November 24, 2025
The Caledonian-Record Newspaper
By Ron M’Sadoques (OPINION Editorial)
The Vermont Abenaki Are Genuine
To the Editor:
The four, State-recognized Abenaki tribes of Vermont appear often in the pages of newspapers in Vermont and New Hampshire. They are known for hosting cultural events (coming from Odanak); excellence at crafts practiced from pre-contact times (coming from Odanak); keeping the language intact and bringing it to the people (coming from Odanak) ; storytelling and histories (coming from the Wabanaki Peoples); scholarly research – all of the elements of an old, yet thriving culture. The Abenaki of Vermont have been practicing these skills for generations (not true, ONLY since 1975); from before Vermont declared wrongly, in 1791, that Vermont and New Hampshire had no more Indigenous people.
Sociological, anthropological, and cultural evidence of continued ancestral Odanak Abénakis abound, and can be found in books and newspapers throughout the times from Colonial to present. (IF that were true, then the State AG's Office and the Bureau of Federal Acknowledgement would have detected it, right along with Dr. Gordon Malcolm Day, and the Odanak Abénakis would have KNOWN, SAID and WROTE about those other families, right along with Vermont residence, objectively).
And the strongest "evidence" comes in the genealogies and cultural histories that were submitted by the Vermont Abenaki members in the Tribal Recognition Applications to the State of Vermont.
(Of course, because it was the Odanak Abénakis Ron & Norm Sadoques in the post-1990 Elnu group; Trudy (Call) Parker in the Koasek group; Raymond Bernier (Richard 'Skip' Bernier's brother) and David Obomsawin in the Nulhegan group; and Jeanne (DeForge) Brink and Mali (Mary Mason) Keating and Thomas Robert Obomsawin in the St. Francis-Sokoki Missisquoi group.)
Those are the very likely genealogies these Pretendian$ propped up to the 'stacked' Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs and then Legislature committees headed by Senator Vincent Illuzzi, et al.
These group's of Pretendian$ did not SHOW objectively their line of descent from the Historical Abénaki from and of "Vermont" or anywhere else.
What genealogies they may of submitted was "hidden" and REDACTED from PUBLIC
evaluation and scrutiny.
The question is WHY?
They could have easily done as follows:
1. Thomas Woodward and Anne Young
2. Nathaniel Woodward and Mary Brittain
3. Jeptha Woodward and Unk. 1st Spouse (Abenaki?) 😂
4. Apollos "Thomas" Woodward and Rachel Runnells
5. Royal William Woodward and Mary Hawley Sawyer
6. Alonzo John Woodward and Maria Charlotte Robinson
😂😂😂😂
7. George Edward Woodard and Daisy Viola Miller
8. James Corbett Woodard and Maude Elaine Cate
9. Blaine Edward Woodard and Ruth Lucinda Keeney
10. Charles Lawrence Buchholz and Patricia JoAnn Woodard
11. Douglas Lloyd Buchholz
This is the back of my 2nd official 'Homer Card' from Swanton, Vermont
on April 11, 1995
NO OBJECTIVE ABENAKI ANCESTRY NEEDED
Homer wasn't Abenaki either.
None of his group was neither.
The State AG's Report of 2003 showed so.
And so didn't the BIA Reports of '05 and '07 too.
Frederick M. Wiseman PhD. was no Abenaki.
Oh and by the way, be CAREFUL, my late father was an NPE
He was actually a son of a fella surnamed SMITH.
One will not find that prior to my research on ANY document.
It's GENETIC's and VALIDATED.
And the ABOVE documents I got AFTER I moved into Vermont!
The two Federally-recognized villages of Odanak and Wôlinak in Quebec also have been appearing in the papers. Except, their fame is for a campaign of defamation research against the Vermont Abenaki Pretendian$. They have declared themselves the “sole guardians of Abenaki identity” ...
... but are unable to state what authority allows them to make that claim.
