More thoughts on the "Koasek Traditional Band Of The Sovereign Abenaki Nation" group led by Nathan Elwin Pero and Paul Joseph Bunnell Etc....

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.

Nathan Elwin Pero and his late father Elwin Merle "Joe" Pero etc, and the attempt to create a 5th Vermont "Abenaki" "Koasek" "Tribe" in 2014-2015

Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 12:54 PM
From: BunnellLoyalist@aol.com
To: douglaslloydbuchholz@yahoo.com
CC: franbluewolfspirit@gmail.com [Francine Poitras - Jones]

BCC: houseofmica@yahoo.com [Karen nee: Bourdreau aka. Karen Mica]

From: Paul Joseph Bunnell

"Keep in mind that we never did and do not have any desire to get into any of this Vermont Indian crap. We thought recognition would be nice and Nathan thought it would be good for his family. We offered our genealogies to this process, but they fought that suggestion, just relationships. I knew why they took this position because you and I know all the holes many of them have in their genealogies, and though there are Abenaki Metis living in Vermont, there is no Vermont Abenaki ancient ancestors that have been recorded there yet. All the Abenaki I have found, including my several eventually all come from Quebec, Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia."

So, let's take a look at Nathan Elwin Pero and his late father Elwin Merle "Joe" Pero's Native Ancestral Connection:

1. Chief Atsena Du Plat 8endat Attign8stan and Annengthon HURON

2. “Catherine” 8enta Plat (Pillard) HURON

3. Marie Catherine (nee: Charon) Chagnon dit Larose

4. François Louis Chagnon

5. Christophe Chagnon

5. Jean Chagnon dit Larose

6. John Baptiste Chagnon dit Shonyo

7. Clarrisa Cook (nee: Shonyo) Pero

8. Henry Cook Pero

9. Elwin Merle “Joe” Pero

10. Nathan Elwin Pero

1. Chief Atsena Du Plat 8endat Attign8stan and Annengthon HURON

2. “Catherine” 8enta Plat (Pillard) HURON [great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother]

3. Pierre Charron [great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather]

4. Charles Charron Sr. [great-great-great-great-great-grandfather]

5. Charles Charron Jr. [great-great-great-great-grandfather]

6. Marie Françoise (nee: Charron) Chagnon dit Larose [great - great-great-grandmother]

7. John Baptiste Chagnon dit Shonyo [great-great-grandfather]

8. Clarrisa Cook (nee: Shonyo) Pero [great-grandfather]

9. Henry Cook Pero [grandfather]

10. Elwin Merle “Joe” Pero [father]

11. Nathan Elwin Pero

Now, obviously I KNOW how Nathan Elwin Pero descends from this Huron woman. How many generations down? 10 and 11 generations.

So a 7th great-grandmother, makes the 7th great grandson a Huron Indian or a Metis person? Or a Koasek Abenaki, from and of Vermont?

Ok, so WHAT COMMUNITY does that lineage come from and has retained up to and after 1974 within Vermont? Claiming as Nate does that his father, and his father, and his father, and his father were Chiefs.... of a Cowasuck Tribe or Band within Vermont?

Of what discernible COMMUNITY of native peoples? How did those alleged "Chief's" conduct their "chief-ly" status and position?

You see, without a discernible/externally observable community foundation that FUNCTIONS through time, I conclude that Nathan Pero is merely a DESCENDANT and not Huron nor Abenaki/Cowasuck.

Why? Because his ancestors CHOSE to live in an ENGLISH COMMUNITY, and or his ancestors CHOSE to live in a FRENCH COMMUNITY and identified as ENGLISH and or FRENCH from two generations down from Catherine Pillard to Nathan's grandfather, up to 1974, that's why.

It is absurdity to imply that Nathan Pero or his father were Chiefs of a Cowasuck Tribe of and from Vermont or New Hampshire prior to 1980.

And to use the term Metis, as if it were a catch-all everyone's-an-NDN simply because of a 1-drop-rule ideation, or construct, is again absolutely distorting the history of the Metis' and appropriation of their culture and histories as Metis Communities.

While I know you don't adhere to or think as what I have described here Paul respectfully said, it is the truth. Your group is no more Abenakis, than any of the others that already have recognition within the State of Vermont right now.

This group (through a trickle-down dynamic) has incorporated under Vermont State Law, through the Secretary of State's Office, through the machinations of Howard Franklin Knight, Jr. etc. since the early 1980's, beginning with "Richard Blackhorse" Phillips and several others like Emerson Bidwell Garfield, and Wayne Hoague.

I have retrospectively mentioned within this blog these machinations and scheming tactics to "create" out of thin-air "Abenaki" "Tribes".....

Accordingly:

Chief Paul J. Bunnell, UE, Author, Professional Genealogist

Gwilawato (He looks For Something)

Chief, Koasek Abenaki Nation & Tribal Genealogist

http://bunnellgenealogybooks.citymaker.com

Koasek Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation

For Koasek Business contact: Koasek@yahoo.com

Here's the "Chief" of the 5th groups seeking Vermont State Recognition, claiming to be KOASEK, COWASUCK, KOASUK etc ...

