Recently, I read in a newspaper periodical dated April 24, 2015, of “Abenaki Ethnocide in the Green Mountains” … a program presenter is Frederick M. Wiseman, Ph.D. and so-called Tribal Historian. He claims to have done alleged exhaustive research in historic documents as well as participating in resolute defense of Vermont "Abenakis" against the State of Vermont’s 1995-2006 attempted ‘Ethnic Erasure’.
Let me make this very clear to everyone reading this response:
The only one perpetuating ethnic erasure against Abenakis is the Mr. Wiseman Ph.D. himself, and others allied to him, from 1995 up to 2006 into the present. Along with Donald Warren Stevens and these 4 now-State of Vermont-"recognized" groups.
Let me provide the very validations to my statements herein:
Point #1
When the Professor began to ‘resolutely defend’ the wannabiak (as I refer to them as) of Vermont, he claimed as did the Partlow descendants that within the Alburgh, VT Town Records, four men were listed as Indians, that being Burk, Vosburgh, Olena and Parlo(w) in October 1863. Particularly Charles Henry Partlow.
Being curious as to why Mr. Wiseman Ph.D. and Carollee Reynolds, both claiming to be “Abenakis” were pointing to Allen L. Stratton’s 1986 Alburg(h) History Book of transcribed (typed up) data, instead of obtaining and showing the actual records from the Town Clerk’s Office, I went and got the original historical Alburgh Town Record, Page 593 of the Land and Misc. Records Book record.
What was readily apparent, reviewing the original record, was that it was NOT Burk, Vosburgh, Olena and Parlo(w) who were thee four Indians mentioned within the record. In fact, the names of the four Indians were not mentioned.
The Professor (Frederick M. Wiseman) and Carollee (nee: Reynolds) Matthews, along with other descendants, such as Melody (nee: Walker) Brook (formerly of the St. Francis/Sokoki but now of the El-Nu bunch of ‘re-enactors’), kept pointing to the Allen L. Stratton 1986 book Page 132 to IMPLY that Partlow was one of the "Four Indians." Allen L. Stratton created a documentary ‘distortion’, yet he referenced the original record book and page.
Apparently, that original record information didn't fit into the picture or agenda of what “Chief” April Merrill, Carollee Reynolds, Melody Walker Brook, Brent Reader nor Professor Frederick Matthew Wiseman, etc. wanted to paint to the State of Vermont Scholar’s nor Politicians in the Legislature. Certain no one “followed through” and attempted to show and provide the accurate historical Alburgh Town Record. Any of them should have shown the original Page 593 out o the Land & Misc. Records Book Volume 16, but they didn’t. Why not? Denis Watso sent letters to the then Governor of Vermont, Mr. Jim Douglas and also to William Sorrell (Attorney General) yet no one seemed to pay any mind at all to the fraudulent re-writing of Mohawk and Abenaki historical record(s).
Within the research, it was surmised, that if Burk, Vosburgh, Olena and especially Partlow were NOT the "Four Indians" the question begged to be answered....just who were the "Four Indians" not mentioned by name who were paid $110.00 each in October 1863 out of Alburgh, Vermont?
The answer was a process of elimination and genuine genealogical research.
The "Four Indians" were 1. David Loran (a.k.a. Loran David), 2. Peter Laffin (Laflin or Laughlin), 3. George Squires, and 4. Joseph Bero (or Biro).
These 4 Indians in fact came from the Mohawk Community of Akwesasne (alternate spelling Ahkwesáhsne). We know this because the surnames are FROM that Mohawk Native Community situated on the New York/Canadian Border.
Why couldn’t the alleged ‘Abenaki Historian’ from Johnson State College Humanities Dept. now-retired Professor Frederick Matthew Wiseman, Ph.D. and/or at least one of the Partlow descendants do this ‘research’ to validate their claims, regarding the “Four Indians”?
Answer: Because the actual documentary evidence does not support their concocted claims … that’s why!
