The TRUTH about Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD.- PART 8

A Complaint against Carollee Reynolds

By Frederick Matthew Wiseman

To the Tribal Council; St Francis-Sokoki Band of the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi:

Since April of this year, I have been harassed and stalked by a person who uses her status as doing genealogy for Missisquoi to lend credibility to her harassment. Her obsessive, inarticulate and often crude messages to my friends and colleagues within and without the native community in Vermont and elsewhere only reinforce damaging stereotypes regarding Missisquoi during a time when we do not need any more negativity. Ethics and legal violations and constitutional issues fall under the purview of the Tribal Council, so I am making this complaint to you.In the below document I show that Ms. Carollee Reynolds has weaponized genealogical research to support her hurt feelings -- because of her not being permitted to join the board of Alnôbaiwi. This organization has important social, historical and geographic links to Missisquoi, that I co-chair, and so she asserts that I lack evidence of Indigenous ancestry as part of a larger campaign of disinformation. This complaint will address those, as well as her probable tampering with many years of documentary evidence at the Archives at Missisquoi Tribal Headquarters and illegally taking that privileged information for personal use. I expect that this complaint will be confidential within the Tribal Council, and form the basis of a remedy, such as disciplinary action against Carollee Reynolds, if the data alluded to below prove true after a full and proper investigation.

Introduction

First, let me say that I personally believe that Indigenous identity is a political distinction that is bestowed by tribes on individuals as they become citizens, not a birthright or a self-identification such as other minorities enjoy.

I do not know much about the details of my genealogy beyond what was known in my family. I have too much to do in the rough and tumble world of Indigenous revitalization to concern myself with ancestry, so I have left it up to the professionals at the Abenaki Research Project over the years to repeatedly research and confirm an Indigenous heritage. Therefore, I believe that it is unethical on my part to assert more than the verifiable facts that:

1. I have been a proud citizen of St. Francis/Sokoki Band, Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi since my completed application was accepted by the Nation in 1986

2. I held two separate terms on the Missisquoi Tribal Council

3. I was the Director of the Abenaki Tribal Museum

4. Missisquoi Diplomatic Ambassador

5. Missisquoi Tribal Historian

6. Missisquoi representative to the Governor's Commission on Native American Affairs

7. Co-chair of the Missisquoi Cultural Preservation Committee

8. Missisquoi delegate to both the Wabanaki Confederacy and the Seven Nations 

I have also done many other things of service to Missisquoi, including writing the historical portions of the State Recognition Petition, testifying in the VT House and Senate to support recognition as well as directing and filming ‘Against the Darkness’ video to support recognition and the ‘From Calumet to Crisis’  video for their smoking cessation grant.  That being said, until I am asked to turn in my Band card #2585 by the Missisquoi Tribal Council, for cause and with due process, I will assert a Missisquoi Abenaki citizenship. 

Second, I have gone through Carollee Reynolds' assertions that she has shared with me and others in the Abenaki community over the last few months. All of the readable assertions that I know of are listed below; with my responses, others are too incoherent to evaluate or too vile to share. This documented analysis of Carollee Reynolds' assertions deals with pedigree and residency elements, as well as issues of genealogical incompetence and malice, as well as possible corruption --tampering with tribal records for personal gain (revenge). I apologize for the length and detail for this document, but Carollee Reynolds has concocted a disjointed, dim-witted argument that needs to be deconstructed carefully, element by element, in an organized manner. 

Third, before discussing her claims, I need to add short historical back-story to her campaign of negativity, to highlight a sense of Carollee Reynolds' state of mind at the beginning of her assault.  Carollee Reynolds and I have been (supposed) friends and colleagues for over 25 years, until early April 2019. She changed from being a friend she could turn to when she was feeling persecuted by Missisquoi and the Alnôbaiwi organization, to an avowed enemy. Below is a chronology of selected quotes from Carollee Reynolds' during our flurry of March and early April, 2019 emails, that outline the bizarre reversal of our relationship -- that happened in a mere five days (compare the 4/1/19 and 4/6/2019 posts). 

March 05, 2019

Hey Fred Hope all is well with you. Did you say you had a piece for my top hat? ... See you later! 

