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In building our database we've drawn from the following primary sources all of which were produced by native speakers. ABOUT THE SOURCES AUTHORS:  1800-1890: Pial Pol Wz8khilain In the course of his life he introduced a new religion to his people, standardized their language, and helped educate a generation. He was born around 1800 on the Raquette River in the Adirondack wilderness of upstate New York, to Francois Joseph Louis 'Kouglolet' and Catherine Lazare Vassal. It was Spring, the time when the wild geese fly north, and he was named Osunkherhine "he who comes by flying." From 1822-29 he attended Moor's Indian School at Dartmouth College. While at Dartmouth he went by the name Peter Masta, using the last name of his stepfather Toussaint Masta. He returned to the Saint Francis Indian reservation in 1829 and established both a Protestant church and an English-language school. Of him Leon B. Richardson wrote in June 1830: "He became, perhaps, the one Indian in whom the purposes of the school were most fully realized. Osunkherhine has procured a small press and a supply of types for printing small cards and tracts in the language of his people, which he hopes may extend his usefulness." In the course of his work, he published three books in Abenaki, Kimzowi Awigihgan (A primer to the language, traditional stories and some religious instruction), The Ten Commandments, and The Gospel of Mark. Only 500 copies of each title were printed and, according to the record, the Catholic priest at Saint Francis destroyed every copy he could obtain. J. Trumbull wrote of his importance as a scholar among the Abenaki in 1872 saying, "Ozunkherine spoke and wrote in English with ease - his authority is of the highest, on all that concerns the Abnaki dialect." The phonemic orthography he developed was even proposed by John Pickering in 1837 as a uniform method for writing all Indian languages. In adulthood Peter was described as a pleasant, sober, shrewd, interesting, and very valuable man. He married the daughter of head chief Simon Obomsawin and became influential in the affairs of the tribe. 1839-1917: Joseph Laurent also known as Sozal Lol8 was born in 1839 at Odanak. He was educated in the English language at the community Protestant school and mentored there by the school's founder and schoolmaster of the time Pial Pol Wz8khalain. He later became schoolmaster on the Reserve. He acted as chief of the Abenakis from 1880-1892. In 1884 published his "New Familiar Abenaki and English Dialogues" which contains a large amount of lexical material. In that same year he founded an Abenaki community in Interval New Hampshire. There he and other Abenakis would live each summer and sell their baskets and other wares. Chief Laurent is esteemed as a Native American linguist who helped preserve his own language. Ives Goddard, a noted historian of linguistics observed of Laurent, "this is really a remarkable case of native grammatical tradition emerging among native people." "It is intended to preserve the uncultivated Abenakis language from the gradual alterations which are continually occurring from want, of course, of some proper work showing the grammatical principles upon which it is dependent. Hence the many remarks and explanations which are to be found through this book: ciphers, italics, etc., etc., employed in view to extend its utility." - Preface to New Familiar Abenakis and English Dialogues, Joseph Laurent  1853-19?: Henry Lorne Masta was born March 9th, 1853, a teacher, merchant, and book writer of Odanak. He received his primary and secondary education on the Saint Francis Indian reserve at the Protestant school church founded by his uncle Pial Pol Wz8khilain, where his teacher was Joseph Laurent. He later attended Sabrevois College, near St-Johns, P.Q. While there he received instruction in Latin for two years and in Greek, one year. He was fluent in French, English and his own native language. In 1875 he married Caroline Tahamont. Her family was from the communities of Odanak, the Adirondacks and Saratoga Springs, NY where she and other relatives lived each summer to sell their baskets in Congress Park. For 31 years he was the schoolmaster in the Protestant school at Odanak and attempted to introduce the children he taught to the grammatical rules governing their language. He was also chief of his tribe for 20 years. "Like Joseph Laurent and their relative Peter Paul Wzokhilain before him, Henry Lorne Masta transcribed and translated Abenaki oral traditions into written form. His Abenaki Indian Legends, Grammar and Placenames was first published in 1932, but Abenaki people have continued to circulate and use the book for language revitalization, and other purposes - fact driven home by Joseph and Jesse Bruchac's recent reissue of the primer through Bowman Books. Masta's book is also much more than a "primer": as . . . it contains lively dialogues that reveal a good deal about Abenaki relationships to place, cultural beliefs, travel and humor." - Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England edited by Siobhan Senier  1908-2007: Cecile M. Wawanolett Joubert, Cecile was born January 8, 1908 on the Abenaki Reserve at Odanak in the Province of Quebec, Canada. She was the daughter of the late Elie Wawanolet and Marie Nagazoa and the wife of the late Alfred A. Joubert. She spent much of her adult life in Troy, New York after she and her husband Alfred left Odanak in the 1920's to seek work. In 1987 Cecile and Alfred returned to Odanak. At