Eastern White Pine (Koa)
Koa (eastern white pine, pinus strobus) has a vital role in Abenaki culture. Koaak (plural) tower above deciduous tree as they rise to heights of 150 to 200 ft in well-drained sandy upland areas such as Wigwam Hill.[i] Virgin stands of koaak may live as long as 450 years.[ii] John Smith in 1614 observed that large white pine and oak trees predominated on Plum Island.[iii] Thomas Morton in 1637 described these pines as “infinite flora” and saw “little or no other wood growing.”[iv] The koaak were harvested by the settlers colonizing Agawam with the largest trees sent to England to become ship masts for the royal navy. However, the deforestation of Castle Neck did not occur until Humphrey Lakeman acquired Wigwam Hill in 1832 and cut down all the pines.
The eastern white pineis a “cultural keystone species” of Algonquian people.[v] Interviews with Algonquian elders reveal that a mature koa is viewed as “the king of the forest”.[vi] One elder said “I talk to him so that he protects me because it is the largest and tallest tree in our forest.” Because the koa five-needle clusters are deciduous–unlike other pine species—the understory of the koaak is especially open as abundant needles suppress other vegetation. The elders say this creates space beneath the kooak good for hunting. Smaller animals such as martin (apanakes) thrive in the koaak understory. Squirrles (mikowak) eat the koa seeds, and porcupines (k8gkok ) eat the koa bark, and fishers (wlanikw) eat the porcupines. One nearby Choate Island, just across the Castle Neck River from Wigwam Hill, deer (nolkak), raccoon (azbanak), otter (wnekigwak), fox (w8kwsesak), muskrat (moskwasak) and mink (mosbasak) are known to have thrived.[vii] Elders are reluctant to disclose the details of koa remedies but say that a koa struck by lightning makes a powder that especially therapeutic. The roots of a mature koa and the twigs and needles of young koa are boiled. The bark of the young koa is used for treating burns and wounds. Koaak are rich in Vitamin C. Many of the early settler colonists died of scurvy, caused by vitamin C deficiency, even as they were surrounded by koaak.[viii]
Algonquian forest management practices include periodic burning to maintain balance between wachilmezi (white oak) and koa (white pine). Wachilmezi is more fire resistant than koa.[ix] Wachilmezi can sprout from its stump after a burn. Without forest management, rapidly growing koa will predominate initially until slower growing wachilmezi eventually crowd them out through natural succession.[x] Balancing wachilmezi and koa requires careful timing. Burning is “applied at a carefully considered time that would minimize its destructive nature while harnessing its creative power.”[xi] The mixture of wachilmezi (oak) and koa (pine) observed by early settlers colonizing Agawam (Ipswich, MA) reflects this traditional knowledge. Today, implementing these practices without indigenous knowledge keepers “is to construct an artificial landscape that is historically and ecologically incomplete.” [xii]
Beyond the pragmatic wisdom contained in traditional knowledge of forest management is a spiritual dimension. Robin Wall Kimmerer and Frank Kanawha Lake explain:
The indigenous world view emphasizes the dual nature, creative and destructive, of all forces. Fire can be a force for good as it warms homes and stimulates grasses, but it can also be immensely destructive. The role of humans is not to control nature, but to maintain a balance between these opposing forces. This balance is based on recognition of reciprocal relationships between human and nonhuman members of the ecological community… Meeting the responsibility for reciprocity among members of the ecosystem is understood to be simultaneously pragmatic and spiritual. Application of fire is viewed by many indigenous groups as a spiritual responsibility to the land, a tool that was given to people to fulfill the caregiving responsibilities for the land.[xiii]
This account of the Abenaki meeting the Kanien’kehaka (Mohawks) unexpectedly underscore that value of the koaak in Abenaki culture, especially the belief that manhakw8gana (pine cambium) engenders bravery:
A few [Abenaki] were intercepted by a greater number of Maguak [Kanien’kehaka] near Lake Saranac. The Maguak were more numerous and would finish them if they had not respected but also feared them right away. They both waited on guard as bobcats do when wanting to fight. Then the Abenakis were hungry, and each one ate manhakw8gana [inner bark or cambium of the pine tree]. They decide to fight and at once started on a war dance and yelling. Then they attacked and [the Maguak] ran away. The Abenkai cried out “Maguwak,” [cowards] and they are still called Maguak [today].[xiv] In return [the Maguak] called the Abenakis “Adironadacks” – manhakw8gana eaters.[xv]
[i] The white pine contrasts with the hardier pitch pine (pinus rigida, l), with three needle bundles, that grows best in harsh conditions such as the low sand dunes along the ocean beneath Wigwam Hill. Growing only to 60 to 100 ft pitch pine cannot outgrow neighboring trees but is able to withstand salt water, fire and draught much better than either the eastern white pine or the oaks growing in the uplands. Castle Neck may have been stabilized initially by the pitch pine, but “The Pines“ on Castle Neck in the 17th century were white pines, not the pitch pines of today.
