Draft No 3.2 of Bill S.222 April 29, 2010 Fred Wiseman and Don Stevens' Proposed Changes To S.222:

(written in pencil....BRACKETED TEXT APPEARS IN RED

IN ORIGINAL RECORD

- SG 06/20/2010

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[Fred Wiseman and Don Stevens proposed changes 4/29/10] (IN RED)

TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

The Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs to which was referred Senate Bill No. 222 entitled "An act relating to recognition of Abenaki tribes" respectfully reports that it has considered the same and recommends that the House propose to the Senate that the bill be amended by striking out all after the enacting clause and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

Sec. 1. 1 V.S.A. § 851 is amended to read:

§ 851. FINDINGS

The general assembly finds that:

(1) At least 1,700 Vermonters claim to be direct descendants of the several indigenous Native American peoples, now known as Western Abenaki tribes, who originally inhabited all of Vermont and New Hampshire, parts of western Maine, parts of southern Quebec, and parts of upstate New York for hundreds of years, beginning long before the arrival of Europeans.

(2) There is ample archaeological evidence that demonstrates that the Missisquoi Abenaki were indigenous to and farmed the river floodplains of Vermont at least as far back as the 1100s A.D.

VT LEG 257884.1

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(3) The Western Abenaki, including the Missisquoi, have a very definite and carefully maintained oral tradition that consistently references the Champlain valley in western Vermont.

(4) State recognition confers official acknowledgment of the longstanding existence in Vermont of Native American Indians who predated European settlement and enhances dignity and pride in their heritage and community.

4 (5) Many contemporary Abenaki families continue to produce traditional crafts and intend to continue to pass on these indigenous traditions to the younger generations. In order to create and sell Abenaki crafts that may be labeled as Indian- or Native American-produced, the Abenaki must be recognized by the state of Vermont [in order to gain approval by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB) of the Bureau of Indian Affairs] IN RED

(5) Federal programs may be available to assist with educational and cultural opportunities for Vermont Abenaki and other Native Americans who reside in Vermont

[(6) State recognition will also increase access to federal programs and resources to Vermont tribes that support culture and language preservation, social services, education, and other benefits.
(7) In May 2006, the general assembly passed S.117, Act No. 125, which created the Vermont Commission on Native American affairs and

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recognized the Abenaki and all other Native American people living in Vermont as a minority population. According to Indian case law, recognition as a racial minority population prevents the group from being recognized as a tribal political entity, a designation that would provide the group with access to federal resources.

(6) In May 2006, the general assembly passed S.117 Act No. 125, in an effort to recognize the Abenaki people and create a Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs. The act failed to comport with the recognition requirements of the IACB, and therefore prevented the Vermont Native Americans from marketing their arts and crafts as authentic Indian works.] (IN RED)

[(8) (7)] (IN RED) According to a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), state recognition of Indian tribes plays a very small role with regard to federal recognition. The only exception is when a state recognized a tribe before 1900.

[ (9) (8)] (IN RED) At least 15 other states have recognized their resident indigenous people as Native American Indian tribes without any of those tribes previously or subsequently acquiring  federal recognition.

[ (10) (9) (IN RED) State-recognized Native American Indian tribes and their members will continue to be subject to all laws of the state, and recognition shal not be construed to create any basis or authority for tribes to establish or

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promote any form of prohibited gambling activity or to claim any interest in land or real estate in Vermont.

[(10) The general assembly has not conferred vested authority to the Commission to recognize Native American tribes, bands, or organizations within the State of Vermont. The commission's role in the recognition process is to collect the applications for recognition, oversee the process, forward the findings of the three person panel of scholars to the general assembly for review, and to provide a recommendation to the legislative committee.] (IN RED)

Sec. 2. Chapter 23 of Title 1 is amended to read:

Chapter 23. Abenaki Native American Indian People

Sec. 3. 1 V.S.A. § 852 is amended to read:

§ 852. VERMONT COMMISSION ON NATIVE AMERICAN AFFAIRS ESTABLISHED; AUTHORITY

(a) In order to recognize the historic and cultural contributions of Native Americans to Vermont, to protect and strengthen their heritage, and to address their needs in state policy, programs, and actions, there is hereby established the Vermont commission on Native American affairs (the "commission").

(b) The commission shall comprise seven be composed of nine members appointed by [the governor for staggered two year terms the general assembly or an entity designated by the general assembly with that authority] (IN RED) from a list of candidates compiled by the division for historic preservation. The governor

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shall appoint a chair from among the members of the commission [Four of these members will serve three year terms and five members will serve 2 year terms.] (IN RED) The [Governor][general assembly][or designatee] shall appoint members who reflect a diversity of [native] affiliations and geographic locations in Vermont. A member may serve for no more than two consecutive terms [unless there are not enough applicants to fill the vacant seats.] The division [of historic preservation] shall compile a list of [candidates from the following:] candidates' recommendations from the following:
(1) Recommendations from the Missisquoi Abenaki and other Abenaki and other Native American regional tribal councils and communities in Vermont.

[(1) Recommendations from Native American communities who reside in Vermont.

(2) Candidates who apply in response to solicitations and publications by the division of historic preservation. Candidates must have a legal residence in Vermont and must denote any Native American affiliation. There is no requirement of the applicant to be of Native American heritage or have any Native American affiliation to apply.]

(2) Applicants [candidates who apply in response to solicitations, publications, and website notification by [to the division..] of historical

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preservation [are residents of Vermont., and of documented Native American ancestry.]

(c) The commission shall have the authority to assist Native American tribal councils, organizations, and individuals to:

(1) Secure social services, education, employment opprotunities, health care, housing, and census information.

(2) Permit the creation, display, and sale of Native American arts and crafts and legally to label them as Indian or Native American produced as provided in 18 U.S.C. § 1159(c)(3)(B) and 25 U.S.C. § 305e(d)(3)(B).

(3) Receive assistance and support from the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Board, as provided in 25 U.S.C. § 305 et seq.

(4) Become eligible for federal assistance with educational, housing, and cultural opportunities.



(5) Establish and continue programs offered through the U.S. Department of Education Office on Indian Education pursuant to Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act established in 1972 to support educational and cultural efforts of tribal entities that have been either state or federally recognized.

(1) Elect a chair each year.

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[(2) Participate in protecting unmarked burial sits and to designate appropriate repatriation of remains in any case in which lineal descendants cannot be ascertained.

(2) Assist bands and groups of Native Americans who are unrecognized to organize and develop a representative tribal organization in order to petition for legal tribal recognition by the state.]

(3) Provide technical assistance and an explanation of the process to applicants for state recognition.

(4) Compile and maintain a list of [individuals][scholars] for appointment to a review panel.

(5) Appoint a three-member panel [acceptable to both the applicant and the commission] to review supporting documentation of an application for recognition to advise the commission of its accuracy and relevance. [If the applicant and commission cannot agree on the three-member panel for the legislative committee or designee will appoint the review panel. ]

(6) Review each applicant, supporting documentation, and findings of the review panel and make recommendations for or against state recognition to the legislative committee.]

(7) Assist Native American Indian tribes recognized by the state to:

(A) Secure assistance for social services, education, education, employment opportunities, health care, and housing.

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(B) Develop and market Vermont Native American fine and performing arts, craft work, and cultural events.

(8) Develop policies and programs to benefit Vermont's Native American Indian population [within the scope of the commission's authority listed in this section.]

(d) The commission shall meet at least three times a year and at any other times at the request of the chair. The division of historic preservation within the agency of commerce and community development and the department of education shall provide administrative support to the commission, including providing communication and contact resources.

(e) The commission may seek and receive funding from federal and other sources to assist with its work.

Sec. 4. 1 V.S.A. § 853 is amended to read:

§ 853. CRITERIA AND PROCESS FOR STATE RECOGNITION OF ABENAKI PEOPLE NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES

(a) The state of Vermont recognizes the Abenaki people and recognizes all Native American people who reside in Vermont as a minority population.