An Abenaki Tribe from and of Vermont.... through the Vermont Commission of Native American Affairs (VCNAA)? ...

Here's what "Chief" Paul Bunnell stated:

"I agree that many native lines exist in most NH & VT members. I have always said that there are no pure Vermont or New Hampshire Abenakis. In fact, every Native American in New England and the Maritime's are really Metis. Many if not most Vermont Natives have Huron blood. It's just the way the migrations went from Montreal/Quebec."

"The Abenaki blood that does run in our veins, comes from outside Vermont beyond c. 1700's."

"The native Vermont and New Hampshire communities [the now VT State Recognized "Tribes" ... the "Missisquoi-Sokoki" of Franklin County, the Nulhegan-Coos Band of Orleans County, VT, the El-Nu of Jamaica, VT, and the "Koasek of the Koas" of the Newbury, VT area] .... have old roots, which is fine to claim the areas they are from, but they are ALL METIS. I feel the native culture is good to revive and claim ... as long as it lays in the area of our Algonquin common heritage. "

So, in conclusion the 5th group, of which was retrospectively a part and parcel of the late Nancy Lee (nee: Millette) Cruger-Lyons-Doucet and Brian Chenevert and of course, Howard Franklin Knight, Jr. concoction in mid-2006 recreation, having a tangled web of incorporate connections all the way back to 1980... are merely METIS?

Again, mis-appropriaton of the Metis history and culture, to allow themselves to also appropriate the Abenaki identity and status..... to my thinking. 

Over 180 years of Tribal Chiefs.

1. Nolka (Deer) Clan – Chief John (Jean) Shinnio 1832 to 1865

2. Cowasuck of the Coos – Chief Clarissa Shinnio 1865 to 1915

3. Cowasuck of the Coos- Chief George Harry Pero 1915 to 1947

4. Cowasuck of the Coos- Chief Elwin (Joe) Pero Chief 1947 to 1981

5. Nolka Clan Chief Nathan Pero 1981 to 2010

6. Chief Howard Knight Jr. 1981 to 2006 Koasek (Cowasuck) Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation (and under previous names) Retired

7. Chief Brian Chenevert 2006 to 2010 Koasek (Cowasuck) Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation

8. Co-Chief Nancy Millette Lyons 2006 to 2007 Koasek (Cowasuck) Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation

9 Sub-Chief Leo Descoteaux .2007 to 2009 (passed over) Koasek (Cowasuck) Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation

10. Sub-Chief Paul Bunnell 2009 to 2010 Koasek (Cowasuck Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation

11 Chief Nathan Pero of Koasek (Cowasuck) Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation 2010 to Present

12. Co-Chief Paul Bunnell Koasek (Cowasuck) Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation 2010 to Present.

Really? Let's see the EVIDENCE clear and convincingly, from either this group calling itself the "Koasek Traditional Band Of The Sovereign Abenaki Nation" .... or from the State of Vermont itself ... instead of IMPLYING kinship and relation and or contemporary members of this group, who do have Abenaki ancestry, having joined the group in contemporary time, like the Boles family members.

And btw, if as I suspect, the late Nancy Lee (nee: Millette) Cruger-Lyons-Doucet does have an ancestor Christopher Shawney b. abt. the late 1700's who married Orinda/ Olinda Marden or Marsten ... she and her cousins would have a distant HURON Ancestor; NOT ABENAKI. NOT SHAWNEE either.

Could Shawney be a distortion of Shonyo or Shinnio? 

Shonyo was a dit name for Chagnon. 

So perhaps when the late Nancy Lee (nee: Millette) came back to Vermont from a NY Mohawk Community, and subsequently created her "Tribe" and then, in an attempt to be Chief-For-Life like the late Homer Walter St. Francis Sr. turned himself into, years before up in Swanton, VT ... and didn't get her way and managed to 'create' the now-State-Recognized group calling itself the
Koasek of the Koas" Abenaki "Tribe" ... and got National Genographic to do her alleged DNA testing ... 

Could she also be a descendant of a HURON woman, Catherine 8enta Plat (Pillard) who married Nicholas Pierre Charron dit Ducharme in 1665? I bet the odds are she was!

But what difference would it have made, really, if she was a descendant?

Nathan Elwin Pero is a 7th Great Grandson of this Huron woman, Catherine 8enta Plat (Pillard).

Ever heard of "RECOMBINATION" in DNA Genetic Genealogical Research?

Each generation gets generally a variable of near or a little more than 50% from each parent, and generally some from each parents Grandparent etc. etc.

This means that by the time, that 'recombination' dynamic hits dear old Nathan Elwin Pero, the percentile of HURON ancestral DNA is pretty much nearly 'gone' and undetectable by today's DNA technological testing processes (autosomal DNA).

Then again, these group's advocate the appropriation and acceptance of their claims and assertions, that they are Vermont's ABENAKIS and or COWASUCK/KOASEK ABENAKIS, with historical merit, continuance, and coherency.

Nathan Elwin Pero nor his father, were not part of a HURON COMMUNITY, so even if they have a HURON Ancestor 7 generations back in their genealogy, it does not make them HURON INDIANS.

