Pages 39-46 + Bibliography "Within the Bounds of a Subsistence Oriented Culture..." (Scott E. Hastings Jr. 1982) Native Vermonters in the Miller Pond Watershed: Heritage and Change...

In general, American society has moved to greater specialization and urbanization--and in the process created even more economic dependence and alienation from the sources of subsistence--that is the human raw materials of food, shelter, water, air, sun, moon and star light, the sounds of wind and animals, etc. As society becomes increasingly complex, one easily removes one's self from one's surrounding. Ecologically and spiritually, one no longer feels the changes the weather from moment to moment; the birds and animals no longer sing and talk amongst themselves. Grass outside one's house becomes an ornamental lawn, rather than a source of protein, the home of a cow or the favorite deer yard. A nearby pond might be nice to look at, if it is noticed at all, never warms one's body, never offers healing medicine, never provides shelter.

In the back country of Vermont, and the less one depends upon high technologies and large super structures to provide these, one can still experience one's self in relationship to these. When people depend upon the natural resources, they are more responsible and better connected, out of necessity. I noted the way people related to the land, the animals, the weather, constantly as frames of reference. People do not talk about the stock market, the opera, the latest fashions, or even international affairs. People talk about raccoons, berries, deer, trees, gardening, pigs, snow storms etc., as well as their relatives and neighbors and local politics.

Likewise, socially, our interdependence can be easily obscured where we specialize into chosen relationships based upon alienated functions, i.e. work, family, play, consumption, etc. Whereas in a simple society, what happens to one person happens in some way to the entire social group; in a complex, populated, or even just a constantly changing community, it becomes possible for truly distinct classes and subcultures to develope in semi-isolation from each other. In the city, one may step over the bodies of the homeless while gawking in department store windows. In Vermont, middle class teachers and social workers, etc., work with one group of people while spending their non work time in a completely different millieu (Keizer, 1988: 8). Likewise, the more newcomers who live in a town, the easier it is to make friends without being close to any natives.

By contrast, when Vermonters cut their own wood with their families on a Sunday afternoon, these functions remain integrated. When people work together, build each other's houses, shop at the same store as their neighbor, and learn the family trade, or volunteer for the fire department or Church benefit, rather than sitting isolated behind a TV screen or commuting to recreation-oriented resorts, a sense of community continuity can be experiences. When these activities also serve to provide basic services, such as raising money for a day care, or distributing food, or simply committing one's self to one's town and community, one's sense of commitment, kindred and sense of purpose is all the more deepened. In a small scale, rural society, it is possible for individuals to know each other and relate to each other i na trusting, non-stereotyped manner.

Furthermore, when people have direct access to the basics of subsistence, it is difficult to impose authoritarian rule upon them (Alverson, 1988). As people lose control of their economic base, they tend also to lose political control. In an urban environment, the common person is entirely dependent upon the system of exchange for his/ her survival, and while he may appear to be "liberated" from farm life, in another sense he has lost ultimate self-sufficiency. In Vermont, locals have retained until recently a very high degree of autonomy, economically and politically, But as

people lose control of the right to dispose of their property, they also risk losing their political freedom. As the land -based economy falters, so does the integrity of the people. Finally, as people relinquish their land titles for the short term economic relief, they lose the resource which once gave their ancestors their distinct reputation and character.

NATIVE DILEMMA/ CONCLUSIONS

Today, economic dependence born of the desire for industrial made goods, has eroded people's autonomy and self-determination. As the land comes into the speculative market and money from out of the community pours in, people are pressured to produce more, or get off of the land. One sees desperation n the intensity of people's feelings, and in the increase in housing problems. Perhaps the most desperate are those who have gone the furthest from land and family, living in semi-urban towns such as Hartford, or Lebanon. In Straffordand Thetford, people are maintaining their connections by lving without the 'necessities of the modern generation. Or they are moving north, seeing this as a conscious way to avoid what they see happening in the south. One backwoods person told me how he would build a tar paper shack, up in Maine or northern Vermont, and keep his taxes down. Another explicitly said he didn't want to own anyone anything--he'd rather have someone owe him than the other way. Besides taxes, he counted electric lights and the telephone as his only bills, and puts food by as well.

Many of the backwoods people I spoke with the education, physical capacity, or skills to hold better jobs. Yet on another level, these people have resources of survival which come from their backwoods experience, and they feel uncomfortable with the middle class ethos which would be required of them to 'compete' in these jobs. For instance, when invited to volunteer at the local school, one backwoods man declined, saying he didn't have the training, and he'd "probably kill the bastards" anyway. The backwoods person wants to be secure in his home, secure in his property, and free to go about his business undisturbed, but not to give up his values and lifestyle.

In general, solutions to the property crunch such as land trusts and clustered affordable housing units, which are being promoted as solutions to Vermont's social, economic and ecological problems, seem unlikely to preserve the needs and culture of these backwoods people. True, these do provide low income families with a roof, and they allow land to stay open for the enjoyment of the geberal public. Yet, like reservations, they rob Native Vermont people of personal autonomy and the right to free access and use of natural resources which they have enjoyed for generations; only because they no longer control the politics and economics of the state. These people, if put into clustered units, would find themselves stifled by the lack of privacy, the rules and regulations placed upon them, and most likely the likely the shortage of natural resources, such as wood/ agricultural space/ car lots, etc. Finally, these people would become subject to the laws and requirements of developers, elitist boards, and state agencies; whereas once they were in charge of their land, destiny, and community. Shunted into "...rabbit hutches...", what guarantee would people have that at some later date, these organizations couldn't decide to remove still more land, or to place further restrictions on its use? Generally, flatlanders tend to make more rules, and to accept more governmental controls, particularly when they control others to their own advantage. Flatlanders may see themselves as

helping the people and the land, yet natives resent them. As Homer St. Francis, the chief of the Missisquoi Abenaki put it, the state's solution is to throw money at the problems, to hire more cops and build more jails. He wants to do away with bureaucrats to "...be free...(1989)".

Certainly, at least one interviewee was convinced that the present state policy served to remove people from their land, and perhaps  form the state as a whole. He claims that while Kunin laments the increase in homelessness, "...She's the bitch that put them there...", due to her system of taxes and regulations. Kunin similarly refers to high school drp outs as "failures", to justify her educational goals. However, the desire to 'educate' the native seems calculated to assimulate people and to prepare them for either a suburban lifestyle or jobs in the service industries which the state promotes via tourism and the making of the Vermont image. Again, the programs are likely to meet the needs of classic Vermonters who aspire to middle class jobs and lifestyles. But clearly, many of the people I spoke with have different values and aspirations, yet feel forced either either to conform or leave.

Boke's article (1988) suggests that many of their children will find themselves adrift, or afraid of the forms and demands placed upon them. In Dogs of March a novel depicting a backwoods person, the father and son struggle to understand each other as the college-going son attempts to become middle class. Locally, elders express dismay and incomprehensive at the new values of their children. In the future, Vermonters will have to decide whether 'social progress' is worth the cost. Many will probably take advantage of social programs and/ or more secure employment. However some who do so will do so out of necessity, rather than a choice.

In the beginning of this paper I implied the cultural closeness of the Abenaki to their white neighbors. Many of the values associated with native Vermonters can be seen as compatible if not derived from, Abenaki values. Notably: independence and local control, reliance on family, using natural resources wisely but sparingly, frugality and toughness, orneryness, distrust of state officials, resistance to acculturation, defense of a sense of place, knowledge of the woods and how to survive harsh physical conditions, distrust of newcomers, and also of southern flatlanders' attempts to improve or take over control of the land and social institutions, to name only a few.