(b) Recognition of the Native American or Abenaki people provided in subsection  (a) of this section shall be for the sole purposes specified in subsection 852(c) of this title and shall not be interpreted to provide any Native 1

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American or Abenaki person with any other special rights or privileges that the state does not confer on or grant to other state residents.

(c) This chapter shall not be construed to recognize, create, extend, or form the basis of any right or claim to land or real estate in Vermont for the Abenaki people or any Abenaki individual and shall be construed to confer only those rights specifically described in this chapter.

[(a) The state of Vermont recognizes all individuals of Native American heritage who reside in Vermont as an ethnic minority. This designation does not confer any status to any collective group of people.]

[(a b)]For the purposes of this section:

(1) "Applicants" means a [native] group or band seeking formal state recognition as a Native American Indian tribe.

(2) "Legislative committees" means the [Vermont general assembly committee assigned to review applicant petitions for recognition, the house committee on general, housing and military affairs and the senate committee on economic development, housing and general affairs.

(3) "Recognized" or "recognition" means acknowledged as a Native American Indian tribe by the Vermont general assembly, [or the commission].

(4) "Tribe" means an assembly of Native American Indian people who are related to each other by kinship and [who trace their ancestry to a kinship

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group which has historically has a tribal government that] maintain[sed], influence and authority over its members.


[(b c)] In order to be eligible for recognition, an applicant must file an application with the [commission] and demonstrate compliance with [five] subdivisions (1) through [(8 7)] of this subsection which may be supplemented by subdivision [(9 8)] of this subsection:


(1) A majority of the applicant's members currently reside in a specific geographic location within Vermont.

[ (2) A substantial number of the applicant's members are related to each other by kinship and trace their ancestry to a kinship group through genealogy.]

([3 2]) The applicant [has maintained][must show] a connection with Native American tribes and bands that have historically inhabited Vermont.

([3]) The applicant has a [collective political organization that][historically] maintain[sed] influence and authority over its members that is supported by documentation of their [structure][purpose], membership [criteria][process][the tribal roll that indicates the members' names and residential addresses,] and the methods by which the applicant [conducts its affairs][will certify non-member artists.]


 ([5][4]) The applicant has an enduring community presence within the boundaries of Vermont that is documented by archaeology, ethnography,

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physical anthropology, history, folklore, or any other applicable scholarly research and data.


([6][5]) The applicant is organized in part:


(A) To preserve, document, and promote its Native American Indian culture and history, and this purpose is reflected in its bylaws.


(B) To address the social, [political, diplomatic, sovereign,] economic, or cultural needs of the members with ongoing educational programs and activities.


([7][6]) The applicant can document traditions, customs, oral stories, and histories that signify the applicant's Native American heritage and connection to their historical homeland.


([8][7]) The applicant has not been recognized as a tribe in any other state, province, or nation.


(9][8]) Submission of letters, statements, and documents from:


(A) Municipal, state or federal authorities that document the applicant's history of tribe-related business and activities.


(B) Tribes in and outside Vermont that attest to the Native American Indian heritage of the applicant.


(c) The commission shall consider the application pursuant to the following process established by [the commission][this statute] which shall include at least the following requirements:

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(1) The commission shall:


(A) Provide public notice of receipt of the application and supporting documentation.


(B) Hold at least one public hearing on the application. (B) Provide written notice of completion of each step of the recognition process to the applicant [and legislative committee].

(2) Established appropriate time frames that include a requirement that the commission [and its review panel] complete review of the application and issue a determination regarding recognition within one year after an application and all the supporting documentation have been filed, and if a recommendation is not issued, the commission shall provide written explanation to the applicant and the legislative committees of the reasons for the delay and the expected date that a decision will be issued.

(3) A process for appointing a three-member review panel for each application to review the supporting documentation and determine its sufficiency, accuracy, and relevance. The review panel shall provide a detailed written report of its findings and conclusions to the commission, the applicant, and legislative committees. Members of each review panel shall be appointed cooperatively by the commission and the applicant from a list of professionals and academic scholars with expertise in cultural or physical anthropology, Indian law, archeology, Native American [Indian] genealogy,

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history, or another related Native American [Indian] subject area. No member
of the review panel may be a member of the commission or affiliated with or on the tribal rolls of the applicant.


(4) The commission shall review the application, the supporting documentation, the report from the review panel, and any other relevant information to determine compliance with the subsection (b) of this section and make a determination to recommend or deny recognition. The decision to recommend [or deny] recognition [to the legislative committee] shall require a majority vote of all eligible members of the commission. A member of the commission who is on the tribal roll of the applicant is ineligible to participate in any action regarding the application. If the commission denies recognition, the commission shall provide the applicant and the legislative committees with written notice of the reasons for the denial, including specifies of all insufficiencies of the application. [The legislative committee][will then review the application for recognition and determine if the application should move forward or if further documentation is in fact needed.]

(5) [If the legislative committee determines that the applicant needs additional documentation, the applicant has up to one year to provide the additional supporting documentation before a committee hearing is scheduled.
The applicant may file additional supporting documentation for reconsideration within one year after receipt of the notice of denial.]

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(6) An applicant may withdraw an applicationl [at] any time before the [commission] the [legislature committee] issues a decision, and may not file a new application for two years following withdrawal. A new application and supporting documentation shall be considered a de novo filing, and the [commission legislative committee] shall not consider the withdrawn application or its supporting documentation.

(7) If the commission recommends [or denies to the legislative committee] that the applicant be recognized as a Native American Indian tribe, the commission] that the applicant be recognized as a Native American Indian tribe, the commission shall provide a detailed written report of its findings and conclusions to the applicant and the legislative committees along with a reccommendation that that general assembly recognize [or deny] the applicant as a Native American Indian tribe. [Once the legislative committee hearing will be scheduled to take testimony from all interested parties.]

(8) All proceedings, applications, and supporting documentation shall be public except material exempt pursuant to subsection 317 of this title.

(d) An applicant for recognition shall be recognized as follows:

(1) By approval of the general assembly.

(2) Two years after a [recommendation][application for recognition][to recognize a tribe by the commission] is filed with the legislative committees, provided the general assembly too no action on the recommendation.

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(e) A decision by the [commission to recommend legislative committe] to deny denial of], recognition is final unless an applicant or a successor of interest to the applicant that has previously applied for and been denied recognition under this chapter provides new and substantial documentation and demonstrates that the new documentation was not reasonably available at the time of the filing of the original application.


(f) Vermont Native American Indian bands and tribes and individual members of those bands and tribes remain subject to all the laws of the state.


(g) Recognition of a Native American Indian tribe shall not be construed to create, extend, or form the basis of any right or claim to land or real estate in Vermont or right to conduct any gambling activities prohibited by law, but confers only those rights specifically described in this chapter.

Sec. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE

This act shall take effect on passage.

and that the bill title be amended to read: "An act relating to state recognition of Native American Indian tribes in Vermont"

[Upon passage of this act, the existing terms of the commission members will be considered fulfilled. Any existing members will be required to go through the application process with the department of historic preservation as a new candidate to be considered for a seat on the commission.]

