The area was once a major Abenaki Indian village known as Pequawket, meaning
"crooked place," a reference to the large bend in the Saco River.
(Because of this the term 'Freyburg' is now known to mean "Crooked
place" or "crooked town") It was inhabited by the Sokokis tribe,
whose territory along the stream extended from what is now Saco on the coast,
to Conway, New Hampshire in the White Mountains. In 1706, Chief Nescambious
would be the only Indian knighted by the French. The tribe was not hostile to
English settlements, even hiring British carpenters to build at Pequawket a
14-foot (4.3 m) high palisade fort
