Envelope sent Priorty Mail from SEC 13-Office of the Secretary of State, VT State Archives and Records Administration at 1078 U.S. Route 2 Middlesex in Montpelier, Washington County, Vermont 05633-7701 to Douglas Lloyd Buchholz at P.O. Box 83 in Lancaster, New Hampshire 03584 dated June 30, 2010 via Priority Maine.
Cover Letter to Douglas Lloyd Buchholz from Scott Reilly at the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration in Montpelier, Vermont dated June 30, 2010. Regarding Legislative Committee Records. Thank you for your recent records request. Please find enclosed a facsimile copy of the entire file for S.222 from the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs for 2010. The total charge for these copies is $13.15. An invoice is enclosed as well. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Regards, Scott Reilly, Archivist at the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration (802) 828-2207. VSARA-15/Letter_FoundRecords.doc
S.222-Abenaki Bill File Folder jacket.
To: Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs
From: Frederick M. Wiseman, Professor, Humanities (Native Studies), Johnson State College
Date: January 21, 2010
Re: S.222 - An Act Relating to the Recognition of Abenaki Tribes
My job as I see it, as a scholar at a VT institution of higher learning, is to help you craft a bill that will satisfy the complex and obscure state recognition standards of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. If we are going to attempt to have the current recognition legislation meet the federal arts and crafts law, we need to carefully heed the following sentences from the Director, Meredith Stanton's letter of February 14, 2008 to Senator Vincent Illuzzi. In the second to last paragraph Ms. Stanton said:
"Recognition" of a group as a tribe for very limited specific purposes of benefitting from the Indian Arts and Crafts Act falls short of recogntion as a sovereign tribe. (And) ... but it remains to be seen whether specific Abenaki "tribes" are recognized consistent with the federal act.
The key words are "sovereign Indian Tribe" and "consistent with the federal act."
Vermont must be careful in determining which groups are tribes, and the basis upon which tribes are accepted under the recognition umbrella. If we include groups who do not meet requirements of sovereign Indian Tribe (to which we need to add "Vermont sovereign," since it will be beyond VT's authority to recognize foreign entities); they must also be able to be seen as Indian tribes by the Feds - an ominous portent implying that each VT tribe will be investigated by the Feds after State recognition. There must be an attempt by the VT legislature to "get ahead" of the Feds on this one - the groups to be accepted by the VT Legislature had better have a historical and geographic presence that will stand up to scrunity by the Feds. This is the reason why you will need to demand evidence, on the record, of deep time communal culture within the boundaries of Vermont. If this cannot be provided, a group should not be given recognition for the purposes of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act. I have collected, analyzed and organized information useful for VT State recognition for an upcoming academic volume on New England Indians (Against the Darkness: The Wabanakis of the Far Northeast, 1609-1970. [Volume II of the Wabanaki World series], University Press of New England). As part of my academic commitment to the people who I research, I have made this data available for the band's I have studied for their use in any way they see fit, and they have chosen to share with you this mostly unpublished data to support their legislative designation as tribes.
(These 4 groups gave him the "data," of which he supposedly collected, analyzed and organized that "data"...then Fred Wiseman gave this mostly unpublished "data" back to these 4 groups, and subsequently, these groups used that "data" to allegedly substantiate themselves as "Tribes" or "Bands" of "Re-Invented "Abenakis," to this Senate Legislative Committee chaired by an Honorary "Clan of the Hawk" Chief "Fighting Wolf" a.k.a. Mr. Vincent Illuzzi.)
According to Meredith Stanton, Chair of Indian Arts and Crafts Board, individuals, families, and non-political organizations do not qualify, because she used the term "sovereign tribes" -- a collective political entity. Second, she has made it clear that recognition has to be based on acceptance as a tribe, not just to meet the requirements of Federal law. Third, the tribes have to be historically resident in the United States (e.g.
