A GOLSSARY OF ABENAKI TERMS

Indigenous People’s Day: Because 'Lost European Stumbles Upon America Day' didn’t quite have the same ring to it. Before our modern boundaries and names, this land pulsed with the stories and songs of the Abenaki. A culture and language that has inhabited this geographic location for ages, faces endangerment, but a new generation has begun to preserve, protect, and revitalize it. Here’s a very short collection of phrases and words about the geography, plants, and wildlife of the region.

Big shoutout (or should we say, a loud echo from the mountains?) to author and storyteller, Dr. Joe Bruchac and Jesse Bruchac, Director of the School of Abenaki at Middlebury College and the Ndakinna Education Center in the Adirondacks for these translations. Special thanks to Chief Don Stevens of the Nulhegan Abenaki for his assistance and guidance

GREETINGS

Kwai - Hello

Wôwlôwzi - An expression of good will when parting ways or at the end of a conversation, “Be very well”

Wlakamigenoka - “Make peace”

Kchi wliwni - Great thanks

GEOGRAPHY

PLANTS & WILDLIFE