It does in fact, show that they have Huron Ancestors.

NOT ABENAKIS, NOT ABENAKI ANCESTRY. 

1. Chief Atsena Du Plat 8endat Attign8stan and Annengthon HURON

2. “Catherine” 8enta Plat (Pillard) HURON

3. François Charron dit Ducharme

4. Marie Charlotte Charon dit Ducharme

5. Jean Baptiste Frechet

6. Marie Louise Branconnier

7. Sara LaDurantaye

8. Wilfred David (or Foster) Robert

9. Lillian Dorothy Roberts

10. Donna Louise (nee: Carvalho) “Roberts” 1. Charlebois  2m. Moody

11. Chrestien Michel Charlebois

12. Ozalie Charlebois

1. Chief Atsena Du Plat 8endat Attign8stan and Annengthon HURON

2. “Catherine” 8enta Plat (Pillard) HURON

3. Marie Catherine Charon

4. Marie Angelique Chagnon

5. Paul Benoit dit Livernois

6. Joseph Simeon Benoit dit Livernois

7. Peter Mitchell Benoit dit Livernois

8. Joseph Benoit dit Livernois

9. Proper Benoit dit Livernois

10. Elaine Clara Benoit dit Livernois

11. Brian Andrew Chênevert

1. Chief Atsena Du Plat 8endat Attign8stan and Annengthon HURON

2. “Catherine” 8enta Plat (Pillard) HURON

3. Marie Catherine Charon

4. Marie Angelique Chagnon

5. Genvieve Benoit dit Livernois

6. Françoise Amable Tétreault dit Ducharme

7. Louis Beaudry

8. Marie Charlotte Beaudry

9. Adélaide Adèle Fornier dit Prefontaine

10. Austin Lambert dit Lumbra

11. Austin Lumbra

12. Lillian May Lumbra

13. Cedric Henry Brooks

14. Brian Basil Brooks

15. Lisa Tonyo (nee: Brooks) Pouliot

Eloise Beil is a Lumbra descendant as well, from the same ancestry as Lisa Tonyo (nee: Brooks) Pouliot.

1. Chief Atsena Du Plat 8endat Attign8stan and Annengthon HURON

2. “Catherine” 8enta Plat (Pillard) HURON

3. Marie Catherine Charron dit Ducharme

4. Pierre Chagnon dit Larose

5. Joseph Chagnon dit Larose

6. Gabrielle (nee: Chagnon dit Beloeil) Lalime

7. Christopher Lalime

8. Jean Beoni Lalime

9. Jean Baptiste Eugene Lalime

10. Marie Joseph Arthur Lalime

11. Joseph Granville Leger Lelime

12. Jeanne Antoinette (nee: Lalime) 1m. Lincoln  2m. Kent

1. Joachim Ouentouen Arontio & Cecile Arendaeronnon Arenhatsi HURON

2. Marie Felix Arontio Aneneontha Ouentouen HURON

3. Jean Baptiste Dubuc I

4. Jean Baptiste Dubuc II

5. Jean Baptiste Dubuc III

6. Marie Rosalie Dubuc

7. Charles Poitras

8. Prosper Poitras

9. Joseph George Ozias Poitras

10. Eucilide Poitras

11. François Eucilide Poitras

12. Francine “Dancing Bluewolf” (nee: Poitras) Jones

Again, NOT ABENAKIS ... from and of Vermont!!

What Abenaki Community do these people live in? What Abenaki Community did their ANCESTORS live in?

The CONTEMPORARY DESCENDANT(S) chose post-1974 to dig around in their genealogical garbage can's looking for any scrap of Indian Ancestry they could find, subsequently INCORPORATED UNDER VERMONT or NH etc STATE LAWS, created GROUPS they now CLAIM TO BE "TRIBES"

And appropriated an "Abenaki" Identity that does not belong to them, with the help of course, from naive Politicians and Anthropologists etc. and a BLIND PUBLIC in and surrounding Vermont's machinations to this agenda to re-create alleged "Abenaki" Tribes" ...

When in reality and FACT, these groups are merely METIS groups claiming to be "Abenaki Tribes" ....

Just like "Chief" Paul Bunnell has asserted.

But that doesn't stop him from claiming their group is the "Koasek Abenaki Nation" or the "Koasek Traditional Band Of The Sovereign Abenaki Nation" ... now does it? 

Again, this whole State Recognition Process, was created out of Ego - Power - and CONTROL, and GREED by the State of Vermont and the groups who today claim to be "Abenakis" and "Abenaki Tribes" as well as about "status" and "identity"...

Why are Eloise Beil and John Scott Moody going to be reviewing this 5th group's Application(s) for VT State Recognition? Isn't that an absolutely conflict of interest?

Each of which has had and does continue to have a "Working Relationship" with these so-called "Abenaki" groups claiming to be "tribes" ... and has and continues to have a vested financial interest as a well as a personal interest, that these groups of alleged "Abenakis" gain Vermont State Recognition, to my thinking.

This whole dynamic is that these people are claiming an Abenaki Identity that does not belong to most of these group's members! 

Stay tuned, I am not done yet ...