A Letter to the Editor of Seven Days by Margaret Bruchac (Northampton, MA) in response to Chord and Discord: Odanak Musician Mali Obomsawin Talks Music, Community and Vermont's 'Pretendian Problem (09/27/23)

From First Nations Health Authority in West Vancouver, BC, this is a helpful look at how this issue can be contextualized and redirected, once its sources are better understood. Here’s the full pdf to absorb and reflect. We can effect this change together.

Anton Treuer’s analysis here paints a picture of complexity and thoughtfulness as we consider the various lenses through which people try to determine Indigeneity: political, biological, linguistic, cultural, and social. And on that journey, he suggests that we navigate these tough topics with accountability, honesty, and kindness.

A thread on X/Twitter from Vermont State Representative @Tristan_Roberts, posted Nov. 17. 2023

The Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs (VCNAA), at a regular meeting on October 11, 2023, affirmed its understanding and support of the enabling statute in state law created by Act 107 (S.222) of 2010, and recorded as Title 1 VSA Chapter 23 § 851-856 Native American Indian People. This legislation empaneled the said Commission of oversight along with a detailed process for application for state recognition of qualifying groups and has resulted, thus far, in the acknowledgement of four such communities.

The following open letter from Robert Richard, Missisquoi Abenaki Tribal Councillor was broadly shared recently.

“So what percentage are you?”

It’s a clear June day at Watson’s, the nursery where I spend my summer days working. The recent heatwave has made our greenhouses particularly sweltering. Now, squatting over a row of summer annuals in one of our employees-only houses, I distractedly wipe sweat from my forehead with the back of my forearm.

“Sorry,” I say, looking up at my coworker. “What?”

We read about the pope’s visit as a milestone in implementing Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation process, a laudable effort to correct historical injustices. Inexplicably, promoting reconciliation with Indigenous populations seems to end at the U.S. border. On this side of that boundary, Canada has actively sown seeds of hatred and attempted to undermine, indeed to reverse, Vermont’s own attempts at reconciliation with its Indigenous population, the Abenaki.

Following is the full text of an open letter written by Jeffrey Benay, Ed. D., (Director of Indian Education at Franklin Northwest Supervisory Union (VT) and Member and past Chair of the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs) and sent to the Offices of UVM President Suresh Garimella, Ph. D., University Provost Patricia Prelock, Ph. D., and Chair of the Board of Trustees Ron Lumbra. Shared with permission.

Authored by Doug Bent, June 28, 2022, and shared with tribal leadership and the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs.

We, the four Vermont state recognized Abenaki tribes, stand together in affirmation of our own shared, lived experience here in the Northeast, which is necessarily different from that of our relatives in other places, and which has been acknowledged by the State of Vermont.

On April 29, an event at the University of Vermont featured self-identified Abenaki speakers, who launched attacks on the four state-recognized Abenaki tribes in Vermont, including some personal attacks on specific tribal leaders.

Attempts at invalidating Indigenous identity is a common mechanism of settler colonialism: If we don’t exist anymore, the settlers get full claim to our waters and lands.

Just as we might have thought that threats to the tribal status of Vermont’s Abenaki were a dead thing of the past, they are being resurrected, or perhaps more appropriately reappearing as zombies.

Since I was small, the Missisquoi River helped to raise me. I heard stories of our sacred places and lived among the red medicine bundles blessing various sites that signaled reverence and ceremony. The waters were my home and the shared history and relationship to the land itself was ever a part of my existence.That is the crux of identity as an indigenous person - the place you belong to and the place that belongs in you.

A discussion paper by Jeanne Morningstar Kent, representing an individual perspective on current sociopolitical dynamics.
The following statements and findings are being presented in order to share legal differences between Canadian and United States Laws regarding Natives since segments of our tribe occupy areas on both sides of the border.  I am fully aware that colonial law and laws under sovereignty  are not always the same, but have done my best to research how they affect one another so others can better understand. the current conversation taking place.  Both sides should be considered. 

Consider these words, from another's heart:

...to move forward in decolonial fashion that will mean divesting from the violent systems forced on us.

That will mean abandoning the arbitrary classifications, titles and roles within the casta system that were forced upon us, as well.

How do we do that?

I believe our ability to properly care for ourselves, love others responsibly, work for the well-being of our families and our people generally, depends directly on the degree to which we become spiritually grounded, connected, as individuals. We can and should seek out teachers to guide us, prod us, turn us around to face the path, but they can’t give us spirituality. That can only happen within ourselves, in our own unique awakening process.

There have been concerns regarding claims that certain Abenaki individuals, families, and communities in Vermont, New Hampshire and neighboring areas are representing themselves fraudulently. The issue of ethnic legitimacy was settled over a decade ago. In 2009, the current-day State of Vermont created statutorily regulated, scholarly, and political vetting processes to determine the authenticity of its Indigenous communities (see 1 V.S.A. § 851 - known as Act 107 - here). In 2011 and 2012, the Legislature of the State of Vermont passed laws recognizing the Missisquoi, Nulhegan, Koasek, and Elnu peoples as legitimate Native American Tribes.

Nevertheless, certain individuals have questioned the validity of these Abenaki communities south of the present USA-Canadian international border. These dismaying, repetitive assaults focus on genealogy and culture. In this short response, we introduce a few of the factual, ethical, and human rights violations embedded in these claims.