Cowasuck

The Cowasuck, also known as Cowass, is an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe in northeastern North America and the name of their primary settlement.

[4] Variant spellings of the place name include Koés in French and Cohass, Cohoss, or Coos in English, and an alternate demonym is Cohassiac.

[7] The river valley forest was a mixture of deciduous trees, hemlocks, and white pines, growing on light soils or old fields.

Their wigwams were rectangular, covered with bark, had domed roofs with a hole as a flue for each fire, and had room for several families.

[9] Indigenous peoples lived along the Kwenitekw (Connecticut River/Long River) and its tributaries, along what is known today as the central borderlands of Vermont and New Hampshire.

[18] The missionaries learned the language of the Native Americans, adopted their style of speech, and tried as far as possible to follow their customs and manners.

Their poverty and devotion were respected and their courage, as well as their apparent immunity to the diseases that the communities healers faced helplessly, was admired by the natives.

They shared the lives of the Indigenous peoples and earned their trust, although their missionary vocation demanded that they renounce Native American culture, the disempowerment of religious leaders, and the spiritual and social revolution.

[1] Joseph Laurent, an Abenaki chief (sôgmô) from Odanak, Quebec, moved to Intervale, New Hampshire in the late 19th century, maintained an Indian trading post and became a local postmaster.

[27] Several organizations that self-identify as Native American tribes who identify as being Cowasuck are active in Vermont and New Hampshire; however, their claims to Abenaki ancestry are disputed.

The Ko'asek (Co'wasuck) Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation, a cultural heritage group with 430 members(2021), owns 10 acres in Claremont used for ceremonies.