Review of genealogies, other records fails to support local leaders’ claims of Abenaki ancestry
Is Joseph Bruchac truly Abenaki?
Vaudry Beaudry Voudry Bowman and Bruchac Families
In addition to this detection within AncestryDNA etc, of triangulating the descendants of Louis Bowman (1844-1918) and that of the Vaudry/Beaudry/Voudry/Veaudry descendants from Charles Vaudry/Beaudry (1820-1896), Douglas Buchholz transparently sought ‘another-set-of-eyeballs’ i.e., more academically-genealogically and genetically inclined expert, via email communications with Jacques Beaugrand, PhD., of Dunham, Brome-Missisquoi, Qc., on May 04, 2023.
In conclusion of Beaugrand’s own evaluation based on the genetic and genealogical data (presented to him by Buchholz), Jacques sent email on June 18, 2023 to Douglas Lloyd Buchholz, the following:
According to the sharing of segments and the Thrulines generated by AncestryDNA, Simon VAUDRY is the most recent common ancestor of the contemporaries who were tested by this company.
The "Simon VAUDRY" effect passes obligatorily in people tested through Simon's children. Namely, (1) Brianna Rae SCHMELZER (through her mother Donna Lee WASHBURN) her VOUDRY DNA via Léandre VAUDRY (1810-1875), a son of Simon's first marriage to Catherine BOYER. (2) Michael LAUZON and Jean Pierre BEAUDRY received theirs via Charles VAUDRY, Simon's son from his second marriage Catherine CHAGNON.
Based on the total of autosomal DNA segments shared between Brianna Rae SCHMELZER (through her mother Donna Lee WASHBURN) or Michael LAUZON or Jean Pierre BEAUDRY and the BOWMANs, it appears that the BOWMANs are also descendants of Charles VAUDRY. In other words, the presence of autosomal DNA from Simon VAUDRY in the Louis BOWMAN (1844-1918) lineage can only be explained by the fact that Louis BOWMAN's father was one of Simon VAUDRY's sons. The fact that the autosomal DNA of Michael LAUZON, Jean Pierre BEAUDRY and the BOWMANs all converge onto son Louis Pierre “Charles” VAUDRY (1820-1896) strongly supports that Charles VAUDRY was also the genetic-contributing father of Louis BOWMAN (1844-1918).
The equation must take into account the fact that the BOWMAN men have the Y chromosome (yDNA) of the VAUDRY men who descend from Jacques VAUDRY (1636-1688) m. 1661 Jeanne RENAUD (1642-1714), which line includes descendants of Simon VAUDRY. This signature has been triangulated at https://bit.ly/46c7Uwr
Please note that the yDNA signature of the BOWMAN descendants of Louis BOWMAN (whose mother was Marie Élisabeth (Sophié) SÉNÉCAL dite LAFRAMBOISE and whose father was Charles VAUDRY) differs from those of the English-speaking BOWMANs of Great Britain and the British colonies https://bit.ly/43LiMjg. It differs as well from that of some French-Canadian BEAUDRYs (the yDNA signature of Toussaint BEAUDRY m 1670 Barbe BARBIER, can be found at https://bit.ly/3JdxY0A).
The yDNA signature of this VAUDRY/BOWMAN line of men has a clear European origins, and absolutely no pre-Columbian Amerindian ones.
In conclusion, the documentary information compiled by Douglas Lloyd Buchholz, as well as the results of the multiple DNA tests carried out by relatives of the VAUDRYs and the BOWMANs, clearly demonstrate that one of Simon VAUDRY's sons -- most likely Charles -- was the biological father of Louis/Lewis BOWMAN (1844-1918), from whom descend the BOWMANs tested in the present study.
Jacques P. BEAUGRAND, Ph.D.,
retired professor and researcher at UQAM,
Founder of the French Heritage DNA project and DNA consultant
CP 204, Dunham, Québec, Canada J0E1M0
E-mail: Beaugrand.jacques@uqam.ca
Throughout the Vaudry/Beaudry/Voudry and Bowman DNA Study, transparency and evaluation was necessary. Nothing is infallible or 'set-in-stone' or 'absolutes', yet the genetic results do not lie.
Only beliefs & perceptions distort the results to fit-one’s-agenda(s), politically, or otherwise.
