A look back at Biddeford

The Pring and Smith voyage reports also described the local natives, referred to as “barbarians” (which, it is interesting to note, is what the Vikings described them as when they briefly visited… the barbarians, in fact, prevented the Viking outpost from taking a firm hold of the area, and the eastward movement was abandoned).
The locals to the Saco were unlike other aborigines of the area. The Saco was “well stored” with fish, and the lands surrounding the river were fertile, and those who lived there benefited in different ways from the land, when compared to others in the region.

They shaved their heads from the forehead to the crown, but they let the sides and back grow long, knotting it in braids, interweaving feathers of various colors. They painted their faces black or red or both, and they utilized spears, clubs and bows for weapondry… the arrows were tipped with the tails of the Horseshoe Crab, which still are commonly found around the mouth of the Saco, although most assuredly not in the same numbers they were then.

Rather than being nomadic, they seemed to drift along the valley, heading to the upper regions only when the fish were running, but otherwise remaining in the valley region of the Saco. They used cornstalks to provide the poles for bean plants to run on. They grew grapes, which they made a sort of wine from. Potatoes and Pumpkins were a staple product, as was tobacco. 

Their homes were permanent dwellings, skinned with oak bark, and they would construct walls of branch piles around their villages to defend against attack. 

The English were particularly intrigued by the husbandry skills of the Saco concerning Walnut trees… they thought it was too much a learned skill for so primitive a people. 

The Saco Indians were not very warlike, and pretty much kept to themselves. Like most non-nomadic tribes, they guarded their territory, and were wary of intruders, but like most Indians across the land, they did not feel they had “ownership” of the land itself… they live on the lands that the gods provided for them.