Archiver > NA-ABENAKI > 2004-10 _______________________________________
From: "Nancy" < okemes@adelphia.net>
Subject: Re: [NA-ABENAKI] VT Local Abenakis forming a new band, seeking state recognition
My Heart goes out to you and your people. May the Great Spirit and Creator be with you all you are all in my prayers. Talk to me anytime. I will listen. I will try to give advise as a elder of the Abenakis.
Grandfather
Phil “Soaring Eagle” Thibault.
----- Original Message -----
From: Nancy Lee Cote-Rolls
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 11:33 AM
To: Grandfather Philip J. Thibault
Subject: First Nations
Kwai Grandfather
This attachment is meant to dissolve the majority of people within the Nulhegan Band from the fact that things were down [done] without the consensus of the entire group and especially without permission from the chief and sub chief.
All of us realize that this has gone far enough and that we have made a horrible mistake by using our hearts to think that someone [Luke Andrew Willard] could change, we were wrong in doing so.
I have tried to talk honorably on your site but cannot stay silent too much longer with this individual [Luke Andrew Willard] slamming everyone. He has a personal agenda of his own and furthermore I have much proof documented to back up this statement.
Do what you want with the letter about the Woodpecker, a wise individual gave this to the group to protect us from the ways of a young, willful, self- serving, warrior-want-to-be individual [Luke Andrew Willard].
My apologies come to you sincerely as I am honored to have your opinions on all things. The majority of the people including the chiefs Raymond Bernier and Charlie Girard have given permission for me to use their names to rectify this situation. Today I have started and it will be done honorably with the consensus of all, for the purpose of today and the tomorrows of our children and their children.
With much love
your Nanny [Nancy Lee nee: Cote – Rolls]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jan J." To: < NA-ABENAKI-L@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 3:45 PM
recognition
From "The Newport Daily Express Tuesday, September 21, 2004 Page 1:
"In Derby Line, Vermont Local Abenakis forming a new band, seeking state recognition"
by Anne L. Squire
Express Staff Writer
Derby Line-For 30 years various groups of Abenakis have petitioned the Legislature and the governors for state recognition. This status would give that group an official status within Vermont."
Photograph caption: "Some of the members of the Nulhegan Band, Cowasuk Abenakis, who are petitioning the Vermont legislature for state recognition.
From left to right, rear, Luke Willard, Dawn Macie (Dancing Light), front row, left to right: Nancy Cote, Silent Thunder, Sparkling Water."
"For most of the 70s and 80s, the most vocal Abenaki group in Vermont was the group at Swanton, under the leadership of Homer St. Francis. That group applied for state recognition, but Attorney General William Sorrell denied their petition in a 254-paged document.
Now, a group of Abenakis, meeting presently in Derby Line has petitioned the governor and the Legislature for state recognition. This group, calling them the Nulhegan band of the Coosuk Abenakis, originally were part of the group that meets at Evansville, under the leadership of Ralph Swett. They left to form their own group. Luke Willard, elected as their war chief, and several members of the group were interviewed Sunday afternoon. 'In only a few months, the group has grown from 15 to around 50,' Willard said.
"They base their request for recognition on family genealogies that go back many generations of Abenaki-descended people who have lived in the Nulhegan watershed area. One of the few land sale records from or to Abenakis is a 200 year old sale of land by an Abenaki named Philip, who sold [illegally] about 300 square miles of territory in the northern Connecticut River-eastern Memphremagog basis area. Philip's band were called "Cowasuk" or "Coosuk" Abenakis," their name deriving from the Abenaki word "Coos," or "Cowas," meaning that they were the 'people who live among the pine trees.'