(The AUTHORITY comes from the within the ground soil of the Odanak and Wôlinak ancestors buried throughout the Northeast, their ancestral TERRITORY, and FROM Nawawas, the Creator of all Beings)
With a budget from an unknown source (It doesn't take much to seek out the TRUTH and REALITY of the FRAUD), and support from sociologist Dr. Darryl Leroux and blogger Douglas Buchholz ...
... the leadership at Odanak and Wôlinak set forth about five years ago to discredit the tribes. The motivation for the attack is unclear.
No, it was not about five years ago, that Odanak and Wôlinak began to QUESTION these groups in Vermont (and New Hampshire).
It was in 2001 ...
And in 2002 ...
... And later, in September 2003, that Odanak First Nation Chief Gilles Obomsawin addressed Frederick Matthew Wiseman, PhD. of then-Johnson State College, who sought the Odanak Chief to, in letter, validate Mr. Wiseman, as an Abenaki. Wiseman could go 💩 in one hand and wish in the other. Gilles was 'onto the ruse' down in Vermont.
Thanks to Richard 'Skip' Bernier updating Odanak, along with Christopher Roy's awareness, the latter Professor working beside Frederick M. Wiseman in Swanton, Vermont in the early to mid-1990s.
But there was just one wee problem ... Bruce Louis Dubois was claiming he was an Obomsawin descendant, and neither Skip nor Gilles, detected that ruse.
Oh and let's NOT FORGET ... THIS DOCUMENT ...
Donna IMPLIED she was an Obomsawin too!
She and Marge Bruchac were INVOLVED in NAGPRA!
Find the Abenaki Ancestors (hint: THERE ARE NONE
A photograph of a woman and her friend holding corn is NOT objective evidence.
AGAIN, NAMES, DATES and LOCATIONS ARE IMPORTANT
~_____ROBERTS = OBOMSAWIN = DONNA CARVALHO?_____~
Odanak states over and over that the Vermont Abenaki have harmed them, but always fail to elaborate or provide an example.
The research DISCREDITS these groups. Simply read the Vermont Newspapers, etc from 1974 onwards to present! These groups, the St. Francis-Sokoki, the Elnu, the Nulhegan, the Koasek NEVER existed BEFORE 1975. These groups did not exist BEFORE 1791 or at any other time whatsoever. So they are NOT SOVEREIGN either, contrary their "We're a sovereign nation within Vermont" 💩 narratives of post-1975 and especially post-2006.
Koasek, Nulhegan, St. Francis-Sokoki, and Elnu
These groups of Pretendian$ do not even predate 1975
That is the TRUTH and REALITY.
Koasek, Nulhegan, St. Francis-Sokoki, and Elnu groups
What specific TREATIES do come from?
ANSWER: NONE.
Odanak is conducting questionable warfare. The most recent attack is a 731-page report commissioned to Dr. Leroux. Dr. Leroux publishes detailed genealogies which supposedly discredit the Indigeneity claims of a few individuals, including former New Hampshire State Representative Sherry (Blanchard) Gould (R). Dr. Leroux – not a certified genealogist himself – charts the results as high “percentage of European ancestry” in all of the individuals attacked.
Blatantly missing from the report are some of the basics: the way these numbers were calculated; the percentages of Odanak members for comparison; and even some sort of proof that this is a valid measure of Indigeneity. Most disturbing is that there are no citations nor bibliography - only a mention of some open Internet resources (very likely the Drouin Records, the most GENEALOGICALLY COMPREHENSIVE DATABASE on the North American Continent, and perhaps the PRDH-IGD). And the numbers don’t make sense. Sherry (Blanchard) Gould’s 116-page report lists 921 “root ancestors” over fourteen generations. But, going back fourteen generations, one has 32,766 ancestors! Dr. Leroux concludes Sherry (Blanchard) Gould has 99.8% European ancestry, but among only the 2.8% of her ancestors available on these open web sites!
(Then by all means necessary, DO THE GENEALOGY MAPPING of her ancestors, based on her own PUBLIC Records and that of her parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and all their ancestors!)
