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In the years immediately preceding European settlement, the Abenaki (also spelled Abnaki), an Algonquian-speaking tribe, were the original inhabitants of the area. 10 best vacations in the US In response to the formation of the powerful and aggressive Iroquois Confederation in the late sixteenth century, the various tribes of New England formed an Abenaki confederation as a defensive measure, with the Vermont region forming their northwestern frontier.
In 1609, French explorer Samuel de Champlain, based in Quebec, became the first European to travel the region, and the large lake that forms the northwestern boundary of the present-day state bears his name. Champlain and other French explorers also gave the state its name: Vermont, from vert (green) and mont (mountain), for the mountainous landscape thickly forested with conifers.
(During the period under British colonial rule, the region was also known as the New Hampshire grants after London charters granting the territory to New Hampshire.) In 1666, the French established the first permanent European settlement here, on the Isle La Motte in Lake Champlain. At the same time, Jesuit missionaries living among the native inhabitants helped create economic and political alliances between the French and the Abenaki. On behalf of the French and their own interests, the Abenaki continually skirmished with the English in the far south of Vermont.
