INDIAN HISTORY. 21 



INDIAx\ HISTORY 



OF 



ISIORTHERI^ A^EKlVIOTsTT. 



By Wm. W. grout, Esq., 

 barton, vt. 



Messrs. Editors: 



The Indian history of Vermont, concerning which you 

 ask me to give such facts and traditions, as may throw some 

 light upon the obscure yet interesting subject, and thus 

 Qontribute, in some slight degree, data for the science of 

 Ethnology is, indeed, very meagre. The prevalent and 

 mainly correct notion is, that we have no Indian histor}^ 

 Avorthy the name. Except in a few places the Indians did 

 not dwell permanently within the present limits of Vermont ; 

 and no tribe or tribes claimed or exercised undisputed 

 jurisdiction over the State or any consideralile portion of 

 it. If they did, the pen of history and the tongue of 

 tradition are equally silent. The Iroquois, it is true, 

 occupied a narrow strip along Lake Champlain and the west 

 line of the state. The Coossiicks held points upon the 

 Connecticut through the upper half of the state's length ; 

 and I presume points upon the lower half were occupied by 

 Pequots. The tribes of the St. Francis naturally hunted 

 and lished along the extreme northern portions of Lake 

 Champlain and the Missisquoi River, also in the neighbor- 

 hood of Lake Memphremagog. But the great central 