The 4 Alburgh Indians Evaluation and Documentation
This concludes the documenting of how they began perpetuating the ‘myth’ that the “Four Indians” were Burk, Vosburg, Olena and Partlo(w) on genealogical websites www.genforum.com and www.ancestry.com message boards ca. 2005-2006. This also shows how that same Carollee Reynolds ‘myth’ was further perpetuated by Professor Frederick Matthew Wiseman, Ph.D. in his ‘Against the Darkness’ DVD presentation in 2006-2007. This also concludes how www.nedoba.org sought out and by-process of elimination, secured the accurate historical names of the “Four Indians” ca. 1863 Alburgh, Grand Isle County, Vermont.
Has it not been the Colonizer State of Vermont who has been perpetuating “Ethnic Erasure” against the Abenakis, or has it been doing just that, by legislatively “recognizing” by State Recognition, these incorporated entities of wannabiak as well as this Professor of dubious scholarly ethics?
Professor Wiseman seemingly wants to make “Abenakis” … out of Mohawks and complain and write about ‘Ethnocide’ … and so forth and so on [?] when he himself perpetuates such ethnic cleansing, (or should I state ‘ethnic native identity manipulations’) not only of the ‘Abenaki bastardization’ he has seemingly done documentarily, but against the legitimate Abenakis throughout N'dakinna as well and Odanak/Wolinak?! Amazing, what has been and is still going on.
Point #2
Professor Frederick M. Wiseman, Ph.D. when preparing for the retrospective B.I.A. Federal Recognition Petition, he claimed to be in possession of an image, of a RPPC Postcard labeled “Chief of the Wabanakis, Highgate Springs, VT” ca. early 1900’s, the Professor not only manipulated the color copy he’d made in St. Albans of the RPPC image, he then attempted to appropriate the “Chief” as his own!
From Frederick M. Wiseman’s DVD “Against The Darkness” Video of 38 minutes:
“Chief of the Wabanacus, Highgate, VT, ca. 1900. Real Photo Postcard. Purchased on the Internet from a California collector. The inscription was scratched into the negative with a stylus before printing the postcard, so it cannot be a later addition. This is one of the most significant artifacts in the collection for political identification purposes, since it is a Euroamerican technology (postcard) explicitly listing a status position (chief), cultural identifier ("Wabanacus," a mis-hearing of an indigenous pronunciation of "Abenaki"), and a northeastern Vermont location. Thus it is both a document and an artifact. It is also the earliest recorded Vermont use of the word "Wabanaki" (Abenaki) term for local Indians.”
The actual RPPC item is now in my personal possession from Gerry Biron, but in retrospect, in 2005, it was Mr. Wiseman himself who had visited numerous times, the Abenaki Community of Odanak, in the Province of Quebec, Canada, knew full well, that the man in the boat was none other than Odanak’s own Chief, Nicholas Panadis! But of course, Professor Wiseman had redacted (with a sharp-tipped Sharpie pen) the name “Nicholas” in the image used in both his ‘Against the Darkness’ DVD presentation in 2006-2007. That is until the Special 2009 Edition of the Vermont Life Magazine on Page 28 Celebrating Champlain used the image of Postcard. This is as close as Frederick M. Wiseman ever came (that I know of) of ever allowing the image's details of coming out into the PUBLIC. Of course, by that spring of 2009, there was no reason not to show who the man really was, in that image.
A decent 'scholarly' historian does NOT redact, and attempt to 'sway' the PUBLIC or the Politician(s) based on manipulated derivative images, but Fred M. Wiseman did just that! Just because a man was a Chair of the Humanities Dept at Johnson State College, in VT and has a Ph.D. does not mean they operate transparently. Case in point: the now-retired Frederick M. Wiseman Ph.D.
