WESTBROOK LETTER 1722 - Methodology
Methodology
I decided to divide the letter into four main categories: places, people, time and everything else. I started with the geography so as to be able to identify the possible Indian nation referred to. The place names in the letter are: Piscataqua, St. George's, Boston, Arrowsick (on an Island), St. George's River, Penobscott Bay, Penobscott Fort and The Garrison at St. George's. I located the area on a map even though at first I was unable to determine the location of Arrowsick, St. George's River or Penobscott Fort.
I had an idea of the right geography for the events, so I decided to try and find the participants. The participants in the letter are: Col. Thomas Westbrook, Mr. John Dunsmore, Mr. Thomas Foster, Mr. William Ligett, Joshua Rose, Lt. Governour Dummer, 500-600 Indians at Arrowsick, Coll. Walton, a fryer, two French men and a 180 man force.
The time period cover extended from June 15, 1722, to September 23, 1722.
At first I thought the Indians described could be either the Micmac, the Innu or the Inuit. On further investigation, I found a correspondence on the web, where Roger Walke, a helper on the Native L web, referred to a book entitled "Handbook Of North American Indians" that would help identify Maine Indians. In this book I found the Abenaki, the more I investigated the Abenaki, the more I was convinced that these were the Indians referred to in the colonel's letter.
I found that between 1722 and 1727 there was a conflict that historically has been called Dummer's War. At this point, I still needed to find out more about St. George's River and Fort Penobscot and I needed to confirm and try to get the Abenaki interpretation and history on this particular event.
The Maine State Archives informed me that Fort Penobscott was the same as Fort Pentagoet and that it was burned by Thomas Westbrook's forces between 1722 and 1723. I then started looking for information about Fort Pentagoet instead of Fort Penobscott. I came across a video put out by the Maine Public Television Station that included information on Fort Pentagoet and after checking with Dr. de Laforcade, ordered it for my presentation.
I next E-mailed Nancy Lecompte from the Abenaki tribe, under the heading "How Can You Get In Touch With Us" explaining my project to her and informing her that I believed these were the Abenaki people. I asked her if she could concur with that and if she could add to my research. Ms. Lecompte is the Research and Program Director for Ne-Do-Ba (Friends), a Maine nonprofit corporation, descendants of the Abenaki Nation.
Ms. Lecompte E-mailed me back saying that she thought it probably was Abenaki people referred to in the letter but that Wabanaki was a more correct term. She hypothesized there were probably Penobscot and Passamaquoddy (Eastern Abenaki), MicMac and possibly others such as Huron involved at this time. She offered to find more information for me if I had the time to wait. I thanked her and told her my project deadline date.
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