The Koasek
by Chief Nancy Millette Doucet
The Koasek Abenaki of the KOAS are a State-of-Vermont-recognized tribe with their headquarters in Newbury. Vermont. We have spent over 30 years documenting our history in Haverhill and Newbury and 20 years to pass legislation to grant us legal status as a recognized tribe. Our application for recognition included hundreds of pages of documented history showing that our people and families have been here consistently for over 300 years. It also included hundreds of pages of genealogy showing our people are from here and come from Indians of the Koas ( Koas is the traditional spelling for the meadows that come from the Jesuits who built the Mission Des Loupes of the Koas on the Newbury side of the meadows). Our burial grounds are in Haverhill. There were winter villages for the Koasek. Other tribes came here to trade and visit however the the Koasek have always been here. There are over 200 families in this tribe today. We have worked with both NH and VT archeologists, National Geographic and anthropologists as well as professors from many colleges on documenting our true history here.
