Photo 1: (top one) is of Richard "Rick" O'bomsawin, current representative of Odanak, Quebec, Canada's Abenaki community. He's in the bearskin regalia and the white face paint. "Grandfather" Rene Blanchette of Methuen, MA is walking in the background behind Rick's right side. Rene is or was an Assistant Clerk/Genealogical Researcher for Paul Pouliot's group and was or is a member of the Board of Directors as of April 08, 2008. Paul Wilson Pouliot is the "President"~Chairman of the Board of Directors. I guess that makes him a "Chief" of whatever their Incorporation is called (i.e. Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People Cowass North America, Inc. d.b.a. (doing business as) The Abenaki Nation of Vermont, Inc. P.O. Box 52 Alton, N.H.).
Photo 2: Well, that's Rhonda L. Besaw (now married to Charles Francis True Jr. (who claims to be the "Speaker"....of and for the Abenaki Nation of New Hampshire, Inc., which I have spoken of previously in this blog i.e. Homer St. Francis and Allen Martell, etc.) and to her left side is Rick O'bamsawin of Odanak, Qc., and an unidentified woman, and over to the far right (in the picture) is Paul Wilson Pouliot.
Photo 3: (on the far left in the picture) is Grey Wolf a.k.a. John Lawyer of St. Albans, Vermont (used to be part of Homer St. Francis's group but then jumped Bands, and went with the Mazipskwik group led by Connie Brow (homer St. Francis' niece) and David Gilman. (You can read some details here on this blog about this group using the search engine in the upper left corner, or you can read about this group in Frederick M. Wiseman's Autohistory of the Abenaki Nation on page 180-181). Next in this photograph (in the bacground) is Rene Blanchette a.k.a. Grandfather Maple, (with the deer antlered staff) is Paul Wilson Pouliot, Jamie Mehigan a.k.a. James D. Mehigan who at the time was of Woodville, MA (who was Secretary of Paul W. Pouliot's Inc. in 2005), and (with another one of them deer antler'd staff's is Walter Watso (who was from Odanak as well).
Photo 4: (left to right) is Paul Wilson Pouliot, (to Paul's left) is David Mathieson of Griswold, CT (whose wife is Lynn Menard-Mathieson and she was Paul W. Pouliot's group Business Agent-Connecticut and Member of the Board of Directors as of April 08, 2008).
Photo 5: These two woman are (left) Karen Benoit-Belanger and (right) Anissa Belanger (members of Paul Pouliot's group).
Photo 6: James "Jamie" D. Mehigan.
Photo 7: Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada "Dignitaries meeting with "Chief's" and "Elder's" at the Sherbrooke, Pow-wow. From left to right, is Rene Blanchette, unknown, holding the deer antlered staff is Paul W. Pouliot, with the red blanket, and then there is Walter Watso who was from Odanak, Quebec, Canada. My question is after seeing these images, is..."whats up with the deer antler'd staffs/walking sticks? Maybe they were used to hold up these "chief's" EGO's while they attended this event. Or maybe it was so everyone else could point them out, so these "chief's could feel important". I just don't know, but I do ponder......The photographs above #1 through #7 are from Norm Léveillée (link: http://www.cowasuck.org/sherbrooke/gallery.htm#gallery
Photo 8: Thats me on the left (in the picture), an unidentified man, and the woman whose last name is Bessette. She was from Magog, Quebec, Canada and was Abenaki. The Magog ancestral village is underneath the McDonald's Resturant, and the outlet of that river. I attended this event/Pow-w0w in June of 2002 by traveling up there with Patricia Lilly of Ossippee, New Hampshire at the time. I recall that Jeanne Lincoln-Kent was up there with her new husband in their van. Oh how she tried to talk to me about all that "Firewoman vs. Paul Pouliot "business", attempting to pull me into that mess. Muck-racking even back then by all sorts of people. But I was there just the same, and I witnessed a lot of the "crap" that was being done by folks to other folks. The ground was flat and hard on the feet, the seagulls were numerous and diving bombing for Poutine, a dish of french fried potato strips topped with gravy and cheese.
