• Why do groups of people come into conflict with each other?
  • How are Native American and Euro-American cultures different?

Unit Frame

Topic/Title Abenaki History and Culture
Overview The purpose of this unit is to study the history and culture of the first people who inhabited and continue to live in Vermont and New Hampshire, the Abenaki.
Enduring Understandings
  • The Abenaki have lived in the area we now call Vermont and New Hampshire for at least 12,000 years.
  • This area is the Abenaki homeland.
  • There are many Abenaki place names in Vermont and New Hampshire.
  • From first contact to the American Revolution, Abenakis and Europeans sometimes cooperated with each other and sometimes fought.
  • European settlement of Vermont and New Hampshire increased continually and the Abenaki tried to maintain control of their lands.
  • Europeans eventually prevailed over the Abenaki and took control of their lands.
  • Today, the Abenaki have reasserted their identity as the longstanding inhabitants of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Essential Questions
  • Why do groups of people come into conflict with each other?
  • How are Native American and Euro-American cultures different?
Focusing Questions
  • How was traditional Abenaki society organized and how did the Abenaki live?
  • How is the landscape central to Abenaki culture, stories, and history?
  • Why did the Abenaki and European and American settlers come into conflict?
  • Why did Americans in Vermont and New Hampshire come to believe that the Abenaki had disappeared from these states?
  • How do Abenaki people live today?
Background Information
  • Why do groups of people come into conflict with each other?
  • How are Native American and Euro-American cultures different?
Bibliography Bibliography on Abenaki History and Culture
Content Grade Expectations for Vermont
H&SS3-4:8 Students connect the past with the present by…

  • Explaining differences between historic and present day objects in Vermont, and identifying how the use of the object and the object itself changed over time.
  • Describing ways that life in the community and Vermont has both changed and stayed the same over time
  • Examining how events, people, problems and ideas have shaped the community and Vermont.
H&SS3-4:11 Students interpret geography and solve geographic problems by…

  • Observing, comparing, and analyzing patters of local and state land use to understand why particularlocations are used for certain human activities.
H&SS3-4:12 Students show understanding of human interaction with the environment over time by…

  • Describing how people have changed the environment in Vermont for specific purposes.
  • Recognizing patterns of voluntary and involuntary migration in Vermont.
H&SS3-4:13 Students analyze how and why cultures continue and change over time by…

  • Identifying expressions of culture in Vermont by discovering how Abenaki oral tradition reflects and influences their society.
Inquiry Grade Expectations for Vermont
Students initiate an inquiry by:
Asking relevant and focusing questions based on what they have seen, what they have read, what they have listened to, and/or what they have researched.
New Hampshire Curriculum Framework: Social Studies
SS:GE:4:4.2: Describe the types and historical patterns of human migration
SS:HI:4:5.1: Explain the unique contributions of different ethnic and religious groups to New Hampshire history and culture

Thanks to Steve Glazer of Poetics of Place, classroom teachers Marguerite Ames and Bridget Fariel, and Beth Hughes of Broadwing Design for assistance in designing this toolkit.