As I have argued, in the Thetford Center and Miller Pond area, some of the Native Vermonters I spoke with not only descend from early settlers, as is generally supposed, but also descend from even earlier Vermonters--the Abenaki. Their committment to the land, their sense of identification with family, heritage, and place, then, simply reinforces the feeling/ reality of generations having lived there, of having a special connection to their land, and of wishing to preserve a heritage. When these people grumble about flatlanders and seek to resist newcomers' demands for social change, they are not simpy being parochial, ignorant, or onery, as the newcomer often assumes. Rather they are acting wisely to protect a birthright.

Their dilemma is that of the native everywhere, but made particularly acute by conflicting loyalties. On the other hand, they are American: they vote, pay taxes, go to church, and attend school with their neighbors. As Americans, they are required to give equal opprotunity to all people, regardless of ethnic origin. No public institution may exclude a flatlander; new comers have the right to vote, buy property, and fight for their interests as fully as any native. Because of this, there is no institutional recogntion for these people's interests, and no means to redress a precieved wrong. In

effect, the original land tenure system designed by the white settlers was at bast intended to allow people to appropriate and alienate the land from its inhabitants, and to allow land to become a commodity for the aggrandizement of the larger state and its elites. However, the American Revolution afforded Vermonters the opprotunity to escape the latter oppression to a fair extent, in that Vermonters still have until recently kept taxes and regulations at a minimum, and retained a high degree of local and personal autonomy.

The Abenaki people have been able to establish themselves within this political and economic framework. If anything, the chief in Thetford (Howard F. Knight Jr.) seems ultra-American in his values. And of course, he is, as American and particularly Vermont culture has been shaped and influenced by its aboriginal peoples. For generations now, the backwoods natives have intermarried and taught each other their values and survival tatics. Many people from Abenaki families have served in government and public service, as constable, game warden, town clerk, selectman, Governor (Howard Knight, 1988-1989), possibly even president of the United States (Moody, 1989b). However, the Abenaki have paid for the right to be integrated into white culture by denying their heritage, particularly to outsiders (Fifield, 1988). Most Vermonters do not see their neighbors as Abenaki, and families often deny any non-white affiliation. (Knight, 1988-1989)(Fifield, 1988).

As long as this remains the case, the fate of Native Vermonters generally promises to be the fate of the Abenaki community. However, some Abenaki in Vermont are vocally asserting their different heritage, claiming the right to control and protect their homeland, and to use natural resources to meet their susbsistence needs. In Missisquoi, or Swanton, Vermont, the chief (Homer Walter St. Francis, Sr.) has

declared his nation to be free and sovereign, no longer subordinate to the United States or the state of Vermont. In so doing, he asserts aboriginal rights over the moneyed interests of flatlanders, and eliminates their political power. he would end their ability to exact taxes, build exclusionary developments for elites, or to levy fines on his people for 'disruptive' behavior. Furthermore, he promises to let people build as they please on their own land, "...as long as they don't abuse it...(Homer St. Francis Sr., 1989)". He thus proposes to remove the onerous regulatory burdens of zoning, Act 250, Act 200, etc., which, Native Vermonters believe, inhibit their ability to construct affordable housing on rural-sized lots. Homer St. Francis Sr. also promises a more human-oriented government, where people will be free, basic needs met will be available to all, and everyone will be treated equally. Doctors and bureaucrats would not exploit people, under his system.

Perhaps, in some way the Miller  Pond/ Thetford Center Abenaki community will take inspiration from the Missisquoi. The chief locally has talking about the ne need for unity and the possibility of a tax-free land trust of some sort. He and others have also talked about leaving the area for the north. At present, however, the group here has a fairly informal organization, does not seek to be harassed by outsiders, and does not identify itself publicly. Because of this, this group's interests constitute a a muted voice, and its future direction will probably depend upon the degree to which ethnic diversity becomes an acceptable forum for social interaction and political debate, the degree to which people are willing to perservere, despite enormous pressure to alienate themselves from connection to land and family, and the degree to which young people can incorporate opportunity and social mobility with traditional values. 

FOOTNOTES PAGE 44

1. "...The first settlers...(of Thetford/ Strafford), in 1764, found abundant evidence that this section of country had been inhabited by a numerous tribe of Indians, previous to the war between Great Britain and France, in 1756. In the southern part of the town, near the river, was their old camping-ground, and a small clearing where they had raised corn...(Hemenway, 1871: 1093)".

2. Situated on a backroad between Miller Pond and Old City Falls, in Strafford, Vermont, and marked on the enclosed map.

3. Encircled in green on enclosed map.

4. This map is on display at the Latham Memorial Library, at Thetford Hill, Vermont. It shows the settlement patterns in 1858, compared with 1960.

5. According to Wells' History of Newbury: "...As the towns were being settled, occassionally an Indian would lay claim to a farm or small piece of land...(Blaidsell, 1980: 109)".

6. Michael Caduto is an environmental awareness teacher, who emphasizes Abenaki heritage and traditions in his work in Vermont schools. He related to me in conversation that when schoolchildren are asked to raise their hands if they have Native American ancestry, one out of every ten, roughly, does so, particularly in northern areas, such as Lyndonville, Vermont.

7. For instance, the moose and beaver which had been the mainstays of their diet, (Day, 1978: 154) have only recently become more re-established (Johnson: 92-93, 68-69).

8. I found a number of references to both tramps and gypsies in this area. Margaret Grow, for instance, describes walking past an encampment of gypsies, who, like the Abenaki portrayed by Day (1978) and Moody (1982), sell trinkets and baskets (Grow, 1960: 100). Hester Gardner of the Fairlee Historical Society orally confirmed that there were so-called gypsies who travelled the Connecticut River in this area. Thetford, likewise, early on established a tramp house (Thetford Town Reports, 1911, 1926, etc.). Furthermore, Cate's description of the tinker (1982) sounds precisely like Joseph Bruchac's description of the lifestyle of the Abenaki (Bruchac, 1988).

9. It was common practice i nthe past to exclude people of color from white society, even to the point of seperate or unmarked burials. Howard Knight, the current chief of the local Abenaki, cites Gove Hill as having a pit dug for a child and her Indian mother. Another practice, according to him, was to bury a woman behind the barn--perhaps in an unmarked grave. Given this attitude, families would tend to conceal their Indian ancestry. Likewise, both women and native peoples were denied political power. One has to wonder what sort of choices were involved for such wives, and to what extent they lived their lives in isolation, unnoticed by white male culture.

10. Between Miller Pond/ Skunk Hollow and the West Branch lie the largely unsettled areas of

FOOTNOTES PAGE 45

Whitcomb Hill and Podunk Wildlife Refuge.

11. Although the Orange County Gazeteer lists a Nathan Pero as living in Thetford in 1888 (Child, 1888, ).

12. "...Hunting territories, contrary to popular belief, were not just vaguely defined tracts of wilderness...they were defined in terms of their core features, which in this case consisted of a system of trails related to watercourses. In the center of each...was a tributary stream of a larger river, such as the Connecticut or Missisquoi...Usually there was was a main trail associated with the principal tributary stream. A second main trail ran at right angles to the first, bisecting it and dividing each hunting territory into quarters. Boundaries corresponded more or less to the divides between watersheds...Each hunting territory was controlled by a particular family...(Haviland, 1981: 155-6).

13. This was related to me by a number of newcomer residents I am friends with, who have lived in the back areas of Bradford, South Strafford, Thetford Center and Norwich for ten or more years. For instance, Ken Korey, of Dartmouth College, related how his other backwoods neighbors warned him about the neighbors when he first arrived in Town.

14. I judge this based on conversations I had with a native to the area who belongs to our co-op and whose father is a Dartmouth professor.

