Pennacook

The Abenaki occupied the greatest part of what would become New Hampshire, while a smaller tribe called the Pennacook lived in the southern part of the state.

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Living along the Merrimack River of southern New Hampshire and northeastern Massachusetts, the Pennacook were the southernmost Abenaki group and the first to have extensive contact with the English.

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The Pennacook welcomed and made an alliance with the English settlements in Massachusetts.

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The Pennacook extended well-inland along the Merrimack River to a point where their boundaries with the Sokoki the Western Abenaki blurred.

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The alliance between the Pennacook and English made the Abenaki uneasy, but the colonists were also concerned about their own safety after the near destruction of Jamestown Virginia by the Powhatan in 1622.

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The Mohawk eventually won, forced the Mahican east of the Hudson, and began to attack the Sokoki and Pennacook.

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During the early hours, the Indian women quietly opened the gates to several hundred Pennacook.

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The Sokoki and Pocumtuc (Connecticut River in western Massachusetts) had a long history of hostility with the Iroquois, and helped the Mahican in their war against the Mohawk (1624-28), with the Pennacook being drawn in as allies of the Sokoki.

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For over half a century following Dover's founding in 1623, the English settlers had co-existed peacefully with the local Pennacook tribe.

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The southern boundaries of the Abenaki homeland were near the present northern border of Massachusetts excluding the Pennacook country along the Merrimack River of southern New Hampshire.

History of American Women Maggiemac 2008