This group is hoping that their petition will be the one that finally allows at least some Vermont Abenakis to be acknowledged as Vermont's original people." Transcribed by Jan Jordan
SOURCE: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/NA-ABENAKI/2004-10/1096928820
Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD. could not even do a simple online Internet search when he created this "work" of his entitled "Decolonizing the Abenaki..." so as a REVISIONIST Scholar that he apparently is, he simply "distorted" labeling the Newport Daily Express article as coming from May 16, 2002. Nancy Cote-Rolls and Luke Andrew Willard did not "incorporate" and solicit membership into that organization until AFTER August 2004. Apparently this "professional" "Scholar" from Johnson State College FORGOT to remember what was taught in High School, TO HIS VERIFY SOURCES! He is the coordinator of this concocted "Vermont Indigenous Alliance" founded in 2008, which is composed of these 4 Incorporated ALLEGED and REINVENTED "Abenaki" groups seeking VT State Recognition from the legislature, and one would assume, hope and think, that such a "INSIDE NON INDEPENDENT Scholar" would verify and cross-reference his alleged scholarly "work," to make sure it was accurate. Then again, even the BIA's "Office of Federal Acknowledgement" has retrospectively concluded previously that his "research" was NOT SOURCED, POORLY DONE, and NOT VERIFIED; just like that Federal Agency said and concluded about John Moody too. Now he (Wiseman PhD) wants to take this same shoddy work practise and convince the VT legislature, that this research of his, is accurate?
The Vermont legislature is allegedly supposed to depend on this biased Scholar and the others (already mentioned recently on this blog) to substantiate that these "Abenaki" Incorporate groups are "authentic" Abenaki Tribes? He (Fred Wiseman PhD) couldn't even get an article's publication date cited correctly!
LINK: http://reinventedvermontabenaki.blogspot.com/2010/09/pages-24-38-of-decolonizing-abenaki.html
LINK:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkPVcVJn27n5yBx3FnbhpsqZICPuCzFHe5fgXSML5pQ9uCI47MRP7hGG3DsKQxWJA1Y_Mn9bS5fOU11p7EKPjU3zMwzuJ4sI02awXPC2txDXFhcGf9olD0QCPCI2mkmhuBt-KGuXVmN0I/s1600/29..jpg
From the "Decolonizing the Abenaki..."
by Frederick M. Wiseman PhD.
Ms. Nancy Snow
a mid 19th century Upper Cowass matriarch.
She is wearing early 19th century
silver "ball and cone" earbobs.
Tryphenia Montgomery (nee: Waid) Heath
NOTICE HER "ball and cone" earbobs!
She is the "real" Upper Cowasuck Matriarch!
She was born June 06, 1844
to Stephen Montgomery Waid and Sarah Sargent
Backport near Fitchbay, Stanstead Co., Qc, Canada
She married David Anson Heath
August 11, 1865
in Derby, Orleans County, Vermont
She died April 02, 1915 in Backport
near Fitch Bay, Qc. Canada
Their son Albert Anson Heath
married to Sarah Jane (nee: Woodward)
whose father's Auntie
was Flora Ella (nee: Woodward) Cass
Flora Ella (nee: Woodward) Elliott-Cass-Woodward
on the Percy "Old Stage Coach" Road
East Stratford, Coos County, New Hampshire
She is wearing those same
early 19th century silver "ball and cone" earbobs!
She was a mid 19th century Upper Cowasuk Matriarch too!
She was a healer, plant doctor and a mid-wife as well.
She was born January 21, 1844
Walden, VT or Fitch Bay, Qc, Canada
She married 1st to William Henry Elliott
She married 2nd to Hayden Harley Cass
She married 3rd to Anson Darius Woodward (Sr.)
She died January 23, 1935
East Stratford, Coos County, VT.
In the center is (3rd person from the right) is Flora Ella Woodward-Elliott-Cass-Woodward, to her right is her daughter Nellie Maude Cass-Reed, to Nellie’s daughter Florence Alice Reed-Crocker-Lanpher, to her left is a family friend or neighbor perhaps; Florence Alice (1m. Crocker 2m. Lanpher) is holding onto her daughter Beverly Ruth Lanpher who stands with flowers in her right hand; to Flora Ella Woodward’s right stands either her son Anson Darius Cass a.k.a. Anson Darius (Adrias) Woodward or Benjamin Harrison Woodard from Georgeville, Quebec, Canada. This photograph was taken in East Stratford in the early 1930's
Not only are the family members phenotypically native, the Upper Cowass matriarch, Flora Ella (nee: Woodward) Elliott-Cass-Woodward not only wore mid 19th century silver "ball and cone" earbobs, she even MADE them. In this particular family photograph the Upper Coos matriarch wears a blanket in the historical Indian style for the photograph illustrated.