[ii] “Pinus Strobus (Eastern White Pine): Go Botany,” accessed November 5, 2024, https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/pinus/strobus/.
[iii] New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station and McDonnell, Mark J., “The Flora of Plum Island, Essex County, Massachusetts, Station Bulletin, No.513,” NHAES Bulletin, no. 513 (September 1, 1979), https://scholars.unh.edu/agbulletin/474.
[iv] Thomas Morton, John Adams Library (Boston Public Library) BRL, and Charles Francis Adams, The New English Canaan of Thomas Morton (Boston : Published by the Prince Society, 1883) p. 184, http://archive.org/details/newenglishcanaan00mort.
[v] “Cultural_importance_of_white_pine_Pinus.Pdf,” accessed November 5, 2024, https://documentcloud.adobe.com/gsuiteintegration/index.html?state=%7B%22ids%22%3A%5B%221-vzdsrVygGvu2ijhWRnTcFKozdkbP_Qt%22%5D%2C%22action%22%3A%22open%22%2C%22userId%22%3A%22109424855255308721862%22%2C%22resourceKeys%22%3A%7B%7D%7D.
[vi] “Cultural_importance_of_white_pine_Pinus.Pdf,” accessed November 5, 2024, https://documentcloud.adobe.com/gsuiteintegration/index.html?state=%7B%22ids%22%3A%5B%221-vzdsrVygGvu2ijhWRnTcFKozdkbP_Qt%22%5D%2C%22action%22%3A%22open%22%2C%22userId%22%3A%22109424855255308721862%22%2C%22resourceKeys%22%3A%7B%7D%7D.
[vii] Mary Sue Littlejohn Wonson, Roger Choate Wonson, and Agnes Choate Wonson, Downriver – A Memoir of Choate Island (Essex River Press, 2024) p. 29.
[viii] “Getting to Know White Pine” by Lisa Fazio at the Root Circle blog (https://therootcircle.com/blog/2018/4/28/getting-to-know-white-pine)
[ix] “The Pinelands, a Battle of Succession: Oak vs. Pine,” Refugia, September 12, 2015, https://www.refugiadesign.com/blog/2015/9/11/the-pinelands-a-battle-of-succession-oak-vs-pine.
[x] “The Pinelands, a Battle of Succession: Oak vs. Pine,” Refugia, September 12, 2015, https://www.refugiadesign.com/blog/2015/9/11/the-pinelands-a-battle-of-succession-oak-vs-pine.
[xi] “(PDF) Maintaining the Mosaic: The Role of Indigenous Burning in Land Management,” ResearchGate, accessed November 11, 2024, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285728799_Maintaining_the_Mosaic_The_role_of_indigenous_burning_in_land_management.
[xii] “(PDF) Maintaining the Mosaic: The Role of Indigenous Burning in Land Management,” ResearchGate, accessed November 11, 2024, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285728799_Maintaining_the_Mosaic_The_role_of_indigenous_burning_in_land_management.
[xiii] “(PDF) Maintaining the Mosaic: The Role of Indigenous Burning in Land Management,” ResearchGate, accessed November 11, 2024, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285728799_Maintaining_the_Mosaic_The_role_of_indigenous_burning_in_land_management.
[xiv] The Haudenosaunee Confederacy says that “Mohawk” comes from the Algonquian word “Mohowauuck” which they translate as “man-eater” (https://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/the-league-of-nations/). Many sources, including the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force, claim that “Iroquois” is a “derogatory term, derived from the French version of the Huron name for the Haudenosaunee, meaning ‘Black Snake’” (https://tuscaroraenvironment.org/terms-of-references). Masta translates the Abenaki word “maguwak” as “cowards” as distinct from “Maguak” which he translates as “Iroquois”. Because the Kanien’kehaka are the eastern most nation of the Haudenosaunee confederacy, I assume that Masta’s “Maguak” refers to the “Mohawks,” the Kanien’kehaka, not the entire Haudenosaunee confederacy, and that Masta does not distinguish between the two. Beyond Masta, and those who appear to rely on his translation, I have not found a source that translates “Maguwak” as coward.
[xv] Henry Lorne 1853- Masta, Abenaki Indian Legends, Grammar and Place Names (Hassell Street Press, 2021) p 32. See also https://westernabenaki.com/war15.php