15. Such as Manning, Pero, Eastman, Silloway, Jamieson, Stevens, Barker, Thurston, Hawkins, Cole, Stone, Paige. (Howard Franklin Knight, Jr. continues to mention these surnames as being in or associated with his family throughout the years since 1988-1989 as well.)

16. In the patriarchal mind these are often equivalent.

17. See Rexford Guy Tugwell, "The Hired Man" written in 1925, quoted in Wilson, 1936 page 352: "...Provided a man had the minimum physical and psychic qualities neceassary to farming sucess, it was not difficult for him to become a farmer on his own..."

18. See Meeks, 1986: 252-318 and Wilson, 1936.

19. Illegally shining headlights and hunting at night.

20. This was also confirmed in the Fairlee area for fishermen, by William Chapman, Jr. in a personal conversation at the Chapman's Pharmacy and Sportsmen's store in Fairlee.

21. I am not sure now whether this was in one season or over a period of time.

22. Day, 1978: 158.

23. Backwoods natives often do not have working telephones, and many newcomers have native surnames, so these are only rough estimates.

24. Billin, Dan 1988 Valley News November 21 pp. 1, 12. " '...Wages have not kept pace with housing costs', said Pam Green of the Office of Economic Opportunity. "That's beginning to sound like a horribly worn out cliche...(Billin, 1988)' ". See also Boke, 1988 page 44.

FOOTNOTES PAGE 46

25. A survey done by the Town of Strafford in 1988, for instance, revealed that, of those who participated, there was no clear cut difference in values between native Vermonters and newcomers. However, this in itself represents a self-selected sample, and since the identities of the respondants are unknown, there is no way to determine how the responses correlate with other factors, such as cultural heritage, employment history, class and educational background, lacation, of present residence, or even what part of Vermont the natives were born in.

26. Ironically, the primary proponent of this campaign was himself a land-wealthy newcomer.

27. My knowledge of low income, working people in this area comes from working on hotlines such as at Headcrest and the Women's Information Service, as well as participation in groups such as parenting classes at The Family Place, Parents Anonymous, and simply from shopping at the local P and C, Kmart, Listen Center, etc.

28. South Eastern Vermont Community Action. I spoke personally last spring with Mr. Chaffee, a native of Lyme, NH, about the possiblity of researching the dynamics of this phenomenon. He also works in Hartford with the Haven, the Food Station, and as a minister.

29. See also Thomas, 1976: 5-9.

30. "...Not long ago he might have made it picking up odd jobs in the country, being a jack of all trades. But that way of living is almost gone...(Boke: 48-49)".

31. I am not advocating hunger, disease, homelessness or other forms of distress; I am suggesting that Americans live in a cultural system which sets a particular economic standard for people to live by, while denying the circumstances, arbitrariness, and social/ ecological. consequences of those standards.

32. Although modern argricultural appears to pull more out from the earth than less mechanized systems, if one looks and the total energy bill of American farming, and calculates the environmental effect of mining, oil drilling, toxic waste, roads, parking lots and shopping malls, etc etc., it becomes clear that the total use of the land and natural resources vastly exceeds the requirments of societies uninvested in high technology, and I would argue, reflects culturally created rather than real needs.

BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE 1

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Pages 31-38 "Within the Bounds of a Subsistence Oriented Culture..." (Scott E. Hastings Jr. 1982) Native Vermonters in the Miller Pond Watershed: Heritage and Change...

dependent on the larger system , at the bottom of the social ladder, and at the mercy of the market economy and larder political institutions--i.e. welfare, large government, etc. Their autonomy gone, they are almost nameless identities in a sea of mass production--P&C, KMart, TV Culture. Whereas, in Fairlee or Strafford, storekeepers take the time to chat with customers, employees in these places can be fired for talking. The large friendly buttons they sometimes wear does little to cover up the fat that any initiative or originality has been discouraged, and the smile, if there even is one, lasts only as long as one passes through the check-out line. Outside, one sees old cars, crashed in vehicles, pasty, tense faces, and cross parents scolding their children.

John Chaffee of SEVCA 28 and Nicholas Boke (1988: 16-17, 41-51) both point out that most Vermonters are oblidged to work in the growing service industry (ibid: 41,43), which is controlled by out of state interests and corporations in many cases. Many Vermonters do not have the skills, credentials or personalities demanded by these employers. Furthermore, while there are college educated and competent people in this area, for some reason social services, schools and town governments in the Upper Vally repeatedly are replacing local people for out of state expertize, claiming that local talents and judgments no longer meet the needs of the growing area. The recent replacement of Lebanon's high school principal, Whitaker, is only one of several examples I have noted in the last few years. In consequence, native Vermonters who leave their rural homes risk finding themselves disempowered, serving a growing class of upper middle class, essentially urban elites, and excluded from the "good life" their new neighbors so avidly espouse.

Public Services/ Education

Traditionally oriented natives do not see themselves as choosing these changes, but rather as being pushed against their better judgment. Having got along just fine without modern services, programs, and material things, why should they need them now? True, as more and more people inhabit the towns, and as natives move away or become suburbanized, these lifestyles and attitudes become the standard. Nonetheless, a sizeable number of people I spoke with see the demand for services as related to an invasion of people with non-Vermont values--progressives who, confronted by cultural differences, and expecting services and amenities similar to their home towns, require the general public to provide what traditionally has been done by families and individuals.

Taxes, for instance, might be thought by progressives to redistribute income, and provide opportunity and/or relief to low income people. Yet, from another perspective, these taxes only go to support a certain class of people, at the expense of the natives. For instance, school systems are demanding more and more revenue each year. Yet, how is the quality of education measured? Who decides? Are arts, special ed and expensive gym facilities essential? Generally, college oriented people tend to come from college educated parents, middle class students tend to perform better for middle class teachers, and tend to aspire to middle class futures. But why should working class native people pay high taxes to put middle class newcomer children through a system which is designed to teach one group it is superior to the other, and then prepare the overtaxed class to be the docile servant of the other (Harris, 1985: 323-324)? Education has been touted as the solution to class inequities, and as the means to assimilating ethnically different people. Yet, for all the tax dollars

spent and all the hours spent inside these institutions, the truth is that class distinctions are as great or greater than ever before. If anything, assimilationist practices have only served to disempower people and to remove them from their community base of self-determination.

Yet, many Vermonters believe that teachers need higher salaries, and will therefore vote to raise taxes for better services. However, as one teacher put it:

"I can give my student the most challenging assignment available...but as long as his father needs him to keep the farm from going bankrupt that assignment is not going to be done...what does that...(i.e. his salary)...do for educational excellence if my student doesn't own a dictionary?...(Likewise), should I be involved in a strike, I would be striking against farmers, shopkeepers, mill workers...(Keizer, 1988:7)"

At least one interviewee felt that the teachers in this area are part of a growing "element" acting to destroy traditional town values. Another interviewee complained that teachers are being paid full time wages for a day's work, but can be seen sitting with their feet up, smoking in the lounge, and some only come for a day or two for "enrichment" programs. He questioned what his son really learns, as he has to hire a tutor in the summer for his son, to catch up. Yet another backwoods person felt that the kids are allowed to "run the school", and that stronger discipline would improve the situation. In other words, none of these people feel they are getting their money's worth, despite the fact that amongst so-called progressive newcomers Thetford Elementary has a reputation for being one of the "better" schools.

At the high school level, traditionally students from Strafford and Thetford have attended Thetford Academy. Newcomers that I have spoken with, however, prefer to send their children to Hanover, thinking this will better prepare them for college admissions. Caroline Bird, in The Case Against College, suggest that many students would just as well without higher education, and that the emphasis on creditials and the value of liberal arts has no solid basis in measurable terms, certainly it guarantees neither happiness nor higher income (1975: 79, etc). The wish for 'better' education then, may be simply reflect the desire for cultural self-replication, if not snobbery.

