Pequawket

Pequawket was home to an Abenaki people of northern New England. Their name has been interpreted as “land of hollows,” though its origin is disputed. Their village stood near the Saco River in a country of wooded valleys and hills, inland from the settlements of the Atlantic coast.

During Dummer's War, the Pequawket fought a company of English scalp hunters led by Captain John Lovewell near their village in 1725. Lovewell was killed in the battle, as was the Abenaki leader Paugus. Afterward, the Pequawket withdrew toward the Connecticut River; some returned to their homeland later in the eighteenth century. The fight became a lasting subject of New England songs and stories, inspiring writers as well as local accounts of the war.