GENETIC DNA Matches (JPEGS) of Bowman Vaudry Beaudry and Senecal
Of course, the Bruchac's are not actually Abénakis. Genetic DNA results and Genealogy PROVE OBJECTIVELY that they are not. Indeed the Bruchac's obtained "Abenaki" membership cards from Homer beginning in 1978, and thereafter, claiming to be Missisquoi (St. Francis-Sokoki) "Abenaki" members of the group led by Homer St. Francis Sr. and later, stating they were Nulhegan membership card-holders of that group which was merely formed in 2004, first led by Luke Andrew Willard, and later, Don Stevens Jr., obviously for the benefits and "legitimacy"...
As pathological "Abenaki" Pretendians, the Bruchac's in essence, pulled their loving grandfather Jesse Bowman out of his grave, and stuck a feather in his grandfather's scalp. It didn't matter what the REALITY and TRUTH of his grandfather Jesse, and great-grandfather Louis's histories were. Because Bruchac changed his grandfather's ethnicity, posthumously, and used his grandpa's life experiences and rebranded Jesse Bowman into an "Abenaki". ... making a career out of the lies he spewed about his Grandpa.
"Well, I'm a person of mixed ancestry. I was raised by my grandparents, who were actually on the English and American Indian side.
My grandfather, Jesse, was Abenaki Indian but was one of those people who in his generation did not talk about being Native American.
Question: Why was Louis and his son, Jesse Bowman (and siblings) all "hiding" their alleged Abénaki ancestry, heritage etc in lil' old Porters Corner all of his life, from the time they were born til the time they up and died in 1970, and yet THOUSANDS of Mohawks and A LOT of Abénakis derived from Odanak First Nation, living in New York, were not hiding anything about themselves being Mohawks and or Abénakis? Was Jesse Bowman really ever in Vermont? We know that Warren and Flossie Bowman went to Rutland County, Vermont in their lifetimes, and we know that their father Louis went into Vermont as well for a time, before he went to Troy, NY and eventually stayed in Porters Corners, Saratoga County, New York ca. 1870s. Yet, Louis came out of Granby, Quebec. All of his children were born in Saratoga County, New York. So what pray tell, would have caused Jesse Bowman to deny his alleged Abénaki father Louis Bowman = O'Bomsawin narrative? Because it was a lie created by Joseph Bruchac?! The narrative of Jesse Bowman having to hide being Native American, while Mohawk's and Abénakis in the state could not, seems on the merits, to yet another fallacy of Bruchac's. And why is that the Bowman's are not historically known, and I mean Louis nor his descendants, documented on any First Nations records. Many have bought into the myth that the reservations in the USA, and First Nations reserves in Canada did not keep written records but how they forget that Native People's had missions that did! Since 1675!
About as far as he would go would be to talk about things like the fact that he left school in fourth grade because they kept calling him a dirty Indian and so he jumped out the window and, as he put it, never come back again.
Yes, going straight for the stereotypes. Joe picked this up and applied it to his grandfather, to make his grandfather BECOME an Indian, I surmise, AFTER Jesse Bowman had died.
His wife, my grandmother, was a highly literate woman, a graduate of what later became Skidmore College and had a house full of books.
And her ancestry, she proudly traced it back to the Mayflower, although there's some interesting things about that ancestry too, which are uncertain, but really somewhat colored as you might say.
On my dad's side of the family it's Slovak from a little place called – or not so little community called Trnava in Slovakia, not far from Bratislava.
And as a child I was aware of these ancestries, but wasn't really given a lot of information about them.
[How could Joe Bruchac III be aware of the Bowman ancestry of his grandfather Jesse' paternal father's ancestors, when in fact, Jesse Bowman's father was illegitimate at birth according to the June 11, 1845 Baptismal Record recorded in the parish of Notre Dame de Granby, Quebec, Canada?]
I was kind of in a state of ethnic denial because the Slovak side wanted you to be good Americans, and the Native American side wanted you to fit in with everybody else and not draw attention.
And then the English side, which is sort of there and not really paying much attention to history.
It was a period when I was born in 1942, during the war and after the war, of sort of American triumphalism and people wanting to think of the melting pot as really being a positive thing."