(She wanted me to give her a sterling silver "Hat Crown" worth $100-$300, which I did)

March 10, 2019 (two emails)

I was supposed to be on the exhibit and dance part of things but I think I will contribute to the gardening only, I am interested in learning and arts and crafts field trips and spirituality. Hopefully things will be less confusing in the future...Yes, I will enhance my calm! I treasure our friendship and no I don't want you to stroke out on me! If the monthly meeting turns out to be a council meeting where the committee is deciding things then I would feel superfluous.

(I was trying to help her deal with her extreme agitation regarding her perceived wrongs by not being accepted on the Council of the Alnôbaiwi group. It began at a meeting of the group earlier in the year with vehement recriminations and outbursts against the Alnôbaiwi secretary and two Council members; after she was informed that membership in the Council was closed. Note here that she was interested in learning spirituality from me.)

March 30, 2019

I hope to continue my friendship with you, Kerry (nee: Royce) Wood, Allison and Patrick Crawford, I don't see this situation as getting any better. If they want to talk behind my back, then have at it.

(She was vehemently disparaging Alnôbaiwi to me at the time.)

March 30, 2019

Hope you and Anna are having a wonderful time in Arizona ... Because you are my friend and will remain so; I am letting you know what I am doing, so you don't have to guess.

(She was disengaging from Alnôbaiwi at the time.)

April 01, 2019

Heads Up; Missisquoi says they will not allow me to leave the band and they are hopping mad at their own council people setting up a nonprofit. They are saying it is a conflict of interest. I don't want to get involved especially when some of those folks were less respectful to me. At this point I don't dare to talk to anyone.

(Anyone can leave the Missisquoi band, it requires a witnessed letter.  She was railing against the Missisquoi Tribal Council, and Alnôbaiwi. I was trying to help her join the Nulhegan Band).

April 06, 2019

Why do you keep lying about being Abenaki? Being one of the founders of the Canadian genealogy society I traced all your French ancestors to France; Why tell big lies about your house, no Abenaki people have ever lived there, you are not related to the Hilliker’s, You better start coming clean about who you really are. You are on some kind of power trip and a pathetic man, the longer you lie, the worse it will get. I am not your friend; you don't lie to your friends.

THE SPECIFIC ASSERTIONS AND THEIR REBUTTAL

1.  Fred is not a citizen of Missisquoi

After Carollee Reynolds began her assault on my identity in April, 2019, I talked to the Missisquoi Chief Eugene G. Rich and at least one member Morgan Lamphere of the Missisquoi Tribal Council; the tribal officials who have always had the charge of expelling a citizen for cause. My good standing in the Tribe was made clear to me when I was invited by the Missisquoi Tribal Council to help with cultural revitalization in 2018 -- that led to the eventual formation of the Alnôbaiwi group, and classes in Abenaki history and culture at Tribal Headquarters. Also, I was gratified to be appointed by the Tribal Council to the Missisquoi Cultural Preservation Committee in 2018. I was glad to see that at that first 2018 meeting, Tribal Council member Lester Lampman was very welcoming and basically said that we should leave past disagreements in the past. That was wonderful to hear. If I was not a citizen at that point, this invitation and warm welcome would not have been given. The 2019 discussion with Chief Eugene Rich was regarding my citizenship status after Carollee asserted that I was not Abenaki.

I have illustrated here, the letter of May (2019) from Chief Eugene G. Rich. I consider that this letter is extremely important to "lock in" my Abenaki identity from Missisquoi as of 2019, in case the political winds of Missisquoi change in the next few years.

2.  I belong to the French Canadian Genealogy Society in Colchester Vermont ... like I’ve been doing genealogies since the 1980’s

I do not know about her length of time as a genealogist.  I do know about her incompetency. She has become the author of my Ancestry.com family tree and she is the only one who can post there. Neither I nor any member of the Wiseman family authorized the construction of our Ancestry.com ‘Wiseman family tree’. According to Ancestry.com, it is quite unusual for non-family members to create pedigrees. 