The majority of Thetford locals, though, do not send their children to prestigious institutions, or even to college at all. (Town Report, 1989) Naturally, cost is a prohibitive factor. However, according to father David Mcllhiney, there is also a "...northern New England working class ethos that provides tremendous peer pressure on kids not to be smart, not to succeed in school...I hear the stories of the families who have little support of education, who have little opposition to truancy...(Boke, 1988: 45)".

Historically in Thetford, truancy and discipline were problems especially in the backwoods Sawnee Bean and Rice's Mills (Tucker Hill/Grove Hill area) districts, during the first decades of this century (Thetford Town Report 1887, 88,97, 1915, 1918, 1923) and as compared to other districts in the county. In these earlier days, "...some...(parents)...openly state that they have no interest whatsoever...(in shcooling)...(1887: 30)". Today, I still hear tachers discussing the fact that their students and families do not expect them to attend colleges, and really don't concern themselves with academic performance. Amongst the Abenaki in Thetford, only the chief (Howard Franklin Knight, Jr.) has a college diploma, at least one senior member has an eighth grade education, and another backwoods interviewee I spoke with mentioned having only a minimal education as well.

In fact, some locals expressed the feeling that college educated managers, etc. are overly

arrogant, believing that they know it all, yet in fact are incomptent. This perception of educated people extends to well-paid social workers, state bureaucrats, etc. who may be referred to as intruding 'do-gooders'. State and local efforts to raise taxes for socially oriented programs seem to the backwoods Vermonter as oppressive impositions. When a woman in Strafford suggests that her group could provide "...a great day care...", or senior center, if only people would swallow their pride and accept sliding scale services, which are enabled by the taxes"...we pay for...", she speaks as if oblivious to the fact that these taxes are what make housing unaffordable, and consequently split up families and generations, necessitating day cares and senior centers to replace family connection. When she made this statement, a woman who earlier protested zoning against subdivisions because they prohibit families from giving land to their children, got up and walked out, presumably overwhelmed by the cultural gap between them.

Likewise, in some cases, newcomers might be faulted for demanding newer roads, to support commuter cars and ridiculously long driveways for vacation residents. Natives in this area seem to drive pick up trucks appropriate to the back roads, or avoid them altogether. Newcomers want small energy efficient cars to speed down the highway to work in more urban settings. In Strafford too, new developments have occurred precisely in those area where accessibility is poor, on back roads which offer a getaway from people (Valley News, May 26, 1988:9). In the Whitcomb Hill area, for instance, I noted several new cabins tucked away in seemingly uninhabited areas. From the looks of these well-built dwellings, my guess was that these represented those newcomers who want to enjoy the area secluded from the community, outside the village.

C. Ecological Politics

Clearly, backwoods Vermonters also want privacy. On the other hand, while they might not live in the villages as do the classics, they nonetheless tend to build near to existing town roads rather than investing in miles of driveway to get to a hilltop view. Native Vermonters have no romantic illusions about the expense and nuisance of mud, ice, grading and snow removal. They seek to make their lives easier by staying near a town road. They do not drive Mercedes at 5 miles per hour on a class 3 road, nor do they demand that the road be paved as soon as they move in, as occurred in one case in Union Village, and appears to be happening to Strafford. Instances such as the above contribute to the feeling that flatlanders are completely out of touch with rural live and ought to go home to where they came from.

Then again, until recently, hidden backwoods areas have been the enclave of lower income people:

"...unless you go out of your way to find it, it's awfully easy to miss what one local social worker calls 'the horrible trap of poverty...' It's hidden in the towns, down those streets we avoid, in the countryside at the end of deep-rutted dirt roads...(Boke, 1988: 41)"

The cabins in Vershire, for instance, while being outside the main village and on dirt roads, are along the town maintained strip, are much smaller, and are made almost from scrap materials. Likewise with cabins along Barker Brook, Swanee Brean, Abbot Brook, etc.

Newcomers, expecting a 'nice' community, tend to be baffled and frustrated by the locals, and tend to portray them in negative terms, often while attempting to by sympathetic. Like earlier white settlers, the flatlander sees the native as backward. In one example, a conflict between a selectwoman and some Connecticut people included the following insults:

"...He told me I didn't know anything, that I'm stupid. He's always telling us how stupid we are..." The flatlanders: "...she is arrogant and she is ignorant...(she) also criticized Johnson's house on Copperfield road, which needs a coat of paint...'How can anyone who lives the way she does know anything? She told me I was a flatlander and that I should go back to Connecticut where I belong...There's no guidance at all in this town, no zoning, no nothing...People live in dirty, filthy dumps with no sewers or septic tanks...(Behind the Times: Oct. 1988: 1, 29)"

Along the same lines was a letter to the editor which praised the beauty of Vermont, while trashing its people:

"...Mr. Lillie, if you and other native Vermonters revere the hallowed grounds and dirt roads of Vermont and, above all the animal habitats, why then do you sell to flatlanders in the first place? ...if you and others really care for Vermont and its beautiful countryside, why not ask some native and local Vermonters to clean up their acts. I've seen land covered with broken-down houses, old trucks, and cars and heaven knows what else. Also I've seen some of the most deplorable animal living conditions. The ugly sights and odors of some of these places are sickening especially if one lives near them...Please don't classify all flatlanders as the invading enemy. We too, love beauty and Vermont (Bea Quinn White, 1988)

Some new Vermonters, seeking to preserve the "beauty" of Vermont (an adjective also used frequently in the Governor's Report, 1988) by voting and lobbying for increased restrictions on land use. Some efforts include increased environmental legislation, such as Act 250 and Act 200, stricter zoning laws which prevent subdivisions in designated areas, and the Land Trust movement. Although some Vermonters supports and participate in these activities, I observe at their meetings, that it is a  middle class elite, many of which are newcomers, who are the primary organizers and leaders of these efforts. These certianly are the people most articulate about the problems, and often the most favorably positioned to donate time, money, and land.

Zoning is justified by the notion that there is one tradition in Vermont--the classic. One classic notion is that of the village and farm--as expressed in the Governor's Report "...the traditional rural scene in Vermont, characterized by concentrated settlement in villages and open countryside dotted with farms...(1988: 8)". While I found some supporting evidence for this pattern, particularly in Thetford (Child, 1988), this ignores the reality of backwoods people who have lived outside the classic village centers for over one hundred years, and for the Abenaki, for at least ten thousand.

I tend to think that the village as norm idea reflects the southern New England, or (explicitly, in one case) British, background of its proponents, and the ideal of the dairy farm and quiet village, as well as deer hunting, reflects an orientation which seeks to replicate southern New England ecology and culture, just as Europeans sought to replicate their homeland in America. The southern British colonies early one attempted to replicate the village settlement patterns of Europe. Likewise, the climate there encouraged larger population densities and a more extensive agriculture than in the north, for both Europeans and aboriginal peoples (Cronon, 1983: 41-42). As I have mentioned, the

white settlers of Strafford and Thetford primarily originated from Connecticut or New Hampshire (Hemenway: 1092), and to a lesser degree, Massachusetts. To the extent that Vermont has in places emulated the above mentioned design, it has been through the efforts of people derived from this cultural stock.

In Vermont, however, settlements were more dispersed, both aboriginally and during white settlement (Hastings, 1982, 83). While the Abenaki did live together seasonally in some areas, hunting territories were dispersed according to family bands (Haviland, 1981: 155-6). People spent large amounts of time geographically seperated from each other, and there may have been families whose lifestyle was primarily dependant upon game, (Cronon, 1983: 41-41). Particularly inland, and as one leaves the Connecticut Valley for higher elevations (as in Strafford, Pero Hill, etc.), the growing season get increasingly shorter, making agriculture less feasible as an economic base, and preventing dense, sedentary population 29. The incursion of white settlements only served to seperate and  disperse any remaining aboriginal peoples all the more.

