*** Welcome to piglix ***

Gray Lock


Wawanotewat (v. Wawanolet, Wawanolewat), more famously known by his English 'nom de guerre' of Gray Lock (v. Greylock, Chief Gray Lock, etc.), was a Western Abenaki warrior chieftain of Woronoco/Pocumtuck ancestry who came to lead the Missisquoi Abenaki band, and whose direct descendants have led the Missisquoi Abenaki until the current day. Born around 1670 near what is now Westfield, Massachusetts, he eventually became the most illustrious and prominent leader to arise among the dwindling Waranoak, once the predominant original inhabitants of the central Connecticut River Valley in today's New England region.

The mid-1720s conflict known as Dummer's War (also known as Greylock's War, Three Years War, Lovewell's War, Father Rasle's War, or the 4th Indian War) was perhaps the most pitched series of battles and raids between the region's English colonists and groups of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The legendary Chief Gray Lock rose to prominence during this period, marshaling and organizing Native resistance based in Otter Creek and, further to the northwest, on the Missisquoi near today's Swanton, both in what is now Vermont.

French colonists and traders are recorded as the first Europeans to explore the Kennebec River area, in what is now Maine, with Samuel Champlain arriving in 1604 and claiming the area for France. Soon afterward, however, English colonists began to homestead lands along the Kennebec long occupied by the Abenaki Indians, who regarded them as their own. As the pattern of English settlements in the area continued, the French and Abenaki formed an alliance against them.


...
Wikipedia

...