Native American History in the Merrimack River Drainage

Native Americans have lived in the Merrimack River drainage for more than 12,000 years. The river is 117 miles long from its source near Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire to the Atlantic Ocean in northeast Massachusetts. The Merrimack River watershed is divided almost evenly between New Hampshire (the upper drainage) and Massachusetts (the lower drainage). The lower drainage is approximately 1,500 square miles. It begins at the eastern border of Middlesex County and includes all of Essex County, including Chelmsford, Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill.

Land Boundaries and Tribal Maps

For the political and economic interests of English settlers, the colonial government imposed rigid land boundaries and sought to identify Native leaders and the groups of people they represented who occupied areas of interest to English settler-colonists. Maps showing set “tribal” boundaries and even the names of the groups who occupied this area are inheritances of that process. Indigenous leaders and their peoples resisted these property boundaries and continued traveling and occupying favored places throughout their homelands known and remembered by them over hundreds of generations. Indigenous people in this area had multiple and changeable social and political affiliations and alliances. They typically spoke several languages and local dialects, which helped in maintaining relations and resolving disputes among the tribes. Many New England placenames come from Eastern Algonquian language family words that remind modern residents of their presence within very anciently occupied indigenous homelands…many Native American languages are being revived today in Native American communities.

Hunting, Fishing, and Gathering Practices

Native Americans used mishoonash (dugout canoes) to travel on the Merrimack River north into the mountains and east to the coast. They also used the connected rivers and streams to travel in the interior. At campsites near wetlands and along falls and streams, they hunted and trapped wildlife; fished for sturgeon, salmon, and eels; and collected seeds, berries, and nuts. They also made stone tools using river cobbles (rounded rocks) and quarried bedrock; pottery using local clay; and baskets from local plants.

Cultural Identity and Change over Time

Many changes have happened to the landscape over the past thousands of years. What first contained only forests, hills, and rivers now has towns, fields, roads, and buildings. After land was taken from the indigenous populations and diseases killed many, the tribes in what became northeast Massachusetts have maintained their distinct cultural identity through collective memory, oral tradition, and the social justice work of Native Americans across what is now called New England.

Archaeologists study items created by those who have lived in the past. Long-lasting items made of stone and pottery, and traces of inventive technologies that involved placing posts in the ground for structures are examples of archaeological evidence left by those from the past. Evidence preserved at repeatedly occupied Native places includes rock-lined cooking hearths or pits dug for fire or storage. Much material used by Native Americans in the past is not preserved, such as objects made from wood, reeds, bone, tanned hides, and feathers.