As of September 2019, the ‘Wiseman family tree’ contained significant errors discovered by Paula Harris, the family genealogist, including that my parents did not have children, that I may have been born out of wedlock, and that my grandparents died in “London, England”.

My first cousin, who was annoyed with Carollee Reynolds' inept portrayal of her grandparents, her aunt and uncle, tried to initiate a correspondence with Carollee Reynolds through the messenger in Ancestry.com, but Carollee Reynolds never replied. After I exposed her inept research concerning my parents, Carollee Reynolds quietly corrected the erroneous information on Ancestry.com without apologizing or acknowledging her incompetent research to me or anyone else. Since I did not mention the error concerning my grandparents to others (thank goodness!).  Cousin Paula Harris took a screenshot on October 25, 2019, to document that some evidence of genealogical ineptitude remains -- before Carollee Reynolds could change this element of her bungling research on Paula Harris's and my grandparents. My grandmother Anna (Annie) Marie (nee: Hines) Platt (b. July 07 1897 – d. April 17, 1960) died in Catonsville, Baltimore County, Maryland and was buried in Loudon Park Cemetery in Maryland. Grandmother Anna Marie did not die in “London, England”. Paula Harris tells me that the Loudon Park = “London, England” type of error is a typical result of "lazy genealogy," where instead of doing the careful work of primary research; unvetted information is lifted from secondary and tertiary sources, then grafted onto a family tree. If there is that level of error in my parents' and grandparents' Ancestry.com data, I cannot imagine the shoddy work that lurks in the more distant ancestral branches of my published pedigree. It is bizarre to have someone with demonstrated malice and who has claimed that that I am "pathetic" [April 26, 2019 email], or "sick" [October 16, 2019 email]), seize authorship of my family tree. Yet she did a terrible job on the public posting and then excluded editing by my family's genealogist -- by not communicating through Ancestry's private messaging. From some of the information on the pedigree, I allege that she based portions of the family tree information on the Missisquoi Tribe’s genealogical data housed in the Abenaki Research Project Archives that are never to be made public. This entirely unethical genealogical practice combines self-evident malice, bad faith and incompetence. My first cousin Paula Harris can corroborate elements of former posting of bungled genealogy on Ancestry.com before the evidence of Carollee Reynolds' ineptitude was wiped out by Carollee Reynolds. 

3. You really don't have any native lines that anyone can find. ... I do genealogies for (Missisquoi) headquarters. Headquarters has your genealogy root and branch.

Disappearance of my tribal file

Last week, Chief Eugene Rich and another Abenaki citizen went to the Missisquoi citizen's "Hard files," at the Tribal Headquarters. That citizen reports:

"Morgan (Lamphere, a Tribal Council Member) had called me and told me that (Nulhegan Chief) Donald Warren Stevens Jr. had sent him a message letting him know that you (Fred Wiseman) were removed from tribal rolls. I then immediately went to headquarters and asked Eugene Rich to check ... he brought me into the room and he looked, and your files was indeed removed ... unconstitutionally mind you, since this was never brought up to tribal council, presumably (name redacted), Carollee Reynolds and their cult followers."

Misuse of Abenaki Research Project (ARP) Files

I must assume that my Abenaki Research Project file has been destroyed or removed to further tamper with it. For purposes of this rebuttal against claims of my having no Indigenous ancestry, I will assume that my paternal grandmother's connections to indigenous heritage that were pointed out to me by Carol (nee: Gromatski) Nepton and Christopher A. Roy of the Abenaki Research Project, which are now deleted (check the ARP genealogy chart illustrated below to see my copy of what WAS once there).  In addition to the possibility of files tampering, it is a major ethical breach for Carollee Reynolds, who has no authority (this is reserved to the Tribal Council) to discuss the nature of tribal rolls at all, much less outside Missisquoi to Nulhegan Chief Donald Warren Stevens Jr. She also used the detailed genealogies from my ARP files, which are never to be touched except by the family or people appointed by the Tribal Council, as a source for her public posting of my family tree on Ancestry.com. I base my allegation on the simple fact that there were no public ‘Wiseman family trees’ for her to base the pedigree tree on before she began her campaign of harassment. 

