PENNACOOK

Algonquian-speaking American Indians whose villages were located in what are now southern and central New Hampshire, northeastern Massachusetts, and southern Maine. Like other New England Algonquian-speaking tribes, they depended on hunting, fishing, and the cultivation of corn (maize). They were semisedentary, moving seasonally in response to changing food resources. Smallpox and other causes reduced the Pennacook population from an estimated 2,000 in 1600 to 1,250 in 1674. The treachery of the whites subsequently caused the Pennacook to flee their territory, most removing to Canada and eventually settling at Saint-Franois-du-Lac. The remainder moved westward and eventually settled at Schaghticoke, Rensselaer county, N.Y.