Chief Nicholas of the Wabanacus RPPC Evaluation and Documentation
Point #3
There is a ‘tintype’ photograph at the Wôbanakik Heritage Center, which agency has been created and is being promoted by ‘St. Francis/Sokoki’ ‘member’ of the ‘Abenaki Nation’ and retired Chair of the Johnson State College Department of Humanities Professor Frederick Matthew Wiseman, Ph.D. Aside from gaining an insight into the possible existent Primary Source photographic artifact cited in Winifred (nee: Jerome)’Morning Star’ Yaratz’ January 2006 book of ‘compiled and transcribed’ Secondary Source cited documents, photographs, newspaper articles, etc. this image was touted as being “Chief” Antwine (Antoine or Anthony) Phillips Sr. within the Vermont State petition-for-Recognition materials compiled and manipulated yet again by Dr. Frederick M. Wiseman, Ph.D.
Again, the saying we’ve all heard, is that a photograph is worth a thousand words, and this is no exception:
Finding the image, a Postcard AZO 4-triangle RPPC was amongst an extensive photographic collection (in a family album) which was passed down from Hazel (nee: Forant) Desso, to her daughter Mary, a descendant of the Phillips family. Within this image, Antoine Phillips Jr. is wearing a particular set of clothing that informs us, the date of this image, and the period of time this photograph was actually taken.
The bibbed overalls: Looking at the fashion of this time period (1900 to 1918) and the Antoine photo’s in question one discovers the bibbed overalls that Antoine is wearing bibbed overalls. Down the center of the bibbed overalls that are being worn by Antoine is a flat felled seam. This type of seam is used for durability and is common on jeans. Sometime during the 1910’s decade, jeans were sewn with a flat felled seam.
Let’s start there. Bibbed overalls were first created for the working class of people in particular the people that worked on the railroad. They arrived on the fashion scene between 1891 and 1916. Once again Antoine Phillips Sr. had been long deceased by the time bibbed overalls were even popular. Antoine Phillips Sr. death record records his death as September 01st, 1885. His son Antoine Phillips Jr. died in 1918.
Once again, the Reverse side of the RPPC tells a person how old the image is. So, let's look at the photograph image of the RPPC AZO image. It is different, in that it is a "cropped" version of the "A. Phillips Age 96" photographic image and some "surrounding details of the house, porch and some ground area in front of the residence, is redacted by the white border. Was this house the Union Poor Farm in Williston, VT or Edward Foster and his wife Sarah Phillips residence? The white bordering of the AZO Postcards was done consistently in 1915 to conserve ink. The handwriting on this RPPC was written by Elizabeth Mae Foster (granddau. of Antoine Phillips JR.) who married to Arthur James Forant. Later, it was Mary E. (nee: Desso) Kinville (dau. of Elizabeth) who wrote "Antoine Phillips" on the front of the photograph. As you will notice there are two different colored ink writings on the front of the RPPC.
Antoine Phillips Photographic Image Evaluation and Documentation
In conclusion, Frederick M. Wiseman Ph.D. along with Donald Warren Stevens, Jr. were again WRONG, and peddled their ‘story’ of which clearly was not accurate at all, to the Vermont Legislative politicians Vincent Illuzzi, Hinda Miller, and many others.
Point #4
The Professor and the Nulhegan “Chief” Donald Stevens Jr. have made claims that Antoine Phillips Sr. was a “Chief” and that Antoine Sr. himself, was a sibling brother to Luie Métallic, and subsequently they both implied within the same Recognition materials that Luie Métallic himself was the son of Philip, the Upper Coos Chief ca. 1796, with no validation genealogically to merit such assertions.
Once again, being aware that “scholarly” data was and had been manipulated and so on, I began to research the merits of their claims, and yet again, I found their merits to be unfounded.
