the abenaki of wôlinak

 

the abenaki of wôlinak: a history of dispossession, resistance and survival

They defended the land alongside Canadian troops. When they returned home, they discovered that their own territory had been divided up and given to white settlers.

Imagine fighting to defend a place you call home, only to return and discover that others have taken your land. Imagine being told that you no longer have the right to live where your community has existed for generations.

For the Abenaki of Wôlinak, this was not an imagined injustice. It was part of their history.

a homeland before colonization

The Abenaki are among the Indigenous peoples associated with the Wabanaki Confederacy, a network of northeastern Indigenous nations whose histories and territories extend across what are now parts of eastern Canada and the northeastern United States.

These nations had their own communities, political relationships, cultures and systems of governance long before European colonization. Their histories did not begin with the arrival of French or British settlers.

During the colonial period, the Abenaki developed relationships and alliances with the French, in part amid the growing pressures and conflicts created by British expansion. These relationships included trade, diplomacy and intermarriage. But alliances did not erase the Abenaki's own identity or their relationship with their ancestral territories.

As colonial conflict, famine and displacement affected Indigenous communities, some Abenaki families moved into the Bécancour region of what is now Quebec.

building a community, then being expelled

In 1708, an agreement was formalized to establish an Abenaki settlement on Montesson Island, near Bécancour. The community established roots there and lived on the island for approximately thirty years.

According to the historical account by Serge Rousseau, relations deteriorated when a new seigneur took control of the Bécancour estate. He challenged the Abenaki's right to occupy the land and expelled them from the island.

The community was forced to relocate, first to another island in the Bécancour River and then to a second location. Disease and flooding drove further displacement.

By 1735, the Abenaki had established themselves on the land where the Wôlinak community remains today.

Consider what these repeated moves meant. People had to leave familiar places, rebuild their homes and community, and adapt to circumstances they did not control. Their survival required extraordinary determination, but the need to demonstrate that resilience was itself a consequence of the injustice they faced.

even their church became a source of conflict

The Abenaki built a wooden church that served their community. At a time when Bécancour did not yet have its own church, local French Canadian parishioners also attended Mass there.

Even after a church was built in Bécancour in December 1757, some settlers continued to use the Abenaki church.

The historical account describes growing jealousy and tension between the communities. The Abenaki church was subsequently destroyed by fire in late December 1757. The original author records suspicions that some settlers may have set the fire to encourage the parish priest to reside at their own church. However, this allegation should not be presented as proven fact.

The church was never rebuilt.

This episode is a reminder that the history of colonization was not simply a matter of different communities living side by side. Relationships could involve cooperation and shared institutions, while also being shaped by unequal power and competing claims over land and authority.

fighting for canada, losing their own land

One of the most disturbing episodes in this account occurred after the War of 1812.

According to Rousseau's text, Abenaki warriors fought alongside Canadian forces against the American invasion. When they returned home after the conflict, they found that their territory had been divided into parcels and distributed to white settlers.

They had participated in defending the country, yet their own community was being deprived of its land.

The account describes the Abenaki resisting the dispossession, including destroying houses built on their village land. Through this resistance, they reportedly managed to retain two small islands in the Bécancour River and approximately sixty arpents of land.

That was all that remained of their former territory, according to the account.

Think about the contradiction. Indigenous people were expected to help defend the country against invasion, while their own rights to their homeland were disregarded. Their contribution did not protect them from dispossession.

They were not asking for someone else's homeland. They were fighting to retain their own.

asking for justice

The injustice continued long after the war.

On March 3, 1858, the Abenaki addressed a letter to the Canadian legislature protesting the loss of their property. A committee was reportedly established to help alleviate their poverty, and an annual pension of $200 was granted. Their original territory, however, was not restored through this measure.

Financial assistance could not undo the loss of land, community resources or autonomy. Nor could a small pension make the original dispossession fair.

The account does not establish every legal detail of the land claims, and the surviving historical record should be examined carefully. But its central narrative is unmistakable: the Abenaki of Wôlinak repeatedly faced displacement, struggled to retain their territory and sought redress from authorities who did not restore what had been taken.

resilience should not obscure injustice

The original historical text celebrates the admirable resilience of the Abenaki of Wôlinak. Their determination to survive, maintain their community and defend their rights deserves recognition.

But we should be careful about how we use the word resilience.

When people repeatedly lose their land, are forced to relocate, see their property distributed to others and struggle to obtain justice, calling them resilient is not enough. It can unintentionally shift attention away from those who caused the harm and the institutions that permitted it.

The Abenaki should not have had to demonstrate extraordinary resilience to retain their homeland.

Their story is not simply one of hardship overcome. It is a story about power, dispossession, resistance and the failure to provide justice.

And it raises an uncomfortable question for Canada: how can a country celebrate its history and its defenders while overlooking the Indigenous people whose lands were taken in the process?

The Abenaki of Wôlinak survived. Their community endured. Their history deserves to be told, not as a footnote to colonial settlement, but as part of the history of this land itself.

Before we judge Indigenous communities today, we need to understand what happened to them yesterday.

Their history did not begin with European arrival. Their rights did not originate with colonial permission. And their survival should never be mistaken for proof that the injustices they endured were acceptable.

Historical basis: Serge Rousseau, for the CAR Séminaire de Nicolet, drawing on Charles Wawanolett's history of the Abenaki, Société d’Histoire Régionale de Nicolet, F238 / E12 / 9. Specific dates, land transactions and allegations in the original account warrant verification against archival records.

historical sources

This article is based on the historical account by Serge Rousseau for the Centre d’Archives Régionales du Séminaire de Nicolet, drawing on Charles Wawanolett’s Histoire des Abénakis, as well as historical information published by the Abenaki Museum at Odanak and the National Assembly of Quebec.

The events described reflect the historical sources cited. Details of individual land transactions and the 1858 petition are attributed to the original historical account.

Sources:

- "Abenaki Museum — History of Wôlinak" (https://fort-odanak.ca/musee_abenakis-abenakis_museum-eng)

- "National Assembly of Quebec — Historical account (French)" (https://www.assnat.qc.ca/Media/Process.aspx?MediaId=ANQ.Vigie.Bll.DocumentGenerique_206929&process=Default&token=ZyMoxNwUn8ikQ+TRKYwPCjWrKwg+vIv9rjij7p3xLGTZDmLVSmJLoqe%2FvG7%2FYWzz)

- Rousseau, Serge, Les Abénakis de Wôlinak, Centre d’Archives Régionales du Séminaire de Nicolet, referencing Charles Wawanolett’s history.