The first Vermont settlers trickled in slowly at first, clearing where they chose rather than in a pre-determined pattern. For a long time, there were few if any settlers west of the Ompopanoosuc (Hemenway: 10193) i.e. in the area I have identified as having an Abenaki component. Even in 1877,

the hilly parts of this particular area of Thetford were sparsely settled (Beers: 75,79, 60, 56), as they are today. Likewise, in 1877, Strafford, also, had a number of settlements on its Eastern edge, along Abbott brook and the Miller Pond area, but these were spread out rather than clustered in villages (F.W. Beers: 75). It does seem true that a majority of people settled nearby the village; however people always had the option of living in the backwoods or in the hills. Land was not expensive, and even delinquency in taxes did not necessarily require forfeiture of the land, as towns provided for indigent residents.

Today, many native Vermonters stay clear of the newcomers' organizational meetings, and view any legislation with suspicion and/or hostility. Zoning to them is a violation of their property rights and freedoms. They resent the fact that it costs, for instance, $1500 simply to subdivide land to give away, to their children. They wonder why it used to be normal to splie one's property, keeping it in the family. Now so called environmentalists want to prohibit the practice by limiting lot sizes--but this prevents family continuity and connection with a homeland. The natives observe that flatlanders came to get away from all this, yet then introduce "...more regulations than we ever even thought of...". Likewise, Act 250, which many newcomers  feel makes the state particularly desirable to live in, is seen by backwoods people I spoke with as an unnecessary and odious oppression. On fairly young Abenaki man from Thetford, for instance, saw no reason to require the expensive septic systems the state now requires. Worse, another believed that the State only passes people who have money, and that native, low income people can't build because the executors of this legislation descriminate against them. As he believes, Kunin doesn't believe they constitute an "...improvement...".

For generations, Vermonters have enjoyed the ecology of farms and forest because their economy, and because they inherited this lifestyle of small landholdings and independence. Population density was controlled by the difficulty of making a living; and after the first wave of immigrants, many Vermonters went west for better land, or migrated to urban areas with

better-paying jobs (Barron, 1984). Those who stayed behind had strong family ties, and/or were willing to get by with what they had. A low population density furthermore prevented overexploitation of resources, and mitigated the environmental impact of individual's activities and ecological patterns. Besides the obvious problem of population growth, the local economy no longer demands upon self-sufficient, closed systems. Employment opportunities have changed, as the service industry mushrooms and rural jobs decline (Boke, 1988: 41-43, 48-49)31. Commuting has drastically changed people's horizons, and now products can be imported to remote areas.

Finally, people are choosing their domiciles for cultural, rather than strictly economic reasons (meeks, 1986: 214). They want to preservean ecology for aesthetic reasons, and rather than rely on the goodwill of their neighbors, they seek to impose coercive legislation to maintain the environment which they prefer, despite the economic and social consequences for natives.

Before preceeding to the next topic, I wish to deal with an "alternative" version of the flatlander-as-catalyst-for-change which is also popular and influential in this area, i.e., the:

Back to the Landers

While the flatlander, particularly the tourist, vacationer, or newcomer frequently exposes this ignorance of country life, other non-natives have come to live here and adopt many of the same lifestyles as their neighbors. Particularly since 1960, Vermont has seen a dramatic increase in this group, sometimes referred as the "back to the landers". They may raise animals, garden, split wood, and even argue passionately to preserve Vermont--thus "...Out Vermont (ing) the Vermonter...(Meeks, 1986: 323)". At times their zeal may seem to stand in the way of economic and social progress, as they protest locally run gravel pits, commercial development, industrial plants, etc. which might economically benefit natives.

Ultimately, though, they tend to share similar cultural perspectives with the flatlanders and classic Vermonters who come from the same cultural origins. What is different between the native and the flatlander using the land is that the folks who come to do these things don't have to for their survival. Like an anthropologist reading a culture, these people self-consciously define their values and have chosen to settle away from their roots. The more radical amongst them may be in conflict with their own parents, at odds with mainstream society, eager to protest. Without family nearby, they look to state-sponsored programs for solutions to their problems, and expect public monies and legistlative action to promote their particular ideologies. They may have come here without tremendous monetary resources, nonetheless, they generally have good educations and fairly well-off families of origin. Their migration into the area indicates both an outlook which seeks to find a better life, even if it is defined differently from their parent's, and the resources (monetary, personality, job skills) to find it. If necessary they could relocate, and they expect their children will similarly find their own way in the world. They want the best for their children, and their sense of that best, perhaps unconsciously, has been shaped by their earlier middle class upbringing.

In contrast, to persons born and raised in the same home town, what matters is relationships with people, and one's relation to the land becomes a matter of course. For backwoods Vermonters,

particularly Abenaki, social mobility exacts the price of losing one's birthright. Even for classics and newcomers who have lived in the area for awhile, it seems that to really 'make it', one must be willing to pull up roots and go in search of jobs elsewhere. However, people who are connected to a place and extended family, cannot move these. As anthropologists such as Marvin Harris have argued, one's culture is intimately linked to one's ecological relations, including economics. Thus, to leave one's land behind, is to relinquish a vital part of one's nature.

At the same time, the land here has a strong power, its seasons and rhythms touch and affect people. Some feel overwhelmed by the cold and hardship, others wish to protect and preserve; others try to get away, but "...always come back..." At heart, backwoods Vermonts, like activist back to the landers, wish for the area to stay undeveloped, as this allows them to continue their cultural patterns. But unlike activists who push for restrictive legislation, backwoods folks see that it is they, rather than the newcomers, who are being excluded from the land.

The newcomer sees the material conditions, the artifacts, and the formal shape of local institutions. He seeks to appropriate those aspects which seem most appealing, but rejects the rest, without acknowledging the integration of culture and ecology. If the newcomer prevails, land in the family for generations, may be zoned so as to restrict its development, and taxed to support public services, thus making it unaffordable to all but the wealthy, i.e. those flatlanders buying up old farmhouses. Furthermore, the diversity of the landscape and the care with which it has been managed reflects the small ownership of various personalities. For example, whereas in some instances people need electricity, in other cases alternative solutions might be devised. Likewise, some people might live in small cabins with outhouses, while others require complicated septic systems. Whereas some farmers might maintain a pine woodlot, others might prefer pasture or hardwoods. But when Vermont becomes controlled by regulation, Vermont becomes standardized. People's idiosyncratic solutions cannot paint themselves on the land.

Striving for utopian ideals of social harmony, beauty and ecological purity, the newcomer ignores that these reflect the material condition and lifestyle of the people--that people have made their living off the land, rather than through shopping malls, services industries, retails sales, or industrial plants. When natives seem poor, it reflects the fact that they have lived without those same commodities which require environmental exploitation and which create pollution elsewhere. In other words, if the land seems "untarnished", or "beautiful", this reflects the way the people have lived there. When the people change, the land too changes.