expatriate Canadian Indians are not covered). These revelations led me to investigate various definitions of "tribes" in law and the social sciences to develop criteria that will work against all questions that could be brought against Vermont when we attempt to persuade the Arts and Crafts Board to accept VT tribes as Abenaki Indians. An effective policy definition to meet the specific determinant guidelines of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 that oversee Vermont state recognition is below:
A Vermont tribe is a cultural entity with demonstrable historical and spatial (spatial means: "having to do with space or expansiveness") dimension within the boundaries of the state of Vermont. To restate the supposition (supposition means "something that is supposed; an assumption, conjecture or speculation"); a Vermont tribe is 1.) a community of people that 2.) has a documented history of practised culture (doing things, saying things, making things, and belonging to kin-groups [families] that any unbiased (or does Fred actually mean UNINFORMED or UNEDUCATED person's?) observer would say is "distinctly ethnic"); and 3.) has left physical, historical, and testimonial evidence of this communal Indigenous practised culture within defined areas contained by the borders of Vermont that 4.) applies to the period between 1780, when scholars and lawyers agree that there were Vermont Indians, and today, when there are numerous self-identifying Native entities (incorporations), that 5.) can be analyzed from (Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD's) scholarly perspectives that may include archaelogical, physical anthropology, ethno history, ethnography, linguistics, folkloric studies, genealogy, history, economic ethno botany, cultural and historical geography, political science and race relations study.
There are four Indian groups (Incorporate groups that are led by Presidents/ so-called "Chiefs" April St. Francis-Merrill, Luke "Falling Owl" Willard, Roger "Longtoe" Sheehan, and Nancy "Doe Eyes" Millette-Doucet, which are claiming to be "historical" Abenaki Tribes and or Bands) in Vermont, representing all the Vermont Indians who are enrolled in Vermont resident political organizations that would meet this definition. They are the St. Francis Sokoki Band (April Merrill), Nulhegan (Luke Willard), Koasek of the Koas (Nancy Millette-Doucet) and Elnu (Roger A. Sheehan). If you want to craft a bill that will have the certainty of meeting the requirements of the Federal Arts and Crafts Act, it is my professional opinion that these groups meet the scholarly and legal criteria. Again, that is ONLY HIS SUPPOSED "SCHOLARLY" OPINION.
If you remember, at the last testimony, each of these groups argued against each other's "Indian-ness" (and parenthethically, against my support of Missisquoi). Today they recognize each other's tribal integrity and have chosen to work together, Missiquoi first accepted Nulhegan (Luke Andrew Willard), then both accepted Koas (Nancy Millette-Doucet, Brian Chenevert, Howard F. Knight Jr. and Nathan Elwin Pero...later Nancy Doucet removed herself from the "Koasek" group, and attempted to "get back into the same." Unsuccessful, she left with her family members, and some other "members" wh then incorporated in both N.H. and Vermont, creating yet another spin-off group claiming to be a "Koasek" Cowasuck "Tribe" or "Band" of Abenakis) . It wasn't until last year that Elnu (Roger Anthony "Longtoe" Sheehan) , which is in Southern Vermont, far away from the Northern VT Abenakis, proved to the three bands of their historical and geographic authenticity -- to become accepted as the fourth band of the alliance. The Last time I testified before your committee, I knew little or nothing about Nulhegan and Elnu. I had known Chief Nancy Millette-Doucet of the Koaseks of the Koas since the late 1990's but virtually nothing about the rich history of the Newbury Indigenous community. This resulting coalition is what Chairman Vincent Illuzzi in 2007-2008. This is what we have. The four bands now probably collectively represent some 90% of all self-identifying Vermont resident Indians who profess an Abenaki ancestry (NOT TRUE). This does not mean that other Vermont individuals and organizations professing an Indigenous identity are not "Abenaki" or "Native American." It just means that I am unaware, as a scholar, of other multi-family political organizations that are geographically restricted to demonstrable homelands.
I have worked in good faith with the Legislature toward Abenaki recognitioin since 1993,
and have suffered many heartbreaks and betrayals by the Governor, the Attorney General, legislators, and other VT and regional Abenakis along the way. To ask for total agreement among Abenakis and Individuals in this matter - in a way that will satisfy the Federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act -- is impossible. To ask for total unanimity amongst Abenakis -- while accepting political disagreement in other legislative considerations -- is unfair. I ask that you allow everyone to make their best case and then decide who or what you will accept. You have a bill that works; you will have historical, cultural and geographic evidence that works. (YET NO GENEALOGICAL EVIDENCE to CONNECT TO THE HISTORICAL ABENAKIS) You have a majority of the Alleged and Reinvented VT Abenakis included under its umbrella. Please do not turn your back on the Abenakis because of internal Abenaki discord or because it is "too much B.S." given the economic situation. They have waited for hundreds of years for acceptance as to who supposedly they are. (B.S., correction: these Inc. Presidents who self- proclaim to be "Chiefs," have waited ONLY since these groups have INCORPORATED ca. 1975-1976....) It is up to you to decide what to do.
