Betsey Guppy Chamberlain Judith A. Ranta, Nancy Coffin Lacompte and Nulhegan "Abenaki" member Jill Cresey Gross Part 1

 Over the course of the previous month, a person brought to my attention back to a member of the "Nulhegan-Coos Band of the Abenaki Nation" group, an incorporated entity posing as an Indigenous Nation within VT/NH led by Donald Warren Stevens Jr. of Shelburne, Vermont, and wondered about the merits of this member's lateral ancestor Betsey (Guppy) Chamberlain.

So, I will start my evaluation (research) starting here:

Judith A. Ranta of White Plains, NY had contended (subjectively, I might add) that Betsey (nee: Guppy) Chamberlain was exceptional not only because of her literary output but ... "because she (Betsey) was a Native American!

Betsey (nee: Guppy) on the right in the stripped dress ???

NOT Betsey (Guppy) Chamberlain Photo

The source of the tintype, the Lowell Historical Society, which dated the photo to the 1860's, does not identify either of the two women as being Betsey

Indeed, on September 27, 2021, to Douglas Buchholz, the author Juanita Ranta kindly pointed out that "Betsey Guppy had been born in ca. 1797, so would Betsey  have been in the 60's.  In the 1860's she was also not living in Lowell.  She resided in Illinois by that time." Judy

So let's take a deep dive into Ranta' book about Betsey:

She dedicates the book "To the Abenaki People, Past, Present, and Future"

Judith A. Ranta, acknowledges in the beginning of her book that she had received fascinating instruction in Abenaki history and genealogy from Nancy (nee: Coffin) Lecompte of Nancy's organization "Ne-Do-Ba". Ranta was also privileged to have met two of Betsey Guppy's cousin's descendants: Jill (nee: Cresey) Gross and Maurie Hill, who had generously shared their family files.

From the very start, Ranta claims that Betsey Guppy Chamberlain (ca. 1797-1886) was  a "mixed-race writer of English and Algonkian heritage" ... "one of the first Native women to publish writings protesting Native People's persecution". "Drawing on ... Native oral and literary traditions, Chamberlain's writings ... " "tough as a squaw ..." Ranta, on Page 8 speaks of a "renaissance of Native culture, particularly in New England (yet more like its been a renaissance of race shifting!). She mentioned author and scholar Colin Calloway who have explored the pervasive early American ideology of the "disappearing" Indian. And in that ideology of the vanishing "the Last Of ..." steps in the race shifting dynamics to fill that vacuum; (Calloway had allied with race shifters and their white allies such as John Scott Moody for his sources). Ranta stated "Many Native Peoples intermarried with whites or blacks, as happened with Betsey Guppy Chamberlain's forebears. Those who settled down to the Euro-American life of farming, as did the Guppy family, attempted to assimilate or at least appear to, effacing their Native identities.

Page 9: Ranta proclaims that Harriet H. Robinson's  remark that Betsey Guppy Chamberlain "had inherited Indian blood," as well as the Guppy family oral traditions going back many generations, SUGGEST that she possessed at least one-quarter Native blood. (Wow, a measuring cup on two legs working in a mill factory who could actually write and publish ... just amazing) 

The Guppy family today maintains that their 18th century forebears in Wolfboro and Brookfield, New Hampshire, derived their ancestry in part from local Abenaki. According to family correspondence and other documents, Joshua Chamberlain, a Revolutionary War Soldier, and Betsey' paternal grandfather, had "married an Indian woman" in Wolfboro, NH. 

Again, Ranta cited Robinson as recalling that Chamberlain "was proud of" her "Indian blood." The autobiographical details of her writings SUGGESTS that she (Betsey) did indeed consider herself Native or mixed-race and that she was proud of this heritage. 

Oh so the woman was a bit or a lot like "Iron Eyes Cody" (born Espera Oscar de Corti) who was 100% Italian; or "Grey Owl" (born Archibald Stansfeld Belaney) who was actually 100% British/English ... and many other "historical"/hysterical/delusional documented race shifters [?] both in cinematography and/or literary worlds, just like Betsey (Guppy) Chamberlain had been.

Just because someone happened to be born in Wolfboro, and raised in Brookfield, NH doesn't make that person an Abenaki. Just because a family perpetuated an unfounded subjective oral history is not objective evidence that an ancestor was an Abenaki either. 

Page 15: the biography traced Betsey Chamberlain' ancestors back four or more generations, and considered the familial and historical heritage that shaped her character and writings. Ranta, explained that while some documentation had linked her (Betsey) Native Ancestry from her Guppy paternal line, she could have also inherited "Indian blood" from yet undiscovered sources on her mother's side, "since mixed- race people tended to intermarry with one another" more so than straight white people did is the inference. Guppy family oral tradition and Nicholas Guppy's "Genealogy of the Guppy Family" maintain that Betsey Chamberlain's paternal grandmother, Sarah (nee: Loud) Guppy, was an ALLEGED Abenaki woman. 

SUBJECTIVE "PROOF"

WHERE was Judith Ranta getting her information? She cited where she obtained her information in the Notes section of her book for Pages 9-19: An unpublished type 3-page family tree script "Genealogy of the Guppy Family," by Nicholas Guppy, (1990) wherein he had typed that "Joshua Guppy married Sarah Loud,  an Abenaki Indian woman." See also  Guppy family correspondence in the possession of Jill (nee: Cresey) Gross, of Westford, Mass., March 2000.

