Rendezvous organizer Carrie Glessner says, “We hope groups and individuals with an environmental or social justice mission will join us, and we invite everyone to learn more about the event workshops and speakers at our website: TheRendezvousVT.wordpress.com.
RisingTide activist, Michael Reddy, sees The Rendezvous as a rare opportunity. “Getting Mountain
Occupiers, 350VT’ers, Rising Tide, Earth Firsters!, First Nation folks, etc. all in one spot to talk
strategy is the most exciting thing about this event. There’s no time like the present to challenge ‘business as usual’.”
August 17, 2013
In Irasburg, there descended a swarm of quote, "members and attendee's of Mountain Occupiers 350VT'ers, RisingTide, Earth Firsters, "First Nation folks" (self proclaimed very likely), all in one location, to discuss and make their strategic plans of attack. Very likely Middlebury College.... why?
The answer lies in a previous article: July 05, 2013 entitled, "Its not easy being green for Middlebury College.
September 11, 2013 - approximately 3:00 PM
A group of 5 young protesters decided that 2,997 small 9/11 memorial flags placed in a Middlebury College campus lawn needed to be removed because they were on top of a Native American burial ground yesterday.
Vermont has a long history with the Abenakis — native to the New England area. The University of Vermont has done research which concluded that several Abenaki women had been sterilized.
Apparently, the University of Vermont did not do any research at all nor haven't done their homework on the accuracy of what is cited in that http://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/VT/VT.html, regarding the ALLEGED sterilizations during the Eugenics Program of Vermont, because clearly, and obviously the University of Vermont quote,
"The Abenakis were a large group targeted by the Vermont Eugenics laws, and though, according to Paul, the last noted sterilization occurred in 1957, the Abenakis continued to be sterilized (Dowbiggin, p. 181). "
"Between 1973 and 1976, approximately 3400 Abenaki women were sterilized in the United States, including those sterilized in Vermont; full informed consent was not obtained" (Dowbiggin, p. 181)."
THIS is an intentional MISQUOTE, out of the book written and compiled by it's author Ian Robert Dowbiggin.
The book, on Page 181 does not say that Abenaki woman continued to be sterilized in the United States at all.
What is actually STATED in the book on Page 181, is this:
“Data relating to the sterilization of Native Americans cast an equally gloomy pall over efforts to popularize sterilization in the 1970’s. During the heyday of eugenic sterilization, in the 1930’s, Native American tribes such as Vermont’s Abenakis had been targeted for sterilization, but far from dying out, this disturbing practice actually thrived in later years. [71]
In 1976, the General Accounting Office released data that indicated that 3,406 Native American women in one-third of all Indian Health Services (HIS) districts had been sterilized between 1973 and 1976 without filling out proper consent forms."
Amanda Lickers, a member of the Onondowa’ga Nation, a part of the Onkwehon:we, a member of the Turtle Clan and the Onondowa’ga Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, claims she did this, because she was told by another alleged student of the Middlebury College, that there was a Abenaki Burial Site on campus, and seeing the small American flags in the ground, thinking with her heart, made the alleged instantaneous decision, to start pulling them up, with her white settler activist's sympathsizer's, such as Anna Shireman - Gabrowski and several other non-students, helping pull the flags up, and stuffing them hastily into Glad garbage bags.
When confronted, Amanda Lickers launched into a verbal tirade wherein she used BIG wordage's like:
1. "our people have been under attack"
2. "the theft of our territories"
3. "the devastation of our waters"
4. "the poisoning of our people through the poisoning of our lands"
5. "the theft of our people from our families"
6. "the rape of our children"
7. "the murder of our women"
8. "the sterilization of our communities"
9. "the abuse of our generations"
10. "the uprooting of our ancestors and the occupation of our sacred sites"
11. "the silencing of our songs"
12. "the erasure of our languages and memories of our traditions"
When confronted by fellow Middlebury, VT College, Junior Student Benjamin Harris, all that Amanda Lickers could conclude was that this young man, was a "a nationalistic-settler, a young white boy". She did not want to cave to his support of the occupying, settler-colonial, imperialist state, and the endorsing of the genocide of indigenous peoples across the world.
Upon requested by this Benjamin Harris, to relinquish the said 2,977 American flags to him, she simply stated that they were being "confiscated" and when further attention was garnered by the incident as it unfolded, the Onkwehon:we of the Turtle Clan and the Onondowa’ga Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, along with her cronies, RAN AWAY with the bags of flags in hand.