Let me explain:
The Nulhegan entity/ organization that is now State Recognized was merely formed as an incorporate under Vermont State Laws in 2004, coming from the Clan of the Hawk, Inc.’d which was formed in April of 1993 through the machinations of Howard F. Knight, Jr. and Ralph Skinner Swett, only after Paul Wilson Pouliot had obtained “membership” into Knight’s Vermont incorporated entity claiming to represent “Abenakis” and had gone out to California, allied to the late Homer Walter St. Francis Sr. because they were quite upset with the VT Supreme Court ruling in regards to the Wolchik decision. They were attempting to come up underneath the Indian Child Welfare Act, in CA, but reality caught up to them all, when the F.B.I. became involved out in CA that December of 1992. Howard Knight, Jr. had come from Texas, created the entity in 1980 in association with Richard Wilfred “Blackhorse” Phillips, who had been allied with Homer Walter St. Francis Sr.
Reviewing the Eugenics Survey of Vermont materials regarding Woodward’s, Sweetser’s, Way’s, and of course Phillips, I realized that the Eugenics Program of Vermont NEVER sterilized anyone. It was a SURVEY. It was an attempted genealogical survey of varied families within and surrounding Vermont, including my own ancestors, the Woodward’s, both in VT and NH. No one in Vermont was sterilized because they were Abenakis.
Under Kevin Dann, the MYTH was perpetuated beginning in 1986, that Abenakis had been sterilized, because they were Abenakis.
Again, the Eugenics Program materials were merely the survey.
Homer liked a good fairy tale, right along with the whopper that Henry Perkins was in direct or even indirect communication with Adolph Hitler.
Yet another MYTH created about September 15, 1995 Exhibit entitled ‘Long Shadow’ in Burlington, VT by UVM Art Professor Michael Oatman, displaying his created-letter to Adolph Hitler from Henry Perkins. The exhibit was a creation of Oatman’s “fantasy environment” which allegedly reflected the cultural and scientific mood of the era. The created Hitler Letter by Perkins was pure unadulterated fabrication of Michael Oatman that is now being perpetuated as fact!
But getting back to Antoine Phillips and his alleged genealogical relationship to Luie Métallic and or the Chief of the Upper Coos “Philip” of June 1796 …
Antoine Philips Sr. was repeatedly identified as being Negro in the Vermont Eugenics Survey materials. The Indian MYTH came from his son Peter Philips Sr. witnessing and or following the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company within Vermont townships ca. 1886, and descendants of this family “remembered” the family having something to do with the Kickapoo Indians. It was Harriet Abbott who surmised the Phillips family might have come from Caughnawaga Mohawk Indian Reservation, and when she wrote to that Mohawk Community, she got no response. That is because the Phillips family of Vermont were not Mohawk Indians. Richard “Blackhorse” Phillips mentioned before, claimed the Phillips were descendants of Massasoit or King Phillips a.k.a. Metacom (who had adopted the English name "King Philip" in honor of the previously-friendly relations between his father and the original Mayflower Pilgrims).
Again, not knowing WHERE Antoine Phillips Sr. came from, other than the “oral history” allegedly documented in the Eugenic Survey of VT, which was based on some distortions and very clearly a pseudo-scientific basis, I became curious as to the origins of the man, Antoine Phillips and his wife, Catherine Cadaive.
In reality, he was Antoine Philips, and his wife was indeed Catherine Émery dit Codèrre. She was born in 1806, so her son Peter Phillips Sr. was not born in 1809 as has been claimed by the Eugenics, and subsequently some of the Phillips family descendants. She was baptizing most of her children at her Catholic home parish of Notre Dame du Rosaire, within the area of Ste. Hyacinthe between 1834 and 1851. They lived on Land Lot No. 51 in the 4th Division in Highgate as of 1845. In the 1850 Census for Highgate, Antoine Philips was identified as Black, his children, Mulatto. By the summer of 1856, after their son Peter Philips had sold the land in Highgate to Alvah Mason, they went to Williston, Vermont, in Chittenden County. Within two years time, Peter Phillips had nearly killed a man, and in the local newspapers, both his father Antoine, and himself were identified as “two colored men”. Peter himself, in the articles of January 1859, was identified as “Black Jack” allegedly due to his very dark complexion. Even when he entered Windsor State Prison, his April 1859 Prison documentation identified him as Mulatto … Dark complexioned.