Page 24: Ranta wrote, that several records SUGGEST that Sarah (nee: Loud) Guppy might have been an adopted or illegitimate daughter of the presumably European-American Loud family of England. Sarah was POSSIBLY born in Portsmouth, NH, but because she was illiterate; her presumed mother and sister were not illiterate. A 1779 deed selling a parcel in Barrington, NH, land owned by widow Abigail Lowd, as well as by "Joshua Guppy Yeoman (a land holder of English Descent) and his wife of Middleton" and other family relatives, confirmed that Joshua's wife was indeed Sarah Loud, the daughter of Solomon and Abigail (nee: Dame) Loud. Because she could not sign her name betrayed Sarah (nee: Loud) Guppy's illiteracy. Both Abigail, her mother, and her sister Ann (nee: Loud) Guppy signed their names, so they had obtained some literacy. Ranta' reasoning to lean toward an adoption or illegitimacy for Sarah, apparently was due to the literacy or the lack there of, between mother and daughters. Ranta then speculates subjectively yet again, that Sarah may not have been the natural or legitimate daughter of Abigail (Dame) Loud but was PERHAPS adopted or illegitimate.

AGAIN, I have seen this MYTH of an Abenaki woman dropping their infant child off on the doorstep of some WHITE people (or the "Abenaki Baby in the Basket" on the doorstep) nonsense before in other Northeast families. 

As if Abenaki women were just dropping babies all over the Northeast and abandoning them to white folks, because Abenaki women didn't love and cherish their infant child as much as a White person loves their infant. 

Abigail (nee: Dame) Loud (the mother of Sarah (nee: Loud) Guppy, and grandmother mother of Betsey Guppy Chamberlain) had died about or a little after 1822. Her death record as of ca. 2003 apparently had not been located. The Guppy Family had once owned considerable properties (lands) in Middleton and Brookfield townships in New Hampshire, yet fell into poverty and difficult times in the 1820's.

Ranta claims in her book, that the gaps in genealogical records for Betsey' mother's father Lieut. Clement Meserve' wife, Abigail (nee: Ham) and other ancestors of Betsey Guppy Chamberlain's ancestors remains unexplained, because because 18th and 19th century Americans tended to hide or deny evidence of Indigenous ancestry. There had been less ambiguity in Ranta' tracing of Clement Meserve' ancestry. [The John Moody trick ... i.e. "if you can't an ancestor for X that MUST mean they were Abenakis"]  Ranta states that "in any event, it is possible that Betsey (nee: Guppy) Chamberlain also had Native ancestry among her maternal ancestors." AGAIN, quite subjective.

Page 51:  Judith A. Ranta goes about writing about Betsey (nee: Guppy) Chamberlain's children. One of whom was Comfort Chamberlain (born about 1823) who married Austin Barnum on November 28, 1850 in Kane County, Illinois. Another VERY likely son of Betsey and Josiah Chamberlain, by the name of Ivory Chamberlain, born in Brookfield, NH, perhaps named after his uncle Ivory Chamberlain who had died in 1818. 

Page 52: Ranta noted that while we [Nancy Lecompte and herself?] cannot yet account for the puzzling or missing genealogical records, some possibilities suggest themselves based upon what is known of Betsey (nee: Guppy) Chamberlain's life. The gaps in the genealogical record may reflect racism's impact upon families considered to have Native ancestry. Ivory Chamberlain perhaps wished to hide his parentage to avoid being stigmatized as the son of not only a lowly factory girl but one of Indian blood. AGAIN SUBJECTIVE the author, Judy A. Ranta, insists on entertaining the idea that allegedly for-a-fact that Betsey through her ancestry was somehow an Abenaki Indian. 

Page 85: While it is unlikely that the magazine's Euro-American readers knew they were reading a Native author, they were nonetheless experiencing and being influenced by a Native mind and sensibility.

While Betsey (nee: Guppy) Chamberlain never explicitly identities herself as Native, her words express much Native content as well as suggestions of her mixed heritage. References to Native people or significant pro-Native subjects offers further evidence of her "Indian blood," Ranta quoting Robinson's terms, and her identification with Native people. ... In her autobiographical local-color sketches, Betsey (Guppy) Chamberlain suggests her ancestry in several narratorial self-portraits. I guess because she wrote that she had a face "as round as the moon" and cheeks "as red as a peony" and that hard work had rendered her "tough as a squaw" suggested her heritage! I think not.

Page 86: Ranta cites Evan T. Pritchard' book "No Word For Time" yet his own Indigenous self-identity (Micmac) is in question/doubt as well. 

Page 229: Appendix A: Pedigree Chart for Betsey (nee: Guppy) Chamberlain born December 29, 1797 in Wolfboro, Carroll County, New Hampshire, married in Brookfield, NH on June 25; 1820 to Josiah Chamberlain; and she  remarried to Thomas Wright on April 12, 1834 in Lowell, MA; and later a 3rd marriage to Charles Boutwell in Illinois. She died on September 24, 1886 in Illinois.

Page 231: Appendix B: Brief Chronology of Betsey Guppy Chamberlain's Life 1797 through 1863.

Page 232: Appendix B: Brief Chronology of Betsey Guppy Chamberlain's Life 1866 through 1886.

Page 246: Ranta cites Evan T. Pritchard's book entitled "No Word for Time" ©1997 (yet again) ... then Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki) ... 

Excuse me but like Betsey (nee: Guppy),  the Bruchac's are not Abenakis, and neither were the Bowman's, that the Bruchac's descend from. Sorry boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, you've been led to believe what is not truth and reality; not only by Betsey Guppy Chamberlain in the 1800's, but by Joe & Marge in post-1970's to present about their  respective ancestors.