Flora Ellah Woodward
in her dooryard
East Stratford, Coos County, NH
Not only are the family descendant members (pictured below) phenotypically native, the Coos matriarch wears her hair in the historical Indian style for the photograph illustrated above.
Anson Darius Woodward Jr. with his mother
Flora Ella nee: Woodward
on the Front Porch in East Stratford
on the old Cross Road
in the 1930's
Osman "Harley or Hayden" Cass
Son of Flora Ella Woodward-Elliott-Cass-Woodward
He was born March 15, 1868
Magog, Quebec, Canada
and died
May 13, 1954
Newark, Caledonia County, Vermont
Dexter Woodward
Son of Darius Anson Woodward and Lucy Ann (nee: Pratt)
Born May 05, 1875
East Haven, Essex County, Vermont
Died September 21, 1960
Jefferson, Coos County, New Hampshire
He married to Lillian Martha (nee: Hosford)
who was also Abenaki also
(1/8th or 1/16th of a measuring cup, of Abenaki Indian)
SUPPOSEDLY
Photograph taken in Jefferson/ Riverton, Coos County, New Hampshire
His Ancestors came from an 8,000 year old
Abenaki Indian Village in Jefferson, New Hampshire!
James Henry Cass (Sr.) with his brother
Osman "Hayden or Harley" Cass
Son's of Flora Ella (nee: Woodward) Elliott-Cass-Woodward
Avery "Tinker" William Hayden Cass
Son of James H. Cass (Sr.) and Emily "Emma" Jane (nee: Baird)
She was the dau. of Avery Baird and Minnie (nee: Woodward)
Avery was born November 02, 1911
Groveton, Coos County, New Hampshire
He died November 06, 1974
Hanover, Grafton County, New Hampshire
James Henry Cass (Jr.) with his father (Sr.)
East Stratford or Groveton, Coos County, New Hampshire
James (Sr.) was born April 09, 1869
Stanstead or Fitch Bay, Quebec, Canada
He married Emily "Emma" Jane (nee: Baird)
His "round about" cousin "of sorts"
He married Sarah Anne (nee" Emery)Briggs
who was from Everton, England
Her sister Beatrice Annie (nee: Emery)
married to George Elmer Woodward, son of Charles Woodward
and Amanda Ann (nee: Brown)
He married to Lillian Sarah (nee: Roberts) Hopps
James Henry Cass (Sr.) died May 01, 1953
Groveton, Coos County, New Hampshire
James (Sr.)'s son Thomas James Cass
Born February 09, 1923 in Groveton, New Hampshire
Died October 16, 1996
(on Thomas J. Cass' Death Certificate it states Ancestry "English/Indian")
(Under "RACE" on the same document it indicates "White")
Real Photograph Post Card
Heath-Woodward Family
Prior to January 17, 1922
Front Row, left to right: 2nd woman is:
Sylvia Jane (nee: Heath) Woodward
Dau. of David Anson Heath & Tryphenia M. (nee: Waid)
She was born August 16, 1889
Stanstead, Quebec, Canada
Married Frank Edward Woodward
(Seated to her left)
Son of Charles Woodward & Amanda Brown
May 01, 1911
Fitch Bay, Stanstead Co., Qc, Canada
She died January 17, 1922
(other Relatives are in the Photo as well)
Such as Albert Anson Heath
and his wife
Sarah Jane (nee: Woodward) Heath
Just look at them phenotypically native (Indian physical characteristics), 'high' cheek bones, dark brown eyes; and the women's fancifully decorated hats. Probably this Postcard indicates a Native Community of Abenakis living in the Fitch Bay, Stanstead County, Quebec, Canada geographical area. Sarah Jane (nee: Woodward) Heath's son Roy Heath was married Newport, Vermont to his wife, but he lived in Brown's Hill, Stanstead County, and Fitch Bay, Qc, including Magog, Quebec, Canada.
Charlotte Maria (nee: Robinson) Rollins - Woodward
She was a mid-19th century Upper Coos Matriarch.
She is wearing early 19th century silver "ball and cone" earbobs.
