From Left to Right: Luke Andrew Willard, Nancy Lee (nee: Millette) Cruger-Lyons-Doucet, Sen. Hinda Miller, Vermont Gov. James Douglas, Donald Warren Stevens Jr. and Charles Lawrence "Megeso" Delaney Jr.
As follows is some of the newspaper articles that were published in local Vermont newspapers:
November 09, 2010
The Caledonian-Record
Around The Region
Page A3
Native American Panel Meets First in Newport
Luke Willard of Brownington wants to hear from people in his own county about the needs of Native Americans.
A member of the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe of Orleans County, Willard has his own personal experience growing up as a Native American to draw upon.
He is coming, as chairman of the newly reformed Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs, to Newport City to find out what others have to say.
The commission holds its first meeting November 16 at Goodrich Memorial Library in Newport City with a Potluck luncheon at noon to meet and greet those involved in or interested in Native American affairs.
The commission will then conduct a business meeting at 1 p.m.
The Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs has been charged with establishing a process for state recognition of Native American tribes in Vermont. The Senate Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs, chaired by Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans, introduced the commission's mission in the past year.
Illuzzi said he welcomes the commission to Newport City, noting the area has a relatively large number of residents of Native American descent.
"I hope that the commission will help Native Americans around Vermont continue to document their heritage and rebuild their cultures and traditions," Iluzzi said.
Willard wants to devote the noon hour to hear about the needs and concerns of local Native people and to answer questions. [this meeting was filled with their own 'members']
He also hopes that local educators will attend the meeting to learn more about Title VII Indian Education, a federal program that could bring money to local schools in the county. The commission intends to focus on education and public awareness.
"I think they go hand in hand," Willard said. "There are many Abenaki students in the schools in Orleans County. But I think most are afraid to embrace, and in some cases admit, their own heritage because it would bring teasing from other students who are only taught a small piece of Abenaki history, and literally nothing about the contemporary Abenakis who is at the desk right beside them."
"This was a problem when I was a student and now I hear about it from my own children," Willard said.
The Newport meeting is the first of many throughout Vermont for the commission.
Billie Largy of Derby, a Nulhegan Band of Abenaki tribal member, talks Tuesday afternoon before the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs.
November 16, 2010
Page A1
Mabel "Billie" Victoria (nee: Burton) Largy
with Lucy Rose (nee: Pion) Cannon - Neel
(looking at the camera to Billie Largy's left).
Three Abenaki Tribes Seeking State Recognition
By Robin Smith
Staff Writer
NEWPORT CITY - Three Native American tribes formally applied for recognition from the state of Vermont.
Billie Largy of Derby, a tribal council member of the Nulhegan Band, submitted her request for recognition to the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs during a hearing at the Goodrich Memorial Library.
Also applying were Chief Nancy Millette Doucet on behalf of the Koasek Abenaki of the Koas, a tribe in the Newbury area, and Chief Roger Longtoe Sheehan Sagamoo of ELNU Abenaki in southern Vermont.
Commission Chairman Luke Willard of Brownington, an Abenaki, said the commission would hold hearings on each application. The Legislature tasked the commission to come up with the process for recognition and for promoting Native American culture.
State recognition means a chance to seek more federal money for schools with many Abenaki children, and a chance to have arts and crafts identified as official Abenaki handiwork, said Fred M. Wiseman, a professor at Johnson State College.
Federal money under Title VII can mean a great deal for schools, those present said.
In the Swanton area, where tribal recognition has mean extra funding, the graduation rate for those with Abenaki heritage has shown significant improvement, Willard said.
During the period between 1982 to 2009, the drop-out rate of Abenaki students at Missisquoi Valley Union High School went from 70 percent to 3 percent, he said.
"That's one of the reasons they are pursuing it so hard," Wiseman said after the meeting.
Three other supervisory unions outside of Franklin County could qualify for Native American money, Willard said. In northern Vermont, many more people are Abenaki. So many who live in this area have Abenaki heritage, he said.
"I'll bet you in some schools at least 5 to 10 percent are Abenaki," Willard said. "The graduation rate among Abenakis here is quite low, quite quite low."
See Abenaki Tribes, Page A9
November 16, 2010
Page A9
Abenaki Tribes
Continued from Page A1
Willard wants to see schools tell students about the Abenaki of today.
"They are taught the Abenaki 'were' hunter-gathers....absolutely nothing about contemporary Abenaki," Willard said. "When it comes to Native Americans, why not learn about the people that are here?"
"I think it's a tragedy. It's something that this commission should take on and deal with," he said.
Others at the well-attended forum and potluck lunch echoed his comments.
The Nulhegan Abenaki tribe would like to see Title VII brought into the schools, Largy said.
The commission is also tasked to update research and books for teachers, Willard said.
"It's going to revolutionize the way we think about Abenaki," Wiseman said.
Sagamoo [Roger A. Sheehan] said there has been a lot of distrust between tribes. "You are probably looking at the most honest, open-minded commission you are going to get," he said.
The willingness to work together drew repeated applause from the more than 40 people at the meeting.
Willard said tribes are agreeing to disagree and still work together.
"No one chief speaks for another," he said.
There are a few who can claim full-blood heritage, many said.
Trying to identify Native Americans by the percentage of Abenaki blood they inherit - be it full, half or less, is a form of genocide, Willard said. Almost every ethnic group has intermarried over time.
Alexie Noyes of Plainfield, VT who said she is a friend of an Abenaki friend, said she was so glad to be at the meeting.
"My hear is so full ... People have decided to sit together in peace."
She said her daughter and son were taught that there were no more Native Americans in Vermont. The eugenics programs of the last century, intended to "clean up the dark people," was "such an institutionalized denial of the past of the state," she said.
"Men in the eugenics program throughout the northern parts of Vermont [sic] to seek out Native Americans to split up families," she said.
Ten years ago, she said, she took her drum to events where she was so warmly received.
"There were women in those old homes who wept when they heard the drums," she said. They were taught to hide their moccasins when they were young.
One tribe, the Clan of the Hawk in Evansville, did not seek recognition Tuesday, said Lorene Liberty-Curtis of the Clan of the Hawk.
"I guess we are just going to keep watch," she said.
The commission voted to update an out-of-date curriculum to distribute to all schools in Vermont.
November is Native American Month in Vermont. The commission intends to make next November a real celebration of Abenaki culture.
The commission intends to meet with Gov.-Elect Peter Shumlin in January.
December 08, 2010
Page One.
Chinka chides some for "playing Indian"
by Tena Starr
WHEELOCK, VT - Chinka Whitekiller of Wheelock is not happy with the state's new law allowing a recognition process for the Abenaki. Nor is he convinced that many of the those seeking recognition under the law are authentic.
And he says that "playing Indian," as he puts it, is far from harmless.
Mr. Whitekiller (also known as Chinka Buck) said he is an enrolled member of the Pomo Indians and northeast director for the American Indian Movement (AIM), a sometimes radical organization that protects Indians, their culture and traditions. He said Whitekiler is his grandfather's name; his stepfather's name was Buck. He's not self-named, and he's not a self-made Indian.
He won't say the same about the Vermont tribes that are seeking state recognition under the state's new law, giving Abenakis a recognition process, allowing them to sell crafts as "native made" and to access federal programs and money available to American Indians.
"Most of these people are not Indian at all," he said in a recent interview. "I doubt any of them have Indian blood."
Who is and is not a "real" Indian has been a political hot potato in Vermont, as well as a source of strife among those who claim to be Abenaki.
In 2002, the federal government refused to recognize the Vermont Abenaki, saying their petition fell short on at least four of the seven federal criteria for recognition.
The state law passed this year set up a new RECONSTRUCTED and NEWLY APPOINTED nine-member Native American Commission STACKED WITH THESE FOUR GROUPS a.k.a. "VT INDIGENOUS ALLIANCE" MEMBERS to implement the state recognition process and hold hearings COMPOSED OF THESE FOUR GROUP'S "MEMBERS" that have been vocal in the media. Individuals apply for membership in a tribe; the law recognizes tribes rather than individuals.
The Chronicle Newspaper
December 08, 2010
Page 30.
Whitekiller wants law against "impersonating an Indian"
December 08, 2010
(Contined from page one.)
Mr. Whitekiller would like to see state recognition done away with. Also, he said, he suggested that AIM seek a federal law making it a crime to impersonate an Indian. "Right now we're suggesting that we want a law made, and if you claim to be an Indian and you're not, there should be jail time and a fine just like there is for impersonating an officer," he said.
That may strike some as harsh, but Mr. Whitekiller said that "playing Indian," as he put it, has consequences. Faux Indian bands compete with "real" Indians for federal services, he said. At Pine Ridge, home to the Oglala Sioux in South Dakota, or at some of the reservations in the Southwest, in particular, many people lack electricity and carry water to their homes in buckets. Those are the people who need federal money, not middle-class Vermonters, he said.
"These bands are seeking recognition to get access to programs and money," said Phyllis Donovan, also of Wheelock, and secretary for the Northeast branch of AIM. "Those were set up for Indians who suffered the worst of the conquest," she said. "If they have Indian blood that's, like one sixty-fourth, it steals from the real Indian people who really need the money. It isn't a cast of need here; it's a case of ego."
"People playing Indian steal from the real ones," Mr. Whitekiller said.
In this case, he's not talking about money; he's talking about culture and tradition. For instance, Abenaki did not wear war bonnets, he said, as some of the so-called Vermont tribes do.
Then, how does Mr. "Chinka Buck" Whitekiller EXPLAIN the above 1959 Postcards of Abenakis FROM ODANAK - AT INTERVALE, N.H. wearing 'Western-Style' Plains headdresses?
That was a Plains Indian tradition. He went on to cite other cases of rituals where the Vermont bands seeking recognition have usurped traditions and rituals not native to the Abenaki.
"If they even try to be Abenaki, they should honor their people by wearing what their people wore, singing their people's songs ... not by taking traditions from the western tribes," Mr. Whitekiller said. "Go to the Odanak if they want to know their traditions."
He was referring to the Odanak Abenaki in Quebec, a recognized tribe in Canada.
Ms. Donovan said there is a point where blood....
December 08 2010
... becomes so diluted that a person cannot legitimately consider him or herself Indian. But if that part of a person's heritage calls, that's good, she said. "That doesn't qualify you to dip your fingers - that money was meant for the people of blood."
She said people who feel called to their Indian heritage should, by all means, learn about their traditions and culture, but make an honest attempt to learn about their own heritage rather than adopt sometimes flashier traditions that belong to Western tribes.
Richard Bernier of Newport is a registered Odanak Abenaki and owns part of a house on the reservation there. He said his mother was born on the reservation.
He also dislikes the state's recognition process. "I just want to see the truth," he said.
He said that, in general, recognized Indians must show their genealogy, prove they have an Indian relative, and have a certain amount of Indian blood in order to be recognized.
"It isn't only that way at Odanak," he said. "The Penobscot and other tribes have their genealogy done for every person on their rolls. It would be very simple for any person to go check."
"They should have to prove their identities like everyone else does," he said about the Vermont tribes seeking recognition.
Federally recognized tribes have the power to run their own courts, tax their own people and govern themselves. The surrounding state and local governments lose the power the tax tribal member's land and businesses, to enforce local and state zoning rules, and to enforce civil or criminal jurisdiction without tribal consent.
Recognition of a tribe limits the ability of a state to regulate hunting, fishing, and gambling activities.
Federal criteria for tribal acknowledgement stems from a U.S. Supreme Court decision defining "tribe" as a "body of Indians of the same....
(Continued on page thirty-one.)
December 08, 2010
The Chronicle Newspaper
"Abenaki would be subject to state laws"
(Continued from page thirty.)
... or similar race, united in a community under one leadership or government, and inhabiting a particular through sometimes ill-defined territory."
The Vermont Abenaki [the St. Francis/Sokoki group led by the late Homer Walter St. Francis Sr., Leonard "Blackie" Lampman, and April A. St. Francis - Rushlow - Merrill (Homer's daughter) retrospectively-speaking] failed more than half the legal criteria that must be satisfied to attain federal tribal status. According to he state's response, the petition lacked:
*Proof that the group has been identified as an American Indian entity on a substantially continuous basis by outsiders, such as anthropologists and historians, or in newspapers and books written by non-Indians;
*Proof that the petitioning group comprises a distinct community and has existed as a community from historical times until the present:
*Proof that the group has maintained political influence or authority over its members from historical times until the present; and
*Proof that the group's membership consists of individuals who descend from a historical Indian tribe.
In Vermont, state recognized tribes would remain subject to all state laws.
Of course, these created/re-invented/FAKE TRIBES of alleged and re-invented "Abenakis would remain subject to all VT laws ... because these groups are ALREADY formerly documented as NON-PROFIT INCORPORATION'S under State Laws!
There is nothing "Sovereign" or that these groups are a part of a "Native Nation" nor are these really honestly "Abenaki" "Tribes" or "Bands" at all either. Historically or contemporaneously speaking, these Vermont groups are nothing more than a bunch of solicited people, for 'membership' in a self-proclaimed "Abenaki" Club, much like the Order of the Red Man, or the Mason's Fraternity Order, registered with the Vermont Secretary of State's Office as a Trademark or as a Non-Profit Incorporate Entity. The State of Vermont (among many) simply MAKE "Tribes" and "Native Americans" out of dubious contemporary incorporation's, so they can tap into Federal Monies, for X-amount of "Native Americans" that now the State of Vermont chooses to point at, within Vermont's geographical boundaries. How much Federal Monies is being brought into the State of Vermont is unknown; Maryland just "recognized" the Piscataway's and NOW, the State can bring in 17 million dollars in Federal Monies (Grants and the like) for their newly "recognized" Native Americans," so you see, it IS all about the $$$$.
December 08, 2010
January 05, 2011
The Chronicle Newspaper
January 05, 2011
Page 10.
Letter to the Editor
Comments about Abenaki could be disputed
Dear Editor,
In response to the letter to the editor from "Chief" Don Stevens in the December 15, 2010 issue of the Chronicle wherein he disagrees with Whitekiller's assertions.
Most of the points put forth by Stevens are not worthy of further comment. However, the public should be aware of several miscues.
Stevens states, "His (Whitekiller's) people gained recognition and then was stripped by the Euro-American government in the same manner that it happened to the Abenaki in Vermont." I was alive and very much aware in the 1950's when President Eisenhower's policy of terminating hundreds of small tribes and relocating Indians to urban centers was put into effect. Termination did happen to the Cloverdale Pomo Indians, but it did NOT happen to the Vermont Abenaki. Why? Because there was no tribe of Abenakis in existence in Vermont to terminate. By their own admission they were "in hiding" - melding in with the white population so as to be invisible - for two hundred years! They did not miraculously show up as a "tribe" again, until 1976, a good twenty years after all the terminations. Arbitrary termination of legitimate Indian tribes is another disgraceful chapter in American history.
Mr. Stevens touts the friendly relationship his people have with the American Indian Movement (AIM) and with the Abenaki Tribe in Odanak, Canada. Both are highly disputable.
First - I am personally aware that Odanak is not one bit happy with the Swanton group using the flag of the Abenaki Tribe in Canada as their own. They are equally not happy with the two well known "Abenaki" authors [Bruchac's] who publish books of Abenaki stories without permission of the Tribe, doing so for profit not shared with the People tow whom these stories belong. So much for the cozy relationship, eh?
Second - the public should know more about AIM (American Indian Movement). It began with three members of the Ojibway Nation (two brothers and a third man) to sweep drunken Indians off the streets of Minneapolis-St. Paul before the police gathered them up to jail yet again. It then began programs to rehabilitate these persons, and it started a school for Indian children in the area so they could be educated without all the prejudice. It grew into an organization to re-instill pride in the Indian People, to lift them out of despair and hopelessness. It grew to become the organization that would demand that the government honor treaties, laws, and leases made with Indian Tribes and that crimes against Indian people would be prosecuted instead of ignored. This was the beginning of the National AIM organization, which had several chapters in other cities.
After the highly publicized activities in the '70's by AIM cooled down and quieted down, things changed within AIM Headquarters. The principles of AIM (of which Stevens quotes a few) became corrupted....
National AIM has been a small, weak organization ever since, while new autonomous chapters, which Stevens pooh-poohs, are strong with new ones being formed along the way.
Incidentally, no new chapter can be formed without being sanctioned by a well established Chapter. These autonomous principles to abide by which include protecting tribes from being ripped off and copycatted.
Sooo, if AIM came to help out at a Swanton Powwow, which AIM did it come from?
Lastly, Mr. Stevens asserts that the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs was established to help all native people who reside in the state of Vermont. Wonderful. That's needed. I have attended the majority of commission meetings since its inception, and 90 percent of what I heard dealt exclusively with finding a way to get the state to do what the federal government would not do - give recognition to these bands of self-styled Abenaki Indians. Perhaps they may be Schaghticokes OR HURON instead of Abenaki! Genealogies are critical.
There is no disrespect given or intended in any of these remarks. I hope none is assumed.
Phyllis Donovon
Wheelock
the Chronicle Newspaper
January 05, 2011
Letter the Editor
"Legitimate Native Americans can get documentation"
Dear Editors,
Happy New Year - new year, new letters.
Regarding the article of Chinka Whitekiller in the Chronicle on December 8:
Let's get the facts straight on most of our True Blood Native Americans.
"Not middle class," most Native Americans in Vermont are lower class and poverty level and need federal money just as much as other Western tribes!
And regarding Phyllis Donovan's remark Indian blood diluting to "one sixty-fourth" look up "Mendel's Law of Genes" that states any race the fourth generation (first child) is a full blood.
Those of you from a direct Indian descendant know this, as my full blood great-grandmother told my parent this (oral tradition) and named me in the cradle to keep up our true blood lines.
So blood doesn't become diluted!
Every so often we hear of a white family giving birth to a black child, or a black family giving birth to a albino child; the gene carries on every fourth generation - so the bloodline does not dilute. If it did, there wouldn't be any nationalities or heritage of families left.