For having a loving grandfather, who raised his grandson "Sonny" ... Jesse Bowman sure did not end up not having a loving grandson IMHO. I mean, who would do this to their grandfather and ancestors? Jesse Bowman NEVER claimed to be an Abenaki, nor did that grandfather have any Abenaki culture, language or stories of the Abénakis. Oh that's right, they were all hiding-in-plain-sight according to Marge. Yet, Louis Bowman (1844-1918) NEVER was born or even in Odanak First Nation.
Jack Lynch (Joseph and Marge Bruchac's brother-in-law) even on March 07, 2002 stated, "There presently is a family group from this line that is circulating unfounded genealogical information for their personal economic benefit, so be careful."
No objective evidence (genealogically or genetically) was ever needed according to her or Joe in their subjective "Abenaki" claims for decades; just SAYING they were descendants of the Abénakis sufficed.
I asked myself WHY (when I ran into this nosorigins.qc.ca entry in the summer of 2009) would Marge (Bruchac) do this after Vermont's waterfront 'Quad' Celebration (that she had attended with her brother and nephews) to her grandfather's father Louis?
The Bruchac's 'shit' on their families and ancestors for what, their respective careers predicated on a lie, that Louis Bowman (1844-1918) was an O'Bomsawin from "St Francis" (Odanak). What a gift / legacy to give to their Bruchac descendants. Such a shame.
Joe and Marge should put their heads together and write a book entitled "The LIES We Told About Our Grandfather Jesse" and also making Marie Elisabeth 'Sophie' Senecal dite Laframboise, a 100% French-Canadian mother of Louis (1844-1918) Bowman, into a Abénaki woman allegedly going to Washington, D.C. to claim her son Louis' Pension from the Civil War ... SMH.
Why do I say the above? Because I have spent from 2003 and in particular focus, since 2015, seeking to secure the parentage of Louis Bowman, father of Jesse E. Bowman.
Initially in good faith I had solicited the Bruchac's to work with me in this Bowman DNA Study, but they rebuffed my endeavor, after I'd given the Wampanoag's the public chronologically formatted newspaper timeline regarding Bruchac's articles that I had compiled. Bruchac told his son Jesse, that they couldn't trust me. I was looking for a Bowman anyway, not a Bruchac to do a Y-DNA test.
In January 2016, I'd sought out a male Bowman descendant descended from Louis Bowman (1844-1918) and found Brady Sherlock on AncestryDNA, followed by Mark D. Sherlock his father, and wonderfully was informed by Mark through his son, of their neighbor, Robert Howard Bowman of Queensbury, NY.
So, in conclusion, no, Joseph Edward Bruchac III, is not partly or in full, an Abénaki Indian, nor was his mother, her father Jesse E. Bowman, and neither was Louis (1844-1918) Bowman, let alone, Joe's sister, retired PhD Margaret "Marge" Bruchac either.
CORRECTION: Marge retired from Penn (University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia), an Ivy League University.
The Van Antwerp lineage of which Jesse E. Bowman descended maternally, has one single Ots-Toch, "the Mohawk Indian Princess" (much like Pocahontas) in the 1600s and seemingly a lineage that descends from a Montauk Indian ancestress as well, also in the 1600s. Consistently, the Van Antwerp's were identifying themselves as White European descendants, and they were not intermarrying back into Native Community, though the daughters of Ots-Toch were Mohawk interpreters. The descendants married into White families, not Indian families. The Dunham's were consistently White identifying, derived from White families as well, and were seemingly a 'well-to-do' progeny of which Jesse E. Bowman (1886-1970) married into, (after having married Katherine (Gray) Bowman in Dec. 1911 and having (seemingly) four children with him).
Resulting in a divorce in a Special Session of the Court in November 1917, it was Katherine (Gray) 1m. Ritchie 2m. Bowman, who seems to have subsequently married a third time to Jesse's brother John Jack Bowman (1893-1973), taking her 4 children by Jesse, to be raised by his brother Jack Bowman! Whereupon Jesse Bowman remarried, into the Marion Edna Dunham family in 1917, eventually raising "Sonny" (Joseph Edward Bruchac III), son of his daughter, Marion Flora (Bowman) Bruchac (1921-1999).
END OF STORY.
