Legend Of The Spirit Keepers Pennacook Lodge, Order Of The Arrow Volume 1 | Page 3

Then came the Puritans, seeking to end the ways the people. They came in
droves, calling to abandon the old and urge conversion to the English ways of
life. Passaconaway saw futility in quarrel and sought to coexist in peace. Among
his fellow chieftains to the south he promoted peace but his message fell upon cloth
ears and hardend hearts. The followers of Metacomet rose and fell, as did the
Pequot, Mohegan’s, Wampanoag’s and Narragansett. Seeing this destruction,
death, starvation, Passaconaway abdicated his position declaring his second son
Wannalancit to succeed him.
Wannalancit promised to pursuit the peace of his father. However the
English compelled no peace and arrested Wannalancit and two hundred Pennacook. They were treacherously imprisoned, left destitute on an island in Boston
Harbor. Passaconaway returned to negotiate the release of his son. But, he only found his
boy’s freedom after the starvation and death of most of the Pennacook prisoners and the sale
of many to slavery in Jamacia. Wannalancit returned to the Merrimack but feeling the
thrust presented by the English into his native lands the Sachem made a choice. Knowing his
father’s wish to not engage in conflict with those who opposed him with force, he dismantled
his throne at Pawtucket falls and led his people northward to French Acadia.
However, as many as one hundred souls were left behind. At the
site most sacred to his people, in the north woods, a land were
cove meets cliff and the cry of the loon can be heard abounding
from the water was Winnecowet the land of broken rock and
place of good pines. It was a mysterious place that the
Pennacook’s connected to things of the spirit. There Wannalancit
gathered those among the Pennacook who best knew the trails
and secrets of the land. Beneath a ripe October moon he
instructed them to “Keep the Spirit Alive”. Upon this group he
dubbed the title, Spirit Keepers and placed them under the
responsibility of a young but bold warrior known as Swausen.
Known among the Pennacooks for being fair and kind but not alien to mischief, Swausen led
the Spirit Keepers in the defense of the Winnecowet, a triangle shaped region from the pond
of the wild geese to shores of the Suncook to the lofty heights of Parker Mountain. The last of
free living Pennacook’s held this land through trial and tribulation. Evil abounds constantly