that time she found that the use of the Abenaki language had all but disappeared and that less than a dozen people at Odanak could or would still speak the language. Cecile was a fluent speaker of Abenaki, French and English so she took it upon herself to start teaching the Abenaki language. She became very well known in the Abenaki community abroad for her work as the preeminent teacher the Abenaki language. For several years she taught Abenaki at the Wanaskaodemek Cultural Center in Odanak and at the tribal offices of the Missisquoi Band in Swanton, Vermont. She also helped found the Aln8baiwi (Indian way) Center in 1993. This became a hub for cultural revitalization efforts that went beyond her efforts of the language. A traditional drum group Awasos Sigwan was formed and traditional gatherings were held at the Aln8baiwi Center for nearly a decade. In her later years she spent much of her time teaching Abenaki language and documenting all of her language as she could. She was always excited to try new ways to teach and worked closely with Jesse Bowman Bruchac to develop a curriculum and database on his computer to teach from. She and Jesse taught from and attempted to perfect this curriculum together both at Odanak and in Swanton, VT for eight years. In her life she taught hundreds, and her enthusiasm and love for her language inspired a resurgence of the Abenaki language in Canada and the US. She passed in October of 2007 at 98 years of age.  1944-present: Joseph Elie Wawanolett Joubert Elie was born on May 3, 1944, at the Odanak Indian Reservation, in the Provence of Quebec, Canada. Elie was raised both in the communities of Odanak, PQ and Troy, N.Y. As a boy he spent each summer at Odanak and spent a great deal of time around speakers like Ambrose Obomsawin and his uncle Theophile Panadis. As a child the language was still spoken by most on the Reserve. Later in life, he completed twenty years Active Naval Service and retired in 1983 with the rank of Command Master Chief Petty Officer. While in the service, he received an Associate in Arts Degree from Hartford University. He is a speaker of English, French, and Abenaki and since retirement from the Navy has used these skills to teach his language to all willing to learn it. His mother, Cecile Wawanolett was hired by the band council of Odanak to teach the Abenaki language, she also thought at Missisquoi, Vt. Like his mother, Elie has a great ability to teach the language. However, he has an understanding of the grammar unlike even that of his mother. His ability to break words down to their root and literal meanings is unique. His ability to read and translate the ancient documents in the language is also without match. Elie's attention to detail, likely a trait learned in the military, makes him an intense teacher with incredible attention on detail. Elie has held classes in the Abenaki language throughout New York, and across New England. He has taught for the University of Albany and for the Abenaki of Vermont at the state capital in Montpelier. He has authored dozens of lesson plans, helped create his own website to teach the language, and in 2010 he co-authored L8dwaw8gan wji Abaznodakaw8gan, The Language of Basketmaking, a primer on the language and the art of ash basketry. Most recently he wrote the 2012 book Natami Podawazwiskweda, The First Council Fire which is a bilingual retelling of an Abenaki traditional story. Elie currently lives in New York state and works closely with Jesse Bruchac on Western Abenaki revitalization and instruction. 1972-present: Jesse Bowman Bruchac is a fluent speaker of the Abenaki language from Saratoga Springs, New York. He has raised his children now 6 and 8 to speak the language fluently as well. Jesse has been a leader in a major effort toward the revitalization of the Western Abenaki language for 25 years. Utilizing Abenaki language resources recorded in the
nineteenth century and learning from the small group of living native
speakers, he has designed an interactive curriculum, utilizing music and
cultural activities, to teach youth and their families conversational
Abenaki. He teaches across northern New England and New York, and works
with elders and community leaders from Quebec. He received a degree in Linguistic Anthropoogy from
Goddard College and did additional post graduate work in computer science at the University of Buffalo, gaining important skills to be used in his language revitalization efforts. He studied for
many years with the renowned Abenaki language teacher, Cecile
Wawanolette. In 2007 after her passing, Jesse continued his work with Cecile's son, fluent speaker Joseph Elie Joubert. He has been a lecturer at Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton and many other universities and schools across the country and abroad. In 2013-present he was worked with the Penobscot Nation to help lead week long immersion camps in Maine. He has also worked with dozens of other tribal nations in language revitalization efforts. In 2014-2015 Jesse has worked as a translator on the AMC hit television series TURN, for the characters Robert Rogers and his Abenaki guide. In order to make the language more accessible Jesse has created songs, games, youtube videos, a radio show, and custom scripts for the search engine and automatic conjugation templates employed on westernabenaki.com.
Much like Pial Pol Wz8khilain embraced the cutting edge technology of his time, Jesse has embraced the modern in efforts to save the ancient. |
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