I did the research, and no, it was not 'cyber-stalking' or 'bad-jacketing' as Marge Bruchac assumes. I haven't communicated with the Bruchac's (any of them) since December 2015).
It was just good old sleuthing research by someone without any credentials or PhD attached to their name, and nor was I seeking 'authority' or permission from the Bruchac's or anyone else, to do this research. Bruchac's didn't help me because they have always had something to hide (their lies and manipulations) ... while in contrast ... the Bowman's, Vaudry's and LaBeff's helped because they had something to share, and sought out the reality and truth of their ancestors.
What did Bruchac or his sister ever really know about their mother Marion's father Jesse's father Louis's ancestry (?), except what they cobbled together subjectively over the years, to their own benefit$ and profit$, that suited their own faulty beliefs and perceptions, as they respectively sought to mold themselves into Abénakis, their ancestors never were. Bruchac's certainly didn't go beyond Louis, their great-grandfather, because he was baptized illegitimate June 11, 1845 per the Notre Dame de Granby Parish records.
The research is never done, as there are a few more steps to take genetically-testing speaking, but soon it will be completed, regarding the Bowman's and the Vaudry's, from Charles, Louis's genetic-contributing father.
Bruchac's perpetuated 'Stolen Valor' tactics on Odanak First Nation, to a naive public, to benefit themselves, for anyone who would listen to their storytelling about the grandfather and great-grandfather they descend from.
With Stolen Valor, there are criminal and societal consequences; in contrast, there ought to be consequences for what he and his sister have done against Odanak First Nation, and to other Tribal Communities.
As for accusing Odanak First Nation of 'gatekeeping' Abénaki identity. They have the right, title, and interest; not to mention ancestral connections to what is now known as "Vermont" and "New Hampshire" to do so.
Whose been gatekeeping Children's literary works all these years, with hundreds of Native books in every classroom? With the "I'm an Abenaki too" blurb therein.
Answer: Joseph Edward Bruchac, III.
Whose been gatekeeping the Wampum Belts? And invited a non-Status Pretendian group of Vermont into Sotheby's Auction House, when such group (Elnu) had NO LEGAL STANDING whatsoever to be there or involved in such matters? Thus giving the Elnu group of Pretendians "legitimacy" ... Did anyone consult with Akwesasne? Did she consult with Darren Bonaparte? (Doesn't seem neither were consulted whatsoever, and I have to ask why not?)
Answer: Margaret "Marge" (Bruchac).
Whose been gatekeeping the Abénaki Language at Middlebury College, at $3,000.00 a semester? Thus giving fellow pretendians in Vermont "legitimacy".
Answer: Jesse Bruchac.
My thoughts are that any book or publication or presentation (audio or video) that implies that Joseph E. Bruchac III (and or his son's and grandchildren & Marge Bruchac) nor that Jesse Bowman or his father Louis were Abénakis" be removed from every educational institution/ agency, for the perpetuated lies that such are, IMHO. Joe Bruchac and his sister etc have sought to make themselves into Abénakis, any which way they could. The St. Francis-Sokoki Cards and now the Nulhegan Cards gave them alleged "legitimacy" that they then used and touted to a naive public audience. My question has always been WHO was Louis Bowman (1844-1918), his parentage and their ancestors, truthfully, objectively, including possible siblings, half-siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews?
Who knew actually who "Sophie" really was, or that her son Louis had two half sisters?!
I sincerely thank Bob Bowman and E. J. Bowman Sr and Jr., Mark Sherlock, Carol and Walter Jones, Bruce Geroux, and so many others for helping me. I also thank the Bruchac's themselves, for without their 'resistance' in their snark, their arrogance and denials, and storytelling about their familial roots, I would never have noticed Jack Lynch's post in Genforum or the nosorigins.qc.ca stunt by Marge, etc.
Marge insinuated that I am a cyber-stalker, and that I have lied about their Bowman ancestor Louis, but she has NOTHING to substantiate her claims.
JUNE 19, 2018
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If the Bowman's had not provided their swabs or spit for the DNA testing, then this particular post would not be viable in SHOWING the DNA results.
Even to Marge Bruchac herself! As she did in fact, test in FTDNA and AncestryDNA, matching to Robert Bowman, BEFORE January 2016.