"It is the duty of the college of Middlebury College to consult with abenaki peoples and repatriate their grounds."
So, who, in fact, put Ms. Amanda Lickers and her cohorts such as Anna Sheriman-Gabrowski, up to this STUNT, in their attempt at media attention, etc.?
This is the question that begs to be answered, and like in Elementary, Middle, or High School, no one wants to admit to any wrong doing but point to the VISIBLE PERPETRATORS that were on that Middlebury College Campus on that particular day.
Donald Warren Stevens, Jr. [formerly of the St. Francis - Sokoki group led by April St. Francis - Merrill and now of "Chief" of the "Nulhegan" "Tribe"] proceeded to claim, "that the vandalism was 'disgusting' and believes the protesters were acting to promote their own political beliefs." and he continued, "We didn't know anything about this and if we had, we certainly wouldn't have sanctioned it," Stevens said.
He said that Abenakis do not publicize the locations of their burial sites, in order to protect them, and that he has no knowledge of any such sites on the Middlebury campus. Stevens said that even if the site of the memorial had been a burial site, the American flags placed in the earth would not have been a desecration..... etc.
Anna Shireman-Grabowski, a college senior, invited Amanda Lickers, a Canadian left-wing activist to campus to promote “decolonization”. Shireman-Grabowski and Licker were both involved in environmental anti-industry protests.
In a phone interview, Lickers identified herself as the leader of the group and said she had “absolutely no regrets” about her actions. Lickers said she was invited to campus by the Associate Dean of Students for Student Activities & Orientation J.J. Boggs to give a workshop on “settler responsibility and colonization.” College spokeswoman Sarah Ray disputed this and said Lickers was invited by Shireman-Grabowski. At the workshop, which was held at noon on Wednesday, a Middlebury student said the campus was the site of an Abenaki burial ground, Lickers said. Based on this information, Lickers made a “spontaneous” decision to remove the flags after she discovered their presence on a campus lawn.
Later, several varied people, decided to pitch their two cents worth on the events that happened after-the-fact, such as Crystal M. Lampman:
The granddaughter [Crystal M. Lampman born on March 13, 1979 in St. Albans, VT, daughter of Lester Marvin Lampman and Ann Marie nee: Gaudette] of Chief Leonard "Blackie" Miles Lampman had this response: As the granddaughter of Chief Leonard "Blackie" Miles Lampman let me tell you how I view your desecration of a memorial that holds meaning to me– you have disgraced MY family, MY people, MY heritage, and MY history. Do NOT call yourself sister to me. There are ways to accomplish getting ones point across without being disrespectful and hurtful. Case in point a DOCUMENTED Abenaki burial ground which now hosts a beautiful memorial on the banks of the Missisquoi River on Monument Rd in Swanton/Highgate. You have slapped in the face everything my family has worked for in gaining honor to be able to call oneself Abenaki. You have dishonored the memory of my grandfather a Chief and US Soldier. My Grandfather surely is shaking his head in shame at you supposed educated future leaders of our nation.
Ok, so let's review this a bit:
First of all, regardless of her claims of being the Granddaughter of Leonard M. "Blackie" Lampman this response means absolutely nothing. Most everyone is the grandchild of someone. How has what happened in Middlebury College on 9/11/2013 disgraced HER family, HER people, HER "heritage" or HER "history"?
The Lampman's have proven NOTHING to connect genealogically, their ancestry, to the Abenakis whatsoever.
This "Because-they-SAY-they-are-Abenakis" is utter BS and nonsense. The Lampman family of Franklin County, VT proved absolutely NOTHING to the Bureau of Indian Affairs OFA, nor really to the State of VT as well. As well, the St. Francis Family didn't provide ANY EVIDENCE connecting their family to the Abenakis at all either.
As for gaining honor to be able to call oneself "Abenaki"?
How about the Lampman's and or the St. Francis' or ANY of these FAKE "Abenaki groups members providing unmanipulated and transparently, the actual convincing definite genealogical-historical-and social proof DOCUMENTED, that they (or the Lampman's etc) were or are connected to the Abenakis, and not just "followers" of the Homer Walter St. Francis Sr. bunch "when it suited them" through the years, eh?