In a legal authentic Indian Nation, to get a citizenship card, you have to go back to at least three generations or more, with certified birth, marriage, and death certificates and have correct genealogy documentation from your Indian descendants, and the council checks over it and decides if it is legitimate to issue the person a card.
Oh, really? Like "Chief" HOMER WALTER ST. FRANCIS SR./and or "Tribal Judge" MICHAEL DELANEY GIVING OUT CITIZENSHIP CARDS TO the likes of "Nancy (nee: Hubshman) Sylbert - Redstar"? OR how about the many other people of dubious alleged and re-invented "Abenaki" ancestry .... such as Nancy Millette-Cruger-Lyons-Doucet, etc?
The Council can tell a "wanna be" by checking their documentation. Yes, there are a lot of "circus Indians" and wanna be's, who ruin it for the real native people, to make a buck!
Signed
Sheila Hill
Newport
A full blood member
of the Algonquin Wabanaki Sovereign Nation
of Turtle Island
So, let's take a really close review of that link above, and the documentation contained in that particular post retrospectively-speaking. When did the late David Descoteaux - Hill, so called 'Grand High Chief of the Wabanaki/Abenaki Nation/President of the Incorporate calling itself the 'North American People of the Dawn, Inc.'d actually INCORPORATE under Vermont State Laws? Answer: October 12, 1993 is the date.
Sovereign Nation (?) of the self-identified Algonquin Wabanaki group led by Mr. Desoteaux-Hill and his wife Sheila Elizabeth Shroeder, and now Mr. Reynold Roland Choiniere (whom married to Esther Mae nee: Blair). "Sovereign? ... Really?! How so?
This latter LINK and the very first document (amongst many others) PROVED Luke Willard and this group calling itself the Nulhegan Abenaki - Lac Memphremagog Tribe, is nothing of the sort! The man, Luke Andrew Willard, hopped, skipped and jumped around from 'group' to 'group' to 'group of some very dubious people whom claimed to be "Abenaki." Then, Nancy Cote and her daughter Dawn, along with Luke Willard join together and create a group of people, sloughed off from the Clan of the Hawk group led by Ralph Skinner Swett of Evansville-Brownington, VT in Orleans County, like some slick oil Salesmen claiming they are the Abenakis of Orleans County, Vermont. Well, the documentation on this blog pertaining to Luke Andrew Willard & Company PROVES they are NOT who they claim to be. State Legislative sanction or Governor of VT signature regardless ... anyone who can do the math, can figure out there is something a bit "off" about what is going on "Abenaki" recognition wise concerning ALL of these groups comprising the "Vermont Indigenous Alliance." Which, btw, is led by none other that Professor "Dr." Frederick Matthew Wiseman "Ph.D." of Johnson State College. Wannabiak 'recognizing' Wannabiak with a helping hand from the Vermont Politicians, to make them seem to appear "real" when they obviously are not really Abenaki at all !!
January 08, 2011
Page A6
The Caledonia Record Newspaper
Commission Asks Legislature To Recognize Abenaki
Illuzzi Supports Recommendation
By Robin Smith
Staff Writer
Newport City, Vt. - The Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs has asked the Legislature to recognize an Abenaki tribe in Orleans County.
The commission voted Tuesday to recommend recognition for the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation. The tribe is based in Brownington with most of its members living in Newport City and Derby.
This group, calling themselves 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.
The commission also recommended a tribe in Newbury, the Elnu Abenaki, be recognized. Another tribe, the Koasek of the Koas in southern Vermont, is being considered for recognition and the Missisquoi Tribe in Swanton is expected to apply to the commission.
"It's quite a monumental thing," Commission Chairman Luke Willard of Brownington said Friday. He is an Abenaki.
"Vermont has an amazing culture. If we could just embrace this part of it, it could be so much more $$$$," Willard said.
On Tuesday, Willard will present the commission's recommendations to the House General and Military Affairs Committee for legislative action. And on Jan. 19, he will go before the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, chaired again by Senator Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans.
"It's very important," Illuzzi said. "It's been a 30 year journey for me. We hope it opens the door for federal grants for housing and education."
"Schools throughout Orleans County with students with Abenaki heritage may apply for Title VII grants that would help with one-on-one education and field trips," Willard said.
The three tribes requested recognition formally in November at a meeting of the commission in Newport City.
Willard said each tribe presented an application in November. The application included genealogical records examined by scholars who reported back to the commission.
The commission was appointed by the governor and given authority by the Legislature under Act 107 to do the research and make recommendations. RECOGNIZING THEMSELVES AS AUTHENTIC, with their hand-picked 'expert' scholars! The commission also has the responsibility to help recognized tribes apply for grants and market their crafts.
The commission was asked to do the legwork for the Legislature because the issueof tribal recognition has been bitterly contentious in Vermont, Willard said.
It has been hard to grow up Abenaki and not learn about the current-day Abenaki in school, Willard said. The only Abenaki taught about are those who died years ago n Vermont's history.
Children today grow up Abenaki, "but the state you call home, the state that you love, refuses to admit that you exist," Willard said.
State recognition will change that, he said.
"This is a feeling of acceptance," Willard said of the recommendation.
"I'm hoping we can finally grant recognition," Illuzzi said.
January 12, 2012
the Chronicle Newspaper Page 09
There is the TRUTH and there is the "truth."
Dear Editor,
I am writing in regards to the Abenaki recognition process that is currently going on in the state of Vermont. I myself am a descendant of Abenaki and Mi'kmaq heritage. I also have French, Irish, and English heritage as well. I consider myself a descendant of an Abenaki, not Abenaki, but an inter-tribal person and have stated this publicly many times. I am an active member of the Clan of the Hawk in Evansville. I find the culture, spirituality and heritage very similar to how I was raised and how I approach the world I live in. How can you go wrong with a culture that respects Mother Earth, believes in the Creator, and life revolving around the family as its center?
The Abenaki and other Eastern Native tribes because of early European contact have been absorbed into other tribes, married into these same European groups or fled to Canada in order to survive. The Abenaki were hunters and gatherers and were not tribal as such, but comprised of small family clans that moved according to the availability of food. The rivers, streams and lakes were their highways.
Because of the government benefits available to Native Americans it has become profitable to be related to one. How can the state of Vermont just rubber stamp these groups thought? These government benefits are federally based ad require a certain amount of Native American blood, usually an eighth or closer. What about genealogy and who is the state of Vermont genealogist appointed to check these tribal rolls?
The state of Vermont should not sanction these tribes or clans unless the same criteria are used as is used in the federal recognition process.
Otherwise, that is a slap in the face of every legitimate Native American in the United States.
Sleeping with a Native American does not make you Native; adoption into a Native American Tribe does not make you Native; dressing like a Native American does not make you Native; looking like a Native American does not make you Native; you are a re-enactor, period!
It has come to my attention that a photograph of the Curtis family of Lake Salem, Vermont is being used as a basis for historical legitimacy of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuck.
You mean this one?
This is a direct quote, "Recently deceased Nulhegan Band Archivist and Elder Nancy Cote deposited a copy of an important photograph at the Wobanakik Heritage Center (Swanton, Vermont) of the Curtis Family of Salem Lake, Vermont, of whom there is a wealth of allied data. Not only are the family members phenotypically native, the matriarch wears a blanket in the historical Indian style for the photograph."
I married into this [Curtis] family and the matriarch in the photograph is Rosa Belle Bangs, a direct ancestor [sic] [should be descendant] of Edward Bangs, the Pilgrim. She married George W. Curtis and bought the Salem Lake Farm after coming from Canada around 1914. George W. Curtis is a direct ancestor of Henry Curtis who bought an extensive tract of land in the vicinity of Pemaquid, maine, 1666. I have the complete genealogy of this family, both sides.
I find it irresponsible that scholars in this state use phrases like "phenotypically native" which is a form of racial profiling [and VERY Eugenically-based vocabularyusage of Professor Matthew M. Wiseman if I might add] to support a false history. Didn't we learn anything from the Japanese and Italian internment camps in the 1940's, or the Vermont eugenics study?
Our Native American history is filled with lies and half truths so why are we willing to compromise our heritage for a few dollars. BECAUSE gaining fraudulent base-less VT State Legislative Recognition through a stacked VCNAA, with their hand picked 'scholars' like Fred M. Wiseman and Eloise Beil etc, and depending on a naive "who-cares VT/NH public attitude," means these 'groups' of re-invented and alleged "Abenakis" in VT and NH gain much MORE than a few dollars! The State can solicit the Federal Government for LOTS of $$$$ in the tune of MILLIONS, because NOW the State of VT can point to their own VT State Incorporate-sanctioned "Tribes" and self identifying "Native Americans" .... and get paid for it, in the MILLIONS! Oh, and the Dept. of Historic Preservation also protects its own self-interest and employment security as well.
My father told me there is the TRUTH and then there is the "truth."
Respectfully,
Lorene Liberty-Curtis
Brownington
The State of Vermont Politicians, the Legislature, nor the Governor gives a rat's arse about the TRUTH or the "truth" .... them folks is just looking at these FAKE "Abenakis" as a way to get a hold of MORE Federal Monies and Grants meant for legitimate Native Peoples!
January 12, 2011
the Chronicle Newspaper
Two tribes to seek state recognition
by Paul Lefebvre
Two Abenaki tribes will take their petitions for state recognition before the Legislature this month.
The Nulhegan Band and the Elnu Tribe will hold a press conference at the State House next Wednesday, January 19, to initiate hearings that could lead to a recognition that would open up education opportunities and enable artists to sell their wares as Native American crafts.
Their attempt comes after the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs, recreated [actually that should be rephrased... "reconstructed" ... by dismissing the formerly appointed VCNAA Commission members] a year ago by the Legislature, recommended that their petitions be granted.
Each tribe earned the commission's recommendations after gathering genealogical data that was verified by three independent scholars. NO ..... THE GENEALOGIES WERE NOT VERIFIED, SUBSTANTIATED OR AUTHENTICATED, INDEPENDENTLY, TRANSPARENTLY, OR HONESTLY!
JUST LOOK AT THE "FOUR INDIANS OF ALBURG, VT ca. 1863 [GOOGLE IT! See the LINK below in this blog post] and then do a comparative. It's all on the Internet, online. There was NO VERIFYING FOR ACCURACY ANYTHING GENEALOGICAL ... AT ALL concerning these various "Abenaki" groups genealogical records. It's has been a "go-down-the-list" (of Professor Wiseman's created recognition "criteria") that was approved by Senator Illuzzi. That "criteria" that has been sanctioned by the State Legislature, is 'loose' and 'very vague' indeed.
According to the commission's plan, each Abenaki tribe must make its own case for state recognition as an American Indian tribe.
For the commission chairman, Luke Willard of Brownington, it's the beginning of a movement he calls "No Abenaki left behind."
With recognition, Mr. Willard said in an interview last week, will come validation of a culture that has existed for hundreds of years. YET More LIES and DECEPTIONS!
But it's a culture that has lain dormant out of fear and intimidation. Really?
"We were only taught about dead Indians," said Mr. Willard, a past chief of the Nulhegan Band, which includes about 250 members who live in the upper regions of the Northeast Kingdom.
The committee is chaired by Senator Vince Illuzzi of Derby, who has long championed recognition for Vermont's Abenaki peoples.
Senator Illuzzi said last week that if his committee finds that the claims have merit, a bill for recognition will be introduced.
Mr. Willard believes the genealogical data gathered by the tribes will pass muster.
"The naysayers will have to find another argument," he said.
Senator Illuzzi is an adopted 'member' and Chief (headdress and got a "Certificate" to hang on his bathroom wall too) of the Ralph Swett-created Clan of the Hawk, Incorporated. Of course, he nor ANYONE in his committee, nor any VT Politician or "Abenaki" (let alone any of the so-called "Expert" "Scholars") ever sought to validate the accuracy or substantiate the claims being made by ANY of these self-identifying "Indigenous" "Native American" "Abenaki" people's claims etc being made by any of these groups seeking VT State Legislative Rrecognition'.
We know that the validity of the data was not researched adequately as to it's historical truthful accuracy nor honestly substantiated .... simply by reviewing these documents:
We KNOW that validating the accuracy and relevancy of the 'data'/or the "claims" being made by Dr. "Professor" of Johnson State College, Frederick M. Wiseman and his allies, is NOT on the high priority list (or in any mindset) of any Vermont Politician. It's politic's as usual in the State's of Vermont and New Hampshire. Ignoring the descendants of the Abenaki who happen to have ancestry AT ODANAK and or WOLINAK (or even Kahnawa: ke) is the name-of-the-game in 2010-2013.
It's a "Let's Make A Deal" with a bunch of dubious FAKE "Abenaki" who, since post-1976, CLAIM to be "Abenaki Tribes" that appeared out of thin air, for the gaining of Federal Indian Monies. The former Governor of VT, Richard Snelling, and even Howard Dean smelled the B.S. and said NO, right along with the Attorney General's Office regarding 'Recognizing" these groups of Alleged and Reinvented "Abenakis." Even the Bureau of Indian Affairs said NO. Because there was NO EVIDENCE of these people being connected to the Abenaki People, historically or otherwise.
Yet, NOW, in 2006-to-2013, the State of Vermont Politician's CLAIM that they have suddenly found the alleged clear and convincing evidence of multiple "Abenaki" "Tribes" and or "Bands"?
Living right up under-the-noses of thousands and more of New Englander's (and previous and contemporary Scholars such as Dr. Gordon M. Day, etc) and we are supposed to BELIEVE that these "Abenakis" of today just popped up out of the Vermont and New Hampshire ground like a bunch of "Abenaki" Gophers who now claim to have been hibernating for 200 years "in hiding" "because of the Engenics SURVEY" "underground, NOW reappear, seeking State Recognition and Federal Monies because they SAY that they are the Vermont Abenakis?
What is WRONG with this 'picture'?
"Abenakis" suddenly appear at the VT Legislative doorstep begging to be State Recognized, AFTER a deep sleep under some rocks in Vermont/New Hampshire for 200-300 years?
Does ANYONE in N'dakinna smell the B.S. too?
OR am I the ONLY one that has been able to smell the Bull-sh** that these groups of "Alleged and Reinvented" "Abenakis" (along with their 'scholars and political advocates) are flinging all over the place lately?
Well, obviously, I am NOT alone. Brad Barrett, and numerous other persons also "see" the baseless, idiotic, fraudulent crap being slapped repeatedly onto the VT Legislature political table, in these "Abenaki" groups attempts at re-writing the Abenaki historical record, past-tense and contemporaneously-speaking by the likes of Professor Wiseman, and his ilk-minded cronies/allies. Reinventing "Abenakis" and "Tribes" is BIG BUSINESS in Vermont these days.
January 14, 2010
the Chronicle Newspaper
"Abenaki chose to hide because they were in danger"
Editors,
An important fact was overlooked in the letter about the Abenakis BEING in hiding.
If anyone knows anything about the Native people of Vermont, or have read your history, the main reason many Native people chose to meld with the white population and BE in hiding, was because of the eugenics movement in Vermont.
It became unsafe to be Native.
And 'miraculously' did NOT just reappear, they HAVE been here, but because it was not safe, or popular to be Native for MANY years, the Abenaki chose to blend in. We are not miraculously appearing, we are now rediscovering our roots and FINDING pride in our families and ancestors.
Also, WHY does a person have to PROVE they are Native?
Does anyone else of another nationality have to prove to anyone who they are?
My great-uncle was a Native basket-maker.
I sincerely doubt he or my great-grandmother WOULD need me to prove who I am, and that is good enough for me.
I grew up with the stories of my family, through my father, and that IS proof enough for me!
Valerie Boles
Sharon, Vermont
Ok, so yet another person has bitten the "Abenaki" created-MYTH that the Eugenic's SURVEY of Vermont, "sterilized" "Abenakis" and thus subsequently these "Abenakis" went "into HDING" amongst the masses of Vermonters, in various townships or outlying areas.
It is accurate to state that Native Peoples CHOSE to blend into the white population. Then how could these "Abenakis" have been hiding? Again, it was a choice to BE.
If it was UNSAFE to be Native, then how come various Abenakis from Odanak and Kahnwake etc CAME back into VT and various other geographical locations to LIVE within N'dakinna, OPENLY as Native's/Abenakis?
I guess it is quite popular and PROFITABLE to rediscover one's alleged "Abenaki" pr "Native" roots and finding pride in one's family and ancestors these days. Profitable to gain "State" Recognition and reinventing oneself as an "Abenaki" instead of merely being a descendant of some distant Native ancestor in the 1600 or early 1700's.
Of course, asking WHY someone has to PROVE they are Native is obvious .... just ask any LEGITIMATE Federally Recognized Tribal Registration Office or Band Council why it is necessary.
Anyone else of another nationality has to PROVE to all sorts of agencies, who they are ... by way of their Citizenship in their perspective Country, State, geographical address, by way of showing and providing their record of Birth, Marriage, Passport, Driver's License, etc.
Just because a Great-Uncle was allegedly identified or known as a 'basket-maker' does not necessarily mean that they or their relatives were Native, Indigenous, or Abenakis either. Many basket-makers are Irish, German, Russian, Asian, or the like.
"Stories" are simply that. Not FACTS, Not Substantiated, Not Necessarily Completely Accurate either. "Stories" are NOT PROOF of....
January 17, 2011
Some Abenaki Close To State Recognition
By Ian Patrick O'Neill
News Correspondent
Montpelier - Two bands of Abenaki tribes stand on the brink of receiving official state recognition. In a unanimous vote, the Vermont Commission on Naive American Affairs (VCNAA) recommended the Nulhegan and the Elnu Abenaki tribe for recognition by the state legislature. The enabling legislation, Vermont Statute 107, stipulates that the recommendations now be forwarded to separate committees in the House and Senate, written into bills, and voted upon positively by the legislature. At that point, the Nulhegan and Elnu bands may celebrate full recognition of their culture.
