Metallak

1700's Abenaki Couple

Metallak was a Native American who lived for much of his life in the upper Androscoggin and Magalloway River regions of northern NH and Maine. Known for his great powers of endurance and quiet friendliness to all, Metallak has become a legend and is the subject of a NH State historical marker in Stewartstown.

Variations in the spelling of his name include:

• Metallak
• Metalluc
• Matalak
• Metalak
• Natalluk

The Last of the Arosaguntacook Band

Some say Metallak was the last known survivor of the Arosaguntacook band of the Abenaki nation. The Arosaguntacook's originally lived in the upper Androscoggin and Magalloway River region before most of them removed to the Saint Francis area as settlements made inroads on their ancestral lands.

Much of what we know about Metallak has been handed down through oral traditions and interviews of “old-timers” years after Metallak’s death. There are also misunderstandings settlers to the area had about Native American culture and tribal divisions that persist to this day. These have served to confuse the biography of Metallak, though we can trace much of the generalities of his life.

Metallak’s Early Years

Little is known of Metallak's early life. Metallak may have been the youngest son of the chief known as Philip (as called by the English), Pial, Pierre (French) or Piel (Abenaki for "Peter"). Chief Philip was a Pigwacket Abenaki, born about 1730 in the area of the Saco River near North Conway New Hampshire and Fryeburg Maine. As a boy his family moved northward to the Arosaguntacook, Nulheganook and Amarascoggin Abenaki Band areas, perhaps due to the incursion of settlers south of the notches.

Metallak’s mother was Marie Michelle, also known as Molly Missile who was well known for making moccasins. Chief Philip and Molly are said to have had several children, the youngest of which was Metallak born about the year 1750 in the upper Androscoggin River region.

Metallak’s extended family operated a trapping and hunting circuit through most of what is now northeastern Vermont, northern New Hampshire, northwestern Maine, and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada. Some of the family eventually settled in Odanak (St. Francis). An eyewitness account of Lt. Segar, who was taken prisoner during the 1781 raid on Sudbury, Canada (now Bethel Maine), placed Metallak in the village of St. Francis.

As late as 1775 there were two large family bands of Native Americans living a traditional lifestyle between Lake Umbagog and Lake Memphremagog of which Metallak was likely a part.

Metallak Continues Traditional Ways

As settlers made inroads up the Androscoggin and Magalloway watersheds, most of the Arosaguntacooks removed to the village of St. Francis in Quebec, Canada for mutual protection. However Metallak remained on good terms with the settlers and stayed in the area. He often made trips between points north and Bethel, Maine, where he had a number of friends he enjoyed visiting. According to some sources Metallak was known to residents of Bethel, Maine before 1781.

Metallak spent much of his life hunting, fishing, trapping, and serving as a guide for several distinguished personalities including Governor Enoch Lincoln of Maine, and Hon. Moses Mason of Bethel. It was for Mason that Metallak drew a map of the Magalloway River on birch bark. The Hamlin Memorial Library in Paris Maine claims to have just such a map made by Metallak, one of two known to exist, of the Rangeley Lakes District of Oxford County, Maine.

Metallak had at least 3 children, two boys and a girl. His two sons names were Parmagummet (or Parmayillet) and Wilumpi (or Wilumpa). They lived and hunted in close proximity to Metallak until about 1830 when his sons moved to Canada.

Metallak then lived for several years on Richardson's Lake with his second wife, where she died and is buried. After this he removed to the narrows on Lake Umbagog known as Metallak Point. Then he moved to township 5, range 2, on the Magalloway River where in 1832 he was living in a ten by ten foot camp made of sheets of spruce bark. He lived here for some dozen years with the nearest settlement 12-miles away. Governor Enoch Lincoln visited his camp here several times.

Metallak Becomes Blind

At some point Metallak lost the use of an eye due to an accident- some say from a ricocheting arrow. In 1836 he lost his remaining eye to a splinter while cutting wood alone deep in the forest. He was found by chance and rescued, helplessly blind, by Lewis Leavitt. Metallak's daughter and a son brought him to Canada in order to take care of him.

In 1847 he died in Stewartstown, NH as a county charge while living with Leonard H. Fellows.

The Legacy of Metallak

Metallak is buried in the North Hill Cemetery 1 mile north of Stewartstown Village on the East side of NH route 145. At the junction of Creampoke Rd is a State of New Hampshire historical marker:

"Metallak - Hunter, trapper, fisherman, and guide, well ad favorably known by the region's early settlers, "The Lone Indian of the Magalloway" was the last survivor of a band of Abenaki inhabiting the Upper Androscoggin. Blinded by accidents, Metallak died a town charge in 1847 at the reputed age of 120. He is buried in the North Hill Cemetery on the road to the east".

Area features bearing his name include:

• Metallak Pond
• Metallak Brook
• Two Metallak Islands
• Metallak Stream
• Two Metallak Mountains

The Moses Mason Museum in Bethel Maine has on display a set of moose antlers that came from Metallak as well as the materials made into unique moose-horn chair by Dr. Mason.

If you have more information about Metallak or the Native Americans of the area I would very much like to hear from you.

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