Foraging, farming, and hunting/fishing worked well together because the farming seasons lined up with the fishing and gathering seasons.
Foraging: Women tended to pick herbs like mint, vegetables like onions, garlic, fiddleheads, swamp cabbage, mushrooms, roots, and nuts and berries. Medicines like yarrow were also gathered, and bark from birch trees were boiled for eating. The leaves of the Northern White Cedar Tree also provided tea.
Farming: The staple crops were beans, squash, and corn, referred to as the "three sisters." They were a healthy diet and were beneficial grown together. Other crops grown were pumpkins, gourds, cucumber, and snow peas.
Hunting/Fishing: Men hunted all year round. The animals hunted ranged from big game like bear and moose to passenger pigeon. Fishing is extremely important. Men fished in streams and from Lake Champlain, catching all types of fish, eels, and turtles.
Let's not forget the maple syrup!
The Champlain Valley has elevated land which comprises of forests and streams. It is colder than the lowlands, which are also dryer. The lowlands were occupied in the spring and summer by big towns during the farming season and fishing season. The lowlands also had forests and streams. Farming was good in the lowlands because the soil was fertile because the land would be flooded and the water would deposit nutrients into the land. In the fall, people moved to the uplands.
Fall: During the fall, people moved back to their familial land to hunt and fish for moose, bear, deer, and other animals. Women continued to gather squash, berries, and nuts.
Winter: Hundreds of people lived in large villages. They ate dried nuts and berries and smoked meat. Hunting continued. People went back to their familial hunting land in late winter to hunt moose and other game. At this point, preserved corn and other rations were running low.
Spring: People went to the lowlands and lived in large villages, but every family had their own land which they hunted on. The men hunted for muskrats and birds, and fished for animals like walleye, salmon, and lake sturgeon, while the women planted the corn, squash, and beans and gathered berries, nuts, and vegetables. This was also the time to tap trees so that the sap could be boiled into maple syrup!
Summer: Nuts, berries and vegetables were foraged and some were dried for winter. Men hunted and fished. The farmed crops would be harvested from late summer to fall.
Hunting: People hunted on land that was in their family. They hunted only certain portions of it at a time to make sure that the animal populations had time to recover and would not become too wary of people. Men hunted with bows and arrows and in the winter used snow shoes and sometimes dogs.
Fishing: Several fishing methods were used and many depended on what was to be caught. Eels were trapped in baskets by night, or were speared, harpooned, fished using hooks, or caught in nets. Small fish were fished using a spear. According to the Chief of the Abenaki Cowasuck Band in NH, and educator on Abenaki foodways, Paul Pouliot, fishing is extremely important as evidenced by how it was practiced more than hunting and remained important to Indigenous families even when other traditional ways were being lost or were stopped. In fact, certain fishing laws passed made it very difficult to fish traditionally.
Cooking: Food could be cooked over an open fire in earthen pots, skins, or baskets Stones from the river could also be heated up and placed next to the food to cook it. Stones were used multiple times. Pointed bottoms on pots ensured the food cooked well.
Many plants and meat were roasted and stews and soups were very common. Eels were very good in stews because of how oily they were. Other soups were mushroom soup, bean soup, and turtle soup. Corn was also very good not just by itself, but also ground up into meal to make "Journey Cakes" and bread.
Unhealthy diets have been plaguing the Abenaki for generations. Cheap processed food supplied to reservations is responsible for diseases such as diabetes and obesity. A lot of other issues come from the fact that the plants and the land has changed since the Europeans came. Butternuts for instance, have been hit with a foreign fungus. Lake Champlain now contains foreign, invasive plants and animals, not to mention chemicals from fertilizer and pesticides. Some crops are also not being grown or eaten anymore despite their importance to the culture.
There is some progress. Although the country does not recognize many Abenaki bands, Vermont has recently recognized the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe (flag above), the Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi, (flag at the top of the page) and the Koasek Band of Koas Abenaki Nation in 2011 and 2012. Next year (2021), Vermont will make some progress in recognizing and appreciating the history of the Abenaki by allowing state recognized Abenaki the ability to apply for free fishing and hunting licenses even if they do not live in the state. The Seeds of Renewal project is trying to trace heirloom seeds so that they can be grown again by in the lands that they were originally from by the nation that tended them. Other important organizations are the Abenaki Self-Help Association based in Swanson, VT, the Mt. Kearsage Indian Museum in Warner, NH, the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain in Burlington, and the Invervale Center in Burlington.
Food has always been important culturally to everyone around the world. The Abenaki are no different. People love food. Feasts are given at festivals or ceremonies when everyone is happy. Everyone cooked and shared food. There was also some responsibility when it came to food. When men came back from hunting, they kept food for their family but also distributed to others in the town. Food was something to be thankful for, dances like the green corn dance were held and prayers of thanks were given for food such as corn during feasts.
"Our Corn Is Still Standing: Indigenous Foodways and Identity in New England" by Elizabeth Ann Berton-Reilly, Published in Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture, vol. 5, no. 1, Jan. 2016.
"Hunger Knowledges and Cultures in New England’s Borderlands 1675-1770" by Carla Cevasco, Published in Early American Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 16, no. 2, Spring 2018, pp. 255–281
Inigenous Expressions Exhibit at the Echo Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, in Burlington, Vermont.
Inigenous Expressions Film Series: Walking in Two Worlds https://www.echovermont.org/animals-exhibits/exhibits/,.
The Story of Vermont : A Natural and Cultural History by Christopher McGrory Klyza and Stephen C. Trombulak, Second edition.
Daniels, Patti, et al. “Project Revives Abenaki Crops, One Seed At A Time." https://www.vpr.org/post/project-revives-abenaki-crops-one-seed-time.
Roger Longtoe Sheehan. “Three Sacred Plants.” http://elnuabenakitribe.org/essays_and_articles/three_sacred_plants,
Pleasant Point Tribal Government http://www.wabanaki.com/wabanaki_new/programs.html
Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe: https://abenakitribe.org/hunting%2Ffishing-rights-1.
Vera Longtoe Sheehan. “Elnu Abenaki Tribe - Fiddleheads: A Spring Favorite" http://elnuabenakitribe.org/essays_and_articles/fiddleheads_a_spring_favorite.
ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain. “Exhibits.” https://www.echovermont.org/animals-exhibits/exhibits/.
“What We Ate.” The Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki People https://www.cowasuck.org/lifestyle/food.html,