Native Americans and Winooski

Five hundred years ago, the Winooski area held a deep, rocky waterfall now hidden behind the Winooski One hydroelectric dam, an extensive forest of small pine trees, and small fields of corn, squash, and tobacco near the simple wooden huts of a band of Western Abenakis. In spring and summer, Abenakis farmed the rich soil of the Intervale above and below the falls and fished for salmon in the Winooski; in late autumn, hunters and their families moved to higher ground in search of moose and deer; with winter, they returned to their homes along the river to await spring. Early French documents record an Abenaki village called Winooskik on the lower Winooski River, a name derived from an Indian word meaning "onion river land" because of a leek-type onion growing on the river's banks. Disease and almost constant war between the English and the French led to the village's abandonment by 1700, and its exact location is unknown, though the Abenaki heritage endures in the name of the river and city.

Winooski, Vermont · United States