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(Committe vote:_______________)

_____________

Representative [surname]

FOR THE COMMITTEE

NO WHERE IN ANY OF THIS BILL, IS GENEALOGICAL CONNECTION(S) TO THE HISTORICAL ABENAKI 

REQUIRED 

THESE "ABENAKI" GROUPS

 RECOGNIZE THEMSELVES

THESE "ABENAKI GROUPS

MANIPULATE

DECEIVE

LIE

IN ORDER TO GAIN

THE ABILITY TO BE IN A POSITION

TO GIVE THEMSELVES

STATE OF VERMONT

"RECOGNITION"

USING

POLITICIANS

SCHOLARS

AND

STATE AGENCIES PERSONNEL

WHO HAVE ADVOCATED FOR AND SUPPORT

THESE GROUPS

THEY HAVE "PADDED" THE

VERMONT COMMISSION

ON NATIVE AMERICAN AFFAIRS

WITH THEIR OWN PEOPLE AND SUPPORTERS

THERE IS NO TRANSPARENCY

THERE IS NO TRUTH

THERE IS ONLY ILLUSIONS

DISTORTIONS

AND MORE

MANIPULATIONS

More Documents From the State of Vermont Archives Regarding Bill S.222 and Frederick M. Wiseman PhD., Etc:

Envelope sent Priorty Mail from SEC 13-Office of the Secretary of State, VT State Archives and Records Administration at 1078 U.S. Route 2 Middlesex in Montpelier, Washington County, Vermont 05633-7701 to Douglas Lloyd Buchholz at P.O. Box 83 in Lancaster, New Hampshire 03584 dated June 30, 2010 via Priority Maine.

Cover Letter to Douglas Lloyd Buchholz from Scott Reilly at the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration in Montpelier, Vermont dated June 30, 2010. Regarding Legislative Committee Records. Thank you for your recent records request. Please find enclosed a facsimile copy of the entire file for S.222 from the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs for 2010. The total charge for these copies is $13.15. An invoice is enclosed as well. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Regards, Scott Reilly, Archivist at the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration (802) 828-2207. VSARA-15/Letter_FoundRecords.doc

S.222-Abenaki Bill File Folder jacket.

To: Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs

From: Frederick M. Wiseman, Professor, Humanities (Native Studies), Johnson State College

Date: January 21, 2010

Re: S.222 - An Act Relating to the Recognition of Abenaki Tribes

My job as I see it, as a scholar at a VT institution of higher learning, is to help you craft a bill that will satisfy the complex and obscure state recognition standards of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. If we are going to attempt to have the current recognition legislation meet the federal arts and crafts law, we need to carefully heed the following sentences from the Director, Meredith Stanton's letter of February 14, 2008 to Senator Vincent Illuzzi. In the second to last paragraph Ms. Stanton said:

"Recognition" of a group as a tribe for very limited specific purposes of benefitting from the Indian Arts and Crafts Act falls short of recogntion as a sovereign tribe. (And) ... but it remains to be seen whether specific Abenaki "tribes" are recognized consistent with the federal act.

The key words are "sovereign Indian Tribe" and "consistent with the federal act."

Vermont must be careful in determining which groups are tribes, and the basis upon which tribes are accepted under the recognition umbrella. If we include groups who do not meet requirements of sovereign Indian Tribe (to which we need to add "Vermont sovereign," since it will be beyond VT's authority to recognize foreign entities); they must also be able to be seen as Indian tribes by the Feds - an ominous portent implying that each VT tribe will be investigated by the Feds after State recognition. There must be an attempt by the VT legislature to "get ahead" of the Feds on this one - the groups to be accepted by the VT Legislature had better have a historical and geographic presence that will stand up to scrunity by the Feds. This is the reason why you will need to demand evidence, on the record, of deep time communal culture within the boundaries of Vermont. If this cannot be provided, a group should not be given recognition for the purposes of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act. I have collected, analyzed and organized information useful for VT State recognition for an upcoming academic volume on New England Indians (Against the Darkness: The Wabanakis of the Far Northeast, 1609-1970. [Volume II of the Wabanaki World series], University Press of New England). As part of my academic commitment to the people who I research, I have made this data available for the band's I have studied for their use in any way they see fit, and they have chosen to share with you this mostly unpublished data to support their legislative designation as tribes.

(These 4 groups gave him the "data," of which he supposedly collected, analyzed and organized that "data"...then Fred Wiseman gave this mostly unpublished "data" back to these 4 groups, and subsequently, these groups used that "data" to allegedly substantiate themselves as "Tribes" or "Bands" of "Re-Invented "Abenakis," to this Senate Legislative Committee chaired by an Honorary "Clan of the Hawk" Chief  "Fighting Wolf" a.k.a. Mr. Vincent Illuzzi.)

LINK: http://reinventedvermontabenaki.blogspot.com/2010/01/july-06-1998-letter-from-senator.html

According to Meredith Stanton, Chair of Indian Arts and Crafts Board, individuals, families, and non-political organizations do not qualify, because she used the term "sovereign tribes" -- a collective political entity. Second, she has made it clear that recognition has to be based on acceptance as a tribe, not just to meet the requirements of Federal law. Third, the tribes have to be historically resident in the United States (e.g.

expatriate Canadian Indians are not covered). These revelations led me to investigate various definitions of "tribes" in law and the social sciences to develop criteria that will work against all questions that could be brought against Vermont when we attempt to persuade the Arts and Crafts Board to accept VT tribes as Abenaki Indians. An effective policy definition to meet the specific determinant guidelines of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 that oversee Vermont state recognition is below:

A Vermont tribe is a cultural entity with demonstrable historical and spatial (spatial means: "having to do with space or expansiveness") dimension within the boundaries of the state of Vermont. To restate the supposition (supposition means "something that is supposed; an assumption, conjecture or speculation"); a Vermont tribe is 1.) a community of people that 2.) has a documented history of practised culture (doing things, saying things, making things, and belonging to kin-groups [families] that any unbiased (or does Fred actually mean UNINFORMED or UNEDUCATED person's?) observer would say is "distinctly ethnic"); and 3.) has left physical, historical, and testimonial evidence of this communal Indigenous practised culture within defined areas contained by the borders of Vermont that 4.) applies to the period between 1780, when scholars and lawyers agree that there were Vermont Indians, and today, when there are numerous self-identifying Native entities (incorporations), that 5.) can be analyzed from (Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD's) scholarly perspectives that may include archaelogical, physical anthropology, ethno history, ethnography, linguistics, folkloric studies, genealogy, history, economic ethno botany, cultural and historical geography, political science and race relations study.

There are four Indian groups (Incorporate groups that are led by Presidents/ so-called "Chiefs" April St. Francis-Merrill, Luke "Falling Owl" Willard, Roger "Longtoe" Sheehan, and Nancy "Doe Eyes" Millette-Doucet, which are claiming to be "historical" Abenaki Tribes and or Bands) in Vermont, representing all the Vermont Indians who are enrolled in Vermont resident political organizations that would meet this definition. They are the St. Francis Sokoki Band (April Merrill), Nulhegan (Luke Willard), Koasek of the Koas (Nancy Millette-Doucet) and Elnu (Roger A. Sheehan). If  you want to craft a bill that will have the certainty of meeting the requirements of the Federal Arts and Crafts Act, it is my professional opinion that these groups meet the scholarly and legal criteria. Again, that is ONLY HIS SUPPOSED "SCHOLARLY" OPINION.

If you remember, at the last testimony, each of these groups argued against each other's "Indian-ness" (and parenthethically, against my support of Missisquoi). Today they recognize each other's tribal integrity and have chosen to work together, Missiquoi first accepted Nulhegan (Luke Andrew Willard), then both accepted Koas (Nancy Millette-Doucet, Brian Chenevert, Howard F. Knight Jr. and Nathan Elwin Pero...later Nancy Doucet removed herself from the "Koasek" group, and attempted to "get back into the same." Unsuccessful, she left with her family members, and some other "members" wh then incorporated in both N.H. and Vermont, creating yet another spin-off group claiming to be a "Koasek" Cowasuck "Tribe" or "Band" of Abenakis) . It wasn't until last year that Elnu (Roger Anthony "Longtoe" Sheehan) , which is in Southern Vermont, far away from the Northern VT Abenakis, proved to the three bands of their historical and geographic authenticity -- to become accepted as the fourth band of the alliance. The Last time I testified before your committee, I knew little or nothing about Nulhegan and Elnu. I had known Chief Nancy Millette-Doucet of the Koaseks of the Koas since the late 1990's but virtually nothing about the rich history of the Newbury Indigenous community. This resulting coalition is what Chairman Vincent Illuzzi in 2007-2008. This is what we have. The four bands now probably collectively represent some 90% of all self-identifying Vermont resident Indians who profess an Abenaki ancestry (NOT TRUE). This does not mean that other Vermont individuals and organizations professing an Indigenous identity are not "Abenaki" or "Native American." It just means that I am unaware, as a scholar, of other multi-family political organizations that are geographically restricted to demonstrable homelands.