IF I didn't have the Bowman DNA that Bruchac's are descended from and related to, how was it that I screen-captured Marge Bruchac genetically atDNA matching to Bowman Bowman in FTDNA and AncestryDNA when Bob had tested in both genetic-testing companies in January 2016?
My research has been very open (transparent) with both the Bowman's and the Bruchac's throughout.
Yet, Marge Bruchac whined and decried my research on social media January 17, 2021 on January 24, 2021.
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Gilles O'Bomsawin began seriously detecting the Vermont "Abenaki" fallacies.
So if Joe & Marge (and their descendants) are not descendants of the Abénaki, how can they legitimately be Nulhegan Abenaki members?! Because the "tribe" is a bunch of WHITE People? I conclude as much.
Nulhegan A-3 members? What is A-3?
Answer: Nulhegan's membership (so I have been told by a Vermont Nulhegan member) are merely A-3, meaning that within the group Bruchac's have no voting rights, and that (quote) Don Stevens gave the Bruchac's just something to give them a home while they complete their research". Yet, Bruchac claims he's on the Nulhegan Elder's Council. (Well, he is 80 years old ...). Don Stevens (Nulhegan ... formerly of Homer's group) and the Bruchac's joined hands, in "legitimizing each other" ... go figure ...
Jesse Bruchac, Joe's son speaks Abenaki. That MUST make Jesse a Nulhegan Abenaki? Or does that simply give him "legitimacy" in his BECOMING an "Abenaki" to further the Bruchac agendas?
If I buy Rosetta Stone learning to speak German, does that make me a German? If I decided to wear Lederhosen when I go shopping does that make me a German? If I have the surname Buchholz, does that make me German? Perhaps naive people would conclude YES! But I am actually descended from a Seattle-based SMITH family that descended from Sweden that came over to this country in the 1630s paternally. Or better yet, I can pretend I am a Scots because of course, my birth certificate indicates my father was born in Bellshill, Scotland adjacent to Motherwell, below Glasgow eh?! But how I digress...
Oh that's right, the 4 groups in Vermont implying their groups are "tribes" based on the State of Vermont politic legislature, imply that CULTURE trumps actually CONNECTION ANCESTRALLY to the Historical Abenakis.
Why did the Bruchac's and others leave or get ousted from the Swanton-based Missisquoi St- Francis-Sokoki group led by Homer and his daughter April prior to 2009-2010? Perhaps the Bruchac's (et al) weren't getting enough benefits or "legitimacy" what with April (St. Francis) Merrill and subsequently Louise (Lampman) Larrivée and Candy (nee: Lapan) Thomas stealing $$$$$$. Too many thieves in one "tribe" for the comfort of the Bruchac's eh?
Did the Bruchac's too get a 'letter of deficiency' (for not having objectively proven descent from the Abenakis) from Carol (born GROMATSKI) Nepton? Or was it because they also received membership cards, due to Homer St. Francis Sr. or Mike Delaney favoring them in a dynamic of "you-pat-my-back, and Homer patted theirs", thus mutually "legitimizing" each other through the years? So the Bruchac's jumped from the one group to another, where they could get more favor, more "legitimacy" more benefits? Now they are post 2004-Nulhegan "Abenaki".
What does this say and show about the Nulhegan group formed in 2004 and their membership criteria? Or that of any of the other 5-6 "Abenaki" groups in VT-NH etc?
That they are bringing in members who are not Abenakis at all? Who are getting Vermont State benefits over other citizens of the state based on FRAUD? Because they are bringing in WHITE PEOPLE who are Playing Indian? The list is long who are members of these groups who are actually NOT Abenakis. That's the point isn't it? Creating FAKE "Abenaki" members ...
That the members have to objectively genealogically documented objective evidence of their descent from the Abénakis, historically? Or does implied "culture" trumps actual Abenaki descent?
Because the Bruchac's (and 99.999% percent of Vermont & New Hampshire's "Abenaki") never were Abénakis in the first place.
Genealogy and DNA Results prove this out (FINALLY) 100% percent, that Louis Bowman (1844-1918) was the child of two 100% French Canadian people. When Jesse Elmer Bowman stated he was French, he wasn't lying.
In April 2023, Joseph Bruchac, stated, "Know yourself. Know your roots. Know your stories, before you begin to borrow or take someone else's."
