I worked with Stephen "Atian" Laurent "L8l8" of Intervale, New Hampshire in his elder years of life, regarding the Abenaki Language. He was a kind hearted and soft spoken man. I remember him sitting on his porch waiting for my arrival on most occassions. He would get into my old van and we would go down to get his mail out of his mailbox and then over to the store down the street to get some store bought meals. I enjoyed and still cherish the times we spent together, limited as those times were wherein he would be speaking Abenaki and me trying to learn it. He helped me recreate Tape No. 4 of Dartmouth's Collection of Gordon Day's material. I sent Dartmouth a audio cassette of Tape Number 4.
It's not $85,000.00 dollar Language Grants that I was ever interested in back then or nowadays. In retrospect, it was the small endeavors, the meager shoe-string $20.00 dollar trips that meant the most, and it was what went the farthest I think, in the long run. Just like going up to Odanak, Quebec, Canada to visit with Cecile Wawanolette to get her material from Swanton put onto audio cassette. I had probably $40.00 to get to Odanak, and a little under $20.00 to get back down home back then. I bought Joseph Laurent's original dictionary for $20.00 dollars from Steven Laurent. It was written in the back and front by Atian himself. It was a kindness he showed to me when he let me borrow the CD Masters of Father Aubrey's Dictionary but it was also a cherished trust he gave to me, a younger person I will never forget; so that I could get duplicate's. He said, "here, you take these, and when your done with them, bring them back". I took them to Patricia Lilly's home in Ossipee, N.H. and we had two audio cassette double-tape machines going non-stop to get the audio tapes duplicated since we didn't have a CD burner set up sadly said at the time.
The June 26, 2001 Rick Hunt artist article, I find most interesting, in that Rick Hunt stated, "that he was Abenaki", just like his cousin Nancy Millette Cruger was doing. But again, where is the genealogical evidence from their ancestry to show this was true? Oh, thats right, anyone who demands or even hints at asking for the genealogical proof/evidence is perpetuating "genealogical genocide" against these people. "Playing Indian" in the Vermont/New Hampshire area has become quite popular and profitable over the years to some and to many.