VERMONTERS IN THE AMERICAN CONTECT: RURAL VS. URBAN

Incomes of the sort the flatlander is accustomed to are functions of the specialization of an advanced society, which regulates agriculture and industry to seperate spheres, socially and geographically, Wagner, in "Culture as Creativity", pointed out that in primitive cultures, people are what is valuable, people are what are reproduced, people are the basis of production. To Westerners, people are expendable--things are what remain, production of things marks our history. Thus invention, technology, and education to further the advance of "culture" are valued. People's lives are measured by what they prudice, if not strictly, then in terms of cultural achievement, be

it in the arts, sports, sciences or other 'disciplines (Wagner, 1977). To merely merely interact with neighbors, to maintain a homestead, or a stable income and adequate level of material existence isn't considered enough. Thus, a subsistence lifestyle, while the norm around the world, and the most ecologically sane, is seen as backwards and improvished, particularly to those whose frame of reference has always been middle class social mobility and privilage, but also for Euroamericans generally who compare themselves to those around them and who are educated with the same values.31

To improve one's self, one needs revenue, derived from increased production. Whereas the early Vermonters produced mostly what they themselves used, later settlers began commercial farms, in order to make a profit. More generally, the conquest of America, has consisted of the replacement of aboriginal peoples with centers of energy transformation of mind-boggling dimensions. America has been the natural resource, the raw material to be converted into a civilization, a complex society of immense proportions. For the most part, the assumption that everyone can and should strive to better themselves materially has never been questioned; certainly no connection is acknowledged between social mobility and the poverty of aboriginals who occupied the land, or people of color who provided the labor. Rarely do Americans percieve their material accumulations as resulting from the destruction and heavier exploitation of natural resources and habitats, not only of non-human life, but in turn of human beings, who depend on these same for their own cultural and biological existence. As the original inhabitants have been displaced, so habitats have been destroyed or altered. Subsistence farmers, because they did/do not produce 'competitively' have been pushed under, and now small farmers likewise can't survive.

Some ecology minded people of course do see this connection. However, they do not connect their cultural activities with the notion of surplus economy. Therefore, when they wish for more arts or better education, or pleasant, 'beautiful' surroundings, they fail to realize that these are made possible because of the energy flow of civilizations. In studies of prehistoric civilization and sociocultural evolution, cities, and by extension states, themselves create the injustices and hierarchies between people which progressive-minded people seek to address, as well as the environmental load on rural areas. It is the nature of complex, or 'civilized societies to direct the flow of goods from the rural workers, to the urban (or today, suburban) elites and their support systems, often putting them to what is conventionally referred as 'cultural'-i.e. artistic, religious, non-materially productive usses. Furthermore, as this occurs, the health of the ordinary worker or peasant deteriorates (Harris, 1984: 216-219).

The land itself must produce more and more, far more than the subsistence needs of the inhabitants. This surplus is collected by elites in the form of tribute, forced labor, rents or taxes. In Vermont today, it is collected in the form of taxes, or indirectly from people's labor and rents. Ecologically, an urban-oriented society automatically uses the land unequally, just as people live unequally. The more speciallized and urban the society, the more must be extracted from the land 32. A small town of independant farmers, without alot of services or material demands might be able to use the land extensively (rather than intensively), and not draw too heavily on outside resources. As people demand more and more materially and culturally, and as less and less materially self-sufficient people occupy the land, the farmer is forced either to produce more for less, or find new uses for the land.

Pages 24-30 "Within the Bounds of a Subsistence Oriented Culture..." (Scott E. Hastings Jr. 1982) Native Vermonters in the Miller Pond Watershed: Heritage and Change...

roads, and travels overland. People who engage in this activity, then, see the terrain differently than those whose orientation is directed by roads and villages. Places that seem disconnected when travelling by automobile become close by and connected when walking. Snowmobiling and jeep trails also connect one, but hunting requires particularly close observation. The popularity of ATV's can nonetheless be seen in terms of their permitting greater exploration of the landscape, and reflects the values of people who think in practical terms, enjoy being together out of doors, and engaging in physically stimulating activity.

In sum, traditionally, the people of this area have been oriented by home and the lay of the land, by the seasons and the weather--cycles tied in with the ecology. Economically, these Vermonters are intergrated into a larger economy and political structure, yet in other ways they seem to still be living and thinking in terms of small communities and even clans, in rhythm with the land, thinking in terms of homeland, subsistance, and continuity. While it is true that some natives engaged in farming, and many still value this activity, very few engage in it for their livelihood, and of those who do, only on a small scale. In fact, many of the most economically viable farms are owned and operated by non-natives. The Vermont farm is ideal native prototype, then, represents a mythic past, one which is disproportionately supported by non-natives.

On the other had, there are other aspects tot he native's lifestyple which reflect and depend upon rural ecology. The hunter, for instance, often owns limited acreage, and thus depends upon both the cooperation and scarcity of neighbors. Other aspects include privacy, freedom from interference, a sense of ownership and pride, mobility, access to subsistence related resources such as wood, gardens, syrup, fresh water, etc., as well as a sense of community cohesion and stability. Classics tend to see these benefits as dependent upon a farm economy. However, these positive aspects of lift existed before white settlers arrived, and before the growth of the diary industry as we know it today.

PROBLEMS AND CHANGES

A. In the Community

Although low income Vermont has been isolated and stable, dependent on emigration for this stability (Barron, 1982) and never overpopulating the state; since the 1950's and even the 1940's, but especially the 1960's (Meeks, 1986: 207), Vermont has had increasingly to cope with a growing population of immigrants, particularly from southern New England, New York, and even New Jersey. This has caused considerable stress on local Vermonters, as many cannot compete with the resulting greater material, social and political demands of this new culture. Many of the social and political goals of the newcomers seem orrelevant to the rural orientation of the area, while public programs which they support address only the symptoms, not the root of the problems. Worse still, newcomers tend to favor protective legislation which threatens the economic viability of the backwoods lifestyle. To the backwoods native, maintaining his rural ties and lifestyle makes the difference between cultural integrity and independence or wage slavery and suburbanization, particularly since many of the options available to newcomers remain inaccessible if not undesirable to the natives.

Demography

Generally, it has been in the past few decades that improvements in transportation, the building of the interstate and the paving of major roads such as 132 (potter, 1971, 11), the introduction of electricity and the telephone (ibid: 1-2), and the development of Vermont's tourist industry--particularly skiing--having made the lifestyle of this area more accessible to newcomers. Additionally, it has made the possibility of working in a more urban setting, such as Hanover, while living in a remote area, feasible. This accessibility has exacerbated economic and social tensions everywhere in the state, as formerly rural areas now find themselves inhabited by suburban-oriented people with different expections and lifestyles. Although many locals work in Hanover, often they hold low-status positions and retain their roots in their communties. Newcomers, however, are not so rooted, and frequently feel alienated from their neighbors. Their bewilderment at native behavior often expresses itself in negative terms. At the same time, they tend to hold and defend an idealized image of pastoral lifestyle and ecology, to the dismay of their local neighbors who find themselves struggling politically, economically, and socially to maintain a foothold in their home towns.

In my area, the statistics for Strafford and Thetford are somewhat different, as Thetford has experienced far more population growth and particularly attracts "flatlander" outsiders wishing to commute to the Hanover area for professionally oriented jobs, via Interstate 91. Strafford, by constrast, has been a bit more isolated. In the 1960's, when Thetford's population was ballooning, Strafford's population declined (Meeks, 1986: 205-6, 208). My guess is that many locals departed at that time in search of non-farm income, or else died from old age. Strafford and Vershire in 1979 had between 60-80% native born residents, as opposed to less than 60% in Thetford (Meeks, 1986: 322). Perusal of the Telephone Directory, as put out by the Newton School PTA in 1988, indicates 45% of Strafford residents are natives. In the Skunk Hollow/ Miler Pond area, the percentage of natives was roughly 53% 23. Inside the watershed area, as noted before, famillies still own areas of land in continuity. However, there are increasing numbers of new houses nearby, or sometimes between relatives, indicating that the land has been sold to newcomers. Still, although people do sell their land, many subdivisions in the area have been to family members. Likewise, some of the new houses and migration can be attributed to people moving from more expensive towns, such as Norwich and Thetford. Vershire, in particular seems to have a large number of cabins put up on the dirt roads leading from Miller Pond into the village. Judging from their modest condition, these seem to be backwoods constructions, as opposed to the more upscale newcomers' 'getaways' being developed in Strafford.