"Ranta' book and her heavily cited and quoted edition of Chamberlain's writings were a welcome addition to the growing literature on the so-called mill worker girls, as well as women's history, American Studies, and - POSSIBLY Native American Studies.

Ranta, a reference librarian, had conducted thorough research in archives and among secondary sources. She had also consulted with Nancy (nee: Coffin) LeCompte (of Lewiston, Maine), a genealogist with considerable knowledge of Abenaki history. Yet, Nancy Lecompte herself had subjectively claimed herself to be Abenaki as well retrospectively.

The author, Judith A. Ranta readily admitted that Betsey (nee: Guppy) Chamberlain's tribal affiliation was uncertain yet provided several of her arguments regardless, that Betsey MAY HAVE BEEN Abenaki." Again, SUBJECTIVE... IF Betsey wasn't actually Native, she wouldn't have tribal affiliation. Obviously, she NEVER lived in an Abenaki Community.

Siobhan Senier as a Professor of English and Coordinator of the Women's Studies Program at the University of New Hampshire supports the dynamic of race shifting and giving platform and space to them, as I have evaluated by reading her book "Dawnland Voices" (which is full of the writings of race shifting persona's claiming to be "Abenakis"). She's the author of Voices of American Indian Assimilation and Resistance and Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Writing from Indigenous New England. Siobhan Senier even wrote 'a book review for this Betsey Guppy Chamberlain by Judith A. Ranta in  December 2004, in the New England Quarterly Pages 672-675. [See below]

You can read her diatribe about author Darryl Leroux and his book "Distorted Descent" here: 

https://dawnlandvoices.org/navigating-partnerships-with-indigenous-people-in-a-time-of-ethnic-fraud-panic/

As for her "If you are a non-Indigenous scholar, or just an interested learner trying to do your due diligence by Indigenous people, please do not rush to judgment and assume that all Abenaki scholars, writers, artists and others in the U.S. are ethnic frauds. In particular, please don’t rush to judgement based on hearsay or vitriolic social media posts. Continue to listen to Abenaki people, read their work carefully, and always vet the reputation and reliability of your sources" 

Well suffice to say, perhaps Ms. Siobhan Senier ought to have taken her own recommendation to heart, before hypocritically implying that she had actually LISTENED to actual Abenaki People, instead of giving race shifters platform and space, and subsequently trying to denigrate scholar Darryl Leroux.

Mr. Darryl Leroux did not 'rush to judgement' and 'assume' that 'all' scholars, writers, artists and others claiming to be "Abenakis" are "ethnic frauds" (as she IMPLIED in the above post on her website). Siobhan Senier has a bias and a book to "protect", you see and read it for yourself in her website and book, that's full of documented race shifting "Abenakis" (Doris Seale, Judy Dow, Suzanne Rancourt, et al), so she hasn't actually been exactly listening to actual Abenaki people when it comes to VT & NH. Perhaps she ought to stop, sit down, and do a re-evaluation of her positions?

But back to my post in regards to Betsey ....

So Nancy Lecompte and Judith A. Ranta consulted with one another? Personal communication on April 23, 2000. Interesting. And what did Nancy do?

http://www.nedoba.org/bio_guppy01.html

Nancy (nee: Coffin) Lecompte announced that "it is an honor for Ne-Do-Ba to present the following stories written by this very courageous Dawnland Woman, Betsey Guppy Chamberlain. She has come home to her People! The Wabanaki People are grateful to Judith Ranta for making it possible."

Each woman supported one another. Judith asserted that Besty (nee: Guppy) Chamberlain was an Indian woman of the Wabanaki Peoples, with her subjective narratives ... and in turn ... Nancy welcomed Betsey with open arms, exclaiming in a hearty "Welcome Home Betsey!" 

Like What the _____ ? went through my brain as I followed these pieces of the puzzle.

Ranta, for her part, attempted to convince the reader of her biography of Betsey, that because Betsey was subjectively identified as having "Indian blood" by her fellow mill worker friends, such as Harriet Hanson Robinson, in her 1898 memoir, "Loom and Spindle" and because Betsey scribbled some wee stories in her angst against anti-Indian racism, Betsey MUST be an Indian herself. Secondly her place of birth: Wolfboro, Carroll County, New Hampshire. 

Ooooooh unceded Abenaki Territorial Homeland. And last but not least, the third argument by Ranta was that some of descendants, direct or lateral, remembered her paternal grandmother, Sarah (nee: Loud) Guppy, as an Abenaki woman.

Argument No. 1 is SUBJECTIVE, right along with 2. and 3.

 Page 274: Judith A. Ranta cites in her Selected Bibliography, Frederick Matthew Wiseman's book entitled "The Voice of the Dawn: An Autohistory of the Abenaki Nation" (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, ©2001.

Well well well. Ranta cites Frederick M. Wiseman PhD of Vermont who also claimed that his paternal grandmother Katherine (nee: Erno) Wiseman was also an Abenaki Indian woman. 

Nope, as I have shown very clearly, that woman and none of Fred M. Wiseman's ancestors were Abenakis, not even an Indian in the 1600's like Homer St. Francis or his wife Patsy. Not one Indian ancestor at all. Just like Betsey (nee: Guppy) Chamberlain (1797-1886) was not an Abenaki Indian woman either.

December 04, 2004

In the New England Quarterly, Page 672, Siobhan Senior (of Dawnland Voices website and book) did a book review on Judith A. Ranta' book "The Life and Writings of Betsey Chamberlain: Native American Mill Worker" (Boston: Northeastern University Press ©2003) ... 