And here is a statement from Donna Louise (nee: Carvalho) Charlebois - Moody:
"I have worked on Abenaki repatriation for 19 yrs. and on sacred site protection. Wherever we go in this world, we are in someone's homeland. Bluntly--those flags are analogous to a stone honoring cairn and as an Abenaki mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, I personally have no problem with the honoring and see no possible way this can be construed as a desecration of land-- one, it's not a permanent display, and two, that land has already been hammered with concrete, brick, roadways, and whatever ground disturbing work was done to construct the campus. Let's get some rational perspective on this. I'm disturbed by other posts here which exhibit a great lack in education and information."
I do not respect ARROGANCE. [Claiming one is an "Abenaki" mother-grandmother and great-grandmother SHOWS the arrogance in her thinking and thought processes.]
And speaking as if one is an Abenaki, with no valid evidence, is an identity theft against the Abenaki People. Wabenaki/Waubanaki/Wabanaki does not equal "Abenaki" at all.
It is an attempt to bastardize the reality of those Abenaki Ancestors, by these PRETENDER'S !!
Prove Donna (nee: Carvalho) Moody, that you are Abenaki ... because all I see is a HURON ancestor, generations nearly past my two hands fingers from you ....
Let's see, has Donna Moody proven genealogically that she comes from the Abenakis?
Or does everyone just accept this Because-I-SAY-that-I'm-"Abenaki" dynamic?
If no one questions and requests/demands the actual viable convincing evidence HISTORICALLY - SOCIALLY and importantly GENEALOGICALLY of these groups of their "tribes"/"members" connection(s) to the Abenakis.....
Then how does anyone, individually or as an AGENCY actually HONESTLY KNOW that they are dealing with actual bonefide documented historically connected Abenaki People?
SO, IN CONCLUSION:
After reading all of this, knowing that Charles L. Delaney, Jr. Megezo - John K. Lawyer Greywolf- and Deanna Lou Dudley Dee Brightstar, and even Carol Irons, along with this Anna Shireman - Gabrowski, as well as Amanda Lickers, are a part of and active in these organization's such as Rising Tide Vermont, Climate Connections and Mountain Occupiers etc. etc., does anyone really honestly believe that Don Stevens, Jr. and his Nulhegan - Cowass Inc.'d group now a State-Recognized "Tribe" of "abenakis" had no knowledge of Amanda Lickers and Ms. Gabrowski's INTENT when they went to Middlebury College on 9/11 and did what they did?
Who did Amanda Lickers stay with while in Orleans County, Vermont; WHO did she speak with and hear from? She went to ORLEANS COUNTY, VERMONT, for this Rendezvous Event, stayed in VT all that time, until September 11, 2013? Who'd she stay with, and visit with?
Answer: Northeast Kingdom wannabial "Indigenous groups" such as Nulhegan, and perhaps even she spoke with John Lawyer, Charles L. Delaney, Jr. and Dee Brightstar? Or even Luke Willard and Don Stevens?
She certainly didn't come into Vermont for cake and ice cream.....
Whose the student (by name) who informed her that such an area where those flags were, was an alleged "Abenaki Burial Ground"?
She was co-organizer of a protest held prior to a Vermont Public Service Board hearing on the Addison Natural Gas Project at Middlebury Union Middle School on Sept. 10.
During a brief interview that evening with the Addison Independent, she identified herself as a volunteer with Rising Tide Vermont, a group whose self-proclaimed mission is to be “part of a movement which opposes the expansion of industrial infrastructure in the Northeast U.S. and Eastern Canada, and exposes corporate and state-sponsored false solutions to the climate crisis.”
Shireman-Grabowski also led a similar protest in June, when she and 20 others marched into the Montpelier offices of the Public Service Board and demanded to meet with Commissioner Chris Recchia, vtdigger.org reported. She also was leader of a May 7 march on campus that culminated in the presentation to college officials of a petition signed by 1,400 people asking them to revoke their support for the natural gas pipeline.
A second person also spoke about her involvement in the vandalism through an online post and in an interview with the Independent.
In an article posted on climate-connections.org, Amanda Lickers stated she was also involved in the vandalism.
Lickers said she is a member of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, another name for the Iroquois, a group of tribes in New York state.
Lickers is a surname at Akwesas:ne as well. Hmm, let's take a review going back a little further in time:
June 23rd, 2011
Nulhegan Chief, Don Stevens, and Elnu Chief, Roger Sheehan, and other Abenakis meet with the Council of the Seven Nations at Akwesasne/Ahkwesáhsne/‘St. Regis’ Mohawk Community.