That process aside, the recommendations of the commission still represent real progress for the Abenaki bands. Of course, this article NEGLECTS to mention that the VCNAA "reconstruction" IS made up of these very group's 'members' and allies! There have been tribal members and supporters active in this cause for decades with very little tangible momentum.
Continued on Page 5.
Abenaki
From page one.
The present tone of those passionate for tribal recognition might best be described as cautiously optimism.
I call those seeking "Abenaki" State Recognition ... befittingly I must admit ... "prostitutes" ... and I am being polite with the usage that wordage.
VCNAA Chairman Luke Willard commented, "The tribes have done an excellent job presenting their applications to the commission. The scholars reports are complete. The commission reports are complete. The applicants have met the criteria outlined in S.222."
Not to my thinking, the confabulated VT "Abenaki" applications are filled with historical inaccuracies and downright LIES, that were NOT validated nor substantiated as to the accuracy or truthfulness of the claims being made!
Willard referred to the original bill sponsored by Senator Hinda Miller which is now Vermont Statute 107.
He says, "The purpose of that bill was to take the legwork away from the legislature by giving it to the scholars' panel and the VCNAA commission." Which, btw, work hand-in-hand, orchestrating the pre-meditated Vermont Fraudulent "Abenaki Recognition Process" ever imaginable.
The statute essentially provides a legislative vehicle by which the tribes have clearly defined criteria in order to pursue state recognition.
No, what the statute or Act. 107 did was provide the VT Legislature a back door of not taking responsibility. Secondly, it created a backdoor of appropriated to a STACKED/ BIASED/NONTRANSPARENT VCNAA reconstructed Gov. appointed commission the questionable authority to 'recognize' the very "Abenaki" "Tribes" these VCNAA members (as a majority) along with their allies sitting on that commission, to grant themselves recognition, using their own ally, Professor Wiseman to create the very 'criteria' these groups supposedly had to meet. The groups hand-picked the "expert" Panel of Scholars whom already had 'working relationships, scholarly or otherwise, with the very group's seeking 'recognition'!
Senator Vincent Illuzzi has been among the major supporters of tribal recognition in Montpelier and will participate in a press conference at the statehouse regarding the VCNAA recommendations on January 19th.
Senator Illuzzi noted, "It has been a long road for the tribes seeking recognition. I'm looking forward to the hearing and the reports from tribal leaders and scholars."
Of course, Illuzzi was "looking forward to it all" because, obviously, HE planned to give approval without checking the merit of any of the claims being made!
Luke Willard was enthusiastic about the benefits of recognition as he described how the members of tribes would be able to sell their crafts as native Abenaki wares, and how supervisory unions will become eligible for federal grants to ultimately improve peoples lives. He dismisses any negativity toward the goal of tribal recognition by maintaining that it benefits everyone in the area.
Above all else, Willard asserts that the various Abenaki tribes want to be recognized as a culture.
He somberly shares, "I have been to funerals and spoken eulogies for tribal members who waited decades hoping for recognition and just wanted to witness it before they died, but didn't."
January 19, 2010
Letter to the Editor
Some of those "stories" are just plain horse pucky
Editor,
First off, I would like to inform all the uninformed and naive folks up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and over yonder in the North Country of New Hampshire, too, of course, that Abenakis were not hiding in plain sight because they were in danger, or because of the Eugenics Survey of Vermont. I reckon some folks just believe everything they hear or read in the papers anymore, without actually studying the source of things, then or nowadays. That's to be expected I guess, in the reality of these computers and technological distractions to fry the brain cells.
Well, I know a thing or two about Native People, but I know a heck of a lot more about the phony ones prowling around the Montpelier State House these days and let me tell folks up here in the northern part of the two states, that cow manure isn't the only thing being flung around.
History is in the eye of the beholder, but again, don't believe everything you're told. Unless of course, someone's invented a time machine lately, no one honestly knows what Jesus looked like or said, 'cept what they read every Sunday. I believe, but I don't rightly know for real sure. I do know that doing a comparative between these people saying their ancestors were supposedly hiding in plain sight because of the Eugenics Survey vs. the Abenakis like the Watso's, O'Bomsawin's, Masta's, Bernier's, Johnson's, Benedict's, Nolette's, to name just a few Abenaki families living in Vermont and New Hampshire were not "hiding in plain sight" so Valerie Boles' assertions are not substantiated.
Why does a person have to PROVE they are Native American or Abenaki? That answer is simple. People have to identify themselves when they seek a driver's license from the DMV; they have to show proof of identity when they go across the border, fly oversea's, and even when they try to cash a check from someone else other than themselves. PROVING one is a Native American has never been a problem for people who ARE legitimately Native American. It seems that proving one is a Native American is ONLY a problem for those aren't really Native American in the first place. Or for those who are attempting to grab a hold of federal Indian grants meant for legitimate Native Americans. "Native," "Indian," and "Native American" are pretty generic and just because someone is a basket maker doesn't make that person an "Abenaki." Well, if folks up in these incorporated, alleged and reinvented "Abenaki" groups stop believing all their nonsense, and "stories" and actually recognize that some of those "stories" are just plain horse pucky, then maybe the truth will finally come to their minds that they are perpetuating a MYTH created by using a Eugenic Survey confabulation!
Douglas Lloyd Buchholz
Lancaster, New Hampshire
January 19, 2011
IN RECOGNITION OF MLK [Martin Luther King] Day - Above, Luke Willard, former Chief of the Nulhegan Tribe, spoke Monday at the Colbeigh Library in Lyndonville, about the tribe's efforts to be recognized. He is chairman of the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs, and discussed, as part of a program on race held in honor of Martin Luther King Day, about a new law set up by the tribal recognition process.
Pictured below, part of Monday's MLK Day program was a reading by Penny Patch from a recently published book titled, "Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC." The book features stories by 52 women from a range of backgrounds sharing of working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement. Patch worked with the SNCC in Mississippi and Georgia as a young adult, and read a passage from the new book she wrote, about being terrified in a store full of hostile white men, she and a young black woman, on Election Day, 1964. About 50 people crowded into the library's first floor for the program, including students from the King George School in Sutton.
A NOTE OF INTEREST:
There were serious problems of plagiarism in Martin Luther King's academic work. There were serious problems with King's dissertation. Can anyone recall "Barney Rustin" and his 'working relationship' with Michael King a.k.a. "Martin Luther King"?
So, how much plagiarism and 'appropriating' has gone by these dubious "VT/NH Abenakis" whereby the so-called "Abenaki 'culture' and 'heritage' has been fraudulently inappropriately usurped, whether directly or indirectly, from books or from Odanak/Wolinak, by this "Vermont Indigenous Alliance" in part or in whole?
OH, LOOK, Here we have "Elnu" "Chief" Roger A. Sheehan!
Who went from being merely a re-enactor, to being an Inc. signer of the "Tolba" group, to being a sub-band of the "Co-Chief" Nancy Millette-Doucet led group, to having his very own "Elnu Abenaki Tribe" now sanctioned by the Legislature of Vermont.
To the left, is none other than "Chief" Donald Warren Stevens, Jr. who 'was a member of the St. Francis/Sokoki' group led by the late Homer W. St. Francis Sr. and now Homer's daughter April Merrill (now led seemingly by John R. Churchill), who defected to the Nulhegan-Coosuk group led by the late Nancy Cote, and her daughter Dawn Macie, along with Luke A. Willard so that they could IMPLY that they were or are related to "King Phillip" of Coos County, New Hampshire Deed of 1796. He even attempted to SOLICIT his Phillips ancestor's descendants into joining the Nulhegan group, to IMPLY that the group was legitimate.
And to the far right in the image (above), we see Senator Vincent Illuzzi.
Senator Vincent Illuzzi had a working relationship with the late Homer St. Francis Sr. it would appear, as well as himself being 'adopted' into the Clan of the Hawk, Incorporated, led by Ralph Skinner Swett, back in July-August 1998, wherein he was given the name "Chief Fighting Wolf" and got himself a real authentic Certificate and a Plains Indian style Headdress (probably made in CHINA) too.
NOTICE that in the LINK above cited, in particular, on the second document of that January 06, 2010 blog posting, that the late Senator Julius Canns was cc'd these documents signed by Senator Vincent Illuzzi as well. Why?
Because Julius Canns own son, Ronald Canns initiated over here in New Hampshire, as an advocate and employee of the Boston Indian Council, solicited groups of alleged and re-invented "Abenakis" and "Penacook" "Indians" in the mid to late 1974 into 1975. Then Ronny Canns jumped the Connecticut River, and went up to the St. Albans/ Swanton, VT area do the same thing, he'd done in the Merrimack County, New Hampshire area. But, then again, Ronald Canns late (now deceased) father, Julius Canns wouldn't mention that publicly now would he, sitting in the VT Legislature or in his advocating of the late (now deceased) Homer St. Francis or Homer's daughter April Merrill, that his son's connections to being the catalyst for the alleged Swanton "Abenaki" community being created, of which Julius Canns himself advocated for "tribal recognition" almost immediately upon stepping into the Montpelier State Legislature in 1992! All one has to do is take a search of archival newspapers in New Hampshire and review what was really going on back then.
The upper most photograph is of Representative Kesha Ram, who was in constant communication with various "Abenaki" parties .... which includes Judy Dow, of the ALLEGED "Winooski" "Abenaki" group/community.
Here Rep. Kesha Ram looks at "Nulhegan" "Chief" Donald W. Stevens, Jr. whom is standing with "Elnu" "Chief" Roger A. Sheehan. Some people conclude that Rep. Kesha Ram was ONLY interested in her own "political job security," to be standing there, scoring political points with these dubious "Abenakis." Some people have concluded 'SHAME ON HER' for not standing up against this fraudulent process of "Abenaki" recognition! Especially considering that these very "Abenaki" "Chiefs" attempted to mock her, diminish and ridicule her publicly so some people shake their heads, pondering just WHY would she continually want to be associated with this ilk ... photographically or otherwise?
Again, in my own conclusion(s), I have a name for such people. It's called "political prostitution," and anyone doing such are political prostitutes!
The bottom photographic image is of "Nulhegan" member, Lucy Rose (nee: Pion) Cannon - Neel.
January 19, 2011
These self-identified "Abenaki" people ought to be
ASHAMED OF THE THEMSELVES!
but they know no guilt
These "Abenaki" groups in VT are what I think of as
"Abenaki" Prostitutes!
The "Recognition Process" for these
ALLEGED and REINVENTED
"Abenakis" of Vermont
(and New Hampshire)
WAS and IS
BASED ON
DOCUMENTED
Distortions
Deceitfulness
and
BLATANT INACCURATE
UNSUBSTANTIATED
DATA
MANIPULATED
BY THE
"SCHOLARS"
ALLIED TO THESE GROUPS
January 19, 2011
Two Abenaki Tribes Now Recognized by the State of Vermont.
[No, that ought to read ... "Two FAKE Contemporaneously created "Abenaki" "Tribes" that have fraudulently been "recognized" naively, by the VT Legislature."]
Lawmakers passed a bill last year setting up a recognition process so tribes can sell their goods as Abenaki.
No, once again there NEEDS to be clarification given ... the 'lawmakers' only passed a bill (S.222 =Act 107) which resulted in the giving of the legwork from the legislature .... to the so-called "expert scholars' panel, who have a vested financial and scholarly interest in the recognition of these "Abenaki" incorporation's as "Abenaki" "tribes" (and btw, those very 'scholars' have had a 'working-relationship' with these "Abenaki groups" for many years now) and the RECONSTRUCTED VCNAA commission (whom are 'members' and or allies of these four or five "Abenaki" groups whom have prostituted themselves to the VT and NH Legislature's ... 'to appropriate for themselves' a state-sanctioned ill-begotten "Abenaki" Identity ... that IS based of identity theft, and outright fraud ... all for the sake of "status"-"ego's"-"power"-"control" ... and more especially "MONEY" $$$$
Another point of interest: These VT groups each gaining a generic "Recognition" from the Legislature of Vermont in 2010 to 2012 ... as a "Native American Indian Tribe"(?) ... NOT that they were identified by historical documentation as definitive Abenaki Tribe(s) ... these groups claim to be "Native American" "Indian" and "Indigenous" yet, now they can sell their goods as Abenaki-Made, using that generic VT State recognition?
The Native American Affairs commission reviewed the tribes' requests, making sure they met certain criteria like documenting genealogy and membership. The reconstructed VCNAA DID NOT insure that the data, genealogy, and membership lists were accurate, up-to-date, nor did anyone bother to check the data's validity and that data's merit as to it's association with these people. For example, the Four Indian's of Alburgh, Vermont ca. 1863 were not as the two Applicant's Applications-for-State-Recognition have stated therein. No "Abenaki" - no Partlow descendant - no Politician - and most certainly did ANY "expert "scholar" delve into that claim, regarding the Partlow's being descendants of one of those Four Indians ca. 1863! Using the ACTUAL Alburgh Town Record Page 593 Dr. "Professor" of Johnson State College, Mr. Frederick Matthew Wiseman himself ought to have KNOWN that the Allen L. Stratton book published in 1986 was constructed so as to IMPLY that the Four Indians were allegedly Burke, Vosburg, Olena, and Partlow. Yet, Stratton's book regarding the "Four Indians" suited these "Abenaki" groups agenda. And how about that redaction of the Chief of the Wabanacus Postcard, eh? It IS Odanak Chief Nicolas Panadis sitting in that small boat at Highgate Springs, Vt. ca. after 1906. So how come JUST "Nicolas" is redacted in the duplicate image that Professor Wiseman himself, created at a St. Albans Copy Shop. Hmmm, THINK ABOUT IT!
The request will now be reviewed by lawmakers.
The Abenaki say this new recognition means a lot.
"Recognition gives us back our identity allowing our people to sell their arts and crafts and to be able to participate as American peoples." said Chief Don Stevens of the Nulhegan Tribe.
"I think it's a start to healing many old wounds between the state and Abenaki and different Abenaki bands and tribes," said Chief Roger Longtoe Sheehan of the Elnu Tribe.
One other tribe is now going through the process to be recognized. It takes about 2 to 3 months.
Kristin Carlson - WCAX News
It took from 1976 to 2012 to RE-WRITE Abenaki, Mohawk, and Truthful History of N'dakinna (the Northeast Gerographical Regions we now call Vermont and New Hampshire). It took about 2 to 3 months to create a process, that literally attempts to manipulate Vermont into accepting their manipulated "Abenaki" "data" as alleged fact, and that it was seemingly valid as to it's accuracy. None of it is fact, none of it is valid as to it's accuracy as it pertains to these people/groups claiming to be VT "Abenakis." WE KNOW THIS!
January 19, 2011
Nancy Lee (nee: Millette) Doucet
Representative Kesha Ram
Roger "Longtoe" A. Sheehan
Donald Warren Stevens Jr.
Senator Vincent Illuzzi
January 19, 2011
Nulhegan "Chief" Donald Warren Stevens, Jr.
testifying in front of
VT Senator's
Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs
Peter W. Galbraith (Clerk)
Timothy Ashe (Vice Chair)
Vincent Illuzzi (Chairman)
William H. Carris
Bill Doyle
THIS IS, BY LAW OF S.222/ACT 107, EXACTLY WHAT THE EDHG COMMITTEE, the REVIEW PANEL OF "EXPERT" "SCHOLARS" and the "RECONSTRUCTED" "STACKED VCNAA APPOINTEE'S WERE MANDATED TO DO:
Review the data enclosed and determine its sufficiency, accuracy, and relevance.
Provide a detailed written report of your findings regarding each criterion and
conclusions to the Commission.
DID THESE PEOPLE, POLITICIANS, and "EXPERT" SCHOLARS DO THAT?
The ANSWER is: DEFINITELY NOT.
January 19, 2011
The Coos County Democrat Newspaper
Abenaki Incorporation Confabulations
By Douglas Lloyd Buchholz
Here is the FULL ARTICLE which was published in the Caledonia Record Newspaper on January 24, 2011:
“Abenaki” Incorporation Confabulations of Vermont and New Hampshire”
Since the mid-1970’s, everybody wanted to be an Indian, and no one wanted to be a Pilgrim, Cowboy or Yankee in the Classroom’s or the Playground’s any more. In 1976, as adults, Homer St. Francis and others got together and “incorporated” under the state of VT and or NH Laws. Subsequently, these incorporation's, their Presidents turned “Abenaki Chief’s”-“Grand Chief’s”-or “High Chiefs” along with their solicited 'followers' turned card-holding “Abenaki tribal members” began to reinvent themselves to appear as if these groups and their solicited memberships, came from and were bone-fide “Abenaki Tribes” over the years, previous to their incorporation status dates.
Since 1976, there has been a multitude of Incorporation’s with the word “Abenaki” in their corporate names throughout New England. Some have been created with the endeavor of the incorporators to reinvent themselves into alleged Abenaki Tribes within Vermont, New Hampshire, and even Massachusetts. Corporate leaders calling themselves “Abenaki Chiefs” were alleged “elected” by their solicited “members” who were deemed card-issued “Abenaki tribal members”, even getting issued Abenaki Tribal License Plates. I even had one. Incorporate By-Laws became reinvented into “Abenaki Tribal Constitutions” or “By-Laws” and so on. From Incorporation’s these groups claimed to be subsequently “Corporations” “Associations” “Confederations” and even “Republics”. Regardless of incorporating under Vermont, Massachusetts, or New Hampshire state laws through the Secretary of State’s Office, for a fee, these various “Abenaki Tribes/Bands” “Inter-Tribal groups” and or “Abenaki Nations” continued to proclaim “that their Incorporated “Abenaki” group’s were part of a “Sovereign” Abenaki Indian Nation, Tribe, and or Band. From “President” of Incorporation status, an incorporator became an “Abenaki Chief” and like the late Homer St. Francis Sr., such a person later called themselves “Grand Chief” “High Chief” “Hereditary Chief” and the “Vice Presidents” of these Incorporations became “Sub Chiefs” etc. There have been “Abenaki Shaman’s” “Abenaki Medicine Men” and even “Abenaki High Sheriff’s” “Historian Chiefs” and “Genealogist Chiefs” titles within these Incorporated “Abenaki” groups. Making up alleged Abenaki Tribes, Abenaki Cultures, and based on questionable and unsubstantiated historical Abenaki Community connections became profitable to inflated egotistical men and some women issuing membership cards to anyone who came along claiming to be an Abenaki descendant.
The three (out of the four) applications for “review” of these alleged and reinvented “Abenaki” Incorporated groups who are now seeking to be VT legislatively “crowned and enthroned” as “authentic” Abenakis, just arrived. These “Abenaki” incorporation’s do not want to be recognized as merely the alleged “Abenaki descendants” in the two states which the Connecticut river separates … these groups seek to be thee Abenakis Tribes of Vermont (and or NH), and subsequently become Vermont’s (or NH) first legislatively-sanctioned reinvented Abenaki Tribes. Its all about accessing Federal Native American Ethnic Grant Monies, possible Abenaki Land Claims, and of course Casino’s etc. The wish list is long….really long. On that “list” is indeed the King Philips Land Deed of June 1796 located here in Coos County, New Hampshire. As one would say “Buyer Beware”.
Today, in this month of January of 2011 these “Abenaki” incorporation's are approaching the Vermont and New Hampshire legislature’s in their attempt at gaining Abenaki State Recognition. To my thinking and according to the researched documentation of these various incorporation entities who claim to be Abenaki tribes, these groups are nothing more than state sanctioned incorporates. These groups have manipulated and by deception, created a scheme of reinventing themselves to appear as if they are connected to the documented historical Vermont/ New Hampshire Abenaki Tribes. In trying to create factuality, there is but “inferences”…nothing else.
These supposed “outside” “independent” scholars (David Lacy, David Skinas, William Haviland, Frederick M. Wiseman, and Eloise Beil) have alleged that they each have reviewed and now support approval for each of these three groups to be granted VT legislative approval, as being “authentic” “Abenaki Tribes”. YET NO ONE VALIDATED NOR SUBSTANTIATED the APPLICANT"S CLAIMS being made, for it's ACCURACY! The bias, non-transparent, and unfair Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs has become even more corrupt, deceitful, and dishonest. It is the Incorporation’s representative “member’s” who now sit on this commission that the out-going Gov. Jim Douglas has appointed to it. These VCNAA members voted Luke Willard as Chairman of such restructured commission, who was just recently the Inc. President/ “Chief” of the Nulhegan-Coosuk incorporation, which now seeks legislative approval to become a authentic Native American Indian Tribe’s.
In 2008, these 4 incorporations calling themselves “Abenaki Tribes” and or “Abenaki Bands” created a “VT Indigenous Alliance” who’s Coordinator had been none other than Frederick M. Wiseman PhD himself. All of these alleged “independent” “outside” scholars (Lacy, Skinas, Haviland, Wiseman, and Beil) have each had a “working relationship” for 20 years (or more) with these alleged and reinvented “Abenaki” groups in both VT and NH. That is, with the exception of Eloise Beil, but I could be just naïve about her “working relationship” with these groups. The Dept. of Historical Preservation people have also had a “working relationship” with these incorporations as well, regarding burial repatriation and archaeological sites, within both states.
So what this very strongly shows, is that the Abenaki Recognition Process has from the very start, been corrupted. From the beginning to the end there has been no real transparency, no lack of bias, and no fairness about the recognition process. The cherry picked scholars simply “reviewing” their own “working relationships with these Abenaki incorporations” and “validating their own previous and contemporary scholarly works on the Abenaki Incorporations” is total conflict of interest. These scholars obviously are not “independent” nor “outside” the dynamic of having been manipulated, deceived, and intellectually “blinded” by their own endeavors to retain their own “scholarly standing” and “job security” at least to my thinking.
There is no transparent observable documentation (that has been shown and provided) in these three applicants “reviews”, previous to 2007, pertaining to any of these 3 petitioning applicant groups. In 2008 these groups helped the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum attract visitors and money, in regard to the Lake Champlain Quadricentennial Event(s) for that Museum, which Frederick M. Wiseman was also the Coordinator of. Now Eloise Beil, with connections to the LCMM, “reviews” the ELNU and Nulhegan Inc.’s application’s for legislative recognition, as to their being “Abenaki Tribes”. It’s a conflict of interest. Frederick M. Wiseman reviewed the ELNU application, and of course he has “rubber-stamped” the application(s) making sure all of them “appear” to support each other, because he is the VT Indigenous Alliance Coordinator! ELNU is a part of that concocted “Abenaki Alliance”; and Fred M. Wiseman is a St. Francis/Sokoki Band of the Abenaki Nation “card-holding” active/supportive member, which is also a part of the “VT Indigenous Alliance” … he is a total conflict of interest!
David Lacy, Archaeologist, has had a “working relationship” with one of the members of this 2008 “VT Indigenous Alliance”, the St. Francis/Sokoki Band of the Abenaki Nation, which is led by April Merrill today. Just read William Haviland’s Original Vermonter’s book (page 264); and also Cross-Cultural Collaboration: Native Peoples and Archaeology in the Northeastern States, by Jordon E. Kerber (pages 150 through164).
David Skinas, Natural Resources Conservation Service, US Dept. of Agriculture employee is also a conflict of interest in his reviewing these 3 applications, sits on the Abenaki Self-Help Assoc., Inc.’s Board of Director’s, that retrospectively was created by April Merrill’s father, the late Homer St. Francis Sr. in 1976.
Kevin Dann also has had involvement with these “Abenaki” incorporations, John Scott Moody, and with Frederick Matthew Wiseman regarding alleged Abenaki dynamics and especially in regards to the Eugenics Survey of Vermont. So, in conclusion, all of these “cherry picked” scholars by the Abenaki Incorporations implanted on the VCNAA, and the members who have been appointed to sit on such, right along with the involvement of biased Department of Historical Preservation Officer Giovanna Peebles, are all in a conflict of interest.
It makes one wonder if the legislative representatives of each state (VT and NH) are even being approached again and again, are the “authentic” legitimate Abenakis and or their descendants in the first place? I find the whole mess, a pathetic farce, a joke, and a crying shame that politicians simply cannot discern the truth from lies. The politicians certainly do not seemingly do their homework. Incorporations do not equal being Abenaki Tribes! It’s just that simple.
Now, what these three of the four incorporations do have in common, is that Hinda Miller, and Vincent Illuzzi both continue to support all of these incorporations of alleged and reinvented Abenakis in gaining official VT state legislative recognition. All three groups (and very likely the fourth group as well) profess to sucking on frozen fish eyeballs “under their tongues” during ice fishing, and all four Incorporations, the D.H.P., the LCMM, and these alleged “outside” scholars have been slapping each other on each other’s backsides, for years; especially in 2011. Even Vincent Illuzzi was made an Honorary Chief of the Clan of the Hawk, Inc. by none other than “Chief” Ralph Skinner Swett. A sibling of Mr. Swett stated that his brother was not even of Native American descent, let alone connected ancestrally to any Abenaki Community. So Illuzzi was given an Indian Headdress, and an Indian Name, and a Certificate, so he and these people could Play Indian within Orleans County, Vermont. That’s what these Incorporated groups are all doing … Playing Abenaki Indians throughout New England.
Where’s the transparency, honesty, integrity, and openness in all of this Abenaki Recognition Process (?) because I don’t see it in Vermont or New Hampshire. I won’t waste my time hoping it will be found either any time soon, in either state, when it comes to legislatively deciding that recognizing incorporation's as “authentic” Abenaki Tribes is the right thing to do. Because it is not right, and most informed people know it is wrong, for a whole lot of reasons.
Montpelier - A well-attended press conference was held Wednesday at the statehouse to publicize the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs recommendation of the first two tribes for state recognition.
The decision to recommend the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki in the Northeast Kingdom and the Elnu Abenaki Band of southeastern Vermont will now be passed to the General Assembly for review.
While perhaps not yet cause for celebration among the Abenaki and their supporters, this nonetheless represents forward progress for the tribes.
Chairman of the commission Luke Willard said, "We're happy to see this new process working. The questions and concerns that stalled state recognition for Vermont's tribes in the past are now being addressed."
An application submitted in November 2010 by the Koasek Band is still pending further review by the commission and they expected to receive a new application from the St. Francis/Sokoki Band during the monthly VCNAA meeting held at the statehouse after the press conference
Among the primary supporters for the Abenaki tribal recognition has been State Senators Hinda Miller and Vincent Illuzzi.
Miller said, We are very pleased to with the work of the commission and look forward to their recommendation. We appreciate their careful deliberations according to legislation passed last year outinging a process for tribal recognition."
VCNAA Chairman Willard would not speculate on how long the process may take before an annual vote in the assembly.
Chief of the Elnu Abenaki, Roger Longtoe Sheehan, expressed an attitude of cautious optimism. He stated, "We have waited a long time to get to this point, and we have been here before. I hope to see it passed into law by the vote."
Sheehan says his tribe has met nine criteria stipulated in Senate Bill 222, now Statute 107, for Vermont state recognition as a Native American tribe. He says some of the tribal information disclosed to the commission was private and members did not like sharing it, but that was necessary to complete the process.
For Sheehan and those involved in seeking state recognition, gathering information has been challenging.
Continued on page 10.
Photographic images of Roger Sheehan and Luke Willard (which are above).
Opening the Door to Tribal Recognition
Above left: Elnu Chief Roger Longtoe Sheehan sits in the Cedar Creek Room of the Statehouse prior to the VCNAA meeting. Right: VCNAA Chairman Luke Willard works toward opening doors for Abenaki in Montpelier. (Photos by Ian Patrick O'Neil)
January 24, 2011
Abenaki Recognition
From page one.
For example, the word tribe is defined by the language of the law as follows: "Tribe" means an assembly of Native American Indian people who are related to each other by kinship and who trace their ancestry to a kinship group that has historically maintained an organizational structure that exerts influence and authority over its members.
Just to gather any kind of written or photographic documentation or even government records of that type seems a daunting task under the circumstances.
Chief Longtoe Sheehan shares this analogy, "Imagine starting with a big puzzle but the puzzle is all put toether and whole. Then throw all the pieces up randomly in the air, wait a long period of time, and then try to reassemble the puzzle. During that time when the pieces were loose, some were bound to be scattered or go missing. That is what happened with our tribe.
Sheehan adds that the influence of European culture since at least the 1600's has contributed to the loss of tribal culture and unity. That is something that bands say they are trying to preserve through tribal recognition.
Archeological [sic] and other scientific evidence indicate the Abenaki or their ancestors have inhabited this area since around 11 AD. Until recently in tribal culture, history, ancestral relations, and native traditions were passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation.
Roger Longtoe Sheehan says, "For me it started out with my Dad telling us we were Indian." In his twenties he also participated in what he refers to as 'living history events' in which tribal rituals, customs, and traditions were practiced. Along with the help of his grandmother and Aunt Dolly, he has learned as much as he could about Elnu Abenaki culture. He feels there may be a benefit to others from state recognition because as Sheehan puts it, "Seld-identification is very important, for personal and commerce reasons."
Other benefits he considered were an increase in trading of handmade goods which would encourage the children to learn from the elders and consequently continue tribal conditions, participation in native events which require state or federal recognition and continuing to proactively bring back the culture. Sheehan says, "In 1931, the Vermont Legislature passed a law that provided for the sterilization of Native Americans living in Vermont. They were predominately Abenakis. They were called degenerates, mentally defective, and undesirables. By providing Vermont native American tribes with state recognition, we are erasing that dark time in our history, providing cultural recognition and validating their heritage" ~Sen. Vince Illuzzi
That is just plain INSULTING and DISRESPECTFUL of these people to SAY and IMPLY that by granting VT State Recognition to these FAKE ABENAKI GROUPS, that now, all of a sudden with a flourish of the Legislative sanction and a Governor's pen, that somehow such a fraudulent "recognition" act (on the part of Vermont Politicians, Scholars and these deceitful "Abenakis") would be able to magically "erase" the stark historical FACTUAL REALITY in Vermont's history of the Eugenic's Survey against MANY people living within AND around Vermont! Secondly, to IMPLY that the Vermont sterilization law of March 31, 1931 (the 29th state to pass such a law) targeted Abenakis, is absurd, and a unfounded MYTH created since 1986!
The 1931 law targeted “‘idiots’, ‘imbeciles’, ‘feeble-minded’ or ‘insane’ persons” residing in state institutions (Gallagher, p. 185). This law applied to residents of the state also, not just those institutionalized.
Poor and socially ostracized families were targeted for investigation of the three D’s (delinquency, dependency, and mental defect). These families usually lived “outside the accepted moral or social convention of middle-class America” (Gallagher, p. 37). The three D’s were used to target the poor, the disabled, French-Canadians, and Native Americans. Women were targeted more than men. French-Canadians and Abenakis were seen as a foe and threat to the early colonial settlers of Vermont. They represented “an insidious and continuous invasion” of Vermont and were therefore targeted (Gallagher, p. 45). Studies done on degenerate family lines were often traced back to French Canadian or Native American ancestry and were used to target these groups (Gallagher, pp. 80-82).
Question: Where did Nancy Gallagher (author of Breeding Better Vermonters The Eugenics Project in the Green Mountain State. Hanover: University Press of New England., published in 1999) gain her IMPLIED data on the Eugenic's Survey ALLEGEDLY targeting and supposedly sterilizing Abenakis?
Answer: John Scott Moody, etc and those ALLIED to these "Abenaki" groups seeking VT State Recognition:
Page xiii ... "I would like to thank John Moody, Donna Roberts, and members of the Abenaki community, who helped me to develop a deeper sensitivity to the families in the survey records and an awareness of the meaning of Vermont eugenics to the history of native peoples."
Page 188 of her book reads, 5. (in part) Kevin Dann, "From Degeneration to Regeneration: The Eugenics Survey of Vermont 1925-1936, "Vermont History 59, no. 1 (1991): 5-29 Nazi themes are feature in Kevin Dann, "The Purification of Vermont," Vermont Affairs 4 (summer/fall 1987): 27-31.
6. Charles Delaney nd Christopher Roy, "Eugenics Genetics, Ethics and Art," symposium at Robert Hull Fleming Museum, 24 Oct. 1995; John Moody, "The Impact of Eugenics on Abenaki Families in Vermont" (Providence, R.I.: New England American Studies Association, 27 April 1996; Charles Delaney, "Victims Left Out," Burlington Free Press, 4 Nov. 1995.
Page 201 of her book reads, 17. Kevin Dann, "Gypsies in Vermont?" (paper presented at Warren Sussman Memorial Graduate History Conference, Piscataway, N.J., 7 April 1990)
Page 202 ... 18. Gifford, Proposals for Improving Social Legislation, 405. Perkin's portrayal of the Abenaki families as wanderers of French Canadian origin simply restated an old myth in Vermont history writing dating back to Ira Allen. See John Moody, "The Native American Legacy," Always in Season: Folk Art and Traditional Culture in Vermont, ed. June C. Beck (Montpelier: Vermont Council on the Arts, 1982), 54-56 John Moody, "The Impact of Eugenics on Abenaki Families in Vermont" (Providence, R.I.: New England American Studies Association, 1996); William A. Haviland and marjory W. Power, The Original Vermonters: Native Inhabitants Past and Present (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1994, 242-55; Molly Walsh, "Vermont's Abenaki," Burlington Free Press 7 Jan. 1996
20. Kevin Dann, "The Pirate Family" (lecture presented at Robert Hull Fleming Museum, Burlington, Vt, Oct. 1994).
The concocted/created MYTH of the Eugenics Survey allegedly kidnapping and clandestinely sterilizing Abenaki People, stated when Kevin Dann found the Eugenics Records in ca. 1986.... and this MYTH has been perpetuated by many people, claiming to be Abenakis, and those who write books, such as the Bruchac's! The Media continues to perpetuate this MYTH within and around Vermont, that documented Abenaki People's were sterilized.
I guess the doctors with the snipping scissors ONLY went after the UNDOCUMENTED "Abenakis" and or so called generic Vermont "Native American's" within Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine etc?
NOW, GO BACK AND READ THIS SECTION OF THE State of Vermont's Response to the Petition for Federal Acknowledgement of the "St. Francis/Sokoki Band of the Abenaki Nation": Pages 75-81.
And ALL-OF-A-SUDDEN, from ca. 2005/ 2006 up-to-the present-year-of 2012, the State of Vermont (right along with Attorney General William Sorrell, and all of the Vermont Legislature) is GOING TO back peddle and NOW claim that the groups claiming to be thee "Abenaki" of Vermont, are legitimately Abenakis?
Really? C'mon, whose SHOVING $$MONEY$$ into-whose-political-pockets in Vermont nowadays? Or should I say, whose-expecting-political points (a mutual slap on the back and or monetary funding, for allowing this crappy Wannabiak "recognition" process )act 107) in Vermont to continue unabated, and unchallenged?
January 25, 2011
The Caledonian-Record Newspaper
Page A6
Newport Native American Blasts Vt. Recognition
By Robin Smith
Staff Writer
NEWPORT CITY - The current effort in Vermont to recognize some who claim Abenaki heritage is a fraud, says a Newport City man who is a member of an Abenaki tribe that has a reservation in Quebec.
Richard "Skip" Bernier, a member of the Odanak tribe, challenged bills by Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans, and other legislators that would give state recognition to two groups claiming Abenaki heritage.
The Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs asked the Legislature in early January to recognize the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation based in Brownington and the Elnu Abenaki based in Newbury. Other groups, including the Missisquoi tribe in Swanton, are expected to seek recognition as well [in 2012].
Now there are bills in the legislature, including two in the Senate by Illuzzi and other senators, to recognize these tribes.
The move for state recognition has prompted a slew of complaints in letters to the editor and in phone calls to lawmakers [who, btw, lent a deaf ear to any labeled 'naysayers' = Senator Vincent Illuzzi, etc. because these politicians has already pre-determined that they were going to official recognize the "abenaki" (wannabiak) no matter if these groups lied, in the process of gaining the fraudulent State Recognition or not!] by some who don't believe these tribes should be recognized or who question their genealogical research.
Rep. Bob Lewis, R-Derby, said Monday he heard those complains during the weekend. He said he is questioning whether all the claims of heritage are legitimate.
Bernier, speaking at a legislative breakfast in Newport City, said the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected the Missisquoi/Sokoki tribe for federal recognition, and he asked how the Vermont Legislature could have the wisdom to know which tribes deserve recognition and which do not.
The VT Legislature doesn't have the awareness nor the wherewithal to do their homework, so the Politicians conveniently gave the task of 'creating a "Abenaki" "recognition process" over to the Gov.- restructured (and 'stacked' & blatantly biased) VCNAA and their cherry-picked "Expert" Scholars such as Frederick Matthew Wiseman who teaches as Johnson State College ... thus the State of Vermont Legislative Politicians and Governor (along with Attorney General William Sorrell) GAVE to these "Abenaki" groups the ability to GRANT THEMSELVES THEIR OWN VT STATE RECOGNITION, using primarily Sen. Vincent Illuzzi and Sen. Hinda Miller (to name just a few politicians who condoned this MOCKERY against the Abenaki Ancestors and their Descendants!)
"I represent all the real American Indians who live in Vermont," Bernier said. "This s a slap in the face and demeans the sovereignty of the true Indian tribes by awarding recognition to non-Indians."
Other tribes are not being considered for recognition by the commission, he said.
Bernier said he wanted to make this arguement to Illuzzi, who is a strong supporter of the commission and its mission to bring Vermont tribes forward for recognition. BASED OF FALSE CLAIMS by the very scholar/ member of the St. Francis/Sokoki group denied Federal Recognition, Professor Frederick M. Wiseman!
The Legislature set up the current restructured commission to evaluate claims of Abenaki tribe heritage, setting criteria under which state recognition could be granted.
No, it was NOT the Legislature set up the current VCNAA (it was former Gov. James Douglas) and the ONLY entities to ALLEGEDLY discern "the validity and or accuracy of the data (historically-socially and genealogically) was the VCNAA, which is 'stacked' with the very 'members' and a few allies to the groups, that are seeking State Recognition and their hand-picked "Expert" "Scholars" who have had 'working relationships with these "Abenaki" groups for years = The "Abenaki" Groups claiming to be "Abenaki" "Tribes" gave themselves the approval for State Recognition!
Gov. James Douglas appointed the commission members.
No, what Gov. James Douglas did was allow the S.222 (Act 107) to be written by Illuzzi and Co. (who maliciously allowed into the law ... the immediate removal of the VT Gov. VCNAA Appointee's of the FORMER VCNAA (meaning very specifically: the Gov. appointed commission members such as Timothy Delabruere, Jeanne Brink and Judith Dow), at the behest of the disgruntled, manipulative, deceitful, complaining "Abenaki" "Chief's" (and their group 'members') who wanted CONTROL of the VCNAA direction.
The new appointee's, to the restructured VCNAA are ALL members or allies, to the very groups seeking Vermont State Recognition.
Illuzzi said the commission named scholars of Native American tribes who researched claims to find native descendants.
NOTICE the slippery manipulation of vocabulary. The restructured and blatantly biased VCNAA picked their own scholars (who've had a working relationship and allied to these groups scholarly-speaking since 1977 to the present). These groups claim to be "Abenakis" ... yet gain a generalized recognition as "indigenous" "native descendants" and or "native american." If one looks at and studies the genealogical backgrounds of most of the 'members' of these VT "Abenaki" groups as obviously I have, one would detect a strong odor of B.S. coming from their 'genealogies' and their Recognition Petitions to the VCNAA/Department of Historical Preservation Agency/Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs.
Soliciting status as a Incorporation UNDER VT state laws, soliciting 'memberships'/card-holders, from anyone who has ANY alleged and reinvented "Native American" "indigenous" or "Indian" oral histories, etc and using contemporaneously, the few who do descend from and outside of legitimate Abenaki Communites, such as Trudi (nee: Call) Parker of Lunenburg, VT or other Abenaki descendants ... and claiming that having an Inc. status, a food bank, a created Constitution, and holding Pow-wows once or twice a year thus makes a group an "Abenaki Tribe"? Really, c'mon people, let's get real here.
Vermonter's don't need to legalize marijuana, or any other hallucinogenic 'drug' .... the State seems to be smoking something altogether more powerful and hallucinogenic (especially the Vermont Legislature and the varied naive Politicians therein!)
"They should be recognized," Illuzzi said in a statement Monday afternoon.
For doing what to gain that "State recognition" (?). Lies, Manipulation, Deceitfulness, Bias, Non-Transparency? To name just a few. Prostituting themselves to the Legislature like the whores that they seemingly are? After 200-300 years of allegedly "hiding-in-plain-sight"? For re-inventing themselves into allegedly being "abenakis" for their greed, and need for control, in their inflated ego's dressed up in their appropriated made-up tattoo's, feathers and leathers to their "presentations" to kindergartner's/elementary Grade School naive children, wearing their enlarged "medicine bags" against their chests? Or putting on a show for the naive Vermont public?
He said it has taken 17 years of work to recognize those in Vermont with Abenaki heritage. Some are now trying to prevent that recognition, he said.
There's a difference, Illuzzi said, between those who say, such as Bernier, that they are 100 percent Abenaki and those who have Abenaki heritage.
[that is genealogically impossible and I doubt very much Skip Bernier would imply that he was 100% percent Abenaki, considering. One thing I do know about Mr. Richard "Skip" R. Bernier is that he is not a egotistically inclined boasting man, nor is he a liar. All he's ever wanted to see, is the TRUTH come out, about the reality of the Abenaki, historically and contemporaneously; not this garbage Illuzzi advocates for]
Bernier said the state would be rash to recognize tribes now.
"This will come back to haunt the state in the near future," he said. "It is merely racist and an attempt to prevent the true Indian tribes from becoming recognized."
"This is a smoke screen and an attempt to just muddy the waters," Bernier said, reading a statement at the legislative event. "It is not honest, responsible or fair to be doing the recognition of non-Indians. This is fraud."
Hearings about House bills are scheduled Wednesday before the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs. Scheduled to speak are members of the commission, leaders of the two bands named in the bills, and two experts who studied their claims of heritage.
Bernier said he and other critics have no time to speak at Wednesday's hearings.
Sen. Illuzzi, chairman of the Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, said his committee will hear testimony in two weeks about S.10 and S.11, the Senate bills to recognize the tribes.
He said there will many hearings about the bills, giving any critics lost of opportunity to comment. B.S., the man LIED, because he would not even allow Odanak People to speak at or in the hearings at all! Let alone, honestly consider any objections to the fraudulent recognition process.
Lewis, a former game warden, said he has been involved in Native American issues for years. He said he has been hearing complaints from constituents about the recognition bills and the process.
Lewis said he has heard some evidence may have been falsified that is part of a claim of Abenaki heritage.
"I don't know how we'll address this," he said. "If they are Native American, great. Let's make sure they are."
January 26, 2011
The Record
Page A6
Native American Affairs Chairman Wants Security
By Robin Smith
Staff Writer
The Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs chairman has asked for security during a House hearing today on bills to recognize Abenaki tribes in Vermont.
Luke Willard of Brownington ask Monday for security after he said he learned that opponents of the process to recognize the tribes plan to attend the hearings.
The House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs is hosting today's hearing at the Statehouse about bills to recognize two tribes, the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation based in Brownington and the Elnu Abenaki of southern Vermont.
Willard and members of the commission, leaders of the two bands named in the bills, and two experts who studied their claims of heritage, are scheduled to speak.
Willard issued his request, in email to the committee chairwoman [sic] Illuzzi is Chairman after he heard about discussions online saying opponents of the bills should attend the hearings. In one of the blogs, opponents issued "a call to arms" in urging others to attend the hearings. A wee bit paranoid, and taking things out of context and playing the victim-role Mr. Luke Willard, Chairman of the VCNAA does. So, what is Willard and his ilk-minded "Abenakis" afraid of? Is Willard afraid of an 80+ yr. old elder woman Phyllis Donovan, Chinka Buck Whitekiller, 70 yr. old elder "Skip" Bernier, Brad Allen Barrett or myself (Douglas Lloyd Buchholz) coming to his VCNAA Party of "Abenaki" Identity Thieves, and making some dissenting noise, to prove what prostitutes these wannabiak really are? How disgraceful this whole 'recognition' process has been and become, with the likes of Wiseman and Willard, "Longtoe" Sheehan and Nancy Millette etc, Playing at being Abenaki?! Really? C'mon. The whole thing stinks and makes a mockery of the Abenaki Ancestors and their Descendants.
That phrasing concerned Willard.
The two tribes are part of an alliance formed in recent years to seek state recognition.
The commission asked the Legislature in early January to recognized the two tribes. Other groups, including the Missisquoi tribe in Swanton, are expected to seek recognition as well. Just READ the VT State's Repsonse; and the subsequent BIA Proposed Finding (1995) and Conclusion (2007) and afterwards ASK yourselves if the Swanton, Franklin County-based, VT "St. Francis/Sokoki group" is a tribe of anything!
Opponents are critical of the effort.
Richard "Skip" Bernier of Coventy, formerly of Newport City and a member of the Odanak tribe of Quebec, spoke out Monday saying the state recognition process does not look at genealogical records and bloodlines.
Actually, 'some' genealogical records were used (cited) in the "Abenaki" petitioning groups applications for state recognition; but everyone in VT does have 'genealogy', it just doesn't necessarily go back to ABENAKI ancestors. And even though genealogical data was cited in the applications, it has been removed, redacted and restricted from the public of VT, so how does one honestly KNOW whether or not these self proclaiming "Abenaki" "tribes" are legit or not? Answer: We don't. Because it is a fraudulent recognition process wherein the groups representatives themselves got appointed by the Gov. (Jim Douglas) onto the VCNAA, and with their allied scholars, approved their own 'recognition; and with the help of their allied politicians such as Hinda Miller, Diane Snelling, and Vincent Illuzzi etc, got approval from the VT Legislature, to be thee VT "Abenaki Tribes." Racism and Genocide against the Abenakis and Native People's at its best when mere social clubs/state-sanctioned Inc.'s can become legislatively sanctioned "Native American Tribes" perpetuated by a bunch of "white" Wannabiak!
Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans, has authored bills to recognize the two tribes. Vermont should [a guilt word] recognize the state's Abenaki heritage through tribe recognition, he said.
Federal recognition of a tribe depends on genealogical documentation, which the state recognition process does not require.
The proponents say that the state recognition looks at cultural and historical evidence, not exclusively genealogy.
The Legislature created the current recognition process [No they only approved what was concocted by Illuzzi, Miller, and Delaney Jr. and Wiseman Ph.D, etc], setting out criteria in law S.222 [that Frederick M. Wiseman created (and or manipulated) and advocated for] that established how the commission would investigate tribes that apply for state recognition. [now that is a laugh and a half, there was NO INVESTIGATING, NO VALIDATING, OR SUBSTANTIATING THE DATA CLAIMS by ANYONE]
Among the criteria include where the tribe's members live in Vermont, kinship [which has been one of those 'coined' 'water-downed' phrases that was to imparted, in part,probably by various people such as Judy Dow, Marge Bruchac, and Frederick M. Wiseman (etc) to Rep. Kesha Ram (etc) in the attempt(s) to writing an 'acceptable' recognition bill'], historic connections to known tribes [these groups merely said they knew each other and supported one another], organization [that these "Abenaki" groups were and are already incorporation's under-Vt.-state law, had a membership list/ census, and so on], an enduring presence established by archaeology, history, folklore and culture [what these "Abenaki" groups made up, could make look 'convincing' on the surface, or appropriated for themselves as these groups went along], among other things, and documentation of oral stories and histories.
Scholars investigating applications for recognition said that they found ample evidence, such as how some farmed using the mound system for corn [See the 'June 02, 2010' Photographic Image below, by Luke Willard ...doesn't look too 'historical' to me] or warmed fish eyes under the tongue and then used them to catch fish while ice fishing.
Other evidence includes what scholars described as unique basketry, bark containers that are still owned by families, eating fiddle-head fern hearts and other practices.
Scholars were assigned to review confidential personal records of the applicant tribes and aksed to keep confidential the personal stories of members of the applicant tribes.
One of the scholars, Kevin Dann, said it is too bad the tribes need state recognition.
State recognition could lead to federal money for schools attended by Abenaki students. It would also allow a recognized tribe to use the name on made-in-Vermont products.
David Skinas, an archaeologist, said the Nulhegan band more than met the criteria required for state recognition. Three-quarters of that tribe's members live in the Northeast Kingdom [because they contemporaneously moved there since 1980!], and most live in the Newport-Derby area, they said in their report.
February 08, 2011
The Caledonian-Record
Recognizing Abenaki
To the Editor:
I was not able to present my remarks recently to the committee hearing one of the bills on Abenaki recognition filed with the Legislature this session.
I feel the public as well should be fully informed of the content of both H.124 and S.222 so they may also let their legislators know how they feel about passage of either bill.
Following the remarks I would have delivered:
I am Phyllis Donovan. I live in Wheelock, Vt., and have for the last seven years. I am not Abenaki. I have no vested interest in whether this bill before you passed or not. I am only a patient student and observer of what goes on in "Indian Country" here in Vermont.
My reason for standing before you today is to protect and defend the people who originally inhabited this country and their descendants. My passion is to protect those descendants from having what little they have left being usurped, diluted, and used by outsiders who would steal yet more from them. My mission is to protect the integrity of tribal bloodlines and to protect the use of entitlement programs designed and made law specifically for Native American tribal members.
This bill before you asks you to give immediate recognition to three or four groups of people as Abenaki Indian Tribes of Vermont, the principle one of which is the group in Swanton. It is the....
See Letters, Page 5
February 08, 2011
The Caledonian-Record
Page A5
Continued from Page A4
oldest, the largest, and the most developed of the petitioning groups.
However, the Swanton group, the self-styled Saint Francis/Sokoki Band, were denied recognition when they petitioned the federal government for it, back in 2007.
The Department of Interior determined that this group had not met four of the seven criteria for recognition. Reading now from the DOI, dated June 22, 2007:
Quote...."Criterion 83.7(e) requires that a petitioner's members descend from a historical Indian tribe. The available evidence demonstrated that only 8 of the petitioner's 1, 171 members, less than 1% pecent, demonstrated descent from an Indian ancestor who once belonged to the historical Missisquoi Abenaki Indian tribe [the O'Bomsawin's from Odanak and of Thompson's Point, Vermont]. The available evidence does not show that these eight [William Simon OBomsawin's descendants ... for example, Jeanne Brink of Barre, Vt.] associated with the petitioner before the 1990's.
The bill before you asks you to pack the Governor's Commission on Native American Affairs with members of the petitioning bands. [Which it did, btw, 'stack' the restructured VCNAA with these groups own members and or allied adovcates]
And it asks you to grant the commission authority to recognize other tribes, either directly or by recommendation. If less than 1 percent in these groups are certifiably Indians, who is watching the hen house here? The fox?
I have watched as factions split off from other factions, forming new "bands" with new chiefs at the helm these past few years. As a case in point. The Nulhegan Band, one of the petitioner's in this bill, did not exist until a few years ago, when it split away from the Clan of the Hawk, under Chief Spirit Water [aka "Chief Lone Cloud"] Ralph Skinner Swett, in Evansville, Vt. That clan is not one of the petitioners, but you know it would be the first one in line at the door of the governor's packed commission seeking recognition. One need not be particular bright to draw that conclusion.
Let me demonstrate something of chieftainships. Here is an article from the Newport Daily News, dated Aug. 3, 1998, with a picture of Chief Spirit Water (Ralph Swett, left) wearing his war bonnet, making Sen. Vincent Illuzzi an honorary chief while placing a war bonnet on his head and giving him the name "Chief Fighting Wolf."
According to the way bands and tribes develop here in Vermont, Senator Illuzzi need only acquire a following and he, too, could petition for recognition as an Abenaki Tribe. For decades, various groups have been naming themselves, and making chiefs of each other, without following the precedents and procedures of the original Abenaki Indian inhabitants who lived here.
I might add as a point of interest... the war bonnets show in this picture are not part of the traditional dress of any tribe east of the Mississippi River to my knowledge. It is, however, an integral part of the dress of all tribes living in the Great Plains... the Sioux, the Cheyenne, Kiowa, Blackfoot, Chippewa, Osage, Pawnee , and others. Why are we having to look at war bonnets here in Vermont?
Where is the tribal integrity?
There is a way all of the members of every aspiring Abenaki group could prove their right to be recognized and enjoy the benefits provided to Indian people. The could submit their genealogies to the registrar at Odanak, in Canada, where Vermont Abenakis fled to, for certification. Those records indicate who came to Canada and stayed, who came and left, and who did not come at all. Families are families. Their histories remain. It would not be difficult to know who your ancestors were back 5 generations and more.... enough that linkage could be found through siblings if it existed. Not all people with a little Indian blood can be certifiable because of lost records or no records. My advise is, "Get used to i. Deal with it. It does not hinder you from leading a good life and being a kind person."
The petitioning groups have been getting government money in the form of grants to go do wonderful deeds in building their organizations, building prestige, garnering publicity for themselves [and gaining political allies such as Sen. Hinda Miller Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, and Sen. Diane Snelling to name just a few]. In truth, they have probably done some good things in bringing Indian issues to the forefront of public discourse. I am not calling any of them bad people, or saying they have done bad things.
I give them all an "A" in knowing what they want. They want recognition from you, being as they cannot get it from the federal government. I give them an "A" in their efforts to acquire what they want. This is not their first trip in front of you legislators. I give them an "F-minus" for not working with the people who could realy help them if they were legitimate, and that would be the already recognized, original Abenakis in Canada through their copious genealogical records.
February 10, 2011
Page 1 of 1
(dr req 11-193-draft 1.1)
2/10/2011 - MNH-10:24 PM
Introduced by Senator Vincent Illuzzi (R-Orleans-Essex Counties)
Referred to Committee on:
Date:
Subject: General provisions; common law; general rights; public records
Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to exempt from public disclosure records submitted in support of an application for tribal recognition. An act relating to exempting from public disclosure records related to tribal recognition.
It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont:
Sec. 1 V.S.A. & 317 is amented to read:
& 317 DEFINITIONS,; PUBLIC AGENCY; PUBLIC RECORDS AND DOCUMENTS
***
(c) The following public records are exempt from public inspection and copying:
***
(40) Records of genealogy provided in support of an application for tribal recognition pursuant to chapter 23 of this title, including records of genealogy and tribal rolls.
VT.LEG 2611427.1
So, this PROVIDES the very OBVIOUS EVIDENCE and blatant INTENTION(S) of the concocted "VT Indigenous Alliance" using their staunch advocate Senator Vincent Illuzzi and very ly likely also Senator Hinda "Jogbra" nee: Schreiber - Miller) for the various ca. 1975 to 2012 concocted "Abenaki" "Tribes"/Incorporation's ... to "hide-in-plain-sight" their alleged and dubiously substantiating documentation(s) that was and is being used to gain their fraudulent, non-transparent, biased VT State "Abenaki" Recognition. Most of the documentation(s) have been proffered up as alleged "proof" by Professor Frederick M. Wiseman Ph.D. of VT's Johnson State College ... who is a member of and advocate for these alleged and reinvented "Abenaki" groups that comprise the "Vermont Indigenous Alliance."
The "Vermont Indigenous Alliance" is comprised of the following groups, directly and or indirectly:
1. The "St. Francis/Sokoki Band of the Abenaki/Nation" based in Franklin County, VT led by the late Homer Walter St. Francis Sr. - his daughter, April St. Francis-Rushlow-Merrill - and now allegedly by John Churchill.
2. The "El-Nu Abenaki Tribe" led by Roger "Longtoe" Sheehan residing in Jamaica, VT
3. The "Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation" led by Nancy Lee Millette-Doucet of Swiftwater/Bath, Grafton County, New Hampshire.
4. The "Koasek Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation" led currently by Nathan Elwin Pero of West Fairlee, VT - and Paul Joseph Bunnell of Milford, N.H.
February 15, 2011
The Caledonian - Record Newspaper
In My Opinion ...
State Recognition Of The Abenaki ... The Big Picture
By Luke Willard
It is important to understand the differences between federal recognition and state recognition and it is even more important to understand that Vermont is not dealing with federal recognition. Federal recognition means that the United States government recognizes the right of an Indian tribe to exist as a sovereign entity. Here in Vermont, we're dealing with state recognition.
What is state recognition?
State recognition is little more than a legal nod of approval from the state. [In essence, through that 'nod of approval' from the Legislature of VT ... ALLOWS that so-called alleged and re-invented "Abenakis" - along with the State of Vermont, to "tap into" apply for and obtain varied FEDERAL MONIES GRANTS Etc. and in essence going "through a back door (State Recognition) with "wishy-washy" dubious questionable criteria and recognition thus creating FAKE "Abenaki" "Tribes" and or "Bands"] I often refer to it as "Cultural Recognition" It doesn't cost Vermonters anything. [Oh? Really? Taxpayer's in Vermont are required to PAY the State, taxes, as well as citizens are required to PAY the Federal Government ... EVERY day, week, month, and year of their lives to PAY into/for those varied Federal Grants, (etc) that these "Abenaki" groups have sought to apply for, and benefit from (those "Indian" grants etc. don't get created out-of-thin-air)... Conclusion: Of course, it does cost Vermonter's $$$$ directly or indirectly, it's just that it goes from the Vermonter's taxpayer's pockets INTO the Politician's coffers in the United States Treasury over into Congress' pockets to dispense to the Federal Agencies, including Title V, VII etc. etc.] Their lives won't change. There won't be land claims. There won't be Indian casinos. No "treaty rights" disputes, no tobacco sales wars, no road blocks, no tax exemption, no special rights, etc. [No? Yet, NOW, we have a bunch of varied Wannabiak within the State of Vermont and New Hampshire usurping the identity of the Abenaki People, seeking political strength and attaching themselves to Federal Grants, monies, meant for LEGITIMATE Native Communities; not some dubiously created State created "tribes" with solicited questionable created "Abenakis" !]
Okay, so why do Abenaki people want state recognition?
Good question. There are few reasons. The first is societal. The second is legal. The third is personal.
Throughout most of our state, there is a lack of cultural awareness. Simply put... most folks are not aware of the Abenakis who are their neighbors, co-workers, etc. You see Indians in the news every now and then, and perhaps you've visited a powwow or two; but for most, it ends there. In school, we are taught very little about Native Americans and even less, or perhaps nothing, about Abenakis.
Were you ever taught anything about contemporary Indians? Were you taught about the eugenics survey of the 1920's and sterilizations throughout the 30's? Were you taught about the Abenaki renaissance during the latter 20th century where Abenaki people began to publicly and politically reorganize and stand up in a desperate effort to revitalize a culture that was hanging on by threads?
Vermont state recognition will enable school districts to access funds for cultural programs, to hire tutors, and much more. Education is the foundation of awareness and all students will benefit from it.
Currently, it is illegal for an Abenaki craftsperson or artisan to label and sell their products as "Abenaki Made" or "Native American Made" because the Indian Arts and Crafts law forbids craftspeople from doing so. If they do, they are breaking the law. In the maple product industry, the term "Vermont Made" goes a long way. Given the choice between a label that states "Vermont MadeMaple Syrup" and "Mapel Syrup," which one will you purchase? I'm certainly opting for the Vermont Made. Why? Because Vermonters make the finest maple syrup on the planet. So now I pose the question... If you are on the market for a fine basket, will you purchase one that is labeled "Abenaki Made Basket" or will you purchase one labeled "Basket"? Again, I opt for the Abenaki Made basket because... yep, you guessed it... Abenakis are known for their fine basketry and craftsmanship. This enables Abenaki artisans to earn a living wage, and it brings money into Vermont's economy. [Not necessarily, since most "Abenaki" "Artisans" in these groups market their wares at the weekend powwow's and do not pay taxes to Vermont or the Federal Government, nor do they report their earnings to the Federal Government; the "artisans" simply prostitute themselves to the hopefully created VT naive tourist market ... want to support Abenaki Artists, then go to a legitimate Abenaki Community such as Odanak or Wolinak, perhaps the Mohawk Community of Akwesasne or Kahnawa:ke and SUPPORT those LEGITIMATE Native Communities, by purchasing from those Communities Artists; not some "artisan" whose become a member of an created post-1975 VT "Abenaki" Incorporation!]
The third and probably most important reason why Abenakis have sought recognition from their state for over three decades is one that cannot be seen or heard. It can only be felt. Simply put, it is "Acceptance." However, there is nothing simple about these feelings and I do not possess the ability to explain their magnitude. My words on paper could never describe the ancient feelings that live in the hearts of Vermont's Abenaki people. [All the while they have been seeking VT State Recognition, these very groups that comprise the "VT Indigenous Alliance" have spit on, stepped on, stepped over people connected to Odanak, such as Jeanne Brink, and Richard "Skip" Bernier and multiple other Abenakis within and around the State of VT and New Hampshire, ignoring these Abenakis, negating the voices of these Abenakis!] and the pain that they feel when others say that they are not who they say they are. [We KNOW these people are NOT who they say they are. Why? Because they attempt to "hide-in-plain-sight" their so-called genealogical connection(s) to the Abenaki Ancestor(s), etc. and recognition materials and use a biased, unfair, and blatantly fraudulent recognition process for gaining VT State Recognition from beginning to end. The genealogies for the majority of these group's 'members' do not go back to ancestral Vermont Abenakis, but rather back to early1600's Huron's, Mi'kmaq's (usually of the Port Royal/Acadia area in Nova Scotia, Canada), Western Quebec, Ontario Province Algonquin ancestors such as Marie Catherine 8enta Plat dit Pillat or Marie Mite8ameg8k8e/Mitcominqui - Couc dit LaFleur, Roch Manintoubeouich / Manitouabeouichit and his wife Outchibabhanoukoneau/ Outchibahabanoukouehou/squa etc. ... and NONE of these ancestors of some of the "VT Indigenous Alliance's" 'members ever resided within the geographical area's of Vermont or New Hampshire!]
Last year, a new law (Act 107) puts a series of criteria in place for tribes to meet in order to be recognized as Native American Indian Tribes under the legal definition. [Notice that Willard does not state that it was his friend and ally, Mr. Frederick Matthew Wiseman, Ph.D. and his associates, that created that criteria, so in essence, these groups along with Willard, could grant themselves their very own VT Recognition, with the help of Senators Vincent Illuzzi and Hinda (nee: Schrieber) Miller etc.advocating for these "Abenaki" groups]
The process outlined in the law is clear and fair. [According to the Fox, that constructed the door to the Hen House and now guards the Hen House itself claims its 'clear' and 'fair'?]. To date, four tribes have submitted applications.
As the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs reviews these applications and makes recommendations to the General Assembly, I urge Vermonters to embrace them. I'm a Vermonter... born and raised in the Kingdom.
Freedom and Unity.
Luke A. Willard is the chairman of the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs. [and President of the Nulhegan - Coosuk "Abenaki" Incorporation which group was created out of Ralph Skinner Swett's group, Clan of the Hawk, Inc.]
February 16, 2011 7-Days Article
Abenaki Angst
A group of Abenaki that opposes the recognition of several Vermont-based tribes won't be allowed to testify before a key Senate committee.
The Abenaki First Nation initially got the OK to testify before the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee, but that offer was partially rescinded by Senator Vince Illuzzi (R- Essex/Orleans), the committee's chair and a proponent of Abenaki recognition.
Illuzzi said the group's in state members can only provide written testimony. "We only meet for three hours a day and only have so much time to take direct testimony," he said. "We've done the same for other out-of-state witnesses on bills."
That's not good enough for Denise Watso of the Abenaki First Nation, which has tribal members in Vermont, New York and Quebec. Watso questions the authenticity of at least two tribes seeking state recognition.
"Why are lawmakers like Sen. Illuzzi afraid to hear what we have to say? Why are they scared to look us in the eye?" she asked. "These are not rhetorical questions. They are willing to take the time to hear testimony, they just refuse to hear from us. It's just a lot easier to ignore emails and letters than it is to hear real-life Abenaki people speaking out for truth and justice in the halls of the Statehouse."
The House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee has not established such restrictions this year, but it has yet to receive a request from out-of-state groups.
To day, two tribes that claim Abenaki heritage are seeking recognition: the Nulhegan and the Elnu. A third, the Koasek, has been approved for recognition, but no formal bill has been introduced.
It's unclear if other tribes or family bands will follow suit this session under a new state recognition law passed last year.
The Missisquoi Tribe was in the process of gathering up the necessary documents, but its leader - Chief April St. Francis - Merrill - was arrested last week for allegedly stealing money from a vulnerable adult.
March 09, 2011
Letters to the Editor
Much to gain by celebrating Native population
To the Editor:
There seems to be some confusion in the Northeast Kingdom regarding individual and community Indian identity. There have been letters to the editor and articles regarding The Nulhegan Band and it ethnic legitimacy, in which my work has been mentioned.
Since 1989, I have researched, taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses and published books and scholarly articles on the Abenakis and their neighbors, as well as worked with Vermont state officials on Native issues ranging from legislative recognition to education, to the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain - and would like to offer another, more "external" perspective on your local debate.
On the most basic level, S.117 passed by the Vermont General Assembly in 2006, gives all people who profess a native identity protected minority status; and so that point of identity is moot. However, there is lingering debate as to whether or not there is a viable indigenous Native community [NOTICE how Professor Wiseman 'twists' the linguistics around...he does not mention "Nulhegan" or "Abenaki" here BECAUSE he knows full well, these people have dubious questionable genealogical connection(s) to the bona-fide Abenaki People, so instead he switches to the terminology "indigenous ... Native ... community"] By indigenous, I mean with local history and culture not derivative from anywhere else -- "home grown." If there is a community, it must first have behaviors, beliefs and traditions that any anthropologist would recognize as "Native." [Again NOTICE, the lack of his wording ... "Abenaki"]
It is interesting that in my research on Northeast Kingdom cutlure, most people who are practicing these "Native behaviors" are unaware that they are doing anything native, or special. It is just that they and their ancestors have always done. [OR mimicked out of Father Rasle's descriptions; along with using The Penobscot Man by Frank G. Speck, to IMPLY an "association" to or with the Wabanaki and/ or Abenaki] This prevalent belief is refreshing and indicative of deep-time local culture and tradition, rather than borrowed or "fake" ethnicity.
June 02, 2010
[Now, this photograph is REALLY 'HISTORICAL ... right'?]
"Three Sisters" mounds at Chief Luke's gardens in Brownington. 86 of the large Abenaki mounds and
another 50 of the smaller Iroquois style mounds. Abenaki agricultural renaissance at its best.
[March 09, 2011 Wiseman's Letter To The Editor ... continued...]
Some of these newly revealed (to historians and anthropologists) behaviors and traditions of the Northeast Kingdom include : 1) distinctive horticultural mounds and distinctive crops in its agriculture;
2) Native style fish spears and a unique communal tradition for fishing for walleyes; 3) Native style game lures such as bark moose calls and shadow decoys; 4) a land tenure system identical to that of the Penobscot Indians of Maine; 5) communal memory of bark "long-houses" and current wigwam architectural technology; 6) medicinal technologies including healing wands similar to the "spirit root clubs" that figure in Maine Indian museum exhibits; and 7) multifamily gatherings where these native traditions are passed down.
Interestingly many of these documented Native behaviors and technologies, while present in rural Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia communities, seem absent in the more compressed Canadian Native enclaves such as Odanak, Quebec. So I find the assemblage of traditional Native cultural data convincing. But a mere assemblage of people doing Indian things is not an Indian community; it needs a definitive Native geographic character. In this, the Northeast Kingdom is quite similar to that of the Penobscot Indians of Maine, before they were concentrated onto their reservation near Old Town.
This is a series of semi-autonomous extended families arrayed across the upper Missisquoi, Lac Memphremagog shore, to the Clyde and Nulhegan drainage's, each of which has a slightly different historical and geographic adaptation. From a cursory study of the complex inter-family politics in the area, leadership seems to have been more vested in individuals from a constituent band than inter-band "chiefs," a social system also historically characteristic of Northeaster North American Indigenous bands.
But a viable ethnic community, especially one so spread over several river drainages, cannot be merely a mish-mash of families; it must have a level of genetic or cultural integration and seperation from the "outside" Vermont community. The extended Indigenous families have always maintained communication through multi-family gatherings, and ties of intermarriage that seperates them from their neighbors. The modern Nulhegan Band has managed to celebrate rather than supress the traditional semi-autonomous band structure and so it has flourished; although some extended families have chosen to remain apart. as a result, the Band has documented over 75 percent of its population as related by blood and marriage, a sure sign of an historical and viable community in the Northeast Kingdom.
By any measure, geography, ethnography, folklore and history, there is a distinct local Native strain in your area. It needs not appeal to Maine or Canada or anywhere else for its authenticity - it has been there all along. With legislative recognition by statute, this divisive silliness about who is or is not Indigenous in your area will be over. The Northeast Kingdom has much to gain by celebrating its Indians - and needs not look elsewhere than its old home soil.
Frederick M. Wiseman, Ph.D.
Swanton, Vt.
AGAIN, NOTICE that there is NOT a word Abenaki in this whole Editorial by Professor Wiseman. Why is that? Because he KNOWS full well, that these groups are not connected genealogically, historically or socially to the Abenakis whatsoever! The so-called divisiveness has not been whether or not, these so-called self-identifying persons were or were not "Indigenous" but rather, whether or not they were legitimately Abenakis historically of Vermont! Of course, Professor Wiseman skirts around these dynamics by used "Indigenous" "Native" "Native behaviors" "wigwam architectural technology" and the really good one is "deep-time local culture and tradtition."
I just want to get my hip-wadders on because it is "deep" alright, this wordy bull-sh** from this Johnson State College Professor loves to fling at the Northeast Kingdom people. And was this so-called Northeast Kingdom "Nulhegan" "Cowasuck" group etc. really, all of 'em "hiding in plain sight" for generations? ... while NO ONE historically bothered to mention such a huge population of "Abenakis" (or should I say Indigenous people?).
Please don't make me laugh any harder Professor Frederick M. Wiseman, yes, my ancestors descendants lived throughout the Lac Memprehmagog and Orleans County, area and yes, we did identify "quietly" and respectfully of our ancestors, as Native descendants.
How could the Nulhegan gorup be a viable honest legitimate Abenaki Tribe, if the people that consist of that group, come from everywhere else, such as Chittenden or Lamoille Counties, etc? Solicited membership dynamics, etc. Oh yes, and re-read that September 21, 2004 newspaper article, wherein Luke Andrew Willard and his cohort, the late (deceased) Nancy Cote and her daughter Dawn Macie CAME FROM and OUT OF the Clan of the Hawk, Inc. led by Ralph Skinner Swett ca. 2002! Also, that Luke Willard himself associated himself with the late David Descoteau-Hill ... and also ran around with Skip Bernier and Bruce Dubois as if he were..... (well you get the picture)
NOTICE, that they have vilified anyone (in this "Abenaki" Recognition Process) associated with and or had membership with the Community of Odanak, such as Richard "Skip" Bernier of Coventry, VT. UNLESS such person agrees with the Vermont Indigenous Alliance, such Trudy (nee: Call) Parker, or the like.
Not about casinos or land claims
To the Editor:
State recognition of Abenaki tribes is nothing for anyone to fear although some are trying to convey just the opposite for their own reasons. I'm a member of the Nulhegan Band and our tribe has tried to make our goals clear. We intend to help bring education money into.....
See Letters, Page A5
March 09, 2011 Letter to the Editor [continued....]
March 09, 2011
Letters to the Editor
Page A5
[Continued....]
...the schools of the Northeast Kingdom. We are also developing a community gardens project to put healthy food into the tummies of the children and elders who need it most. These things benefit not only Native people, but ALL people in our communities!
Recognition will allow our artists and crafts people to label their wares as 'Vermont Abenaki Made' which not only brings more dollars into the Kingdom, but it also allows someone who may be in need to earn a living by working with their hands. I have shared our culture and music in many schools and other venues here in our part of the state and I've always been welcomed and accepted as Abenaki by the PEOPLE of Vermont. I want to be welcomed and accepted in the same way by the STATE of Vermont.
This is not about casinos or land claims. We don't want them any more than you do! This is about Abenaki people like me and many of you having the right to exist as Abenaki. I was born Abenaki, and will always be Abenaki! I ask only that my Identity be returned.
Oliwni (Thank you),
Billie Largy
Derby, Vt.
August 2011
Middle Row: "Elders" : Margaretia Glorius (nee: Burbo) Stevens, Mabel "Billie" Victoria (nee: Burton) Largy, Eveyln Lucille (nee: Storey) Willard, and Nancy (nee: Pickering) Davis.
Back Row: Frank Cheney, Lucy Rose (nee: Pion) Cannon - Neel, Luke Andrew Willard, "Chief" Donald Wararen Stevens (son of Margaretia Glorius nee: Burbo - Stevens), with Kathy Joyce (nee: Phillips) Stevens (daughter of Richard "Black Horse" Phillips and Theresa Henrietta nee: Hill), and Alain Stephane Berube.
Alain Stephane Berube married to Mandi Marie (neeL Brochu) after she divorced Luke Andrew Willard.
Mabel / Billie Victoria (nee: Burton) Largy
Wife of Ernest Walter Largy (son of Walter James Largy and Evangeline Catchpaw)
Mother of Alan Ernest Largy
Mother-in-law of Julia Marie Bracy
Mabel "Billie" Victoria (nee: Burton) Largy looking at "Grey Wolf" aka John K. Lawyer
Mabel "Billie" Victoria (nee: Burton) Largy
A Bed Sheet from Walmart or K-Mart for an Abenaki Dress Regalia?
Must be an Vermont Abenaki Culture Trait eh?
Mabel "Billie" Victoria (nee: Burton) Largy with Lucy Rose (nee: Pion) Cannon - Neel demonstrating in a Grade School Elementary in Vermont
March 06, 2011
For Native groups, recognition challenged
By Daniel Staples
Staff Writer
The Times Argus Newspaper
Page A1...
MONTPELIER - Opponents of a bill in a Senate committee that would give state recognition to two groups claiming to be bands of Abenaki Indians say the process has most recently been compromised by ethics violations against two scholars working with the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs.
David Skinas, state cultural resources specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and David Lacy, an archaeologist with the Forest Service for the USDA, were cited in February for misusing official USDA letterhead to give their responses to the applications.
Lacy reviewed the Elnu Tribe; Skinas, the Koas Abenaki Tribe.
State recognition would mean a chance to seek federal money for schools with Abenaki children, as well as a chance to have arts and crafts identified as official Abenaki handiwork under the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
March 06, 2011
For Native groups, recognition challenged
By Daniel Staples
Native
Continued from Page A1...
Page A4:
To Douglas Lloyd Buchholz of Lancaster, N.H., the fact of the decisions by Skinas and Lacy were presented on official letterhead give the appearance the USDA was complicit in the decisions of its employees, who were only supposed to be advising as experts in their fields. It was not. [Actually, the issues is an ethics violation... period, in that using the USDA Letterhead made it IMPLY that the USDA endorses these State Incorporates as "tribes" already ... that being the case, LOOK at the SOURCE of where the Federal Grant Monies are coming from to these Alleged and Reinvented "Abenaki" Groups/ Incorporate's since 1976!]
Luke Willard, chairman of the VCNAA [Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs], defended the process [of course, he would 'defend the process' because he, along with Professor Wiseman ... along with others ... 'cooked up' the criteria process to in essence ... by creating it in the first place, manipulating it, and subsequently make sure that their 'Alliance' in whole or in part, could pass that criteria, granting themselves, Vermont State Recognition...], saying the "letterhead had no bearing on the decision of the commission to approve the applications."
Willard said the VCNAA voted on the application before the ethics violations had come to light.
In the VNCAA meetings minutes from Feb. 15, however, the violations did appear to be a concern. At the time, Willard said, "our process and the individuals (Skinas and Lacy) themselves have been harmed by this," and that "even on personal time Lacy can't participate anymore."
Two of the four tribes that are seeking recognition currently have applications that have passed the House of Representatives and have passed to the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs.
"I'm not troubled by it," said Sen. Vince Illuzzi, chairman of the committee reviewing the bills to give recognition to the tribes applying. [Of course not, Illuzzi didn't need to be concerned, because once the reconstructed/restructured appointee's of the VCNAA gave their nod approval to the application(s), then the VT. Legislature didn't really need to do a single thing more; as written and passed into law, S.117-turned-into-Act 107, wherein once approved by the VCNAA, all the applicant(s) need have to do, is wait accouple years quietly, and the "Abenaki" petitioning group(s) would AUTOMATICALLY gain VT Legislative State Recognition and become a VT State-Sanctioned Alleged and Re-Invented "Abenaki" "Tribe" ! The VT Legislature nor Illuzzi needed say nothing after the biased, unfair, non-transparent restructed VCNAA appointee's 'gave themselves their own State of VT "Abenaki"/"Native American Indian Tribe" Status!] "My focus would be to consider the methodology used to review the genealogies and documentation and not to take into consideration an internal federal issue. ...I expect we will vote on these two bills before the end of the session."
Illuzzi was made honorary Chief "Fighting Wolf" by the Clan of the Hawk in 1998. All four groups currenly seeking recognition were either created by members that were once part of that clan - including Willard - or have close ties.
Willard said Bureau of Indian Affairs' laws were put in place to keep Native American arts and crafts authentic and to keep their sales from being undercut by foreign facsimiles. He said more recently the BIA has used the law to "go after" non-federally or state recognized Native people from labeling products as "Native American."
Willard said that members of these groups who are artisans would like to be able to sell their wares as "authentic" Abenaki.
"It's worth more more money," Willard said, "These groups would use the label much in the same way that Vermont maple producers label their bottles as 'Vermont made'."
Additionally, if these groups are identified by the state, Willard said, they also could apply for federal grant money under the Title VII Indian Education act. Those monies do not go directly to tribes, but instead goes to supervisory unions. [Such as Jeffrey Benay (whom operates as the Franklin County Director of Indian Education ... and his wife, Julie Beauvais nee: Jameson - Benay ... who was Principal at the Swanton, VT Elementary School before 2011 ... brings to mind the saying "one had washes the other to get the dirt off"]
"Not all tribes will be seeking this money," said Willard, because not all of these groups will have the student populations to apply for the funds.
At a recent VCNAA meeting Willard, who is chairman of the council, said in the Swanton area, where tribal recognition has meant extra funding, the graduation rate for those with Abenaki heritage has show significant improvement.
However, those opposed to giving recognition to these groups are asking hard questions, including: How can these groups file incorporation papers with the state just a few years prior to seeking recognition and then solicite membership for the organization?
"These are just groups of people with no documentation, and made-up names, that form corporations and try to gain recognition," said Jeff Hill of Brandon, who, as a consultant and strategist, has worked with tribes for 20 years compiling and reviewing the genealogy used to get federal recognition for Native American tribes. He is an opponent of the recognition's.
Not first struggle
Buchholz, an outspoken opponent of the application process, has been following the process closely and reporting his findings on the blog, "The Reinvention of the Alleged Vermont and New Hampshire Abenakis." He said that the ethics violations are just the "icing on the cake" [retrospectively-speaking, that was misquoted, as I stated to the reporter, that it was "merely the tip of the iceberg"] for a process that has been flawed from the beginning when Act 107 was signed into law by Gov. James Douglas last year.
One of the merits of Act 107, which sent the recogni- [...tion]
March 06, 2011
Continued...
... [recogni-] ...tion process into motion in Vermont. is a stipulation that if the Legislature does not act on petitions, a tribe would be recognized two years after its petition was recevied.
Buchholz said the VCNAA, which was re-created by Act 107 (the first VCNAA was established in 2006 but failed to achieve tribal recognition for any groups and disbanded due to internal conflicts [actually it was because the representative Chairperson's ... Mark Mitchell/Paul Bell/Charles Delaney/Donald Warren Stevens ... who have 'working relationships' with the late "Chief" Homer W. St. Francis/ Homer's daughter April Rushlow - Merrill ... and advocated for this particular group of Alleged and Re-Invented "Abenakis ... 'representating on-the-sly, April St. Francis-Merrill's interests, and when these Chairperson(s) could not 'control' the VCNAA appointed representative's Judy Dow, Jeanne Brink, and or Timothy De La Bruerer ... the 'membership' and or 'advocates' of the created 'VT Indigenous Alliance' would vocally complain about the VCNAA 'not doing anything' etc. The former initial VCNAA did not fail because of 'internal conflicts, but rather was hijacked by overt clandestine blatant manipulations by agents of the concocted 'VT Indigenous Alliance'] is plagued with 'insider dealings" and "weak documentation" that is being used to push the applications through the legislature.
However, Willard countered that many of the corporations filing for recognition have been at the process for more than 30 years and are trying very hard to make sure that the process is transparent and unbiased.
Willard was the former chief of the Nulhegan Tribe in Newport, which is one of the other groups seeking state recognition, but stepped down from that position when he was elected chairman of the restructured VCNAA last October. Willard also said any person connected to a tribe seeking recognition recuses themselves from voting on applications. Yet, this does not prevent that person from advocating elsewhere and communicating with said applicant, by telephone, fax, or email.
Many of the same persons currently leading the groups that would like to gain recognition were part of or connected to the St. Francis/Sokoki Band of the Abenaki, who unsuccessfully sought federal recognition and were denied through the BIA in June 2007.
In the federal decision not to grand the St. Francis group recognition, the BIA wrote that "the available evidence does not demonstrate that they have historical or social connection to any western Abenaki entity in existence before 1800 or even before 1974! ... and the petitioner does not have documentation to support it being a tribe before 1976." The St. Francis/Sokoki Band of the the Abenakis DID NOT nor COULD NOT identify a single person being Indian/ Native American/ Le Sauvage or Abenaki EXCEPT for identifying the William Simon Obomsawin descendants [Jeanne (nee: Deforge) Brink, etc] who were (according to April Merrrill) that these persons were NOT really 'members' of the petitioning group. These "Abenaki" group's USE Odanak descendant people such as Jeanne Brink and Trudy Call - Parker in their groups, toting historical and contemporary connection(s) to Odanak allegedly; and yet at-the-same-time maliciously vilify alleged Odanak interest(s) in the Vermont State Abenaki Recognition Process ... and that Jeanne Brink, and Timothy De La Bruere are alleged themselves malicious and manipulative 'agents' of Odanak sitting on the VCNAA (at the time) against the VT indigenous Alliance groups in Vermont?! That ... Odanak Chief Nicolas Panadis and the Benedict's, Watso's, and Obomsawin's (including Richard 'Skip' Bernier and his relatives in Orleans County, VT ... were and are allegedly merely New Vermont's 'Abenaki Expatriots and or Bi-Nationalists'?
March 06, 2011
March 06, 2011
Continued....
Opponents of recognition's before the Senate committee are asking why groups using some of the same documentation that was used for federal recognition should be considered tribes under the new standards set out by Act 107.
As defined by Act 107, the application process would be supervised by the VCNAA and require each group to submit documentation, approved by three independent scholars, to validate its claim.
Once that has been accomplished, it would be left to the commission to review the claim and petition the legislature for recognition on a tribe-by-tribe basis.
Conflict of interest
The question Buchholz ans others are asking is:
How is it that these groups, which make up the 'VT Indigenous Alliance' that was created in part by Frederick Wiseman - one of the scholars who looked over the documentation for the applications and have members sitting on the commission - could be unbiased or objective in their decisions relating to the applications?
March 06, 2011
Continued...
Wiseman gave the leaders of the tribes of the VT Indigenous Alliance documents that set out what information they should include in their applications, and then claimed to be objective in his discussions concerning those tribes when they had utilized the information that he had given them for that purpose.
There is very little information not in their particular "recognition" application's, that was not previously included in Wiseman's 2010 Decolonizing the Abenaki: A Methodology for Detecting Vermont Tribal Identity:
Wiseman's son, Frederick Wiseman Jr. also sits on the restructured VCNAA, as an appointee placed there by former Governor James Douglas.
Wiseman St. was also a member of the St. Francis/Sokoki Band of Abenaki led by April St. Francis Merrill, who has recently been charged with felony exploitation of a vulnerable adult by the Franklin County Sheriff's Office.
The said criminal charge(s) have since been dropped, allegedly temporarily, the said criminal charge(s) have yet to be placed against April St. Francis-Merrill in a court of law again by Franklin County State's Attorney, Mr. Jim Hughes or any other Judicial Officer int eh State of Vermont. Who 'leaned' on Mr. Jim Hughes and whom is the State of Vermont 'protecting' now? Brings to mind "One hand tries to wash the dirt of the other, to try and appear as if the hands were always clean?" Hmm.
Willard said one of the problems for the commission was finding expert scholars who are informed about the issues while not connected to the groups.
Every so-called 'Expert' 'scholar' that the restructured current VCNAA and the 'VT Indigenous Alliance' has chosen ... has had and or continues a 'working relationship' with the groups, that comprise the VT Indigenous Alliance groups whom seek VT State Recognition!
March 06, 2011
Continued...
"Within the scholarly community there are only so many scholars to draw from," said
Luke Willard.
"My motivation is first and foremost that these incorporations are not tribes," said
Douglas Buchholz.
Buchholz has been following the process and says that these groups solicit membership and have no proof of their ancestry other than "the confabulated stories that have no basis in historical record."
According to Buchholz, the genealogy used for the applications, which has been redacted from the applications that are seen by the public and was left for only the scholarly panelists to review, already has been scrutinized by other scholars and found to be lacking.
Buchholz also reiterated that his opposition to these recognition's in no way minimizes the legitimacy of the heritage
of the fraction/minority of the members
[such as Jeanne Brink/Trudy Parker/or those descended from an actual historical Abenaki Communitysuch as Odanak or Wolinak] of these groups.
Thursday, 3 Mar 2011 3:10 PM
Douglas,
Mr. Wiseman and Mr. Willard fail to show for the interview I had planned
with them. I'm a little surprised, but will track both of them down soon. I
still want to speak to you about a few things.
Call me at work.
(802) 479-0191 ext. 1155
If you get this tonight call me on my cell
(802) 279-9285
Daniel Staples
Thursday, 3 Mar 2011 11:00 PM
Monday, 7 Mar 2011 9:16 AM
Sent: 3/6/11 [06 March 2011] 1:15 PM
Subject: **SPAM** your article
Dear Mr. Staples,
So you used Bucholz as your source in today's article on recognition.
The whole article is very strange, but I will focus on one assertion which involves my supposed conflict of interest -- which you declined to investigate with regards to professional ethics regarding conflict of interest in the disciplines of geography anthropology, history or folklore - the applicable fields to the professional/academic evaluation of data such as the recognition applications.
I want you to think about this assertion that you wrote.
"Wiseman gave the leaders of the tribes of the VT Indigenous Alliance documents that set out what information they should include in their applications, and then claimed to be objective in his decisions concerning those tribes when they had utilized the information that he given them for that purpose."
You fail to note the source of this "leaked" document, which was originally sent to Brian Chenevert and Rep. Masland, when I offered to help them seek recognition last spring. You will see above the line where I gave the tribes the info, that I was offering it to them as well. I offer my help to any Native group seeking recognition or with any other kind of problem that my expertise is applicable to. So the preamble of the document proves an absence of bias. My loyalty is always to the data, not the political entities who choose to use it.
Unless, perhaps Bucholz altered the document before sending it to you.
You should have contacted me early on to give you the original document to determine if was altered, or if it was not, you should have published the reason why I sent it to a group that had written horrible things about the alliance in the VERY recent past (of May, 2010).
So without any significant investigation into the complex back story to all of Bucholz's attempted "gotcha politics" you published his nonsense is if it were data.
Continued...
This article does not merit a reasoned rebuttal, but in the future, you need to be more careful in your choice of sources -- which in this case clearly has a bias against me (as you can see if you have cared to look at Bucholz's hate blog) and follow up with confirmation ofinformation regarding the targets of your accusation(s) (of conflict of interest in this case).
I don't know about newspaper journalism, but this type of writing would
never be tolerated in any kind of academic discourse.
Fred M. Wiseman, Ph.D
MY RESPONSE:
Hardly with my breath or time, to merit a reasonable rebuttal.... but for the sake of it all, I, retrospectively, obtained the "Decolonizing the Abenaki: A Methodology for Detecting a Vermont Abenaki Tribal Entity" compiled by Frederick Matthew Wiseman, PhD. himself, who is Chairman of the VT Johnson State College Humanities Department through a 'FOIA' [Freedom of Information Act] request, to the VT State Archives, back in June 2010.
The document(s) were not "leaked" to anyone; these documents are a matter of Vermont PUBLIC RECORDS ... from the VT State Archives! I do NOT need to alter or redact ANY allegedly "leaked" document(s). Mr. Daniel Staples reviewed the varied dcouments AS-IS, of which is EXACTLY the manner in which they were photocopied by the VT State Archivist, and mailed to my person retrosepctively-speaking. I have even more documentation regarding Frederick Matthew Wiseman, Ph.D., which I am sure he will attempt to insinuate, is not accurate (altered), or that is allegedly "leaked."
And for the record, I have NEVER received ANY documentation from either Mr. Brian Chenevert (of Webster, Massachusetts) nor Democratic Representative of Orange County, VT Mr. Jim Masland. Yet, this particular record, of which Professor Wiseman speaks of is here, dated Februray 27, 2010:
How can this document be an alleged "leaked document" when it is within the documents I obtained from Vermont State Archives?
To INSINUATE and attempt to malign my person as Professor Wiseman stupidly attempts in the above email communication dated March 06, 2011 to the Trimes Argus Reporter, Mr. Daniel Staples, is to negate and attmept to distance himself from his own blatant obvious scholarly manipulations/alterations/redactions ... regarding "Abenaki" "Recognition" (S.222/Act 107) within the State of Vermont ...
Frederick M. Wiseman's Allegations simply smack of HYPOCRISY
Just look at the "Chief of the Wabanakis" RPPC Postcard which was altered and redacted by Professor Wiseman Ph.D. himself during the BIA Petition for Federal Recognition before November 2005!
It is not my person, who has been in the "business of altering documents/photographs etc." ... but rather the Professor himself whose been retrospectively occupying his time, doing what he implies and accuses my person of doing, so it would appear! I want the documents verbatim, in as original format and condition as I get them, to SHOW and PROVIDE the reality of the Alleged and Re-Invented "Abenaki" of VT and NH dynamics as I possibly place on this blog.
In conclusion:
Their recognition foundation was 'created' out of nothing! The group based in Swanton, Franklin County, Vermont allude and elude, evade and manipulate their claimed 'data' research to imply substantiation. Through Frederick Matthew Wiseman of Johnson State College, these (let's see now...) 6 groups USED his 9and John Scot Moody's work) collected 'research' that the groups coughed up like some sick cat's hair ball, and presented it as the cat's meow to the Vermont Legislature and their 'stacked' VCNAA representatives/ advocates, right along with the VCNAA's hand-picked scholars who were claimed to be 'independent' but actually have a 'working relationship' dynamic that spans years!It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that Vermonter's are being lied to by a very inept, manipulated, and blind Vermont Legislative Body of questionable political crooks who have managed to hijack the identity of the Abenaki People's and appropriate it to these questionable dubious groups of people whom are claiming to be "Abenakis."
In 2012, there are several groups of Alleged and Reinvented "Abenakis" who are going to TRY and B.S. the Vermont Legislature yet again, with this nonsense, of creating new "Abenaki Tribes" just like what was done in 2006-2011.
Nancy (nee: Millette) Cruger - Lyons - Doucet's group of claimed "Koasek Abenakis."
Brian Chenevert and Paul Bunnell's group of claimed "Koasek Abenakis."
[Clarification: Brian Chenevert and his late father Norman L. Chenevert of MA seem to have now become Nulhegan 'members' as has Sherry Gould and her husband Bill of Bradford, N.H and Jeanne Lincoln-Kent of Winsted, CT ... so I guess Brian and Norman are no longer Koasek" "Abenakis" .... Jeanne Kent is no longer a "St. Francis-Sokoki" "Abenaki" and Sherry Gould and her husband Bill are no longer "Penacook" "Abenaki" ??]
And of course, Professor Wiseman's own 'membership in the group of claimed "St. Francis-Sokoki Band of Abenakis" in Swanton, VT are now formerly led by April (nee: St. Francis) Rushlow - Merrill. Now, apparently who is running the "Abenaki" Circus is John Churchill, kith and kin buddy to April Merrill and the St. Francis family bunch.
[I wonder whatever happened to the 'charges' of fraud against April Merrill regarding the late Louis Paul Lafrance went to? The State of VT Judicial System stated in the media that April Merrill would be recharged. What, DID the Prosecutor's 'get cold feet' or were they threatened or 'bought off' by the likes of some high and dirty handed politicians whom sent $$$$ of Dept. of Labor monies every year up to Swanton's alleged and reinvented "Abenaki" St. Francis family Chief's, who were claiming to represent the "Abenaki Nation of Vermont" ??]
Again, these groups are simply a collection of 'solicited people' who claim Indian ancestry (from the 1600 or 1700 time frames) and who have had very likely limited if any at all, connection historically, socially and genealogically to or with one another BEFORE the mid-1970's.
And if you need PROOF of this FACT see this LINK:
Vermont HAS BEEN and IS creating "Abenaki Tribes" out of NOTHING, is the name of the game in 2006-2012.
I dare to simply notify the State of Vermont ... that the previous two Applications presented for State Recognition was based on flawed claims that were fraudulent! Their "evidence" did not exist in the first place ... in several area's of their Applications.
LINK: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34082281/Letter%20of%20Response%20April%2026%202010.pdf
November 10, 2010
The information genealogically-historically and socially
HAS NEVER BEEN
"PRIVATE"
Yet, I am called a "nay-sayer" by the likes of Professor Frederick Wiseman of Johnson State College?
Hmmm, let's look at some of his claimed data and the basis or merits of his "Abenaki" 'research' !!!
Link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Reinvention-of-the-Alleged-Vermont-and-New-Hampshire-Abenaki/326985448988
Professor Wiseman IS a historical Abenaki "revisionist" tactics ... right along with his allies....
This is not about whether or not these people happen to have distant Native ancestral connection(s). It IS about a FLAWED, NON-TRANSPARENT, FRAUDULENT Recognition Process WITHIN the State of Vermont, that Professor Frederick M. Wiseman, Sen. Vincent Illuzzi and Sen. Hinda Miller, etc. advocated for and sought to create, along with Donald Warren Stevens Jr., Luke Andrew Willard, Nancy Doucet, Charles Delaney Jr., April Merrill, Paul Bunnell and Brian Chenevert, Howard F. Knight Jr., and many other's sought to create.
These people are so desperate to be the ONLY Vermont "Abenakis" that they would spit on their own fellow Abenakis at Odanak! Even to the point of selling their own Grandmothers and Grandfathers to the highest bidder. They are desperate to be "Abenaki" or even "Indian" that they would do a D-N-A kit and keep pointing at that, as 'proof' of their "Abenaki-ness"!
WHERE are these people historical pre-incorporation & pre-1970's Abenaki Communities?
Oh yeah (how silly of me) I forgot... they were all of them, "hiding in plain sight" in Vermont, right? Thousands of their "abenaki" ancestors were hiding "because of the Eugenics Survey of the late 1920's and 1930's. Yeah Right, tell us another "story."
These People claiming to be "Abenakis" ARE NOT who they claim to be... socially, historically or genealogically ... and not even a 2006-2010-2011 or 2012 -2013 Vermont Legislature is going to REVISE that historical FACTUAL REALITY.
In a Winter/Spring 2008 The Oral History Review Published by Oxford University Press, pp. 90-91 Book Review by Pauleena MacDougall regarding Reclaiming the Ancestors: Decolonizing a Taken Prehistory of the Far Northeast by Frederick M. Wiseman Ph.D.:
“Wiseman begins the work by telling the reader how he came to know about his Wabanaki heritage after he trained as an archaeologist and how this knowledge and interaction with other Wabanakis changed his perspective. He came to believe in certain basic tenets that define Native American Scholarship today. The most important tenet is that information is not neutral but is necessarily political when it is obtained from an oppressed people by the oppressors. Wiseman states that archaeologists and historians have taken the permission to speak about Native American heritage away from Natives, thus creating a situation where indigenous people have lost political control of their cultural information. That information is critical to their survival and the protection of their rights and sovereignty.”
“Wiseman has made it his professional goal to address the issue of cultural appropriation and has written two books in that effort.”
Ok, so again, let’s take Frederick Wiseman Ph.D. at his own words of allegedly taking to task ‘the issue of cultural appropriation, as his professional goal …
Frederick M. Wiseman’s “Against the Darkness” Multimedia System #CDMS090106-1:
In an Open Letter to the VT Governor [Jim Douglas]:
“There has been a growing concern voiced by Indigenous Vermonters that members of the new Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs may have cultural and political allegiance to political entities outside Vermont. The issues of Odanak, a Canadian Abenaki reserve, is particularly troubling. Since the fall of 2003, Odanak officials have denied that there are Vermont Abenakis other than Odanak descendants. In a particularly cruel move, Odanak officials collaborated with the Vermont Attorney General's 1995-2006 cleansing of Indigenous Vermonter history and identity, focusing on Missisquoi. In response, Indigenous Vermonters bearing the brunt of this ethnic violence became suspicious of Odanak's interests in Vermont, especially when such hostility continues to disrupt Vermont-Abenaki relations. Ms. Denise Watso, a self-identified Odanak Official, made an impassioned February 26, 2008 plea (including all VT Native American Commissioners except for two) are "portraying" Odanak Abenakis "in public." The arrogance of Odanak's oft-stated position is encapsulated in her pretentious demand that Indigenous Vermonter’s submit to Odanak's determination of who is and who is not Indian. Such combative pomposity has necessarily exerted a certain toxic effect on Indigenous Vermonters opinion of their former brethren to the North, and perhaps their descendants now living in the Green Mountain State.”
Letter from Charles "Megeso" Lawrence Delaney to Senator Vincent Illuzzi, Chair of the Economic Developement Housing and General Affairs dated February 28, 2008, Page 1:
“There is presently is a Commission member (Timothy de la Bruere) who is a Vermonter, Native Indian, but also has family ties, land at Odanak, Quebec, Canada. In concerns only of voting, a member of the Commission has conflict of interest if decisions to be made of Vermont Indian Artisans are considered economic conflict by our northern peoples (Odanak), who are also Native crafters, artisans.
How can the Statute be worded to allow recusal by a Commission member who is a state citizen with other economic, family or political ties? Please include a safe-guard statement for this amendment.”
And from Luke Andrew Willard:
(5) Statement of Nulhegan Band
“While I do not support the notion that Jeanne Brink is acting on behalf of her Canadian Band at Odanak, it is apparent to me that VCNAA is not working with, assisting, or representing the needs and concerns of any of the aforementioned Abenaki communities. I'm not quite sure what it is that they do. Regarding the Odanak Abenakis of Vermont AKA the Obomsawin Family of Vermont, a family unit led by Richard "Skip" Bernier, of which Tim Delabruere is a member, I find it suspicious that Tim and Richard both testified against S. 117 yet Tim was appointed to the commission formed by its passing into law. Regardless of what transpires, the VCNAA must be representative of Missisquoi, Nulhegan, and Koasek.”
Nulhegan Band Speaker and Trustee
And from Roger “Longtoe” Sheehan:
(6) Letter of El-Nu Abenaki Tribe
“Denise Watso's letter clearly shows the attitude Odanak has toward Vermont Abenakis who are not members of Odanak.”
(7) Portion of E-mail by Denise Watso condemning Vermont Abenaki groups
Why is the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs seeking the power to recognize groups as Indian, when only two of its members can provide evidence (sic) of their Abenaki ancestry? How can we trust this Commission to evaluate historical evidence, when they have not been able to document their own claims? ...Who is this "Koasek" group? And why should the "St. Francis/ Sokoki group take precedence in their proposal after the Vermont Attorney General and the Bureau of Indian Affairs found that they couldn't provide evidence (sic) of Indian, let alone Abenaki? ...How do you think many of us feel seeing strangers, not knowing most if not any of them are native, portraying us in public? And the press and the public want to see the play-acting... We demand better... Should self-identified groups and individuals wish to secure recognition, they should come to us to present their case, asking for our support. They should do so in humility rather than arrogance.
Denise Watso, NY Liaison, Odanak (Quebec) Reserve, Albany, NY, Feb. 26, 2008
(8) E-mail disavowing an Odanak connection and threatening "other action"
Date: 25 Feb 2008 4:01:54 +0000
“Nancy, I would like to settle once and for all that I do not represent or have the interest of Odanak when I am serving on the Commission? I have the interest of all Native Americans in Vermont? I'm sure Odanak would get a big laugh if they heard that people think I am representing Odanak? I was born and raised in Vermont and a Vermont Abenaki? People say that white people have been biased and prejudiced against Native Americans and now I hear members of your band being biased and prejudiced against other Abenaki such as myself? How unfair!! What are they afraid of?? Are they not confident in themselves or so paranoid that they have to attack other Abenaki?? They need to take a look at themselves and ask what kind of Native American are they? I hope I don't hear this anymore or I will have to take other action.
In this SAME “Open Letter” to the then-Governor of VT, Jim Douglas, Jeanne Kent, B.F.A., M.A., Ed., Abenaki (not a chief just an Indian) wrote: “At Friday's hearing, one member (Jeanne Brink) came over to me and asked me why I was sitting with April Merrill and Nancy Millet (sic), then quietly said that if the Senate did not pass the Committee's bill, she was going to recommend no recommendation for anyone. (My husband Robert Kent was sitting between us and heard the conversation). Further, when giving testimony she stated she was not affiliated with Odanak.
See the full ‘Open Letter’ to then VT Governor Jim Douglas on the blog The Reinvented Vermont and New Hampshire Abenakis, by Douglas Lloyd Buchholz go to the link:
The Odanak Abenaki Community, and the Abenaki descendants living within Vermont and or other United States geographical areas such as Albany, New York, today were retrosepctively SHUT OUT of the ‘VT recognition process’ because Professor Wiseman continually insinuated that Abenakis from and or connected ancestraly to, Odanak, directly or indirectly (genealogically or politically speaking) were and are allegedly a THREAT to the ‘4 Organized Tribes’ a.k.a. ‘Vermont Indigenous Alliance’ and repeatedly stated to the politician’s within Vermont, that “Odanak ‘wants to do a land-grab’ and or to establish a casino in Vermont” which of course, was never substantiated whatsoever, documentarily or otherwise.
In each of these 4 “Abenaki” groups claiming to be “Abenaki Tribes” within Vermont, there has been a few people within, that yes, can document genealogically and historically back to Odanak, an known Abenaki Community (at the mouth of the St. Francis River) in the Province of Quebec, Canada.
1. The Swanton-based so called “St. Francis/Sokoki Band/Tribe of the Abenaki” (Missisquoi) based in Swanton, Vermont does indeed have some of the Essex County-based Call family on their Jan. 2011 “membership list” that descends seemingly from the Toxus/Jackson Odanak ancestry. Or Louis Pierre Annance and a handful of his relatives from Greenville, Maine, etc whom also have ancestral (historical) connection(s) to Odanak. Jeanne Anne (nee: Deforge) Brink of Barre, Washington County, Vermont who is a Simon & Celina Obomsawin descendant. Or the Frederick Robert Obomsawin & Celina Duperron descendants such as Cheryl L. Heath (from the Obomsawin/Laplante/Essaff lineage and the Arthur J. LaPlante family members from the Derby/Newport area of Orleans County, Vermont.
Clarification: In the Applications, just because a person’s name and or family is listed therein DOES NOT NECESSARILY mean that person or family is aware of it; and some families are attempting to have their names/memberships removed altogether.
2. The “El-Nu Abenaki Band/Tribe” based in Jericho, Vermont has a few M’Sadoques Descendants such as Norman (M’) Sadoques, plus a few Charles Henry Partlow descendants as well.
VCNAA Meeting: Members present: Mark Mitchell, Chairman; Tim de la Bruere, Charlene McManis, Don Stevens, Judy Dow, Jeanne Brink, Hilary Casillas.
Staff: Diane McInerney, Executive Assistance. Guest: Roger Lontoe Sheehan, Jamaica, VT, Chief of the El-Nu Abenaki, now a sub-band of the traditional Cowasuck. Roger Sheehan was concerned with the language of 51% tribal members needing to be within the regional boundaries and the reference to splinter groups. Many tribes/bands reside with the nation known as Abenaki, and all families are connected; all groups need to be recognized. Once recognized, the tribe/band defines its members, in or out of state. Charlene McManis asked about Roger’s immediate family and their relationship to the Abenaki. Roger explained that he has cousins that are Missisquoi and Odanak, but that his immediate family is El-Nu. Judy Dow asked Roger Sheehan to describe his band or sub-band. Roger Sheehan noted that as of June 2, 2007 the El-Nu has become a sub-band of the traditional Cowasuck. Jeanne Brink asked for reference to the traditional Cowasuck. Roger said the folks under Brian Chenevert, previously under Nancy Millette [now Doucet].
Guest Vera Longtoe Sheehan from Westminster in southern Vermont, El-Nu Abenaki tribe a sub-group of the traditional Cowasuck. Vera Sheehan respectfully requested that Odanak members not be able to vote on recognition because of a conflict of interest.
The Commission is not asking for genealogy records. Guest Jim Taylor from Rhode Island, living in Massachusetts, a member of the El-Nu/Cowasuck; an elder of his band, and a descendant of the Abenaki and Coala Band of the Eastern Cherokee living on Turtle Island. He addressed the fact that some Abenaki tribes fear that since Odanak have already been recognized, they might hold sway with applicant approval.
Guest Nancy Millette Doucet, Cowasuck and Dr. Raymond Lussier, Tribal Judge of the Cowasuck. Nancy Doucet shared her feelings about the 51% criteria and expressed “that it is not about a percentage of people, it is about the “blood and bones”; Dr. Lussier spoke about genealogy research that he has done and will present this documentation to the Commission when it is complete. Guest Rose Hartwell, living in Massachusetts, a crewel worker and a proud elder of the El-Nu Abenaki tribe, a sub-group of the traditional Cowasuck tribe…..
Vermont's concocted VT Indigenous Alliance THROUGH Professor Wiseman himself have taken away the voice of the Abenaki Community of Odanak and Wolinak in 2006-2012 ? Where is the evidence that Odanak sought to do anything of what this Professor Wiseman & Co. have alleged? Where is the voice of Odanak and or Wolinak within the Recognition Process created by Professor Wiseman, himself from 2006 to 2012?
Oh, that's right ... "Chief" Roger Longtoe Sheehan, Luke A. Willard, Don W. Stevens Jr., Nancy (nee: Millette) Doucet, April (nee: St. Francis) Merrill, Jim Taylor a.k.a. "Nanabe Wokwes", right along with their Senator Vincent Illuzzi sought vocally, and maliciously to SILENCE any input or objections to this farce of "recognizing" these FAKE "Abenakis" within and around Vermont!
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