427
In all 427 lines of Emerson’s poem I cannot recall a direct reference to Abenaki peoples. Nor do I see any words like indigenous, native, sachem, sagamore, squaw. There is no talk of the Pennacook people who settled along the Merrimack river watershed—Nashua, Winnipesaukee, Souhegan, Amoskeag—tribes who became part of an Abenaki band after smallpox, influenza, and other epidemics in the early seventeenth century decimated native populations.
Song Language Music Naming Subjectivity Translation Emerson History Erasure[violence] 427 Child of the Bear Indian Words Intention Rivers Preservation Body[music] Thresholds Dialogues Water Return