She was born March of 1834
Hatley, Stanstead County, Quebec, Canada
the daughter of George Robinson
and his second wife Sarah (nee: Taylor) Robinson - Rollins/Rawlins
She married to Asa Rollins Jr.
December 01, 1857 in Hatley, Quebec, Canada
She married to Alonzo John Woodward
March 06, 1865 in Hatley, Quebec, Canada
She died November 26, 1890
Stuttgart, Phillips County, Kansas
Now, which one of these women was the REAL "Matriarch" of the "UpperCowass/Koasek/Coos/Coosuk "Abenaki" ? All of these women wore these "ball and cone" earbobs of the early to late 19th century. All of these women are ALLEGEDLY "Abenaki" according to their families, and within their descendants families. UNLESS of course, one 19th century matriarch took from the other and passed them from one to another. I hardly doubt that happened.
Amanda Ann (nee: Brown) Woodward
daughter of
David Brown and Mary (nee: Robinson)
who was sister to Charlotte Maria (nee: Robinson)
Rollins - Woodward
She was born December 01, 1847
Hatley, Stanstead County, Quebec, Canada
Married to Charles E. Woodward
March 05, 1866
Hatley, Stanstead County, Quebec, Canada
She died April 14, 1905 in Stanstead, Qc, Canada
Her sister Amelia Maria (nee: Brown) married
William Henry Elliott February 26, 1869
aft. he and Flora Ella (nee: Woodward) left their marriage
Minnie "Isobel" "Isabel" (nee: Woodward)
Baird-Dodge-Paige-Stiles/Styles
She was born January 26, 1871
Dalton, Coos County, New Hampshire
She died May 20, 1933
Northumberland, Coos County, New Hampshire
Minnie Isobel (nee: Woodward) Baird - Paige
1920's
Daughter of Charles E. Woodward and Amanda (nee: Brown)
Katie "Amanda" Beatrice (nee: Baird) Ball-Herson-Dingman
She was born August 11, 1896
Bolton Mines, Richmond County, Qc. Canada
to Avery William Baird (on the left) and Minnie (nee: Woodward)
She married to Edwin Edward Ball (on the right)
June 14, 1913
Groveton, Coos County, New Hampshire
Infant is Martha Elizabeth Jane Ball born
February 16, 1914
Groveton, Coos County, New Hampshire
Katie died November 10, 1980
Lancaster, Coos County, New Hampshire
Family "oral tradition" states that when she (Katie Baird) went to find her birth record document, by crossing into the Province of Quebec, Canada, in later years in her life, going from Groveton, Coos County, New Hampshire up to the Border. Katie was "afraid she might not be able to re-cross the border back into the United States." She screamed in fearful, that she was going to be detained in Quebec, Canada forever, and NEVER see her home and family again, when her husband drove the car southward, returning to the Border, to come back into the United States. This paragraph was an "oral" story told to Douglas Lloyd Buchholz by Josephine Ball in Gilman, Vermont.
According to some, it was a policy that modern day Abenakis were "genealogical frauds." For Katie (nee: Baird) Ball-Herson-Dingman's descendant's, that policy belied everything they had learned as children about their ancestors. Katie was raised by her grandmothers, who kept the old ways by always opening their homes and hearts to other Abenaki in need. She lived with her great-grandmother's so it was said. Katie's ancestor's sister, Flora Ella (nee: Woodward) Cass, a "Koasek" medicine woman who, even after becoming frail in her old age, knew where to find ginsing and other traditional medicinal plants. Flora's basement was crammed with butternuts that her (Katie's) grandmother's ground to make cookies and cakes, and with maple syrup made from the sap she helped her grandfather's harvest and transport by sleigh. Katie's elderly relative, Flora, made the best cakes around, and the largest Biscuits around the North Country. Also "hidden" away in that house was the "liquid dynamite" in bottles, that would be hauled down from Quebec, Canada by the next door neighbors, the Portique's, Levi and Flora (nee: Baron). No child was ever allowed to go into the root cellar.