Frederick M. Wiseman
Professor, Humanities (Native Studies)
Johnson State College.
Johnson, VT
State Of Vermont
Senate Committee Members:
Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, Chair
Sen. Hinda Miller, Vice Chair
Sen. Tim Ashe, Clerk
Sen. William H. Carris
Sen. Douglas A. Racine
Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 10:00 AM Room 10
S.222 - An Act Relating to the Recognition of Abenaki Tribes
Introductions
Sen. Vince Illuzzi, Chair
Overview of Proposed Legislation
Sen. Hinda Miller, V-Chair
Luke Willard, Nulhegan Band of the Coosuck Abenaki
Johnny Prescot, Sub-Chief, Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation
Roger Longtoe Sheehan, Chief, Sogono Elnu Tribe of the Abenaki
April Merrill, Chief, St. Francis Sokoki Band of (Missisquoi)
Howard Knight, Retired Chief. Senior Advisor, Koasek Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation
Nathan Pero, Clan Chief, Nolka (Deer) Clan, Koasek Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation
Charles Delaney-Megeso, Chair, Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs
Frederick M. Wiseman, Chair, Department of Humanities, Johnson State College
Don Stevens, Missisquoi Abenaki
Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs
Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 10:00 AM
S.222 - An Act Relating to the Recognition of Abenaki Tribes
Participant Sign-In Sheet
Name/Title-Address/Phone-Email Address:
Roger A. Longtoe Sheehan
Route 30
Jamaica, Vermont
Brad Allen Barratt VCNAA
1185 Shelburne Road, A 306
South Burlington, Vermont
Charles Lawrence Delaney "Megeso"
P.O. Box 5862
Burlington, VT. 05402
Howard F. Knight, Jr.
573 E. Main St.
Newport, VT
Paul Joseph Bunnell - Sub-Chief
45 Crosby Street
Milford, NH 03055
Shelly Janet Bordeau (sister to Karen Majka)
175 High Road
Gilbertville, MA
Karen Mica (Majka) - Lemoine nee: Bordeau
70 Ware Road
West Warren, Massachusetts
Nathan Elwin Pero (son of Elwin Merle "Joe" Pero)
Jared Pero
3649 Blood Brook Road
Tugg Hill
Fairlee, Vermont 05045
James Haskins
Littleton, New Hampshire
Donald Warren Stevens
156 Bacon Drive
Shelburne, VT 05482
David Skinas
Chief April Ann (nee: St. Francis) Rushlow - Merrill
100 Grand Avenue (actually that is their Incorporation Office/ Abenaki Tribal Museum and Cultural Center)
915 Frontage Road (this is her actual address)
Swanton, Vermont 05488-8786
(802) 868-3806
Brenda Mary (nee: Perretta) Gagne
7116 Vermont Route 78
Highgate Center, Vermont 05459-3027
(802) 868-3459
Jeffrey Miles Benay
227 Carroll Hill Road
Fairfax, Vermont 05454
(802) 849-6888
Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs
Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 10:00 AMS.222 - An Act Relating to the Recognition of Abenaki Tribes
Participant Sign-In Sheet:
Thomas "Tom" Leo Phillips
(Member of ASHAI's Board of Director's and is on April Merrill's "Tribal Council"...which is actually the incorporation "board of director's)
2701 Vermont Route 15E
Hardwick, VT
(802) 472-6935
Mike Wayne LaFrance
(son of Osborn Oscar Lafrance and Alfreda Ann nee: Hagan)
P.O. Box 94
Bristol, Vermont
05443
Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD
Johnson State College
Johnson, Vermont 05656
Chief Luke Willard
Orleans, Vermont, 05860
firstnationslw@yahoo.com
Derby, Vermont
Richard Robert Bernier
("Skip" born June 19, 1939 Barton, VT to Melvina nee: Robert "Obomsawin")
(Melvina Gabrielle Obomsawin/ Robert was born ca. 1905 in Pierreville, Quebec, Canada/ Odanak Abenaki Community)
Newport, Vermont
richard-bernier@people.com
From: wiseman@vtlink.net
Subject: Tomorrow
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:17;34 -0500
I see that Mike McShane is testifying tomorrow at 10:00. Is this true?