Go all the way to the bottom of this PDF to page 25:
October 02, 2011
NATION AT NULHEGAN/MEMPHREMAGOG [Luke A. Willard and or Don W. Stevens, Jr.]
National Forests are owned by the federal government and they are nothing but resource banks... NOT conservation... at least not the way we view conservation. At any time that the fed desires, they can fill the White Mountain, Green Mountain, or any other national forest with oil wells, coal mines, quarries, wind farms (which are horrible and I'll debate that with anyone), ANYTHING that they want. Enjoy them while they are pristine but don't get attached... they don't belong to your state and the state has NO SAY WHATSOEVER in regards to national forests. The forest service might humor states and tribes by including them in "discussions" but it's only to shut us up. We learned this from experience. Our TRIBAL & TOWN FORESTS model is much different. Local ownership, local stewardship, and local use. If you're a member of a tribe that has a population of 750, you feel a sense of ownership in the tribe's forest land and because of that sense of ownership, you treat it well yourself and you care greatly about how others treat it. A national forest is owned (technically) by 300,000,000 people but those people have absolutely no say in its use or management. Also, the mineral rights, development rights, etc might be owned by another country like China. It's pretty difficult to establish any sense of ownership with national forests, parks, and conservations. And let's not forget how they got the land in the first place.
October 21, 2011
Then there is this:
http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2011/10/northeast-kingdom-woman-on-hunger-strike-to-protest-lowell-mountain-wind-project.html
Carol Irons with Lucy Cannon - Neel in April 2011
[Lucy Rose (nee: Pion) daughter of Roger Raoul Pion and Marie Rose Annette (nee: Fontaine) who married to Joseph Paul Cannon in 1979.... IS a member of the Luke Willard & Don Stevens Wannabiak of the Nulheganaki group]
Obviously, Luke Andrew Willard along with his cohort Don Stevens are stating,
October 23, 2011
1:00 PM
ABENAKI NATION AT NULHEGAN/MEMPHREMAGOG
"When will Vermont tribes fight for our sacred mountains? It seems Vermont tribes just wanted recognition... for what? I don't know. - Luke Willard"
And then their member (and NH residents) Bill and Sherry (nee: Blanchard) Gould of Bradford, stated, on the 29th of October, 2011:
"Maybe now that PowWow season is coming to a close we could get together and try and save what's left of our Mother Earth. All this Mountain leveling [Mountainoccupier Movement], Gas fracking [Pipeline Protesting and Demonstrations], and Toxic Dumping should be a priority for all of us !"
Bill and Sherry (nee: Blanchard) Gould of Bradford, NH are members of the Luke Willard & Don Stevens Wannabiak of the Nulheganaki group as well]
December 14, 2011
Per the Abenaki Nation at Nulhegan/Memphremagog Facebook Page:
"Mega wind projects such as the Sheffield and Lowell Mtn projects require mountain tops and ridges to be blasted, destroying the ridge lines and damaging the surrounding ecosystems. As an Abenaki, what is your position?
MountainOccupiers = Nulhegan Wannabiak (?) etc.
My Response:
IS Don Stevens, Jr. telling you Vermonter's the truth when he SAYS, he's an "Abenaki" and that he & they is descendant(s) from Old Philips of the Deed in 1796, and that he, and his followers of the Nulhegan group a.k.a. Vermont "abenaki" "tribe" ....
... had absolutely NOTHING directly or indirectly to do with what happened in Middlebury College on 9/11/2013?
Follow the dots. Do the Math. Do the Homework..... The bull-shit gets deeper with these pretender "abenaki" wannabiak....
Were these "abenaki" groups simply standing 'in the background' of this incident at Middlebury College, with their dirty hands behind their backs, playing the "NO... NOT ME, WE WEREN'T INVOLVED" game?
Were these FAKE "ABENAKIS" of VT were ALL INVOLVED from the VERY BEGINNING? INDIRECTLY (naturally they didn't want to get their hands really dirty) so they let this pair of women, do the dirty work for them? A Great publicity stunt?
And now that this stunt is gaining quite a lot of negative publicity .... the "Abenaki" "tribes" and their "Chiefs" claim not to know anything about it?
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to FIGURE OUT the reality of WHY it was intended that Middlebury, VT College was maliciously 'targeted' by these two demonstrating/protesting/activist women, and the other people involved with them.