Chap. 10. 



STATE OF SOCIETY. 



205 



ABORIGINKS OF VERiMONT. 



COOSSUCK INDIANS. 



CHAPTER X. 



STATE OF SOCIETY. 



Section I. 



Original Inhabitants. 



It was remarked in a preceding chapter 

 tliat at the time of the first settlement of 

 this continent hy Europeans, and subse- 

 quently, causes were in operation, which 

 prevented the aborigines from malting our 

 territory, to any great extent, a permanent 

 residence, and still there are indubitable 

 proof's that they have, at some former peri- 

 od, resided Jiere in considerable numbers. 

 When the Coos country was first visited 

 by the whites, large clearings were found 

 upon the intervales overgrown by a 

 kind of coarse grass, and there were va- 

 rious other indications of former extensive 

 settlements hy the natives. On the high 

 grounds east of the mouth of Cow-Mead- 

 ow brook, in Newbury, domestic imple- 

 ments of various kinds, of Indian manu- 

 facture, were formerly found in such 

 numbers as to afford conclusive proof of 

 its having been tlie site of a considerable 

 Indian village. On the meadow, a short 

 distance below was their burying ground, 

 where tlie ashes of many of the sons of 

 the forest now lie. They were buried in 

 the sitting posture, peculiar to the Indi- 

 ans, and their bones liave been frequently 



turned up by the plough. On the Ox- 

 Bow, the remains of an Indian fort were 

 still visible, when the first settlers came 

 to Newbury. The mound forming its cir- 

 cumference, was, at that time, overgrown 

 with trees five or six inches in diameter, 

 and the ground in the vicinity is over- 

 spread with a profusion of white flint 

 stones and arrow heads.* 



The Indians, who resided along the 

 upper parts of Connecticut river, were a 

 branch of the Abcnuqui tribe, whose chief 

 location, in modern times, has been at 

 St. Francis. There was always an inti- 

 mate connexion between them and the 

 Indians at St. Francis, and they have 

 been commonly spoken of, by American 

 writers, as St. Francis Indians ; and yet 

 the}' had the distinguishing appellation of 

 Coossucks, which is descriptive of the 

 country where they resided. Coos, in 

 the Abeniiqui language signified the pines, 

 and this name was applied by the Indians 

 to two sections of country upon Connec- 

 ticut river, one above the Jifleen mile falls, 

 about Lunenburg, and the other below, 

 about Newbuiy, on account of the great 

 abundance of white pine timber in those 

 places; and the termination, suck, signified 

 river, so that Co-os-such, signified the 

 river at the pines. 



The Coossucks and St. Francis Indians, 

 who always acted on the part of the 

 French in the wars between the French 

 and English colonies, were for many 

 j'ears the most blood-thirsty and cruel 

 enemies, which the frontier settlements 

 of New England had to encounter. But 

 the desperate battle, fought in 1725, be- 

 tween Capt. Lovewell with 46 men, and 

 about twice that number of Indians, in 

 whicii the latter were beaten, and Pau- 

 gus, their chief, together with a large 

 number of their warriors, was slain, struck 

 such terror to the Coossucks that they 

 mostly retired into Canada and became 

 identified with theirkindred atSt. Francis. 

 After the conquest of Canada by the 

 English, several Indian families returned 

 to Coos and remained until they became 

 extinct. Amongr these were two Indians 



*See the communication of Dnvid Jolmson, Esq. 

 in the Historic.ii sketches of" the Coos couiilrj', by 

 the Ilev. Grant Powers, page 39. 