Community Breakdown

In fact, some people see their lifestyle as slipping away. As a middle aged backwoods native of Thetford put it "...People are running for their lives..." but there is nowhere to run to. His brother, who owned a lot adjacent to himself and their father, pulled up his roots, sold off his share of the family homestead, amd moved to the nearby town of Vershire--only to find his taxes doubled in a year. In another case, a Strafford man said he couldn't afford to live in town when he retired. When people near him expressed dismay and offered to help, he simply said "...Oh, I'm going to retire here,

but I won't be able to afford it...". His family farm is now for sale. Many of the people I interviewed were particularly handicapped,in that they live on limited incomes, due to disability or retirement. Other, younger people perhaps have more options, yet generally, wages and opprotunities are not keeping pace with the growing costs of living and real estate, including property taxes as well as rents 24. As one Strafford woman put it, "...I pay more in taxes on my house now than I originally paid for it..." In Upper Valley Echoes, Ira Stevens likewise mentions "...that farm we bought in Lyme in '32, we paid $2,000 for it and 160 acres. Now the house alone is for sale for $500,000...(Croft, 1989: 1).

Farming, for those who engage in it on a small scale, no longer makes economic sense, or simply doesn't appeal to young people, who leave to find work elsewhere. One backwoods person who had given up dairy farming, had moved to Strafford after leaving Norwich roughly 15 years ago, to get out of paying the taxes, and to avoid its increasing suburbanization. Several people I spoke with discussed plans to move to Maine, or even Canada, even though their family, heritage and roots have been in the area for generations. The idea of selling out was not viewed as an opportunity to "...make a killing...", as one newcomer Vermonter described selling a home in Vermont's rising speculative market, but rather brought up very negative feelings, almost tears. As one Gove Hill man put it, "...I can't tell you how sick I feel inside...".

While economics play a key role in people's decisions to leave the area, the changing nature of the community seemed important as well. One backwoods man in Thetford, besides not wanting a property tax assessment comparable to his neighbors, also felt crowded by the extensive development scheduled to go in uphill from his small house. In blunt terms, "...Pardon me ma'am, but I want to be able to take a piss out my back door if I feel like it..." Other interviewees reated to development with a emphatic "...Jesus, Stratford's getting built up!...", comments about lots of new houses going up, questions about how many houses we planned to build on our co-op, and shocked reactions that we were practically putting up condo's, etc.

People frequently complain that whereas they used to know everyone in town and feel welcome at any door, now no one knows any one. Town officials in Stafford are dismayed by the impersonal and threatening, even belligerent manner of some residents, particularly over road maintenance. Rather than coming in to discuss differences, selectment find themselves receiving letters promising to go to court over roads they had never even heard of; or meetings called in protest about problems not known to exist. In Thetford, the political problem is acute, as class differences are quite strong and there is a very vocal and radical element in the town. Likewise, just as Vermont has shifted from Republicanism to electing a Democratic governor and nearly sending socialist/ independent "...Bernie Sanders to the congress...", Strafford nominated Jesse Jackson in the presidential primary.

Andrew Nemethy, in Meeks' Geography (1986: 325) remarks that natives frequently are avoiding town meeting, feeling their votes no longer count. In Thetford this year one particularly vocal backwoods type was admonished by the local newspaper simply to stay home this year, rather than stir up unpleasant controversy (Valley News Op Ed, Feb 10, 1989: 20). This person related to me how he and others had been harassed, and he felt many people who agreed with him were simply too timid to speak up or protest. In Strafford, the meetings I attended suggested that there was a pretty even mix between old timers and new, but that the backwoods types (as opposed to  classic) that I know of either were not in evidence, or sat to the rear of the room, clustered together, and did

not speak up. In Vershire, where people have been moving to, it appears that the natives still run the town, judging from comments by friends who live there, and reading the selectmens' reports in Behind the Times, a northern Upper Valley publication.

Whereas I earlier epmphasized family connections and neighborliness as important to people's lives, some interviewees clamined never to see their family: "...I see him about as much as I see you...", and not to go beyond their particular territory, almost taking pleasure in being "...just a country boy...". Some are noted for their animosity; the Kendall brothers reputedly refuse to speak with each other, another despises his daughter-in-law and son. Locals will warn new people to stay away from "rowdies", or refer to others as "damaged", "drunk" or "clannish", i.e. hard to approach. One interviewee lamented that no one rejected the traditional values of the town anymore. He claimed people used to really participate in barn-raisings, etc, but no one helps anyone out any more.

Since my own experience of the Upper Valley has been that people are quite helpful and friendly, I speculate that either this friendliness is a vestige of a time when people were even more closely knit, and the ethic if not the practice has remained, but still works more strongly than in a truly urban area; or possibly this reflects the degree to which is now possible for neighbors to travel in completely different circles. This last possibility only empasizes the breakdown in social cohesiveness in the area, and the increase in stratification and alienation between neighbors.

The Flatlander Invasion

The values of the backwoods native contrast with the more Calvinist and romantic images of the farmer, which appeal to not only the classic Vermonter, but particularly to a new class of "...radical elites..." which as appropriated Vermont image to meet its own needs. Whereas the tourist promotes the economy, but ultimately goes home and  leaves the land to the native, the newcomer attempts to instill his ideas into the institutional framework permanently. Often this is accompanied by rightous justification, as the newcomer is convinced of his moral superiority. Increasingly, the native Vermonter is faced with the choice of clinging to traditional ways but struggling to get by, or conforming to norms he did not create.

As I taked to people locally, listend to "leaders" organizing Vermonters, looked carefully at their followers, and listend to their presentations and casual remarks, I observed that members of this new class claim the state as theirs, yet do not depend on land-based economy for their subsistence. These people statewide consist of flatlanders and newcomers, as well as urbanized Vermonters. They consist of an increasingly large number of middle class people, some retired but many more young adults, well educated, often owning valuable property. Their dialogue gears itself to similarity educated people. Those with eitgth grade education and urbane experience, as well as class privilege, often fail to see how their programs and values reflect their own ethnocentric opinions and interests.

Many of these new people come from southern New England, or even farther away, hopng to make a better life for themselves. They often have high expectations and preconceptions about the nature of land use and community (Meeks, 1986: 321), which don't fit the more diverse and often unromantic reality. When reality doesn't fit their dreams, they attempt to politically force reality into their utopian molds. As a result, natives feel that their tradtional independence and opprotunity to

live as one could is being attacked, often under the guise of progress, social justice and environmental protection.

One thus finds two or more groups of people living in the same town, viewing each other with suspicion. Cultural, political, and economic conflicts play themselves out through a sort of esoteric/ exoteric interplay, each side adopting images of each other and themselves. On the one hand, the flatlander tries to be a "real Vermonter", on the other hand, natives may or may not fit the stereotype, but may adopt or personify these traits in social or politically tense situations. 25 Likewise, the stereotypes of the flatlanders serve to explain the native's economic distress, and to bloster self-esteem. When one sees high-priced merchandise, for instance, one can justify its inaccessibility in terms of its being for a flatlander clientele. Rather than experience one's self as at the bottom of the economic and social ladder, one can see one's self as a leader and respected equal among peers--i.e. other natives like one's self.