I have tried to send Meredith Sumner and Hinda Miller my thoughts from my mobile phone (just purchassed last week) and am not sure that they went through - since I haven't received any notice of this - I guess not.
I seem to remember that the AG (Attorney General Bill Griffin) said to all of you that he wanted Abenaki recognition for purposes of arts and crafts. I noted that Mike McShane has not appeared in testimony until this point. If you remember, weeks ago I told you that the ploy to use enhanced criteria against Abenakis would be an endgame of the AG. Let us see if McShane is as predictable as Bill Griffin.
So I came home early to be sure that the Abenakis' interests are represented - I will be in Montpelier tomorrow at 9:00- 12:00 in case you need a rebuttal to McShane's predicted remarks.
However, and most importantly--I noticed that in the criteria section there was a backhanded reference that the Four bands send you complete lists of their citizens. This did not happen, nor can it happen, for if Hinda Miller remembers from our discussion at her house, the bands would never submit lists of citizens to VT. This is because the VT AG used tribal rolls send to the Federal Government as a source of information to use against Missisquoi in a court case. This sectioin should be somehow worded that the bands would not or did not do this, or make the requirement optional.
All bands have met five of the specific criteria (that Mr. Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD created!) , Missisquoi and Koasek have met nine, and Nulhegan and Elnu have met seven. I can testify to that if you wish.
Please let me know tonight if possible if testimony is tomorrow - I came back from Vacation for this and will brave the predicted snow to be there.
Be well-
Fred
From: Fred Wiseman
Date: 2/26/2010 February 26, 2010
Re: Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation - Criteria
Notice that this FORMAT is different than what became the "Decolonizing the Abenaki: A Methodology for Detecting Vermont Tribal Identity" by Frederick Matthew Wiseman, PhD. ALSO NOTICE: There is NOTHING "Historical" about really anything Mr. Wiseman cited in this document regarding this incorporated group led by Nancy (nee: Millette) Cruger-Lyons-Doucett!
St. Francis Sokoki Band, Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi Recognition Criteria
The "tribal council" is the actual Board of Directors for ASHAI, and previously in this blog I conducted a comparative between this so called "tribal council" and the ASHAI Board of Director's. My conclusion: "both are one and the same."
As for (6), it has already been ascertained and verified that William Haviland and Power's book Original Vermonters used John Moody's questionable and dubious "ethnohysterical" work. Sure, some families COULD BE of Native American descent, but that DOES NOT CONCLUDE definitively or conclusively THAT THESE FAMILIES, ARE "ABENAKIS." For Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD, to cite his own published work Voice of the Dawn, (An AutoHysterical History of the Alleged and Re-Invented "Abenakis") is just blantantly arrogant and egotistical to my thinking. Even Colin G. Calloway's book, The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600-1800 cites and used John Moody's questionable work, and the Office of Federal Acknowledgment stated this in their review of the documentation for the group that Mr. Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD. belongs to and advocates for!
Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Recognition Criteria
Notice that number (10) of this particular document page ONLY MENTIONS Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD. as having supposedly researched 1790 to 2010 history of this "Nulhegan" group. Nowhere in this documentation does anyone see , that FACTUALLY and DOCUMENTARILY-SPEAKING, Luke Willard's group came from - out of Ralph Skinner Swett's group "Clan of the Hawk, Inc.," which evolved or came from Howard Franklin Knight, Jr's so-called Cowasuck Inc. "group" AFTER August 17-20, 1994!
Kind'a Makes a Person Wonder Whose B.S.'ing Who eh?
What
LEGITIMATE
and
UNBIASED
historical
research
was actually done
????
