Indigenous Remapping: Sweet Pond State Park as an Example

On October 8, 2020, Governor Phil Scott signed into law Act 174 (2019-2020 Session) which had been introduced as H.880. The Act enabled the addition of Abenaki place names on State Park holdings and the VCNAA was delegated to provide a list of suitable entries for the Commissioner of Forests, Parks, and Recreation to consult in fulfillment of these intentions. The Commission is, in fact, undertaking that work right now.

In reality, there are multiple opportunities for cultural interpretation or perspectives within a given park, beyond the basic entrance signage. That seemingly simple task is not always readily achieved; it must be noted that many of the original toponymic referents have not been documented - thus not easily accessed -due to the all-too-effective colonizing strategy of claiming and renaming. Often it is not possible to make a tit-for-tat swap from English (or French) to Abenaki, but this may also point more toward the Western predilection for setting bounds and objectifying a discrete location. Counter to this, an Indigenous perspective may consider a location in a relational context and not necessarily, or needfully, seen as a two-dimensional point on a map. It exists in a multidimensional space only in relationship to its surroundings (seen and unseen) and everyone/thing that is around it. So, beyond the sign at the entrance, cultural context is a valid, indeed essential, means of describing a place in an Indigenous worldview.

Sweet Pond State Park in Guilford is just such an example. There is no direct cognate in Alnôbaôdwawôgan, but there is plenty to be offered by way of cultural context in the hills of southeastern Vermont. Recently reopened, after rebuilding the impoundment that created the eponymous Sweet Pond, the park is a prime candidate for the implementation of this new and welcome legislation. See the case study here.