The New England Quarterly, on December 2004 specifically Pages 672-675, Siobhan Senier had written (Pg. 674) that "Indeed, if Betsey Guppy Chamberlain was Abenaki ... for the time being such interpretations must remain highly speculative."  

Page 675: "One disappointment of this books is that is does not engage significantly with the many contemporary Abenaki historians and scholars - Joseph Bruchac and his sister Marge (nee: Bruchac) Kennick, John Scott Moody and Donna Louise (nee: Carvalho) Charlebois - Moody, Lisa Tonyo (nee: Brooks) Pouliot, or Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD - who (according to Siobhan Senier) were best positioned to shed light on Betsey Guppy Chamberlain and her work." 

It didn't take long for Marge Bruchac Kennick to take notice of Judith A. Ranta' book about Betsey Guppy Chamberlain, for in 2012, Margaret Bruchac reviewed the book as well. 

URL LINK: Review of Judith Ranta _em_The Life and Writings of Betsey Guppy Chamberlain

By Margaret Bruchac
University of Pennsylvania, mbruchac@sas.upenn.edu

While touting that Judith Ranta had done "fine detective work" in complying the data, Marge pointed out in the 'abstract' straight away, that while this compilation by Ranta could be useful for scholars of social history, there was/is one significant flaw. Ranta champions Chamberlain as a Native American author, and she has organized the collected works to emphasize this point.

Betsey’ paternal grandmother, Sarah (Loud) Guppy, was said to have some Indian blood, but no specific tribal nation was ever recalled. Betsey' parents, William and Comfort (Meserve) Guppy were both identified as WHITE people. Ranta did not assume that Betsey' paternal grandmother Sara, was an Abenaki Indian. That was the Guppy family themselves, as cited by Ranta, in her Notes Pg. 236 regarding Nicholas Guppy and his 3 page typed up "Genealogy of the Guppy Family" of 1990 ... and the Guppy family correspondence in the possession of Nulhegan member Jill (nee: Cresey) Gross of Westford, MA in March 2000. Ranta merely perpetuated the Guppy family assumption that Betsey' grandmother Sarah, was an Abenaki Indian woman. 

True, there is no objective evidence, however, to prove that Loud, her son, or her granddaughter ever self-identified or were counted among members of any Abenaki (or other Native American) community.

[Then again, there is no objective evidence to prove that Louis/Lewis "Bowman" was ever an Obomsawin from St. Francis/Odanak, or was even an Abenaki either. Nor is there any objective evidence that Louis Bowman (1844-1918)'s mother Marie Élisabeth (Sophié) (nee: Sénécal dit Laframboise) was an Indian/Abenaki woman who spoke anything but French either. She was in fact, French-Canadian 100%, but read Marge Bruchac' book entitled "Dreaming Again: Algonkian Poetry" ©August 14, 2012 and you come away with her "historical re-imagination narrative, wherein Marge attempts to lead-the-reader into BELIEVING that Louis' mother Sophié was an Abenaki Indian too. Well, that is what Joe and Marge et al BELIEVED for years, to help promote their created "Abenaki" persona's post-1970's ... that was their faulty perception about their own ancestors]

Ranta claimed that Betsey Guppy Chamberlain had tapped Algonkian storytelling practices, but Marge Bruchac-Kennick hadn't detected any trace of Indigenous oral traditions, cultural practices, or environmental knowledge in any of Betsey' writings. 

Curiously, (Marge observed) Ranta censored the collection by omitting Chamberlain’s lurid stories of Indian attacks against white settlers, perhaps because those collection writings might undermine assertions of Native identity. 

Native voice and agency is absent or marginalized.

Chamberlain’s pseudonymous seems to be an alternate identity, rooted in ethnic masking or cultural appropriation. [Marge and Joe Bruchac et al would KNOW all about creating alternate identities, ethnic masking and cultural appropriation] Chamberlain’s creative work must be seen as a commercial transaction; whether paid or not, she trafficked in productions that elevated her own social position. [Bruchac's and other race shifters would KNOW all about commercial benefit in race shifting, to elevate their own social positions] Judith Ranta generously dedicates her research to "Abenaki" people, but her over-reaching speculations are not helpful. Ranta proposed tests to verify a Native American author .... self concept; acceptance by a tribal community; tribal enrollment; and commitment to Native American causes (98-99)---while admitting that Betsey Guppy Chamberlain passed none of these "tests". Touting Betsey Guppy Chamberlain, mill-worker as a “Native” does not expand our understanding of Native American literature; it only muddies the waters by promoting the antiquated notion that trace amounts of Indigenous ancestry shape cultural expression.

Betsey Guppy Chamberlain fails to provide any kind of Indigenous insights, experiences, and cultural markers. [These dynamics can be more readily appropriated in 2021 much more so than in the 1800's or even the early 1900's]

A trace amount of unknown Indian ancestry does not transform one into a Native American author. [So according to Margaret Bruchac-Kennick' ancestresses (both in the 1600's) Owisto'k Alstock / Ots-Toch, the "Mohawk Princess" of Canajoharie, as well as Catoneras (Cattriena) who married to (nee: Wyandance) who married Cornelis Jansen Van Tassel (both on the Alice (nee: Van Antwerp) Bowman does not transform Joe or Marge into Native American authors either? Asking for a friend ... ]

Betsey Guppy Chamberlain was a Yankee author with an engaging style and a family story of a mysterious Indian ancestor (which is not uncommon in that part of New England). 