This is hardly diligent science, and not believable. Contrast this to the diligence required of the Vermont Abenaki Pretendian$ and their Odanak Abénaki Allie$ to prove they are Indigenous ( Bill Status S.222 (Act 107)). The Vermont Abenaki Pretendian$ could never return this volley in kind; besides being a despicable personal attack, this kind of activity breaks many ethical rules of professional genealogists.
Ethical? Ron M'Sadoques and Vera Longtoe Sheehan Schulmeisters want to talk about ETHICAL RULES?
Was this ETHICAL?
Oh and let's NOT FORGET about Marge Bruchac's Stunt of 2009
Wherein she placed HER mother's paternal grandfather
Louis (1844-1918) Bowman
"attaching" him fraudulently
to the Odanak Abénaki Family of François Louis Obomsawin
and that of his wife Agnès-Anne Olinass
And let's NOT even get started with Frederick M. Wiseman's
constructed Applications for FRAUDULENT State of Vermont
"Recognition"
for these 4 groups of Pretendian$
Odanak also doesn’t want to acknowledge that, given the history I described, Indigenous people have often been listed as “colored” or “white” on their birth certificates.
We KNOW from social-historical-and genealogical study evaluation that the Phillips Family of Highgate, and later Burlington, Vermont, were from Antoine (ca. 1810 - 1885) Phillips Sr. in the 1850 Census all the way into the 1940's, his descendants were "passing" ... but consistently some were identified as Black, Colored, Negro, and Mulatto throughout vital records and even Vermont newspapers!
1 + 1 = 2.
This isn't even including the newspaper articles, in total or the genetic testing results afore-mentioned in this blog.
My own birth certificate lists both my father, who was born at Odanak, and I, as “white”. Can one be certain Dr. Leroux’s resources are correct?
DO THE GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH yourselves.
People NOW have the NAMES, DATES, and LOCATIONS.
Dr. Leroux is further misinforming us by going on talk shows and podcasts stating that the Vermont tribal leaders didn’t have to submit genealogies. This is very simply false; the vetting process required detailed genealogies of all of the founding members of the tribes. That documentation was sealed after the recognition process to protect the individuals’ privacy.
I doubt very much that those founding members of these "tribes" proved historical connection to the Abénakis
Abenaki have long been intermarrying with other tribes, colonists, and American and Canadian citizens. Anthropologist William Haviland, in his 1981 book “The Original Vermonters”, attributes Abenaki survival to this genetic diversity, comparing them to other tribes who were lost to history due to inbreeding. The arcane, monarchical European concept of “blood quantum” simply does not apply to the Indigenous.
Today, my biggest fear is that Odanak is setting up criteria by which both the U.S. and Canadian governments can tell near-future generations that such criteria are no longer met, and that there are no more Abenaki. (Well, that's EXACTLY what the BIA and the Indian Act have been doing!)
But hey Ron M'Sadoques LET WHITE PEOPLE become "Abenaki$" eh.
We Abenaki should be experiencing a Renaissance.
Ron must be taking a queue from Frederick M. Wiseman, the FAKE "Abenaki" of the "Abenaki$" of Vermont-and-New Hampshire ... or did Vera write this whole opinion piece 👈 and USE Ron as her Elnu Mafia's "legitimacy"?
But these attacks by Odanak are putting into question the legitimacy of ALL Abenaki. 😂
Playing with, and defending Pretendian$ is worth it eh Ron and Norm?
Makes an Abénakis feel GOOD huh?
Walter Guy Watso done the same.
No one should believe Odanak’s claims.
The process which vetted the Vermont Abenaki is sound, rigorous, and an established standard.
Bull ... 💩💩💩💩💩💩
The claims of Odanak are based on “because we say so!” and junk science.
Ron M’Sadoques
Elnu Abenaki tribe and member of Odanak tribe
WITH Vera Longtoe Sheehan, Elnu Abenaki Tribe
Raymond, N. H.
Making your Odanak Nation Proud?
(I think not.)
An operative word comes to mind ...
'J-U-D-A-S'