I have worked in good faith with the Legislature toward Abenaki recognitioin since 1993,

and have suffered many heartbreaks and betrayals by the Governor, the Attorney General, legislators, and other VT and regional Abenakis along the way. To ask for total agreement among Abenakis and Individuals in this matter - in a way that will satisfy the Federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act -- is impossible. To ask for total unanimity amongst Abenakis -- while accepting political disagreement in other legislative considerations -- is unfair. I ask that you allow everyone to make their best case and then decide who or what you will accept. You have a bill that works; you will have historical, cultural and geographic evidence that works. (YET NO GENEALOGICAL EVIDENCE to CONNECT TO THE HISTORICAL ABENAKIS) You have a majority of the Alleged and Reinvented VT Abenakis included under its umbrella. Please do not turn your back on the Abenakis because of internal Abenaki discord or because it is "too much B.S." given the economic situation. They have waited for hundreds of years for acceptance as to who supposedly they are. (B.S., correction: these Inc. Presidents who self- proclaim to be "Chiefs," have waited ONLY since these groups have INCORPORATED ca. 1975-1976....) It is up to you to decide what to do.

Frederick M. Wiseman

Professor, Humanities (Native Studies)

Johnson State College.

Johnson, VT

State Of Vermont

Senate Committee Members:

Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, Chair

Sen. Hinda Miller, Vice Chair

Sen. Tim Ashe, Clerk

Sen. William H. Carris

Sen. Douglas A. Racine

Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 10:00 AM Room 10

S.222 - An Act Relating to the Recognition of Abenaki Tribes

Introductions

Sen. Vince Illuzzi, Chair

Overview of Proposed Legislation

Sen. Hinda Miller, V-Chair

Luke Willard, Nulhegan Band of the Coosuck Abenaki

Johnny Prescot, Sub-Chief, Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation

Roger Longtoe Sheehan, Chief, Sogono Elnu Tribe of the Abenaki

April Merrill, Chief, St. Francis Sokoki Band of (Missisquoi)

Howard Knight, Retired Chief. Senior Advisor, Koasek Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation

Nathan Pero, Clan Chief, Nolka (Deer) Clan, Koasek Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation

Charles Delaney-Megeso, Chair, Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs

Frederick M. Wiseman, Chair, Department of Humanities, Johnson State College

Don Stevens, Missisquoi Abenaki

Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs

Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 10:00 AM

S.222 - An Act Relating to the Recognition of Abenaki Tribes

Participant Sign-In Sheet

Name/Title-Address/Phone-Email Address:

Roger A. Longtoe Sheehan

Route 30

Jamaica, Vermont

Brad Allen Barratt VCNAA

1185 Shelburne Road, A 306

South Burlington, Vermont

Charles Lawrence Delaney "Megeso"

P.O. Box 5862

Burlington, VT. 05402

Howard F. Knight, Jr.

573 E. Main St.

Newport, VT

Paul Joseph Bunnell - Sub-Chief

45 Crosby Street

Milford, NH 03055

Shelly Janet Bordeau (sister to Karen Majka)

175 High Road

Gilbertville, MA

Karen Mica (Majka) - Lemoine nee: Bordeau

70 Ware Road

West Warren, Massachusetts

Nathan Elwin Pero (son of Elwin Merle "Joe" Pero)

Jared Pero

3649 Blood Brook Road

Tugg Hill

Fairlee, Vermont 05045

nathan.pero@valley.net

James Haskins

Littleton, New Hampshire

jhaskins@roadrunner.net

Donald Warren Stevens

156 Bacon Drive

Shelburne, VT 05482

David Skinas

dave.skinas@vt.usda.gov

Chief April Ann (nee: St. Francis) Rushlow - Merrill

100 Grand Avenue (actually that is their Incorporation Office/ Abenaki Tribal Museum and Cultural Center)

915 Frontage Road (this is her actual address)

Swanton, Vermont 05488-8786

(802) 868-3806

sogomo@comcast.net

Brenda Mary (nee: Perretta) Gagne

7116 Vermont Route 78

Highgate Center, Vermont 05459-3027

(802) 868-3459

circleofcourage@comcast.net

Jeffrey Miles Benay

227 Carroll Hill Road

Fairfax, Vermont 05454

(802) 849-6888

jeffreybenay@wildwest.net

Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs

Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 10:00 AM
S.222 - An Act Relating to the Recognition of Abenaki Tribes
Participant Sign-In Sheet:

Thomas "Tom" Leo Phillips
(Member of ASHAI's Board of Director's and is on April Merrill's "Tribal Council"...which is actually the incorporation "board of director's)
2701 Vermont Route 15E
Hardwick, VT
(802) 472-6935

Mike Wayne LaFrance
(son of Osborn Oscar Lafrance and Alfreda Ann nee: Hagan)
P.O. Box 94
Bristol, Vermont
05443

Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD
Johnson State College
Johnson, Vermont 05656

Chief Luke Willard
Orleans, Vermont, 05860
firstnationslw@yahoo.com
Derby, Vermont

Richard Robert Bernier
("Skip" born June 19, 1939 Barton, VT to Melvina nee: Robert "Obomsawin")
(Melvina Gabrielle Obomsawin/ Robert was born ca. 1905 in Pierreville, Quebec, Canada/ Odanak Abenaki Community)
Newport, Vermont
richard-bernier@people.com

From: wiseman@vtlink.net

To: hinda@deforestconcepts.com; vincentilluzzi@hotmail.com; MEREDITH@leg.state.vt.us

Subject: Tomorrow

Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:17;34 -0500

I see that Mike McShane is testifying tomorrow at 10:00. Is this true?

I have tried to send Meredith Sumner and Hinda Miller my thoughts from my mobile phone (just purchassed last week) and am not sure that they went through - since I haven't received any notice of this - I guess not.

I seem to remember that the AG (Attorney General Bill Griffin) said to all of you that he wanted Abenaki recognition for purposes of arts and crafts. I noted that Mike McShane has not appeared in testimony until this point. If you remember, weeks ago I told you that the ploy to use enhanced criteria against Abenakis would be an endgame of the AG. Let us see if McShane is as predictable as Bill Griffin.

So I came home early to be sure that the Abenakis' interests are represented - I will be in Montpelier tomorrow at 9:00- 12:00 in case you need a rebuttal to McShane's predicted remarks.

However, and most importantly--I noticed that in the criteria section there was a backhanded reference that the Four bands send you complete lists of their citizens. This did not happen, nor can it happen, for if Hinda Miller remembers from our discussion at her house, the bands would never submit lists of citizens to VT. This is because the VT AG used tribal rolls send to the Federal Government as a source of information to use against Missisquoi in a court case. This sectioin should be somehow worded that the bands would not or did not do this, or make the requirement optional.

All bands have met five of the specific criteria (that Mr. Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD created!) , Missisquoi and Koasek have met nine, and Nulhegan and Elnu have met seven. I can testify to that if you wish.

Please let me know tonight if possible if testimony is tomorrow - I came back from Vacation for this and will brave the predicted snow to be there.

Be well-

Fred

From: Fred Wiseman

Date: 2/26/2010 February 26, 2010

Re: Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation - Criteria

Notice that this FORMAT is different than what became the "Decolonizing the Abenaki: A Methodology for Detecting Vermont Tribal Identity" by Frederick Matthew Wiseman, PhD. ALSO NOTICE: There is NOTHING "Historical" about really anything Mr. Wiseman cited in this document regarding this incorporated group led by Nancy (nee: Millette) Cruger-Lyons-Doucett!