Her writings offer us brilliant insights into the perspectives and experiences of white mill girls and

middle-class Yankees. They also provide evocative visions of the angst-ridden longing, among

free-thinkers, early feminists, and transcendentalists, for deeper connections to Native American

Indians in nineteenth century New England.

Margaret M. Bruchac was (at the time of the above review in 2011-2012) an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Coordinator of Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Connecticut, and the 2011-2012 Katrin H. Lamon Scholar in Residence at the School for Advanced Research.

In conclusion, even Margaret Bruchac-Kennick smelled B.S. regarding Judith A. Ranta' book about Betsey Guppy Chamberlain, and its content.

Page 214: "And although I did my best to ensure that the writers listed here were actually Indigenous, one of my anonymous reviewers pointed me to some pretty conclusive evidence that Betsey Guppy Chamberlain (3 May) was not, in fact, Algonquin, but rather a white woman who wrote very problematic stories about Indians." The author Daniel Heath Justice on Pg. 215 does indeed mention "Playing Indian." 

URL LINK: Betsey Guppy Chamberlain Genealogical Mapping 

In doing this evaluation of the merit of Betsey Guppy Chamberlain being the descendant of an Abenaki, which she clearly wasn't based on the genealogical merits, it was brought to my attention, that one will notice the common denominator of all these female 'players' in this saga is feminism.  Guppy was a strong woman, who compared herself to a tough  "squaw," and bemoaned the condition of Indians. Instant Shake and Bake "Abenaki" of the Northeast; no genealogy needed. And Nancy Lecompte of Ne-Do-Ba, Inc.'d opened her arms wide with a "Welcome to the Wabanaki" for Betsey! Marge Bruchac-Kennick' review of the book by Judy Ranta; Whew! If that wasn't 'the pot calling the kettle black', I don't know what is! 

It's SO obviously hysterical! Bruchac's aren't any more Abenaki or Indigenous than Betsey (nee: Guppy) Chamberlain was implied to be!

In the next post, I will share with the reader, how one descendant (probably among many descendants) of the Guppy Family, has 'race shifted' and taken benefit, platform and space away from actual Indigenous People in the Northeast.

Followup:

Author, Judith A. Ranta, September 23, 2021: 

"I haven’t yet read your long article in depth, but I must tell you that the photo at the head of your article is not of Betsey G. Chamberlain.  Someone found this photo and decided it was hers.  I have looked hard (and continue to) but have not found ANY visual portrait of her.

I wrote a response to Marge Bruchac’s review of my book.  This can be seen at Academic.edu.  Bruchac’s piece includes numerous distortions and errors re. my book."

Juanita's Response to Bruchac's Critique

"Moreover, while conducting research, I met several living descendants of Joshua and Sarah (Loud) Guppy.  One of them, Jill Cresey-Gross, kindly shared with me an early twentieth century letter written by her ancestor giving the same information about Sarah (Loud) Guppy." 

A early 20th century letter? 

Written by whom, and what is the OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE to support what was allegedly in such letter? 

I have letters in my own lateral family relatives which imply that my ancestress, was Mohawk, or Abenaki, or Blackfoot, Algonquin or Métis. That's doesn't make or prove that such 4th Great Grandmother of mine Indigenous or any of the above connections to such tribes!

Letters and such content thereof, based on belief and perception can be fraught with subjectives, and as such, aren't but subjectively written by ... unless supported by objective evidence. 

Odanak Councilor Mr. Jacques Watso February 2021 Interview on Ethnicity Shifting in Vermont/New Hampshire since 1974

This interview is supported by the FACTS of the matter:

1988 -

It was a money-generating operation issuing the plates to fund the group’s own planned jail, police force, courts and appointed judges. Homer said “Abenakis” would receive the plate(s) after paying a $25.00 registration fee and a $4.00 dollar driver’s rights fee. Taking the symbolic emblem from the Amerindian Police vehicles in Odanak, Quebec, Homer’s follower, John “Two Rainbows” Lawyer, had appropriated it, for usage in Swanton, VT, for the group. 

Homer made it a point that the group he led wasn’t a state, but a nation as he pointed to the symbols in the emblem on the plate.

 

Those symbols, noted Homer, represented the sun, flowing water, and the green trees, which collectively meant “this land is ours (N’dakinna).” 

Yet, despite any insinuated land claims made by the symbols on the vinyl plate(s) or by Homer himself, those using the created license plates were paying traffic tickets and towing fees, because such usage constituted a violation of the Vermont State motor vehicle law, according to local and state police.

Now where did this emblem or symbology come from? 

ODANAK! By theft, appropriation, in Homer's group seeking to imply that the group in Swanton, Franklin County, Vermont was somehow, in some way, "Abenaki" ... which it wasn't and still isn't.

Clearly in the video above, this SHOWS clearly the "appropriation" of "Abenaki" identity by Vermont race shifters. It wasn't just the lack of genealogy to the Abenaki, but also the appropriation of Odanak material culture !! 

One can see this emblem being used across First Nations in Canada!

Even in Odanak!

Daniel Richer, 'self-identifying' as an alleged "Abenaki" and Town Crier of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

Daniel Richer Video Introduction

Actor

Promoter

Theatrical

Town Crier

&

FAKE ABENAKI

??

Over these two years previous I had began to map the genealogical ancestors of Daniel Richer, Town Crier, whom has repeated his narrative (just like the Bruchac's of NY) that he himself is "Métis" of the "Abenaki", of the "Wabenaki", of the "Algonquin" and this is the results of my research and gathering of various bits and pieces regarding this apparent French-Canadian descendant 'race shifter' claiming to be "Abenaki" having promoted himself as such (just like the late Nancy Lee née Millette - Cruger - Lyons - Doucet had done in her lifetime, had also claiming to be "Abenaki" herself as a Littleton, NH Town Promoter).