Removal or altering of ARP files, public sharing of tribal rolls information and taking of privileged ARP family files for personal use are entirely unethical, corrupt, and need to be dealt with by the Tribal Council.

4.  You (Fred Wiseman) said you were descended from a great chief. (Also) You claimed that you are descended from the first Abenaki chief.

I am unfamiliar with any particular historical 17th, 18th, 19th or 20th century chief that I am descended from. I did know Rudolph Kent Ouimette slightly, long ago, who told me that he knew my father and he, (Ouimette) was related to me, which made sense to me, since he has the last name of my Father's maternal grandmother. Rudolph Kent Ouimette was very active in the 1970's and was the "Sogomo" (translates as "chief" in English) of the K’dakinna Pobatamwogan Medicine Society (then located at 15 Jewett Street, Swanton, Vermont) at the politically intricate time when the Missisquoi tribe was forming.  Rudolph Kent Ouimette was responsible for having Odzihozo, also known as ‘Rock Dunder’, deeded to the Kdakinna Pobatamwogan Medicine Society (I suggested years ago that Missisquoi should have the deed reassigned-- did that ever happen??). Rudolph Kent Ouimette later left Missisquoi to work with Richard Blackhorse Wilfred Phillips in another band. This is the only possible knowledge that I have that makes reference to an Ouimet Chief. 

5.  His (Fred Wiseman's) Family moved into Swanton in 1910

My Grandmother and Grandfather met at the now derelict Riviera Hotel in Swanton in 1901, and soon married; my Aunt Dorothy Erno (nee: Wiseman) Carman was born October 19, 1905 in Swanton; and the home I live in was built by Frederick William Wiseman in 1908- 1909 at 17 Spring St. in Swanton. Those uncomplicated data, including the marriage place/date information for Frederick William Wiseman and Josephine (nee: Erno) Wiseman, could be easily found by any competent genealogist. 

6.  You (Fred Wiseman) said your house was the most continually (sic) Abenaki dwelling in Swanton

Carollee Reynolds faulty remembrance is part of a discussion of who was living in Swanton during the 1910 census that I once had to study for Recognition research. I did say that I did not see any other "Core" Abenaki family names listed in the census for Swanton Village (this may or may not be true, I only said that I did not recognize any modern core family surnames). She did not share any residency data during the discussion to refute this assertion. There may be other Abenaki families in the village dating to that time, but they did not seem to be evident to me in that census. Professionally, I would, of course, be very happy to discover a significant early 20th century Abenaki presence in Swanton Village. In another context, while showing Carollee Reynolds a set of three historic images of 17 Spring Street, I told her that three generations of Fred Wiseman’s had lived here since my Grandfather built the ancestral house in 1908 and then my grandmother (documented as Abenaki, see Figure 6 below) and he moved into the new house in early 1909 -- something I am proud of. 

I forwarded this dated residency information to the Abenaki Research Project in the early 2000's to include in their rebuttal to the federal rejection of the Missisquoi Recognition Petition -- to document that at least some Abenakis were in Swanton Village in the 1910 period, geographic evidence they did not have at the time. They may have found others later, I do not know.  This is the knowledge that I retain that is pertinent to her foolish claim.

7. You (Fred Wiseman) said that they (Wiseman's ancestors?) were the last off the Reserve

I don't know how to respond to this foolish claim. This one is so incomprehensible; I do not know where this claim came from.  I do not know if I have ancestors who were ever on a reserve, much less the last off of it. (Like a week ago?) 

8. He (Fred Wiseman) has an ancient card that Homer gave him

My tribal registration card dates to the winter of 2013, which I had to have updated when the band number on my previous (2012) card was printed incorrectly. The card is signed by Sandra Shedrick, (not Homer Walter St. Francis Sr.)  

  

That card dates to the time frame when Tribal Council Chair Joe Bertrand invited the Lampman’s back to Missisquoi to end the strife between Missisquoi and Maquam. Carollee Reynolds must have had her card updated at that time, because the previous (2012) card registry number's were incorrect. The Lampman’ first Missisquoi cards after their "return" were certainly of that age as well. If Carollee Reynolds was so deep in my supposedly secure tribal records as to claim that she was responsible for getting me removed from tribal rolls, it is inconceivable that she would be so inept as to miss the obvious record of the creation of the recent tribal card.

