This is my Walker Coon Dog named Nipper. 
The 1975 Dodge van in the background is the one I bought east of Port Angeles, Washington in March 1994 in which to drive me, and the hound dog Nipper, out East to Vermont in late March 1994. The van was painted in grey auto spray paint, after having sanding down and removing the artistic activist wording (while up in Athens, Maine). This photograph was taken outside of Ed Verge's house that Spring of 1995. I had spent the winter at his place, during the cold wintery months of December 1994, Jan.-Feb.-Mar.-and perhaps even April 1995. Then I found a rental down behind John Emerson's Store.
The 1975 Dodge van in the background is the one I bought east of Port Angeles, Washington in March 1994 in which to drive me, and the hound dog Nipper, out East to Vermont in late March 1994. The van was painted in grey auto spray paint, after having sanding down and removing the artistic activist wording (while up in Athens, Maine). This photograph was taken outside of Ed Verge's house that Spring of 1995. I had spent the winter at his place, during the cold wintery months of December 1994, Jan.-Feb.-Mar.-and perhaps even April 1995. Then I found a rental down behind John Emerson's Store. The illustration in The Northern Forest Forum of Lancaster New Hampshire was drawn by me in January 1995, so I was in communication by January 15th, 1995 with Tomas Obomsawin (notice he didn't spell his surname as Abomsawin in this article, once he and Daisy Goodman relocated to North Stratford, N.H. from Swanton, Vt.) while they were living in Daisy Goodman's mothers place down along the Connecticut River. I was encouraged to draw illustrations for this quarterly newsletter called The Northern Forest Forum by Daisy Goodman. I actually quite like this one I did of years ago which was published.
Now here is what is interesting about this quarterly newsletter, of what you don't "see" on the surface, as they'd say.
Remember when in Swanton's "Abenaki Chief" Homer St. Francis' Tribal Newsletter of August 1994 Pages 6, 7 wherein Tomas/Thomas Obomsawin was in conflict with not only the Swanton Limestone/ Shelburne Limestone Corporation "for alledgedly illegally living out behind Doris and Stanley Minckler's home". Then in this same newsletter, on pages 14 and 15, Thomas/Tomas Obomsawin was again in the conflict regarding Brunswick Springs (while Tom was still residing in Swanton, Vermont). Brendon Whittaker, Brunswick Selectman and spokesman for that said township in Vermont is the father of Andrew Whittaker, and said Andrew Whittaker was the Executive of The Northern Forest Forum, a quarterly newsletter. James "Jamie" R. Sayen was also an Executive Director. Both Andrew Whittaker and Jamie Sayen were on the Board of Directors for this organization. It is quite interesting to see that, while the father (Mr. Brendon Whittaker, a minister of the Episcopalian denomination) helped clean up Brunswick Springs in May of 1993, Mr. Whittaker then wanted to collect taxes on the property. Interesting that the son of Brendon Whittaker was more of a activist. In reaction to Brendon Whittaker's demand to impose taxes on Brunswick Springs and the lawsuit against Wobanaki Inc., the financial arm of the "Tribal Council of the Abenaki Nation", Tomas Obomsawin etc., then claim that Brunswick Springs (N'biz8nbek) was a "church", and then attempted to say that the property was "a sacred place", and said Brunswick Springs was an Abenaki cemetery.
So, when Thomas Obomsawin and Daisy Goodman, with their children left Swanton and came to North Stratford, New Hampshire, they simply politically picked up where they left off. When they saw me living over in Island Pond, Vermont with Ed Verge, they had encouraged me to join their "group".
It is interesting that in the Mid-Summer 1996 The Northern Forest Forum on page 28, it states and I quote from Tomas Obomsawin's own written article, "A once great and powerful leader of a branch of the Abenaki people has recently traded the traditional principles he claimed to adhere to, for a contract with a Gambling Casino Corporation." Did you just read what I just typed? For years he solicited support from the people for the traditional principles he said he stood for. Now it appears that he used the people who supported those principles to gain political power. Once he became notorious enough he was approached by an attorney representing gambling interests. He entered into a contract with unknown gambling interests in the name of the people. Less than one-tenth of one percent of the people he supposedly represented vote on anything. Few even know know what's really going on."
I remember "talk" back then in 1994 of "Chief" Homer St. Francis had alledgedly recieved monies from this Gambling Casino Corp. and that he had used those monetary funds, not to "help" the Abenaki People of which he claimed to represent, but rather he used the monies to landscape his "Camp" up in Berkshire near Lake Carmi! The "plot" thicken's. If you noticed, Tomas Obomsawin/Abomsawin was standing in that photograph on Page "62" of the January 1991 Yankee Magazine article I posted on this blog. He's the one in the blue baseball cap and white sweater, and wearing the flip-flop sandals, standing there while Homer St. Francis stood there "acting all that and important" while the reporter took the photograph. If you also recall, when Tomas Obomsawin came down to Swanton, he lived with Homer and Patsy St. Francis (where Tom Obomsawin met Daisy Goodman) so if anybody knew what the heck was REALLY going on behind closed doors and outside the Abenaki People of Swanton's awareness, it would have been Tomas Obomsawin and Daisy Goodman. They both were in the "Tribal Office" and they were living under the very roof of "Chief" Homer St. Francis Sr. himself before moving in behind Doris and Stanley Minckler's home! Like I said, there are those who assume Homer "helped the Abenaki People", but truth be known he was "helping himself first and formost" before anyone else saw any real help at all. It was more like with Homer, "I'll help you and support your endeavor(s) but whats in it for me?, what are you going to do for me? and the end result that he was looking for was that he'd get more than you got in the end".