St. Francis Sokoki Band, Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi Recognition Criteria

The "tribal council" is the actual Board of Directors for ASHAI, and previously in this blog I conducted a comparative between this so called "tribal council" and the ASHAI Board of Director's. My conclusion: "both are one and the same."

As for (6), it has already been ascertained and verified that William Haviland and Power's book Original Vermonters used John Moody's questionable and dubious "ethnohysterical" work. Sure, some families COULD BE of Native American descent, but that DOES NOT CONCLUDE definitively or conclusively THAT THESE FAMILIES, ARE "ABENAKIS." For Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD, to cite his own published work Voice of the Dawn, (An AutoHysterical History of the Alleged and Re-Invented "Abenakis") is just blantantly arrogant and egotistical to my thinking. Even Colin G. Calloway's book, The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600-1800 cites and used John Moody's questionable work, and the Office of Federal Acknowledgment stated this in their review of the documentation for the group that Mr. Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD. belongs to and advocates for!

Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Recognition Criteria

Notice that number (10) of this particular document page ONLY MENTIONS Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD. as having supposedly researched 1790 to 2010 history of this "Nulhegan" group. Nowhere in this documentation does anyone see , that FACTUALLY and DOCUMENTARILY-SPEAKING, Luke Willard's group came from - out of Ralph Skinner Swett's group "Clan of the Hawk, Inc.," which evolved or came from Howard Franklin Knight, Jr's so-called Cowasuck Inc. "group" AFTER August 17-20, 1994!

Kind'a Makes a Person Wonder Whose B.S.'ing Who eh?

What 

LEGITIMATE

and

UNBIASED

historical

research

was actually done

????

The

Answer

=

NONE

Elnu Tribe of the Abenaki/New Recognition Criteria

Again, number (b) implies that there is a "Written Constitution, based on supposedly 'historical' memorized wampum records." People are supposed to take these people's "testimonials" based on what they interpret from a string of porcelain, wood or clay colored tubular beads "as gospel, the truth of the merits of their alleged historical merits because these groups SAYS so, with a smile?

Again

"More Grandma Said So Stories"

that

has

NO FOUNDATION

Yet, again....these cited video materials are CONTEMPORARY and are not historical. Re-Enacting and dressing up in what appears to be "Period Clothing" and cutting off one's red or blond hair and painting one's "white" caucasion face with red ocre, fire pit soot, and perhaps Crisco grease does not make one an "Abenaki Tribe or Band." Anyone can point to a Petroglyphic image in a rock, and claim to know or "interpret" the image and or proclaim to know the "sacredness" of such an area. Anyone can appropriate or expropriate "historical" maps, geographic areas, genealogical ancestors, an Indian or "Abenaki" Identity for themselves, and even rocks too!

With such dynamics happening, in N'dakinna and throughout New England today, one would think that these incorporation Alleged and Re-Invented "Abenaki" groups would have a sense of intergrity and honesty. I find it quite non-exsistent within their "historical" records!

(Draft No 1.1-S.222)

January 22, 2010- MWS - 2:13 PM

TO THE HONORABLE SENATE:

(Draft No. 1.1-S.222)

January 25, 2010- MWS - 12:02 PM

TO THE HONORABLE SENATE:

(Draft No. 3.3 - S.222) WISEMAN/SUMNER EDITION

February 26, 2010- MWS - 8:56 AM

TO THE HONORABLE SENATE:

(Seperate Document)

COPY

BILL AS INTRODUCED S.222

2010   

Introduced by Senators Hinda Miller, Diane Snelling, and William Carris

Referred to Committee on

Date:

Subject: Abenaki people; recognition; Vermont commission on Native American affairs 

Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to recognize the following tribes as the original Western Abenaki Indian tribes residing in Vermont: the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi St. Francis Sokoki Band, composed of the Missisquoi, St. Francis, and Sokoki Bands; the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation; the Nulhegan Band of the Abenaki Nation, also known as the Northern Coosuk/ Old Phillip's Band; and the ELNU Abenaki Tribe of the Koasek. This bill also proposes to amend the composition of the Vermont commission on Native American affairs, and do adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

(Draft No. 5.1 - S.222)

March 10, 2010- MWS - 4:13 PM

TO THE HONORABLE SENATE:

(Draft No. 3.2. - S.222)

April 29, 2010- MWS - 8:12 AM

Bracketed Text Appears in Red In Original Record - June 20. 2010 (in pencil)

[Fred Wiseman and Don Stevens proposed changes April 29, 2010]

TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

(I will post this particular 16-page document next)

© 2002 Marty Two Bulls

Doesn't this MAKE A PERSON THINK

Its much more than "our religion" that they are trying to steal today

These Incorporated Self-Identified "Abenaki" groups in Vermont and New Hampshire WANT to steal "Abenaki Identity" and Abenaki Sovereignty (what's left of that identity and sovereignty if it exists at all today with any integrity) that these 4 + groups a.k.a. "The VT Indigenous Alliance" would get on their belly's, to slide and slither themselves up the Vermont and New Hampshire Legislative stone steps, and WHORE themslves out to the highest bidder of the State Political System with their plastic beads and their leathers (or "Indianist" themed clothing attaire)! All in the name of selling out their so-called alleged "Abenaki Culture, Heritage, and dubious "Abenaki" Ancestral People!

To

Be

An

"Authentic"

Abenaki

Indian

nowadays

~

just

run

to

your

nearest

Secretary of State's Office

"incorporate"

yourself

"as an Abenaki"

"group"

"claiming to be"

"An Abenaki Tribe or Band"

Get Your Friends and Family

to join you

and claim you are

The Abenaki Chief

or three if you have them

throw in a Medicine Man/Shaman

too

~

Wanna-Be

Abenakis

FOR SALE

~

they are

A DIME A DOZEN

in Vermont

and in New Hampshire

Abenakis of Northern Vermont Today Page 8-The Chronicle, March 01, 1995 Regarding Phillips Family of Vermont, Etc:

LINK: http://reinventedvermontabenaki.blogspot.com/2010/09/email-communications-between-donald.html  Remember William Phillips born in England ca. 1588, and became resident of Taunton, Massachusetts, and bought land from Massasoit as one of the 1st purchasers of Taunton in 1637-1638. His son James Phillips married Mary Richmond, had a son Seth Phillips born August 14, 1671 who married Abigail unknown, yet Seth did have a son Elisha Phillips in Little Compton, Rhode Island. Elisha Phillips married Innocent Butts September 30, 1736 and they had a son John Phillips born May 28, 1737 in New Milford, CT. John Phillips married Ann Burden November 18, 1757. They had 11 children...four of which are documented as being Elisha, Ziba, Seth and Almon. John Phillips relocated from CT to Charlotte County, NY and later resided near St. John's in the Province of Canada He joined under General Burgoyne in June 1777. On 02 Oct 1777 his farm was seized by rebels (Fenians?) and he came to Canada and joined Major Rogers as a soldier. His 4 sons served in the Royal Army. After the troops disbanded at St. John's, Quebec, Canada, John Phillips and his family settled in the Missisquoi Bay area against Governor Halimand's wishes. John Phillips son Seth stayed in the Missisquoi area at Caldwell Manor. Who were the other 7 other unidentified children of John Phillips and his wife Ann (nee: Burden) Phillips, and whom were these childrens descendants? Did they intermarry with the Abenaki, Mohawk and or Algonquin Native People's?

Now COMPARE the above details to the Eugenic's Survey Information regarding the Phillips Family Descendants and the following article in the Chronicle Newspaper of March 1995:

Page 8

The Chronicle Newspaper

May 01, 1995

Abenakis of Northern Vermont today

Kingdom Column

By

George "Peskunck" Larrabee

Adopted by Homer Walter St. Francis, Sr.