In chronological time line:

1969 - 1974

College Alexandre - 8-12 years

High School

Activities and Societies: School President, Theater, Latin, School team Hand-Ball Goaler ...

1976 - 1978

College Bourgchemin - 2 yrs. 

Theater

Activities and Societies: Winner of the Saint-Hyacinthe oratory competition, Judo ...

Professional Drama school

Jul 1981 - 2014 - 33 years

Master of Ceremony/Crier/storyteller

The Crier

Based in Ottawa but will travel anywhere

I am the Senior Crier in North-America and having introduced M. Gorbachev to Gene Simmons; one can say I am versatile ... I have been MC all over Canada and in the US (New York, Detroit, Decatur etc) Paris (France) Mons Belgium and other places. No event too small or crowd too big; from protocol to rock concerts, from embassies to log cabins I have a gift for adjusting to the venues and circumstances.

I was also MC at the Vancouver Winter Olympics not to mention the opening of the Ottawa Congress Center, the Museum of Civilizations, the Museum of Fine Arts and the reopening of the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Jan 1984 - Dec 1991 - 8 years

Official Provincial Crier for Ontario

Gov. of Ontatio

Ambassador from one end of the province to the other. I helped organize local competitions to find Town Criers to represent their community. I do proclamation on behalf of the Government of Ontario for special events, visit schools. I also have been the Master of Ceremony in over a hundred fairs in Ontario in heritage programs and talent contest ...

February 11, 1984

La Presse Newspaper in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Occupation: town crier

OTTAWA (PC) - Daniel Richer dit Laflèche, 27, has been a town crier by profession for the National Capital Commission for almost three years.

In Ottawa, where tradition and history bequeathed us the royal titles, the carosses which accompany them, the tricorn hat, the toga and the frills, the gentleman usher with the black rod, the exercises soldiers on the lawns of Parliament Hill by the Governor General's foot guards, the sergeant-at-arms, the bronze statues and all the vestiges of another century, the appointment of a town crier was nothing very original. That we waited until 1980 to revive this tradition, that is what is surprising.

If Daniel Richer was chosen as head of auctions in the Capital, it is not by chance. His "curriculum vitae" almost destined him to inherit this position. Professional actor, experienced in musical comedy and opera and endowed with an unusual theatrical sense, he had all the necessary qualities.

To agree to wear the period costume, the tricorn, the lace frills, the leather thigh-high boots, the large silk-lined cape and to walk around the buses, public places and streets dressed in this way "it takes courage”, as he himself asserts.

Assailed

Moreover, during the summer season, it frequently happens to him to be requisitioned in the middle of the street by tourists for photo shoots. “One day,” says Daniel Richer, “I walked into a restaurant and when people saw me, they stopped. I had to say something to get them back to their concerns."

On another occasion, he was attacked by a man in his fifties. “He insulted me and threatened me. He said, (says Richer), that I was part of a conspiracy mounted by René Lévesque to shame the Queen. Yet all he did was put on a show at the National Arts Center in Ottawa. The royal blue costume he proudly wears is French-inspired (1784). It was designed by an Ontario cosmetologist, Ms. Kathryn Michaud. Daniel Richer admits it cost him a small fortune. “A few thousand dollars,” he says. “To hold this position,” says Daniel Richard, “you need style, class and a good voice”. You also have to be bilingual. Daniel Richer is not like his crier ancestors. He says good texts, polite and subtle. In a 1929 book, “Vieilles chose-Vieilles gens, the author Georges Bouchard describes the character of the town crier. He wears a crumpled coat, too big for him. He has bushy hair and a bar of several days. Formerly the 19th century town crier performs on Sunday on the steps of the church at the end of masses. He shouts the messages from the town hall, the mayor and the notables. He is also an auctioneer. “I have little pigs to sell,” he says, “to a curious crowd. Purebred pigs ... English pigs who quickly profit. Cheap Cheap for little piglets that come out of a government sow.

The town crier of yesteryear is also preoccupied with the souls of the departed faithful: “Now,” he adds. we are going to take care of the souls in purgatory - who are even hotter than the rest of us. Don't be lich-la-piastre like this guy who apologized for not having his late father said by saying if he's in heaven, he doesn't need it and he's in purgatory, he's tidy enough to do his time. Daniel Richer does not use the same language. When he works, he uses the formulas consecrated by good taste and the British tradition which has often borrowed from France. “Oyez, Oyez, Oyez, good people, her majesty the Queen of England ...” or the mayor, or the first minister invites you warmly and cordially. This is always how his auctions begin, all accompanied by the sound of bells At the Ministry of External Affairs and in the embassies, it is he who announces the arrival of guests and dignitaries, aloud, to the guests. In 1984, Daniel Richer did not have much leisure. He will be the official town crier for the bicentennial celebrations of the arrival of the Slovakists in Ontario. He will also work for the ministry of municipal affairs and housing in various historical manifestations villages ... The qualities of this crier of the national capital have been known worldwide.During an international competition in 1982, Daniel Richer placed third out of forty in terms of elegance This distinction made Richer a much sought-after town crier. He has performed in all corners of the country and his career is still very young.