Well, what has Joseph Bruchac and Marge (his sister) done but take other people's stories and made them their own. Taken someone else's roots (O'Bomsawin ancestors) and made them their own.
Of course, they have done so, because it has been quite profitable and popular to do so, and in between those lines in many spoken presentations and published books, both have declared "their grandfather Jesse Bowman and or Jesse's father Louis were Abénakis, from "St. Francis"/ Odanak" and thereby IMPLYING that Joe and Marge themselves are Abenakis, touting first their Homer Cards or now their Nulhegan Cards as "legitimacy" to their claims of Abénaki/Abenaki ethnicity.
Recently, per the September 30, 2023 in the Times Union Newspaper by Chris Churchill article entitled "Churchill: Is Joseph Bruchac truly Abenaki?" (URL at the top of this post), Joseph Bruchac III, stated defensively, that (quote) ...
"Native heritage is not only about blood and ancestry". He suggested cultural membership can be learned and earned with hard work and sincere attention, comparable in some respects to his mastery of karate.
“Am I not a black belt because I wasn’t born as one?” he asked.
Yesterday, I was reading (again) the book "Becoming Indian: The Struggle over Cherokee Identity in the Twenty-first Century" by Circe Sturm (© 2010), and came upon Page 140-141, and it is indeed an interesting point of view (thought) from an Eastern Band United Keetoowah Cherokee, Robert Thompson in his early 40s.
Mr. Thompson explained that "We get so many people calling for genealogy. They want to do this, and I tell them, I say "You can spend years trying to track down your ancestry to prove that you're a Cherokee. Now why don't you learn the Cherokee language? Why don't you learn the Cherokee history? Why don't you do the Cherokee culture? Why don't you really become Cherokee? (October 22, 2003).
In other words blood ties (genealogical descent) and their documentation have their place, but real Cherokeeness comes from walking the walk and talking the talk, both of which can be learned at almost any stage of life by anyone who claims they are Cherokee, and wants to become Cherokee.
Thompson felt that to "become Cherokee" someone must be willing to put in the hard work of learning about Cherokee history and culture.
So, in essence, becoming Cherokee or Abenaki, is today, like putting on a coat, hat, and footwear, to 'look' authentic, and pulling 'culture' from books, CDs or DVDs, museums and powwows etc. and grasping the ability to say O-Si-Yo? (Hello is O-Si-Yo in Cherokee)
Merry Cherokee Christmas Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Chuck Hoskins Jr., my Grandmother SAID ... 😆 ... that her father-in-law James Corby Woodard, of Norton-Stuttgart, Phillips County, Kansas "was a Cherokee Chief" does that now make me a Cherokee too? I think not.
Guess who this is in the early 1980s at 12-13 years of age?
If I go to a Cherokee gathering as a guest, or go to a powwow held by a Cherokee Nation sponsor, does that make me Cherokee? I think not. If I learn how to speak Cherokee from a Cherokee speaker, does that make me a Cherokee Indian? I think not. I am not naive as I was as a younger person. I educated myself, evaluating beliefs/perceptions vs. truths and realities.
And yet, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma brings in (allows) less than 1% descendants of Cherokee ancestry, who's descendants dye their hair black, and who pontificate how 'super Cherokee' they were/are, having never been raised within Cherokee Nation Community, whose ancestors consistently married White men from the 1700s into the present time.
Does 'culture' trumping actual Cherokee "blood" genealogical connections? Just thinking out loud here. I myself am not Cherokee (never claimed to be whatsoever) and neither was my mother, or her father or his father, James C. Woodard, or his ancestors! But hey, my Grandma Said So!
Bruchac's are of the mindset that "cultural belonging" to the Vermont Pretendians of these "Abenaki" "tribes" now sanctioned by fraudulent Vermont State Recognition since 2006 into 2012, that a person of merely goodwill, believing that their grandfather Jesse or his father Louis had Abénaki/Abenaki ancestral connections even without objective evidence whatsoever, that the Bruchac's could work hard to learn Abénaki culture, language, and dances, and as such in doing that, become a insidious part of the "Abenaki" "community" ... just like Sylvain Rivard worked hard to BECOME "Abénaki" ... of Odanak.
His group are a mere SPIN OFF from another FRAUDULENT "tribe"
100% TRUTH