.....As an "Abenaki" 

Perusers of this journal who were interested in reading about the nineteenth-century Abenaki physicial John Baptiste Masta in the November 09, 1994, Chronicle might be interested in learning about some present-day Wobanaki/ Sokoki (i.e. Abenaki) people of northern Vermont. It is for such readers that the following is written. Most of the photographs accompanying this article were taken by me, George Larrabee, a railroad-working adopted by Homer St. Francis Sr. member of the Wobanaki/ Sokoki Nation of Missisquoi (the Abenaki Nation in Vermont). I live in Plainfield with my wife, Phyllis. I am sometimes called by my nickname of "Peskunck" because of my replica collection of muzzle-loading flintlock guns, the aln8ba8dwa (Abenaki language) word for "gun" being paskigan. In my "spare" time I serve as a historical editor of the Stanwood, Washington-based Black Powder Times monthly  and as a special features editor of the Texarkana, Texas-based Muzzleloader magazine. Some of the photos shown here were taken by me in the course of fulfilling my historico-journalistic efforts.

The group photo was taken during a family gathering at the home of Misi Kipiwi - or Big Forest, aka Terry LaFar - at Salem Heights in Derby. Terry LaFar is a direct descendant of Greylock - Grand Sachem Chief of all the Abenaki. Greylock was responsible for uniting all Abenaki and Algonquin tribes against the French and English in the late 1600's and early 1700's, the last confederacy to save his people and lands. He fought many battles in Canada, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Terry LaFar is also nephew to Grand Chief Homer St. Francis, also a direct descendant to Greylock.

The occasion for the gathering was during Benibagos, the "Moon of Falling Leaves," October 1994. Terry is holding up the flag that usually hangs from the front-yard flagpole, a version of the U.S. flag that has the figure of a Native American in tribal regalia added to it. On the left, in a red blanket , is LaFar's friend Wild Flower, aka Susan Phillips. In the middle is Susan's brother, Richard Philips or Black Horse, a former resident of Derby, who is a medicine man of the Wobanaki/ Sokoki Nation. The Philipses are direct descendants of (among various New England-area Algonquian ancestors) the famous Massasoit, friend of the "Pilgrim Fathers," and his son Metacomet or "King Philip," great sachem of the Wampanoag federation that was overwhelmed during the "King Philip War" of 1675-76. Mkasiasses - Black Horse - is a worker in Native crafts who specializes in making traditional soapstone - wadam8ganal - pipes. In the photo he is holding one of his King Philip-styled pipes...so called because it is fashioned after the pipe that was used by Metacomet in tribal councils, the original pipe having been larger with a much longer stem.

Susan's son Grey Wolf, or Mike Monteith of Newport, is following in his uncle Richard's footsteps in also handcrafting traditional Northeastern Woodland zoapsen - soapstone - pipes. Pisowaka Pskwasaw8n - Wild Flower - herself helps out with craft work, sometimes assisting Terry in making traditional pendant necklaces, porcupine quill "chokers," keepsake pouches and suchlike items. Big Forest engages in such work when he is between carpentering and masonry jobs. Handmade gourd sisial (rattles), decorated with traditional Wobanaki designs, are another item Terry and Susan display at powwows and similar events in northern Vermont, northern New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. The leather pendants that are hung from soem of the necklaces have wildlife likeness - such as a wolf's head, an owl, or even a spider - burnt into them. 

I, Peskunck, also engage in craft work, such as examples of the 

 

"Abenaki family gathering: In center is tribal medicine man Black Horse Phillips; on right, holding flag, is Terry "Big Forest" LaFar of Derby; right, kneeling, is Raymond "Running Bear" Brow of Montpelier; left, kneeling, is Mike 'Sun Bear" Bluteau of Swanton; and standing, left, is Black Horse's sister Wild Flower, Susan Phillips of Derby. All photos courtesy of the author, George "Peskunck" Larabee.

Continued article....

aforementioned kw8lwaskw sisial - gourd rattles. But one line of my artistic efforts is quite modern - or at least uses modern intstrument in capturing traditional subjects...that is my employment of a 35mm camera accourtered Wobanaki/ Sokoki (including myself, in some instances) are photographed against backgrounds of natural beauty in northern Vermont or adjacent areas. I market these, mouted in earth-colored mat-frames. Shown here is one such print, entitled "Abenaki Scout Over Lac du St. Sacrement," taken by Chad Alarie of Attleboro, Massachusetts, during Living History exercises at Lake George, New York, which included climbing to the top of 2,665-foot-high Black Mountain, which rises from the east side of the lake. The summit actually was used as a lookout point by scouts during the "French and Indian War" of 1754-60. I have my head shaved back to a scalp "roach" and am holding my kwena t8bi - long bow - with my otter-skin quiver of slate, flint, iron, and bone-pointed pakwal - arrows - on my back and a flintlock pistol tucked under my arm. My pose is as if pointing at an enemy (English) boat on the lake below. The year - 1758?

Another mountaintop photo is (Continued on page nine.)

Page 09

The Chronicle Newspaper

March 01, 1995

Employing old and new skills

(Continued from page eight.)

entitled "Medicine Man" and captures Black Horse while he is simulating a medicine gesture - actual ceremonies are never photographed - on the top of Owl's Head Mountain in Groton State Forest in October of 1991. Garbed in eighteenth-century regalia and wearing the traditional S8koki face-paint colors of red, black, and white, Black Horse lifts one of his King Philip pipes. His hair, since turned gray, was at the time still black. The state forest's pristine Kettle Pond can be seen in the background. Other photos taken on the summit that autumn day feature Mkasiases and myself, or Black Horse's teen-age nephew Running Bear, holding a spear and a freshly killed pakesso (ruffled grouse).

The most recent photo in my art series, 1994, is entitled "Light As A Falling Leaf" and shows Kzilaw8gan Awasos - Running Bear, aka Raymond Brow, of Montpelier - in tribal regalia and wearing a deer and porcupine-hair "roach" while paddling a handmade 16-foot-long birchbark canoe - again, during the Moon of Falling Leaves. Adding to the picture is the downward flight of a birch leaf that happened to fall as I snapped the shutter.

The activities of today's Vermont S8kokiak encompass more than making craft items and being photographed in picturesque surroundings, however. The W8banaki/ S8kokiak of Vermont consider themselves to constitute a sovereign nation whose forebearers lived here for many centuries before the invasion of the English and French-speaking Awanoch - Strangers. As such they have been battling to have their sovereign rights restored. Since it was not the Sokoki hunters who rendered various species of wildlife extinct in Vermont, such as the millions of passenger pigeons, the waboz ("White-rumped" elk), the woodland pizko (bison), and occasional mag8libo (caribo), the Nation feels that the state has no business forcing tribal members to buy state hunting and fishing licenses.

It was Black Horse who sparked the first Missisquoi River unlicensed "fish-in" a decade ago, the first of periodic hish-ins staged under the leadership of Chief Homer St. Francis to protest the imposition of alien fishing-hunting licensing. The Nation also has its own motor vehicle registry and issues tribal license plates to its members. Both Mkasiasses and Wild Flower have run afoul of the State Department of Motor Vehicles for driving with....

illustration

"Historical art color photo arranged by author George "Peskunck" Larrabee, "Abenaki Scout Over Lac du St. Sacrement," features Mr. Larrabee himself on mountaintop. Photographed by Chad Allaire.

....tribal places on their cars, Black Horse having his car impounded and being charged stiff impoundment fees.