9. He has a card from before we had to submit original vital records.

We had to update our ancestry vital record data in 1993-94 when Homer St Francis did a "purge" to selectively remove people he did not like for political purposes, and then tried to change the underlying documents -- that corruption led to the creation of the Traditional Band of Mazipskoik.  A repeat of this corruption of Tribal Rolls by April St. Francis in the mid 2000's created the beginnings of a movement that later constitutionally eliminated the position of Chief in 2012. Christopher A. Roy (who later turned on Missisquoi), Carol Nan (nee: Gromatski) Nepton, and a suite of researchers at the Abenaki Research Project (under an Administration for Native Americans ANA Grant) did the research on genealogy beyond my meager ancestral knowledge; and cleared me as we were preparing to update the Federal Recognition petition records in late 1996. A page of the now-removed November 12, 1996 Missisquoi genealogical records enclosed here; note my grandmother listed as "Abenaki" by a blue arrow. 

Note that that document (Figure 6.) is a truly vital record of an assessment of ethnicity by duly appointed Missisquoi Abenaki Research Project officials; rather than some culturally ignorant 1890's white doctor or bureaucrat.

I had to resubmit it again in 2004-2005 when we were dealing with the first round of the Missisquoi Recognition rejection by the Federal Government BIA Acknowledgement Department, and again in 2009 in preparation for the State Recognition petition. Everyone had to "show a documented descendancy from an identified (by white people) Indigenous Ancestor;" a rigorous demand to meet the Federal (and later State of VT) criterion that was under consideration. This "tightening" of genealogical requirements knocked a lot of people off the tribal rolls. But as you can see from the above 2013 tribal card, I was not removed. So, I know that I was on the tribal rolls at the beginning of the Lampman regime in 2014. If Carollee Reynolds is, as she said, actively working on verifying genealogy for citizenship, she should have known this. If I was removed from the tribal rolls, it was quite recently, apparently by Carollee Reynolds, according to what she has told other Abenakis; without any form of due process through the Tribal Council. 

10.  When I asked Fred how he knew he had native ancestry he got very insulting, said I was too dumb to find it, and Tom Ledoux found it

Absolutely; below is the specific quote I sent her about "Tom Ledoux" that Carollee Reynolds refers to; that I emailed to her on October 11, 2018.  It documents a truly breathtaking misinterpretation of my statement about Darryl Leroux.  (NOT Tom Ledoux)

"Perhaps when Darryl Leroux comes after you and your ilk, you may begin to understand what you are doing.  You can rail against me and what I do all you want to mess up my genealogy online and probably elsewhere, but in the long run, what you do will pass, that which we do will endure, at least we can hope. Take your venom to people who hate, it works better there. I don't know what happened to you last April, but I don't care anymore. Good bye please. 

Carollee Reynolds emailed (I suppose) Tom Ledoux, and then a puzzled Tom wrote to me; trying to understand what was going on. I told Tom I did not have a clue, and asked who brought this up.  His portrayal of Carollee Reynolds' temperament in his reply to me, may shed a bit more light on the context of her completely delusional query from a "within the family" perspective.

"Fred, that's what I thought. I have a wacky cousin, Carollee Reynolds. We're related through John Hilliker and the Hogle, Lampman, Ledoux, and Patenaude families (about 20 times)."

The Darryl Leroux that I mentioned in my "insulting" email is Professor of Social Justice at St. Mary's University in Halifax, NS and the main purveyor of the "Race-shifting" concept based on weaponized genealogy such as practiced by Carollee Reynolds.

He (Darryl Leroux) is now actively deconstructing Missisquoi (and other VT tribes') leadership's right to be called "Indian."  He (Darryl Leroux) is portraying them as privileged white people.  

Check out this link for a glimpse of future woes for Missisquoi:

https://twitter.com/DarrylLeroux/status/1186744574162677762?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

That Carollee Reynolds does not understand who Darryl Leroux is, documents a profound and troubling ignorance of genealogical issues that form an existential threat to her tribe.  Below is a sample of the October 22, 2019 Darryl Leroux Twitter quote to illustrate what I was referring to.