Native peoples were of course dark complexioned, but identified as Colored, or Mulatto? Perhaps that was done with people, who were Native married to African descendants within southern New England.
But again, Catherine "Cadaive" has been clearly identified as Catherine Émery dit Codèrre born in 1806 and identified herself as French, not Black, Negro, Mulatto, Native American, Abenaki, or Indian. She herself was FRENCH with some many-generations-removed single ancestral connection to a Huron/Algonquin Refugee couple.
Taking the research one step further, I began to solicit genetic contribution participation from within the Phillips family of Vermont, who were descendants of Antoine Philips and Catherine. I started with one non-direct descendant of Antoine Philips Sr.’s son Peter, using autosomal DNA testing. Then I sought a direct-male-descendant of Antoine Phillips Sr. and securing the Y-DNA results, I sought yet another direct-male-descendant to ensure that there was no NPE, or "non-paternity-event" in the genealogical background of the genetic tester.
The results?
Antoine Philips yDNA Haplogroup is B-M181. Exclusively originating out of Africa.
This means his father, paternally, was of African descent, genealogically, and genetically.
Antoine Philips was a son of slave/servant parentage (very likely that of Peter Phelps of St. Albans, Vermont who died in Nov. 1865 also known as “Black Jack” who was brought to northern VT either from CT by the Sheldon / Keyes families into Sheldon, VT, or from NY up to Ste. Armand, Qc., Canada by Philip Luke ca. 1790’s).
Antoine Phillips Sr. was not Abenaki at all. Nor was his wife. Neither of them spoke Abenaki, dressed as Abenakis, were connected to any known Abenaki Community, etc.
And before people begin to label me as a ‘racist’ for bringing this truth to the fore, let me clarify, if anyone was a racist or ashamed of their race, it was and is very likely some the Phillips family themselves.
Who has really perpetuated and is perpetuating “Ethnic Erasure”? Ethnocide?
Metallic’s yDNA Haplogroup is C-M216 (from Asia/ Native North America)
Metallic: C-M216
12-23-16-9-15-15-11-13-11-13-11-29
Phillips: B-M181
12-24-16-11-12-14-11-15-11-13-14-29
Just on the first 12 yMarkers, there are six differences between Phillips and Metallic.
Therefore, Don Stevens Jr. and some of his Phillips descendant family relatives, along with Frederick M. Wiseman Ph.D. were and are WRONG, in implying that Antoine Phillips, the known progenitor of the Phillips family with VT, NH, NY, and ME etc were and are NOT RELATED in any way, to Louie Metallic of ca. 1796 at all, and NOT RELATED to Philip, the Upper Coos Chief of that same time period of the late 1700's either.
One would surmise that in 1796 if the latter man “Philip” was of African descent, someone in northern New Hampshire/Vermont would have noticed and documented it, just like they did Louis Cook of Akwesasne Akiatonharónkwen (who died October 1814) whose father was of African descent, while his mother was allegedly Abenaki.
So you Vermonter’s and fellow residents of New Hampshire, will have to pardon me while I hesitate to respect your State’s alleged "recognition" by the State Legislature(s) and Governor(s) ... of these so-called “Abenakis”.
You will have to excuse me while I laugh at the repeated accusations by Frederick Wiseman Ph.D. claiming that Vermont has been guilty of so-called "Ethnic Erasure" and or "Ethnocide" against the Abenaki People.
Because Frederick M. Wiseman and Donald W. Stevens Jr. and many others have been condemning what they themselves have been doing all along against the Abenakis!
Douglas Lloyd Buchholz (douglaslloydbuchholz@yahoo.com)
P.O. Box 83 Lancaster, NH 03584-0083