Other tribal efforts include reviving the member's cultural awareness and practices. Recent efforts are an annual Heritage Days powwow being held in Highgate in Kikas - Planting Moon, or May - and aln8ba8dwa langauge classes being held periodically at the Indian Education Title 5 office in Swanton. The classes are conducted by fluent speaker Cicelia (sic) Wawanolett, 85-year-old elder from the W8banaki/ S8koki Reserve of Odanak in Quebec. The effort to gain offical federal (Bureau of Indian Affairs) and state recognition as a bona fide Native American nation have continued, as such recogniton would help in such matters as securing scholarships and in raising funds for tribal projects such as land-acquisition. Land needed for secure burial grounds for S8koki ancestors bones removed from the earth by Awanoch excavators is (Continued on page ten.)

Page 10

The Chronicle Newspaper

March 01, 1995

Abenaki battle for sovereign rights

(Continued from page nine.)

being ardently sought. On its own the Nation has recently acquired partial title to a tract of land on the Connecticut River at Brunswick Springs, a sacred site called Nebizonbik - Medicine place - an effort spearheaded by tribal leaders Ed Verge of Island Pond and Dee Brightstar (a maker of porcupine quill earrings and other items) of Fairfax. More than half payment has been made on the site, full payment being delayed only by the fact that the S8koki remain the economically poorest ethnic group in Vermont. The site has also had to undergo a tribal cleanup after decades of the place (which includes a beautiful beaver pond) being used as a trash dump by local Awanoch and a tires-burning rendezvous by partying bikers.

Despite setbacks in the courts and the Legislature the Nation has been making gains through such tribal organizations as the Abenaki Self Help Association. The frequency with which W8banaki/ S8koki schoolchildren would drop out of school has declined in recent years. The Phillipses' nnamonimiz - nephew Running Bear is an example of this. Having dropped out of high school previously, Ray returned and won his diploma from Montpelier High in 1994.

W8banaki migahawinnoak - Abenaki warriors - have fought and died on the behalf of Vermont and the U.S. since the days of Kaptin Azo'i - Captain John's - Company of Abenaki Rangers in the Revolutionary War all the way up to the recent Gulf War. But this has not moved the Awanoch government of Vermont to restore any of the Abenaki people's ancient rights or freely returned an inch of land for a reservation or burial site...Through a bill appropriating monies for a Native American burial ground on the Missisquoi River is supposed to be introduced in the Legislature, its fate remains to be seen - if it ever becomes a bill at all. And even in proposing the bill, it is designated vaguely as a "Native American" site and not specifically as Abenaki, when it is an Abenaki burial ground that is the whole point.

Sportsmen's groups continue to oppose the restoration of hunting and fishing rights, crying "special privilege," apparently not appreciating that historically the S8kokiak were such careful stewards of the land that fish and game flourished here in untold abundance before the arrival of "The Strangers." It may be that real estate invesetors, who apparently send money to state legislators (for electoral campaign spending), fear that restoration of land would take a certain amount of real estate out of profitable speculative circulation.

Nonetheless the W8banaki/ S8koki people continue to lift themselves up, a recent case in point being the 1994 establishment of the Dawnland Center in downtown Montpelier (121 Barre Street), a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility for Native Americans, ramodded by Abenaki Nation members Lorraine Landers of East Calais - one more fightback at attempting to push off the heavy Vermont boot that has been pusing the W8banaki/ S8koki people of Ndakinna - Our land - down into the mud of poverty, alcoholism, and despair for a solid two centuries. But finally there is hope.

Editor's note: According to Mr. Larrabee's cover letter, "The S8koki words used are from such sources as Chief Henry Lorne Masta's Abenaki Legends, Grammar, and Place Names, Odanak, Quebec, 1932; Chief Joseph Laurent's Abenaki and English Dialogues, Odanak, 1884; the late author Gordon M. Day's 1964 A St. Francis Abenaki Vocabulary, International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 30 No. 4; and Abenaki Nation member Jesse Bruchac's 1994 alphabetical listing of S8koki words, many taken down at Cicelia (sic) Wawanolett's classes, and from my own notes taken at Nikomis (my grandmother) Wawanolett's classes..."

For more information on the activities and crafts of Vermont's Abenaki people, contact Peskunck (George Larrabee) at RR 1, Box 2050, Plainfield, Vermont 05667, or Big Forest (Terry LaFar) at P.O. Box 226, Derby, Vermont 05829, and include a self-addressed envelope.

Nancy Gallagher's Letter Re: Bill S.222 April 21, 2010 ~ Burlington Free Press Article September 04, 2010 with commentary by Douglas Lloyd Buchholz (of course):

To: Bill Frank

19 Poker Hill Rd.

Underhill, VT 05489

George W. Till

74 Foothills Dr.

Jericho, VT 05465

From: Nancy Gallagher, Underhill, Vermont
Date: April 21, 2010
Re. Bill S.222 on Abenaki Recognition

I am writing in support of Representative Kesha Ram’s statement and the decision of the House Committee on General Affairs to suspend action on Bill S.222 by the House and to proceed instead with legislation that would provide a fair, historically accurate and equitable process for Abenaki recognition, reflecting the spirit and intent of the bill S.117 passed in 2006. I am asking that you will endorse and actively support that decision.

In decisions that profoundly affect the well-being and livelihoods of citizens of this state, it would seem that a period of inquiry, education, and soul-searching concerning the right thing to do would have been in order. At such times, I’ve often used the motto of the Rotarians (which I learned from my father many years ago): “Is it true? Is it fair? Does it promote good will and friendliness? Is it beneficial to all concerned?” Bill S.222 – both in content and the manner of its passage –meets NONE of these criteria.

I have long been a supporter of state historical recognition of Abenaki people, for whom this land we call Vermont has been their ancestral homeland. I entertained high hopes that the Governor’s Commission on Native American Affairs would develop a process whereby all the Abenaki people living in our state could express their heritage with pride, and that all Vermonters would have the opportunity to research and understand the long-repressed history of the indigenous peoples who lived here before my own ancestors set foot on this continent in the early 1600s. Since 2006, I have followed the progress of the Governor’s Commission with anticipation of a fair and equitable process that could be used to identify the historic family bands, so that they might enjoy their heritage, sell their arts and crafts without accusations of fraud, and work towards recovering their family and community history, using oral, material, and written sources. I have been working for many years now with a few Abenaki people from different families and have lectured widely in the state on our collaborative work.

After two years of hard work and deliberation, the Commission presented a process in Bill S.369 (2008) that was historically sound, politically fair and equitable, and which promised to suspend all the accusations of who is and

who is not Abenaki once and for all. Unfortunately, the four-band alliance (who never supported the Governor’s Commission and tried to sabotage it at every turn) thwarted that effort and began a systematic negative propaganda campaign against members of the Commission who were not on their tribal rolls or who had criticized the Mississquoi band’s assertion of complete autonomy over Abenaki recognition in this state.* With the complete support of Senators Vincent Illuzzi and Hinda Miller, their campaign was successful and triumphed in Bill S.222. Having followed the proceedings of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs over the two years, I am dismayed and saddened that senators on this committee -- ones whom I have personally supported at the ballot box for many years --would simply disregard the work of the Commission, silence alternative points of view by censoring input from Commission members and their constituencies, and put forward instead Bill S.222, which rests on the unquestioned and unsubstantiated assertions of its beneficiaries and grants virtually all authority to decide which Abenaki receive recognition to a group of four self-defined “tribes,” who have effectively silenced opposition to their political interests in a campaign of misinformation, threats against other Abenaki people who disagree with them, and slander of any who questioned the authenticity and authority of this four-tribe alliance.

Members of the Governor’s Commission were intentionally misinformed on the VCNAA website about the date of the Senate Committee Hearing when Bill S.222 was marked up (see the film clip by Mark Mitchell on U-Tube**), and the hearing and the vote on the Senate floor were not posted on the state legislative website. Those Abenaki and interested citizens only learned of the mark up and passage of the bill in the media after the fact.