"At the October 09, 2019 meeting of the VCNAA, he (Richard Holschuh) explained how my book was putting “Abenaki tribes” in VT in “negative light”. Good. I’ve seen and completed dozens of genealogies of their leaders. Every single one of them rely on an ancestor or 2 from 1600’s ... In this case, white French-descendants weaponized pain and suffering faced by generations of actual Abenaki people who still live in New England, then lobbied to ban descendants of these same people from testifying about the truth."

[Darryl Leroux was/is specifically speaking of the Abenaki People whose parents and grandparents come from Odanak whose descendant child(ren) and grandchildren etc were/are living in the States, such as Richard "Skip" Robert Bernier and many others living in Vermont; and well as Denise Watso, and many others living in New York, etc.]

Carollee Reynolds must be able, in the very near future, to defend Missisquoi's genealogical credibility from a very well-funded and organized offensive operation. From what I have seen, she is not even close to being up to the task. Meanness and ineptitude are not a substitute for knowledge and logic in this case.

11. You (Fred Wiseman) are not related to the Hilliker’s

Judson Hilliker' mother was Christine Ouimet (one of my great-great grandparents' 4 children), who married Judson's father Dorman Hilliker. This connection is not very far in the past, and concerns an important family that should have been well known to Carollee Reynolds or others who have a passing competency in NW VT genealogy. 

Concluding thoughts

In summary, I have countered each of Carollee Reynolds' assertions that she has presented to me, or have been forwarded by other concerned Abenaki leaders. The assertion of my not having native ancestry is refuted by the November 12, 1996 Abenaki Research Project genealogy document included above. These assertions, flung about here and there in the VT Abenaki world, demonstrate a fascinating mix of ignorance, foolishness, ineptitude, obsession, illogic, and malice. Her assault has been labeled as "Lateral Violence," by at least one irritated Abenaki chief and a respected, but saddened cultural leader.  Another (angrier) Indigenous leader wrote that Carollee Reynolds is "doing the Devil's work."  Others seem saddened about her tragic, erratic behavior. However, I certainly do not consider myself oppressed by such a "genealogist."  I am happy to finish this distasteful endeavor, and can now get back to being of service to the Vermont indigenous community. 

Nevertheless, Carollee Reynolds' actions, combined with the troubling absence of my tribal files, and their use for personal purposes, indicate a deeper security problem that the Tribal Council needs to address. Twice before, during my 32 years at Missisquoi, there have been instances of tribal records being altered, removed or corrupted in secret for political or personal purposes. I am sure that this is not the systemic case today, so I am assuming that all of this nonsense is Carollee Reynolds' typically inept revenge for not being asked to be on the Alnôbaiwi Council. 

Lastly, I profoundly understand Missisquoi politics, having witnessed, studied, and chronicled the ebb and flow of ethical and unethical governance over the last 32 years. I believe that it may be best for the Tribal Council set aside politics and follow historical procedures in considering citizenship rather than allow an angry, inept, non-official fool play little secretive games in the ARP Archives to achieve some form of personal revenge. Also, it may be to the tribe's greater political advantage to retain me than fall prey to petty squabbles. The Tribe may soon need good, effective scholarship to counter the coming firestorm from a coalition of scholars and angry Indigenous advocates to the north and east of Missisquoi (referred to in the counter to Carollee Reynolds' bungled Leroux assertion). 

Dr. Darryl Leroux has Odanak and Indian Island stirred up, as well as Barry Dana and Western Maine "Abenakis" who are working to see Missisquoi fail. A combination of extreme leftist "Social Justice" theory combined with weaponized genealogy, and political rival tribes with full federal recognition, may be hard to counter using petty incompetents like Carollee Reynolds to sway the court of public opinion, if not in the legal courts. I have always been of service to Missisquoi and, as long as I have my tribal card, I will continue to serve.

Thank you for hearing my Complaint.

                          Band # 2585

                                                         10/29/2019

My Response will follow in Part 9 of the TRUTH about Frederick Matthew Wiseman PhD. ...