January 25, 1988

La Presse Newspaper in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

On the forecourt of the Notre-Dame church, the town crier Daniel Richer at work

With Daniel Richer, it feels like a retro movie

It is noon. Mass has just ended. On the forecourt of Notre-Dame church, yesterday, many faithful gathered to hear the public auction as it was done in New France times, in 1780. “Oyez, Oyez. Let it be said, good people, Messeigneurs, Gentlemen, it is the Feast of the Snow!" Dressed in the finery of a town crier, the equivalent of the town crier of the governor of New France, Daniel Richer dit Laflèche proclaimed the Fête des neiges. It feels like a retro movie. In front of these people a little astonished to see this character high in neck, wearing his feathered tricorn hat and dressed in his blue mat-embroidered with silver lilies, in his frill (a sort of lace tie), our man, century-old bell in hand, invites this crowd to this winter festival. 

Professional actor, Daniel Richer plays his character. with intensity, with the greatest seriousness in the world, aware of the fact that style and politeness are not out of fashion these days, on the contrary. North American public auction champion, he placed fourth out of 90 competitors at the last world competition in England. He also recalls that Canada, with its 200 town criers, represents the second largest contingent in the world of these traditional characters. “As soon as I put on the uniform, I feel a kind of inner joy in me,” explained Daniel Richer, "I love doing this job, but I also play comedy. Being a town crier is the dream of an actor who really lives his character. The Quebec town crier, I add, is a man of the people who is an integral part of the life of this people." At the time, he even announced the indulgences that were sold. 

Daniel Richer, originally from Ottawa, is the only full-time town crier in North America. It is a real first job that he has been exercising, by contract, for six years now, traveling across Quebec, Ontario, and all of Canada and even North America for about 300 days a year. It has even happened to him to exercise it for 314 days during the same year. Solicited from everywhere, he admits that he has to refuse a hundred contracts per year. In Ottawa, he works in many embassies. Six years ago, he was asked to announce the guests at a reception at the Russian embassy. He admits that this is one of the times he has been treated the best. “An actor by training, one summer I acted as a town crier for the federal government,” he says. It was after that that I developed the profession of town crier, in addition to writing shows for children. It is a profession that fascinates me. It nevertheless requires a special attitude commanding respect and perfect knowledge of foreign protocol. It requires careful preparation, knowledge of history and above all a good state of mind. It is, I think, the only profession (comparable to that of an ambassador) which passes through all the floors of society, from the most humble to the most eminent. It's always fascinating and yet at the same time difficult, because of the audience, which is always different. ". 

On the forecourt of the church, men and women of a certain age come to congratulate him on his performance: “Well done, you were wonderful,” says a middle-aged man. A woman and her two young children are very disappointed to have missed the show. Official crier, from the province of Ontario and the national capital, Daniel Richer, of a Quebec mother and an Ontario father, may; get by in a number of languages. "The crier occupation never lets me stop by the language barrier," he insists, with a certain confidence in his eyes, "I can do it in several languages: French, English, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish, it being far the most popular language, he says. 

It even happened last summer that he auctioned off in Ojibwa, an Amerindian language of southern Ontario - during an Amerindian festival. For the occasion, he had donned a partly Native American dress with moccasins. “The most difficult,” he explains, “was the accent of this language". 

[Much like Iron Eyes Cody (Espera Oscar de Corti ... 100% Italian Hollywood Actor) or "Grey Owl" (Archibald Stansfeld Belaney ... 100% British and a conservationist, fur trapper, and writer who disguised himself as a Native persona), Daniel Richer put on the "costume" and never took it off, dying his hair black and Playing Indigenous for the naive crowds ... perhaps ... it being 'too addictive', the claim, the fame, the status, the $$$$.]

One of his fondest memories was his meeting with Maurice Richard in a shopping center in Scarborough, Ontario, where Maurice Richard had promoted been a cosmetic product. “He's a legend that is known across Canada,” Daniel Richer insisted. In Richer's opinion, "he is one of the rare characters to live up to his legend, I wonder why he is not exploited more.” Moreover, the organizers of the Fête des neiges were delighted yesterday with the number of visitors to the four sites of this winter festival. Thus, oh estimated at around 175,000, the number of Montrealer's who were moved to participate in these cultural and sports activities. It was almost the equivalent of the whole Snow Festival last year. So much so that at 3:00 p.m. the parking lots were full; the access roads to Île Notre-Dame and Île Sainte-Hélène had to be closed. In Île Notre -Dame, the number of visitors was estimated at around 100,000, 10,000 in Maisonneuve Park and 60,000 in Old Montreal and the Old Port. Obviously, the organizers were all the more happy.

1991 - 1991

Pinok and Matho Dance / theater

Grad Theater and Dance University level

Activities and Societies:  Exploring the the inner feelings and expressing it trough dance and movement ... 

Projection and control ...

Schools of art in Paris, France

December 18, 1992

Daniel Richer, dit Laflèche, the only town crier in Canada, sues the Société immobilière du patrimoine architectural de Montréal for loss of salary and breach of contract

Internationally renowned public CRIER, Daniel Richer dit Laflèche believed that the word given would suffice. At his expense, he discovers that a written contract sometimes prevents many legal remedies. Daniel Richer is suing the Société immobilière du patrimoine architectural de Montréal (SIMPA), responsible for the Museum of Archaeology and History of Pointe-à-Callière, for a sum of $77,000 due to loss of his salaries and non-compliance of contract. From October 1991 to October 1992, his character of town crier was to ensure the promoting the activities of the new museum before it opened in the summer of 1992, says Daniel Richer. Its commitment was the result of an agreement either verbally or "in writing but not yet ratified for administrative reasons," he argues. On behalf of the future museum, Pierre Sarrazin and Line Champoux allegedly offered him this one-year contract on September 30, 1992 during a planning meeting. Enthusiastic, convinced of having a firm contract in his pocket, Mr. Daniel Richer dit Laflèche left Ottawa and moved his home to Rosemère. He even reportedly refused other proposals. “I was offered a role on an American soap opera,” he says. Even if the adventure was enticing, he wanted to honor his commitment with the museum. “I am a man of my word,” he said. 

