Interviewees:
-
Eliga Gould
- Professor of History, University of New Hampshire
The Abenaki people, part of the Wabanaki Confederacy, were the main Indigenous inhabitants of New Hampshire, but by the time of the Revolution many had relocated to the Native community of Saint-Francois in Canada. For most Native Americans, the Revolution was a conflict in which they sided with Britain because they saw the Crown as a more reliable protector than the settlers. Some Abenaki remaining in the Connecticut Valley and lakes region, however, fought alongside the Patriots, including at the Battle of Bennington. The Revolution thus represented a civil war for many Indigenous people in the region. Location and local circumstance, more than ideology, often determined which side they chose.