I am grateful and heartened by the efforts of Rep. Kesha Ram to visit Abenaki families, listen to their needs, fears, and concerns, and begin a process that would not only benefit all Abenaki living in Vermont instead of the just the “elect” group, but would enrich the history, culture, and economics of our state as well. Please, please, support her efforts.

Sincerely,
Nancy L. Gallagher, independent scholar & author, Breeding Better Vermonters: The Eugenics Project in the Green Mountain State (1999); “Vermont Eugenics: A Documentary History” www.uvm.edu/~eugenics (2001).

* “The Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs: An Open Letter To Governor Jim Douglas.” By Frederick Wiseman, and leaders of the tribes granted recognition in S.222, March, 2008.

** http://www.youtube.com/watchv=B1Hk4rUdWZk&feature=player_embedded

Senator Hinda Miller states, "Great ok Terrific and I am reporting this Bill and I am extremely happy.....thank you Mark [Mitchell], what you can tell everyone is that we are very very grateful that you honored our request to keep the drama down and not to have too much activity that confused us, that allowed us to really hunker down and get going what we really to do."

[Mark had posted the date for the hearing on his website for Thursday (the day after the hearing was actually held) and after the hearing added “Changed to Wednesday.”]

Cc: Representative Helen Head, Senators Tim Ashe, Ed Flanagan, Ginny Lyons, Douglas Racine, Diane Snelling, Hinda Miller, Vincent Illuzzi

Gov. Jim Douglas appoints Native Recognition Commission

By Terri Hallenbeck

Free Press Staff Writer

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Nine new members of the reconstructed and manipulated Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs were appointed Friday by Gov. Jim Douglas:

• Melody Walker Brook, Elnu Abenaki, Jeffersonville, Vermont 

• Shirly Hook-Therrien, Koasek, Braintree, Vermont 

• Dawn Macie, Nulhegan Abenaki, Rutland, Vermont 

• David Vanslette, Missisquoi Abenaki, Swanton, Vermont 

• Takara Matthews, Abenaki, Richmond, Vermont 

• Fred W. Wiseman, Abenaki, Newport, Vermont 

• Charlene McManis, Confederated Tribe of Grand Ronde, Worcester, Vermont 

• Luke Willard, chief of the Nulhegan Abenaki, Brownington, Vermont 

• Nathan Pero, Koasek, West Fairlee, Vermont 

Source: State Division of Historic Preservation

A newly re-structured Native American Commission was appointed Friday amid hopes that it will avoid disputes that paralyzed its predecessors (because of the non-transparency of the previously appointed Chairperson's Mark Mitchell, Donald Stevens, and Charles Lawrence Delaney who were "advocating" for the "groups" that they are members of) and find a way to allow Abenaki to achieve long-elusive official state recognition.

Nine members were appointed by Gov. Jim Douglas after the Legislature passed a new law this year ordering the commission to be reconfigured and giving the new "Expert" panel a process to recommend official state recognition for individual Abenaki bands. Official recognition would allow artists in the bands to sell their wares as native-made.

“I’m very encouraged,” said Donald Stevens, a Missisquoi Abenaki (meaning that he advocates for April Merrill) who served as chairman of the previous commission and helped push for the new commission (Of course, he pushed for a newly restructured VCNAA, because that way, April Merrill and this so-called "Alliance" can manipulate, and grant themselves their sought after "State Recognition" of their own group's!). “I think you’ve got a great mix.”

Donald Warren Stevens Jr. had warned Douglas when he signed the law in May that the new process toward granting recognition wouldn’t work unless he appointed good people (what Don Stevens really meant was that the Governor Douglas appoint these group's representative members onto the Commission, because they would obstruct ANYONE ELSE on the VCNAA like they did previously!) to the panel. The new commission is particularly notable for the number of young members, said Frederick Matthew Wiseman Sr., Missisquoi historian who also pushed for the new commission. Wiseman’s son, Fred W. Wiseman, is among the new members (why doesn't this surprise me?). He noted several others are in their 20s and 30s. “The young people, I don’t think, are quite as jaded,” he said. (Bullsh**, they are just as manipulated; the Apple's don't fall far from the rotten tree!)

The commission was created in 2006 with a state law that was supposed to grant Vermont Abenaki official status, but the law didn’t meet the criteria of the federal law and the commission was hampered by mistrust among Abenaki bands. (That's because April Merrill & Co. couldn't CONTROL the VCNAA, so they mistrusted the VCNAA; TRUST=COMPLETE CONTROL) The bands overcame strong down-to-the-wire disagreements to reach an agreement on the new law this year. Some Abenaki distrust claims of heritage by others, generating fears that some would seek to block recognition for other bands.

What do you call it, when you have got your "young adults", child of Frederick Wiseman Sr, Presidents/Chiefs of these Incorporations, Carolee Reynolds daughter Takara Matthews, etc. appointed onto this "newly re-constructed" Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs? I would call it TOTALLY BLANTANTLY BIASED. Not one of these people (with the exception of Charlene Willing McManis who is supposedly is "an enrolled tribal member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Oregon #3669) are proven "Abenaki"; yet Charlene Willing McManis herself, vocally has repeatedly stated "that she also advocates for State Recognition of Swanton, Vermont's group led by April St. Francis Merrill.

The new law sets out a process by which the new commission will turn to a panel of three experts (WHO are these 3 alleged experts?) to study bands’ applications for official recognition. Based on the experts’ advice, the commission will make recommendations to the Legislature on who should be recognized. (Themselves (their "state-sanctioned Incorporations", of course!) The Legislature would make the final decision.

The new law expanded the commission from seven to nine members; required members to be residents of Vermont for at least three years; and set the panel’s makeup to be diverse geographically and by native affiliation. The panel will elect its own chairman.

The result with Friday’s announcement was a mix of members affiliated with the Elnu (Melody Walker-Brook), Missisquoi (David Vanslette), Nulhegan (Luke Willard and Dawn Macie), Koasek bands (Takara Matthews and Nathan Pero), along with unaffiliated (?) and one non-Abenaki Native American (Charlene McManis). It includes the chief of one band and members of all the bands that were (ARE) part of an alliance that the larger bands have formed as well as members who are not part of the alliance.

“I think you won’t see the fighting that’s been happening over the last few years,” Donald Warren Stevens Jr. said. (Of course, one won't probably see the fighting for transparenct, truthful, honest, legitimate process in recognizing bonefide "Abenakis" because LIARS and THEIVES recognize each other! and the Vermont Legislature and Attorney General's Office is too blind and apathetic to do anything about this biases B.S. going on)

“It’s going to be a good group of people who work well together,” said Frederick Matthew Wiseman Sr. and PhD, who hopes to serve on the expert panel that will advise the commission. PAY ATTENTION....this so-called created VT Indigenous Alliance, which includes Frederick M. Wiseman and April A. St. Francis-Rushlow-Merrill & Company (their so-called "Alliance" of 4) BITCHED, COMPLAINED and WHINED retrospectively-speaking about the previously appointed Vermont Commission On Native American Affairs (Judy Dow, Tim de la Bruere, and Jeanne Brink, Brad Barratt) were alleged "biased"....well what the hell does one call it, IF Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD gets appointed onto the "Expert Panel" to advise the Commissioner's which of course, includes HIS OWN SON on the Commission ?!!!)

He said several bands are working to prepare their applications for recognition in time for next legislative session. “I know several of them are busting their butts right now,” he said.

In your voice - Read reactions to this story

9/4/2010 9:57:23 AM

douglaslloyd wrote:

douglaslloyd's comment has been removed for violating the terms of service.

The Burlington Free Press Newspaper does not want to the PUBLIC to know about this blog, thats the supposed violation of the terms of service.

The Burlington Free Press just does not want the TRUTH of these people to come out to the open-minded Public and to the people of Vermont etc., to THINK for themsevles, about what is really truthfully going on regarding these Alleged and Re-Invented "Abenakis"  in Vermont and New Hampshire! Oh well.....