The only professional town crier in Quebec, Mr. Richer has lived on his art for 15 years. He has participated in some 200 activities over the past ten years. He worked in Europe, the United States and the English Canada. "I did everything". Well versed in the intricacies of protocol, he presented international figures at embassy parties. "I introduced Gorbachev," he says proudly. In effect, the museum hired Mr. Richer for a two-month tour of the schools. In fact, in the museum's promotional brochures, there is a photograph of Mr. Richer, dressed in clothes from the time of Louis XIV. “Hear! Hear! He was coureur de bois, postman, courier, town crier. In 1992, "Pointe-à Callière revives this ancient and noble profession", announces the brochure. This is proof that the Pointe-à-Callière Museum had indeed granted him a one-year contract, argues Mr. Daniel Richer. As for the Pointe-à-Callière Museum, they are less categorical. "All that this brochure proves," says museum director Francine Lelièvre, "is that at one point we hit it off." 

The director of the Pointe-à-Callière Museum explains that there was indeed a plan to hire a town crier for the summer of 1992. “But we gave up on the idea. His demands were too high”. Three levels of government were involved in the museum project. '' All our costs had to be justified. The town crier project did not appear to be a priority, ”says Lelièvre. Some 150 contracts with a value of 27.5 million have been granted throughout the development of the Pointe-Callière Museum. 

"This is the only contract with which, we had problems," said. she. The museum reportedly offered to hire Richer only for the summer of 1992. He declined. The conditions did not suit him. According to the "verbal agreement", Mr. Richer was to receive approximately $ 1,000 per week for one year. According to Ms. Lelièvre, this agreement never but existed in his own mind. “He took his dreams for reality,” she says. Mr. Richer is bitter. Today, 'he is silenced. For lack of funds, he has difficulty reviving his town crier. "This is the first time that I have a contract with francophones. In Ontario, I had never been led astray," he says. The Superior Court is seized of this contract matter. She should hear it shortly."

1995 - 2014 - 19 years

VIP Guide VIP

Outaouais Tourism

Ottawa, Gatineau and the National Capital Region

Wearing one of my period outfit and catering to the taste and interests of the client I strive to make our Region come alive and make the experience one to remember so that they will want come back for the other seasons they have missed...

The REAL ABENAKI veterans in the Armed Services, who lived in and enlisted within the United States

The Odanak Abenakis of Vermont (in Newport, Orleans County, Vermont) consisting of 300+ descendants, led by Richard "Skip" R. Bernier (an Abenaki Status member of Odanak) had begun working on a list of legitimate Abenakis in the United States who had fought courageously in the varied Armed Services of the United States. This is the list of those compiled with the help of the late Odanak Chief, Gilles O'Bomsawin.

John Arthur Annance --- United States Air Force --- 1952 to 1956

Joseph Elbert Elie Joubert --- United States Navy --- 1963 to 1983

Eugene L. Lahar (Obomsawin descendant) --- United States Army --- 1949 to 1952

Richard Goddard (Obomsawin descendant) --- United States Air Force --- 1972 to 1974

Richard R. Bernier (Obomsawin descendant) --- United States Army --- 1958 to 1960

Raymond N. Bernier (Obomsawin descendant) --- United States Army --- 1954 to 1956

Terry D. La Plante (Obomsawin descendant) --- United States Army --- 1962 to 1964

Arthur A. La Plante (Obomsawin descendant) --- United States Air Force --- 1985 to 1987

Dana Lee La Plante (Obomsawin descendant) --- United States Air Force --- 1998 to 2000

Roland E. Robert (Obomsawin descendant) --- United States Army --- 1949 to 1953

Lawrence P. Robert (Obomsawin descendant) --- United States Air Force --- 1945 to 1948 

and 1948 to 1950

Steven A. Fournier (Obomsawin descendant) --- United States Army --- 1984 to 1988

Rock J. Chapdelaine (Glaude descendant) --- United States Army --- 1918 to 1919

Roger A. Chapdelaine (Glaude descendant) --- United States Army --- 1948 to 1954

Paul R. Chapdelaine (Glaude descendant) --- United States Air Force --- 1955 to 1962

Richard J. Chapdelaine (Glaude descendant) --- United States Army --- 1963 to 1965

Maurice E. Chapdelaine (Glaude descendant) --- United States Air Force --- 1965 to 1969

Roland R. Chapdelaine (Glaude descendant) --- United States Army --- 1968 to 1969

Henri J. Chapdelaine (Glaude descendant) --- United States Air Force --- 1955 to 1959

David C. Jones (Wawanolett descendant) --- United States Army --- 1972 to 1973

With the help of the late Chief of Odanak, Gilles O'Bomsawin, Richard R. Bernier had endeavored to place a memorial plaque at Odanak, thus humbly honoring by name, these men who toiled and fought, to retain the freedoms of all people of both Canada and the United States, those freedoms we have today. Let us not forget their sacrifices for all of us, native and non-native peoples across this land.

And let's not forget the Abenaki women who also have fought and shed tears, both at home, at work, and on the battlefields as well ... for their sacrifices ...

A THANK YOU to ALL veterans for their sacrifices then and today.