Katie's childhood (or maybe it was her mother, Minnie's?) as she told it, was filled with mystery and wonder. Katie's descendant remembers a time when she was eight or nine when a light bulb in the ceiling unscrewed itself and a ray of light circled clockwise around the room. Sitting at the kitchen table her grandmother announced that her grandfather had just passed over. The light bulb then went back on and a moment later the phone rang. It was the local hospital in Lancaster, New Hampshire calling to inform Katie's grandmother of her husband's death. One of Katie's granddather's chores as a child was to take down and comb Katie's (or maybe it was Flora Ellah's?) waist-length hair. (See the photograph of Katie's beautiful long braided hair that she wore up in a historical Indian style).
It was during these intimate moments that the relative taught her descendant the values that .... Katie's descendant (or maybe it was Flora's descendant) lives by today: to take care of others, especially those who are sick or in need; to be thankful; to pay attention to and interpret their dreams; and to do everything they do in life, from the heart. As her great grandmother laying dying, Katie (nee: Baird) Ball-Herson-Dingman's promised "that when she grew up she would find her people and help them". "That has been the drive behind everything the descendants of Katie Baird would do in their lifetimes," Katie Baird's descendant said.
IT SOUNDED PRETTY GOOD HUH?
SOUNDED FAMILIAR?
The ABOVE "story" about Katie "Amanda" Beatrice (nee: Baird) is not really about her (except the part about the Border Crossing situation). The family has yet to find and obtain her birth record).
I created this "story", based on Nancy Millette-Cruger-Lyons-Doucet's retrospective confabulutions, in the Ellen L. Lutz article, about her ancestor Flora Eunice "Una Ana" (nee: Ingerson) Hunt, of Woodsville, New Hampshire.
The
"Vermont Indigenous Alliance"
a.k.a.
INCORPORATION'S
CLAIMING TO BE ABENAKI
TRIBES
=
5% percent accurate [maybe]
95% deceptions, deceitfulness and dishonesty
~
According to the Criteria of S.222
created by Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD
I just submitted "genealogy"
Is there any CLEAR and CONVINCING
EVIDENCE
HAVING BEEN SHOWN AND PROVIDED
that these people were
Abenakis
?????
.NO.
Oh, but I satisfied the letter of the law on S.222.
Vermont's legislature signed into law (that Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD. helped create) in 2010 this flawed bill S.222 Abenaki Recognition Bill, and by that law's existence and criteria (which stinks to high heaven no matter how one tries to look at it), these Inc.'d "Abenaki" groups of this concocted "Alliance" have met those criteria (that is so loose and fluid ... wishy washy) and supposedly these groups "Chiefs" scream repeatedly that their groups deserve State Recognition? But are these groups actually connected to the Vermont Abenakis?
Again, I have shown and provided on this blog some of my ancestor's and their descendants "genealogy" and photographs.
We were "externally identifying" (some of us) as "Native Americans" and we were (some of us) "externally identified" as "Native Americans", by other people, especially since 1971.
Does that mean we have to slither up the VT legislative steps to demand we be officially recognized by the legislature, to "get back our identity"? Or approach this corrupted Commission on Native American Affairs, that is nearly 100% appointee's from these Incorporations claiming to be "Abenakis" while these very same people denigrate others who claim the same ethnic heritage, and while this "Alliance" bad-mouths and insults the very Abenakis Ancestors descendants these groups claim to be connected to?
We, in this family, have had the "phenotypical looks" and our Ancestral Women Matriarch's in the family also wore those mid 19th century "ball and cone" earrings. Even a blanket was wore in typical historical Indian style by Flora Ella Woodward!
Oh darn, WE as a family, didn't INCORPORATE in 1976 (or even in 2004 - 2006); and subsequently nor did we SOLICIT MEMBERSHIPS from others, issuing them Membership Cards, create a Constitution, or write up By-Laws, to become ALLEGED and REINVENTED "ABENAKI TRIBES" .... to be sanctioned by the Vermont or New Hampshire legislature's in 2011. We also don't have Cowasuck High Chief's or High Sheriff's either.
I suppose we can't be Abenakis, Koasek, Cowasuck, Coos, or Coosuk anymore, and we can't get our "Abenaki"/ "Native American identity" back either?
Maybe I'll cry later... or then again... maybe I won't.