The
Answer
=
NONE
Elnu Tribe of the Abenaki/New Recognition Criteria
Again, number (b) implies that there is a "Written Constitution, based on supposedly 'historical' memorized wampum records." People are supposed to take these people's "testimonials" based on what they interpret from a string of porcelain, wood or clay colored tubular beads "as gospel, the truth of the merits of their alleged historical merits because these groups SAYS so, with a smile?
Again
"More Grandma Said So Stories"
that
has
NO FOUNDATION
Yet, again....these cited video materials are CONTEMPORARY and are not historical. Re-Enacting and dressing up in what appears to be "Period Clothing" and cutting off one's red or blond hair and painting one's "white" caucasion face with red ocre, fire pit soot, and perhaps Crisco grease does not make one an "Abenaki Tribe or Band." Anyone can point to a Petroglyphic image in a rock, and claim to know or "interpret" the image and or proclaim to know the "sacredness" of such an area. Anyone can appropriate or expropriate "historical" maps, geographic areas, genealogical ancestors, an Indian or "Abenaki" Identity for themselves, and even rocks too!
With such dynamics happening, in N'dakinna and throughout New England today, one would think that these incorporation Alleged and Re-Invented "Abenaki" groups would have a sense of intergrity and honesty. I find it quite non-exsistent within their "historical" records!
(Draft No 1.1-S.222)
January 22, 2010- MWS - 2:13 PM
TO THE HONORABLE SENATE:
(Draft No. 1.1-S.222)
January 25, 2010- MWS - 12:02 PM
TO THE HONORABLE SENATE:
(Draft No. 3.3 - S.222) WISEMAN/SUMNER EDITION
February 26, 2010- MWS - 8:56 AM
TO THE HONORABLE SENATE:
(Seperate Document)
COPY
BILL AS INTRODUCED S.222
2010
Introduced by Senators Hinda Miller, Diane Snelling, and William Carris
Referred to Committee on
Date:
Subject: Abenaki people; recognition; Vermont commission on Native American affairs
Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to recognize the following tribes as the original Western Abenaki Indian tribes residing in Vermont: the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi St. Francis Sokoki Band, composed of the Missisquoi, St. Francis, and Sokoki Bands; the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation; the Nulhegan Band of the Abenaki Nation, also known as the Northern Coosuk/ Old Phillip's Band; and the ELNU Abenaki Tribe of the Koasek. This bill also proposes to amend the composition of the Vermont commission on Native American affairs, and do adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
(Draft No. 5.1 - S.222)
March 10, 2010- MWS - 4:13 PM
TO THE HONORABLE SENATE:
(Draft No. 3.2. - S.222)
April 29, 2010- MWS - 8:12 AM
Bracketed Text Appears in Red In Original Record - June 20. 2010 (in pencil)
[Fred Wiseman and Don Stevens proposed changes April 29, 2010]
TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
(I will post this particular 16-page document next)
© 2002 Marty Two Bulls
Doesn't this MAKE A PERSON THINK
Its much more than "our religion" that they are trying to steal today
These Incorporated Self-Identified "Abenaki" groups in Vermont and New Hampshire WANT to steal "Abenaki Identity" and Abenaki Sovereignty (what's left of that identity and sovereignty if it exists at all today with any integrity) that these 4 + groups a.k.a. "The VT Indigenous Alliance" would get on their belly's, to slide and slither themselves up the Vermont and New Hampshire Legislative stone steps, and WHORE themslves out to the highest bidder of the State Political System with their plastic beads and their leathers (or "Indianist" themed clothing attaire)! All in the name of selling out their so-called alleged "Abenaki Culture, Heritage, and dubious "Abenaki" Ancestral People!
To
Be
An
"Authentic"
Abenaki
Indian
nowadays
~
just
run
to
your
nearest
Secretary of State's Office
"incorporate"
yourself
"as an Abenaki"
"group"
"claiming to be"
"An Abenaki Tribe or Band"
Get Your Friends and Family
to join you
and claim you are
The Abenaki Chief
or three if you have them
throw in a Medicine Man/Shaman
too
~
Wanna-Be
Abenakis
FOR SALE
~
they are
A DIME A DOZEN
in Vermont
and in New Hampshire
