Editing Abenaki (section)

==Names==
The word ''Abenaki'' and its [[syncope (phonology)|syncope]], ''Abnaki,'' are both derived from ''Wabanaki'', or ''Wôbanakiak,'' meaning "People of the Dawn Land" in the [[Abenaki language]].<ref name=UXL>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |via=HighBeam Research |encyclopedia=U*X*L Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3048800002.html |title=Abenaki  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611100559/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3048800002.html |archive-date=June 11, 2014 |access-date=August 14, 2012 }}</ref> While the two terms are often confused, the Abenaki are one of several tribes in the [[Wabanaki Confederacy]].

Alternate spellings include: ''Abnaki'', ''Abinaki'', ''Alnôbak'',<ref>A Time Before New Hampshire by Michael J. Caduto</ref> ''Abanakee'', ''Abanaki'', ''Abanaqui'', ''Abanaquois'', ''Abenaka'', ''Abenake'', ''Abenaki'', ''Abenakias'', ''Abenakiss'', ''Abenakkis'', ''Abenaque'', ''Abenaqui'', ''Abenaquioict'', ''Abenaquiois'', ''Abenaquioue'', ''Abenati'', ''Abeneaguis'', ''Abenequa'', ''Abenkai'', ''Abenquois'', ''Abernaqui'', ''Abnaqui'', ''Abnaquies'', ''Abnaquois'', ''Abnaquotii'', ''Abasque'', ''Abnekais'', ''Abneki'', ''Abonakies'', ''Abonnekee''.<ref name="clark">{{cite book |last1=Clark |first1=Patricia Roberts |title=Tribal Names of the Americas: Spelling Variants and Alternative Forms, Cross-Referenced |date=October 21, 2009 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5169-2 |page=10 }}</ref>

''Wôbanakiak'' is derived from ''wôban'' ("dawn" or "east") and ''aki'' ("land")<ref>Snow, Dean R. 1978. "Eastern Abenaki". In ''Northeast'', ed. Bruce G. Trigger. Vol. 15 of ''Handbook of North American Indians'', ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, pg. 137. Cited in Campbell, Lyle (1997). ''American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pg. 401. Campbell uses the spelling ''wabánahki''.</ref> (compare [[Proto-Algonquian language|Proto-Algonquian]] ''*wa·pan'' and ''*axkyi'') — the aboriginal name of the area broadly corresponding to [[New England]] and [[the Maritimes]]. It is sometimes used to refer to all the [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquian-speaking peoples]] of the area—Western Abenaki, Eastern Abenaki, [[Wolastoqiyik]]-[[Passamaquoddy]], and [[Mi'kmaq]]—as a single group.<ref name="UXL"/>

The Abenaki people also call themselves ''Alnôbak'', meaning "Real People" (cf., [[Delaware languages|Lenape language]]: ''[[Lenape]]k'') and by the [[Endonym and exonym|autonym]] ''Alnanbal,'' meaning "men".<ref name="Sultzman"/>

Historically, ethnologists have classified the Abenaki by geographic groups: ''Western Abenaki'' and ''Eastern Abenaki''. Within these groups are the Abenaki bands: