Too many people believe common myths when it comes to Abenaki genealogy. They often use these myths to explain why they believe they are Abenaki but cannot prove it. We heard these myths used repeatedly when VT Senator’s Vincent Illuzzii & Hinda Miller and their supporters were trying to give the concocted VT Indigenous Alliance's 4 groups, with their Johnson State College Professor Frederick Matthew Wiseman, literally a pass on their lies about having Abenaki Historical Community and Genealogical Connection to the Abenakis. We still hear these excuses today.
Here are some of the most common myths being perpetuated by these VT/NH "Abenaki" and their supporters (and others).
1 – There are no records.
There are plenty of records to prove one has Abenaki ancestry, if they truly do. Nancy Lecompte, Christopher Roy, Denis Watso, Richard Skip Bernier, and even I have found MANY RECORDS on varied families having historical and contemporaneous CONNECTIONS to the Abenaki.
2 – It is hard to prove Abenaki ancestry.
If one is Abenaki, then they will find many or at least some records to show it, as explained in my posts herein this blog.
I have even DISPROVEN many of my own families MYTHS concerning particular photographs and "oral history," with FACTUAL historical documentation.
3 – If your family isn’t on the Odanak or Wolinak Abenaki Communities, then you can’t prove you have Abenaki ancestry.
One does not have to have an ancestor listed as being from Odanak or Wolinak to show they are an Abenaki descendant. Time and time again, we see Abenakis living elsewhere, such as Sartigan, Quebec -Sudbury Ontario, in Canada Etc; in Troy, New York, and even in varied places within Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut..... Even New Jersey, Florida and California! Abenakis live everywhere. But their ancestral CONNECTIONS ought to connect at some point to having lived within a historically identified cohesive continuous Abenaki COMMUNITY. And within the previous 100 years those ancestors ought to have been identifying as Abenakis or Indians, associating with other Abenakis/Indians.
4 – Indians could only be listed as white or black on the census.
Since 1860, people could be and were listed as Indians on the US Census, as explained on the blog Polly's Granddaughter - Indians on the US Census.
5 – Everyone from Vermont/New Hampshire probably has Indian/Abenaki/Pennacook ancestry.
Yes, we hear this a lot from “scholar” John Scott Moody, David Stewart Smith, and Professor Wiseman, that Abenakis are “hiding in plain sight” ready to pop out of the woodwork. Just raise your hands and claim to be Abenakis; it cool to be Indian now. Even if the evidence that one is Abenaki, doesn’t honestly exist and never did.
The decades before VT/NY and or NH statehood, the non-Indian population exploded in Vermont/New Hampshire/Lower Canada territories. If a family was in these areas before statehood, such as Clarenceville, Quebec, Canada, they were more than likely white, because very likely, that's what they were. NOT Indian or Abenakis.
As you can see, they are simply myths, just like Nancy Millette - Doucet's "Koasek Abenaki ancestry". And as you all can see, though the "truthers" continue to try to validate their claims; though their campaigns had plenty of money to hire a professional genealogist on the VCNAA; and though many people (both hobbyist and professional genealogists) were doing their genealogies, not one...NOT ONE SINGLE person has proved me or the little research team (Paul Bunnell, Suzette LeClair nor myself) wrong about many of these newly VT Legislatively Stamped “Abenakis”.
To name just a few here ... Louise Lampman - Larivee, Judy Fortin - Dow, April St. Francis - Rushlow - Merrill, Paul Wilson Pouliot, Nancy Millette-Doucet, Rhonda Lou Besaw-True nor her husband Charles True Jr., Doris Gertrude Chenney-DeCarr-Minkler, Donna Carvalho-Charlebois-Moody and Margaret Bruchac - Kennick (and so many others not listed here) ARE NOT ABENAKIS, so much as they have, none of them, can SHOW or PROVIDE their genealogical connections to the Abenakis historically, socially or genealogically. They can believe what they want to, and the naïve politicians and agencies and grant writers can label these people “Abenaki” but honestly, what does their genealogical records and histories really prove?
Can we expect any differently from the "Koasek Abenaki Nation" or the "Koasek Traditional Band Of The Sovereign Abenaki Nation" group led by Nathan Elwin Pero and Paul Joseph Bunnell?
400 Pages of this 5th Group's membership's genealogies were submitted by Paul Joseph Bunnell in their Application for VT State Recognition.
Does the PUBLIC get to see the genealogical connection(s) to the alleged Abenakis? "Abenakis" closer than 5-6-7-8-9-10-11 or 12 generations out from the member whose in this group?
Those are my thoughts for today.
Thanks for reading.