By natives, the flatlander is viewed as a rich, arrogant, but generally stupid outsider who thinks he knows everything, but relies on the Vermonter to pull him out of the ditch, set him straight, etc. In the distant past, natives taught settlers how to survive, how to use medicinal plants, how to hunt and trap, etc., As stated earlier, even recently, Abenaki were employed as guides to sportsmen. Locals likewise give newcomers hints about the best deals and ways to get by, from yard sells and wood dealers to getting a septic system approved. On the one hand, natives enjoy teaching their skills to 'novice Vermonters", on the other hand, they lament that flatlanders, despite intentions to enjoy the rural lifestyle, inevitably bring with them the very things they sought to escape.

In many instances, people, people, particularly of the classic type, attempt to maintain friendly relations and to downplay differences, in an attempt to cooperate, etc. On the other hand, typical comments which come out almost in spite of themselves are "...You are here because you were trying to get area from what you left...", or, ...What I really enjoyed about this town was knowing everyone--that's gone...". Again, I heard the comment from one woman that "...Thetford used to be recognized in villages and farm land, but now out-of-state money has come in, and all you see is desolation...and they all want to work in Hanover..." People on a one-to-one basis wish to be friendly, offer support, etc. On the other hand, they will tell you they are hurting--that the process of even single lot development by newcomers serves to crowd them, make their own homes unaffordable, and create tension between the haves and the have lesses.

In the public arena, I frequently read quotes from officials and writers to Valley News editorials which explicitly state the desire to people out. Likewise, one's status as a native or flatlander can be used to defend or defeat public issues or to win elections. In 1986, for instance, a heated and almost vicious campaign was waged against a school appropriation bill in Strafford. Supporters maintained its necessity and cited State requirements to push their position. Opponents implied that this violated native values and was evidence of flatlanders taking over the town. 26 Likewise, one dissenter at a meeting at a meeting I attended, felt it advantageous to point out that Governor Kunin herself is not a native Vermonter. In Woodstock, State consultants advised upgrading Route 4 to a four-lane highway. Viewed by some as yet another expensive, unnecessary and intrusive idiocy, destined to create more development, dislocation, and influx of outsiders, people protested. The Woodstock town manager put it: "...We'll be damned if we're going to encourage more out-of-staters to come through here...(Heil, 1988: 1,5).

In Thetford, the animostity  was once very directly and forcefully expressed. According to Ken Korey, in the Town of Thetford in the 1970's, rowdies frequently attacked cars which belonged to outsiders. I see this as a clear expression of these people's sentiments. They apparently wished to convey the message that the town was inhospitable. Similarly, some natives will approach new neighbors at times and harangue about flatlanders, how rough times used to be, etc. On our land, a local guy came by and told us scare stories about terrible winters about floods in the area. Again, at the end of the deer season two years ago, one backwoods type put up a frightening effigy of an old man, hanging like a caught deer from his hunting cabin: "...for the flatlanders...".

B. Changes in Economic Orientation

While the flatlander may be seen as a invading menace, he also provides Vermonters with a source of income. Just as the Abenaki earned money from the fur trade, subsequent Vermonters have expoloited the tourist trade and the northeastern markers. In a sense, today's flatlanders come from the very same places that the traditional enemies came from, i.e. the Iroquois from New York, or British settlers from the south. They have always seemed to the native inhabitants as overrunning the country, demanding tribute or taxes, posing a threat of overpopulation or overexploitation. Either they have romanticized Vermont, or they have degraded the natives as uncivilized and backwards. Yet, without the outsiders, the native would not have access to desired items, whether guns and cloth, Europeans plants and products, or industrially made cars, videos, plastics, etc.

Whereas once the land was the primary source of the economy, now farms are becoming hobbies, particularly for wealthy people who can afford to buy, maintain, and pay the taxes for them. Newcomers seeking to homestead are viewed suspiciously by native as "playing", or living in a land of "make believe". Around Vermont, farm skills are promoted as crafts, quaint cultural activities to attract tourists, much as Native American comunities have exploited traditional arts and technologies to raise revenue for their people. Homespun wool gets a better price than machine made, "natural" soups, sauces, breads, etc. as well as the more traditional maple products, specialty cheeses, organic produce and meats are sold for mint prices to the health-conscious and yuppies with the inclination and money to buy them. In the fall of 1988, Strafford, specifically, hosted a sheepherding demonstration which brought a good crowd, and local fairs likewise bring in their share of newcomers and hobbyists.

These activities in themselves can be said to enhance te diversity and versatility of Vermont's economy, and may provide traditional farmers with new options as the traditional agricultural patters fail to keep pace with increasing economic demands. As stated earlier, the state has always actively encouraged tourism, even in the nineteenth century (McGrath, 1988)(Meeks, 1986: 140-156). State supported magazines, such as Vermont Life, meanwhile have advertised that Vermont is here for the taking; thus selling flatlanders the advantages of rural life and pushing up the real estate market (McGrath, 1988).

Classic Vermonters tend to go along with the changes somewhat, in that they accept change as inevitable and wish their children to be able to do well in the future. Those who already have some

capital, land, or resources, can put the new markets to their own use. Likewise, contractors and builders are in high demand, and their wages have been increasing somewhat. Furthermore, flatlander or no, increasingly people are giving up their rural activities in favor of better jobs in town, and store bought material conveniences. A continuing and increasing interest in modern things, including not only electric appliances, VCR's and better vehicles, but also health care, store bought convenience foods, paper diapers, etc., has also made the rural lifestyle less appealing to younger people. Gladys Silloway, for instance, mentioned that her daughter complained about needing to work rather than stay home with her children because of not having enough money, and only when she finally got her VCR, she felt she had "...the essentials...".

At the same time, this change in material culture necessities a cash-oriented economy. Whereas once people could derive most of their material needs from their land and labor, the new commondities and sources of energy cannot be produced at home, even if people want to or remember how. Whereas one might have bartered or exchanged with one's peers, who were to some measure accountable to the community, now prices and to some extent even wages are set by anonymous entities whose values and points of reference seem arbitrary and removed. Local banks, for instance, are increasingly being taken over by out of state institutions, with rules regulations unsuited for rural people (Allen Hunt, 1988).

Unhealthy as well, is the way real estate has skyrocketed in the last few years, so that people working and living in the area feel they cannot afford to stay. The popularization of the classic Vermont creates competition between the rural self-sufficient economy, and the tourist-oriented recreation and service business which promotes the classic Vermont image to the exclusion of other aspects of Vermont life. People who enjoy the recreational opprotunities of Vermont wish to buy or build second homes, and the influx of relocated people with higher incomes frum urban employment pushes the real estate beyond the means of lower income natives. Farmers, already finding themselves stressed to make a living due to overcapitalization and Western competition, cannot afford to pay the rising taxes, and selling their land may bring in more revenue than farming (Meeks, 1986: 281-283). Developments further increase the appraisal of land, and in turn the appraisements of neighboring land, even for those people who are not in the market.

Locally, prices are often set according to the most wealthy consumers, namely the flatlanders and newcomers who find the inflated prices a bargain. Country real estate, as I've state, reflects this outside money, but so also do clothing boutiques, restaurants, toy stores, and even farm stands. As Keizer, himself a teacher, puts it:

"...there are two Vermonts: the Vermont of ski lodges, craft boutiques, and fine restaurants; the Vermont of rusted trailers, failing farms, and the endless cough. Teachers...(and other middle class newcomes)...who work in the latter are nevertheless able to move somewhat comfortably in the former. When I go out to eat, I meet more tourists than neighbors. If I go to "Queen city" to shop, I meet more teachers than anyone else I know..."(Keizer, 1988: 8)

Especially in towns just south of Thetford and Strafford, such as Lebanon and Hartford, I see people aspiring to better themselves, or even just to stay even, yet see it all slipping away as more and more money is required for less and less 27. While some people no doubt do find a better life, many have lost touch with the land, and the sense of community. They see not better off, but