the dawn, are a tribe of Native Americans/First Nations belonging to the Algonquian peoples of northeastern North America.

The Abenakis inhabited the area that includes parts of Quebec and the Maritime Provinces in Canada, and the bulk of what is now the states of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine in the United States. The language of the Abenakis shared common roots with neighboring tribes such as the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Penawapskewi, (otherwise known as Penobscot), and other New England tribes. There were numerous cultural differences between the Algonquian tribes and those of the Five Nations with linguistic and spiritual differences being the most noticeable.

There are very few native speakers of the original Abenaki language still alive. There are active Abenaki communities in Quebec, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire.

Abenaki mythology

Beings of the Ancient Age

• Ato-sees (also Atosis) - a Medeoulin who is both snake and human, forces people to find a stick so that he can cook them with it, was blinded by Moosbas
• Az-ban (also Azeban) - raccoon or wolverine trickster spirit
• Kee-wakw - a gigantic, forest-dwelling cannibal
• Kee-zos-en - the solar deity, an eagle whose wings opened to create the day, and closed to cause the night-time
• Keeta-skog (also Peeta-skog) - a snake-spirit who fights the Pa-don-gi-ak
• K-tsee Awa-soos - the first four stars of the Big Dipper are the Great Bear, who is chased every night by four hunters; he is killed every fall and his blood drips to earth turning the leaves brown while the constellation turns upside down; it is righted, and he is reborn, every spring
• Mat-gwas - a rabbit spirit, first (one of magic) the rabbit, the very first Medeoulin (shaman), legendary founded of the Meda Society of Magic
• Metee-kolen-ol - a race of evil wizards with hearts of ice
• Nanom-keea-po-da - subterranean spirit who causes earthquakes
• Nee-ben - a woman whose stunning beauty forces Pe-ben to retreat to the north; she represents summer
• P-mol-a (also Bmola, Pomola) - a bird and night spirit who takes prisoners to Alomkik, near Mt. Katahdin and causes cold weather
• P-son-en - an eagle-spirit that makes snow by opening his wings
• Pa-don-gi-ak - seven white-skinned, golden-haired brothers, half-human and half-bird, former inhabitants of Lake Champlain, war-like (battles Keeta-skog), thunder and lightning spirits.
• Pe-ben - (also Pebon) a powerful sorcerer who puts his audience to sleep when he tells stories, spirit of winter
• See-gwen - a young male who loved the season of summer, and brought her to the north every spring
• Tabal-dak (also Tabaldak) - the androgynous creator of existence
• Wa-won-dee-a-megw - a snail spirit that can live in trees, on land or in the water, as well as change size and appearance to look like a huge snake, alligator or scaly man; has horns which can be ground into a magical powder
• Wad-zoos-en - the eagle that flaps his wings to create wind
• Wassan-mon-ganeehla-ak - a race of people who play games with a ball of light, causing the Aurora Borealis

Beings of the Golden Age

• Oodzee-hozo - ("the man who created himself") a man who lived before the invention of legs. He dragged his body around, creating mountains, valleys and rivers (in this early form, he is referred to as Bemee-geedzin-pobi-zeed), as well as Lake Champlain, which is holy to the Abenaki. Odzihozo turned himself into a stone in the middle of the lake and is said to inhabit Rock Dunder (west of Burlington, Vermont).
• Tool-ba - foolish turtle spirit, uncle of Gluskab
• Pla-ween-noo - turtle spirit, mother of Gluskab, patron spirit of the Sokwakis
• A-gaskw (also Nokemis) - woodchuck spirit, grandmother of Gluskab, very wise
• Moos-bas - mink spirit, adopted son on Gluskab, powerful fletcher, sometimes fulfills wishes
• Mool-sem - one of Gluskab's dogs, the white one, could shrink or enlarge himself
• M-da-weelh-ak - a loon spirit in the form of a dog, Gluskab's messenger, one of his dogs, the black one, could shrink or enlarge himself
• A-senee-ki-wakw - a race of stone giants, the first people Gluskab created but then destroyed because they crushed other animals and injured the earth with their great size

Beings of the Present Age

• Alom-bag-winno-sis a mischievous, aquatic creature that upsets canoes
• Alom-begwi-no-sis - an aquatic dwarfish race of men that can increase or decrease body size at will; they also own a pot which can transform a few kernels of maize into a huge quantity; seeing one supposedly foretells a death by drowning
• Ask-wee-da-eed - a fire-elemental, identified as a will o' the wisp, that brings bad luck and death, also connected with comets and meteors
• Atsolowas - a trickster.
• Awa-hon-do z- insect spirits that bite humans
• Awes-kon-wa - a small, flying sprite, associated with the Mohawk tribe
• Batsolowanagwes - a benign trickster
• Bedig-wajo (western Abenaki) or Ktaden (eastern Abenaki) - a culture hero
• Chibaiskweda - marsh gas, supposedly caused by the ghost of an improperly buried corpse
• Do-gakw-ho-wad - small men who prop the jaws of animals open with sticks in order to avoid being eaten
• Dzee-dzee-bon-da - a monster, so ugly that even he is terrified of his own appearance
• Ko-gok - another monster
• Lo-lol - a frightening monster
• M-ska-gwe-demoos - a swamp-dwelling woman, dressed in moss with moss for hair; she cries alone in the forest and is potentially dangerous
• Maski-mon-gwe-zo-os - a toad creature, seduces men and children and kills them, appears either as a partridge or a woman dressed in moss, with a belt made of arborvitae bark
• Meek-moos-ak - a pair of short twins who seduce women, who are then cursed to never desire marriage, kills hunters during the winter, possibly a personification of the Mi'kmaq tribe
• N-dam-keno-wet - a half-fish, half-human creature with a small face and long hair, molests bathing women
• P-skig-demo-os - a female creature, P-skig-demo-os slays men and children
• Pak-zin-skwa - an ugly, old woman
• Pim-skwa-wagen-owad - small, aquatic, pinching creatures
• Pok-wejee-men - small creatures, created from the bark of the ash tree
• Tsa-tsamolee-as - the noisy, clownish fool
• Tsi-noo - a person whose heart is made of ice and has no soul; he eats the souls of others for sustenance and strength
• Wana-games-ak - river-dwelling creatures with faces so narrow, they are essentially two-dimensional, friendly creatures that warned the Abenaki of coming attacks