As for the group-name of Polin's people, or of Polin's own personal ethnicity, all three primary-source statements cited earlier (Pesumpscot, St.Francois, and Arssagunticook) have been ignored by several writers from at least 1873 onward, who call them / him Rockameecook (in various spellings) instead. Why they ignored the primary-source names (unless they had no access at all to Massachusetts Archives data), and why they chose the R-name (this I really would like to learn), I have no idea at this time. But if all that is meant by Rockameecook is an antique & confusing alternative term for Pigwacket (or Pequawket), then it is, at best, an obscure & misleading choice of name for that major Abenaki-Pennacook band & community on Saco River in what is now Fryeburg ME*.
I certainly would not recommend using the R-name
for the Sebago-Prescumpscot People. Most scholars since at least 1910 onward
have used the name Rocameca for an Abenaki band & community on
the zigzag section of Androscoggin River around Canton Point &
Jay Point (west of today's Livermore Falls ME). [Click for Note
10 re a modern Rockameecook]
Based upon the modern analyses and the best secondary-sources that I know of at present, I can only suggest that Polin's Presumpscot group probably was a part of the Pigwacket band of the Abenaki-Pennacook peoples. This seems to me more probable than a connection with the proper Rocameca band on the Androscoggin River, although the latter is still a possibility*.
 |
SIDELIGHT (D) *Dated
7 Sept.1736: "His Excellcy was inform'd [earlier] that three Indians
belonging to Ammiscogan River [Click for Note
X]were
at Biddeford [on Saco River] in Order to take passage on Board a Sloop
bound here [Boston], & yt [that] their Business was to complain that
the [Presumpscot] River leading to the Sebagoge Ponds was so dam'd and
Obstructed that the Fish cou'd not pass up to the said Ponds...."
[MeHlSy Baxter Manuscripts V11:172-173] (In his 1739 interview with the
Governor, cited earlier, Polin indicated that he had "for Sometime"
& "a great while" wanted to come to Boston, apparently to
complain earlier about Presumpscot damming. So, was this 1736 attempt
made by Polin, or by others? - From Polin's group, or from another group?) |
| Micmac Double-Curve Design. These computer
sketches are based on illustrations of pictographs as shown in The
Wabanakis of Maine and the Maritimes, Prepared for and published (1989)
by the American Friends
Service Committee |
We know that a great deal of Wabanaki rearranging & relocating continually took place because of English pushing & French pulling, and that from at least 1675 onward, displaced Pennacook groups & individuals went at least as far northeast as the Androscoggin River, where the Amarascoggin Abenaki traditionally lived. However, going elsewhere certainly did not mean staying there, or not returning. All of the Abenaki-Pennacook bands at least occasionally had some of their people at, or traveling to or from, St Francis (Odanak / Arosaguntacook), or other French mission-villages, in southern Quebec.
Most if not all Abenaki-Pennacook bands, by custom, long had been kinship-interrelated with the others, and family intervisitation was recreational as well as adaptive. I call this frequent moving around among their villages (and returning) the Dawnland Diaspora, which was a vital part of the Wabanaki dynamics of survival - an adaptive strategy. It is because of this phenomenon that Polin meaningfully could wear different group-labels: Pesumpscot, St.Francois, & Arssagunticook. He was not really a transient, nor a complete free-lance, but he obviously was a traveler, and he certainly was not unique in that. Indeed I suggest that Polin could wear at least one more group-label: Pigwacket.
The most likely scenario I can suggest currently is this:
Most of Polin's Presumpscot people either already were a part of, or became
merged with, the Pigwacket people, most of whom in turn were closely associated
with the St Francis (Odanak / Arosaguntacook) people. As for the causes &
timing, I can only refer readers to SPAP Reports No.I-3,
I-4, & I-5
(on the "Triple-Whammy") for general possibilities. Perhaps Pigwacket
village (at now Fryeburg ME ) long had been a hub community, using
the Presumpscot River largely for seasonal fishing & hunting territory.
This scenario would incline the Presumpscot people toward the Saco River,
rather than the Androscoggin River: i.e., they may also be called "Saco
(but not* Sokoki)
Indians" . [*See
Note
5 for why not Sokoki].
Anyhow, let's assume the likelihood of this scenario for purposes of further presentations by the Sebago-Presumpscot Anthropology Project. Indeed, Pigwacket (Pequawket) has some rather interesting things to be said about it, to be the subjects of some future SPAP Reports.
Back To Part A: Chief Polin
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