 |
Agiochook: Magical Stories Appalachia, December 2001 The Abenaki also told stories about certain powerful individuals who had magical powers to control and manipulate nature (Daniell, 7). One of the most renowned was Passaconaway, sachem of the Pennacooks, who lived to the south of the White Mountains. The New English Canaan, an early account of the region, describes his magical powers. The Indians report of one Passaconaway, that he can make the water burn, the rocks move, the trees dance, metamorphise himself into a flaming man. He will do more; for in winter when there are no green leaves to be got, he will burne an old one to ashes, and putting these into water, produce a new green leaf (qtd. in Colby, 85). Passaconaway's power over nature extended even to the manner of his death. In his later years, he wanted very much to be invited to a council of the gods in heaven, and he let the Great Spirit know of his desire. The Great Spirit acceded to his request, ordering the people to build a giant sled to bear Passaconaway to heaven. When the sled was completed, the sachem bade farewell to his people, and twenty-four wolves bounded from a cloud and pulled the sleigh through forests, over rivers, and up the side of Mount Washington. As the sleigh approached the summit, it burst into flames. The wolves pulled Passaconaway beyond the summit, and he entered heaven in a ball of flame (Colby, 88-89). Later Abenaki legends dramatize the instability and conflict caused by the growing encroachment of white settlers, beginning in the mid-1700s. Faced with this threat, the Abenaki sought to preserve their bond with the land by marshaling the aid of the Great Spirit through such means as prophesies and curses. The resulting tales have strong undertones of tragedy, even as they continue to assert the Abenaki power to protect their land by influencing the spirits of the mountains. One such narrative has historical roots in the 1600s, when the French established a mission at the Algonquian village of St. Francis in southern Quebec. During the French and Indian War, these people aided their French allies by making devastating raids on English frontier settlements in New Hampshire. In 1759 General Jeffrey Amherst dispatched two officers to St. Francis to urge the native people to adopt a policy of neutrality. When the officers arrived, though, they were taken prisoner. An infuriated Amherst sent Major Robert Rogers and his rangers to free the officers and avenge the attacks on the settlements—a mission that the rangers carried out with cold efficiency. At dawn on October 4, 1759, they attacked the village and, using hatchets and knives, silently murdered about forty people, plundered the church of its gold and silver, and burned the village to the ground (Colby, 228-233).
|
|||
 |
