State of Vermont House General and Housing Committee Chair Tom Stevens asked Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs (VCNAA) Chair Rich Holschuh to give an introductory overview to the Committee yesterday: who we are, what our concerns might be, and what we are currently doing.

The four anti-relational actions include conquest, manipulation, divide and rule, and cultural invasion. The four relational actions, on the other hand, are unity, compassion, organization, and cultural synthesis. -after Paulo Freire

As the new year comes walking toward us with ancestors following, May we greet them and each other:

Liwlaldamana anhaldamawi kassi palilawaholan.

Please forgive all the wrong I have done to you.

We are family.

Today – December 23rd, 2022 on the Gregorian calendar – we meet the first new moon following the winter solstice, marking the beginning of the Abenaki year centered upon the sun and moon cycles: it is the arrival sign of piligaden - a New Year. On this day, we greet each other in recognition of being drawn together in this time and place - atowiwi - with all that those relationships may entail. At this time of acknowledging renewal, it is customary to ask for forgiveness of our family, friends, and community as we enter the new cycle together.

Among the Abenaki people, the winter solstice signals the turning of the new year. As elder Elie Joubert has told us, this time is known as “Peboniwi, tôni kizos wazwasa – In winter, when the sun returns to the same place.” In the days to come, Nmahom Kizos - Grandfather Sun - will begin to arc a little higher in the sky in his daily travels, a portent of the light and warmth that will follow after this time of rest.

Tomorrow is December 21st on the Gregorian calendar and, as is typical, the winter solstice pauses on that day in Pebonkik – the North Land – specifically at 4:48 pm in our region.

We are in the last month of the solar year. It is the middle of the final lunar cycle that began with the new moon on November 23, 2022 (by the modern Gregorian calendar) and which will renew on December 23, 2022. December 7th (two days ago) was the full moon, marking the middle of Grandmother Nanibôsad’s (“the all-night walker”) journey through the lengthening darkness., and converging at the winter solstice on December 21st with Nmahom Kizos’ (Grandfather Sun) own travel toward rest and renewal.

Differing concepts of property and ownership are deeply entangled in the colonized overlay that attempts to separate and control the whole of Creation. It is challenging to see through the darkness but the Original Instructions are still there, held as they have always been in the Earth and through relationship with all of our relations. The Western Abenaki word Tabaldak - used to refer to the Great Mystery - signifies The Owner, and gives us an insight into our own positions within the wholeness.

Dock is a very common naturalized perennial found nearly everywhere in this region, with persistent, rusty brown seed heads on a sturdy stalk about 2-3 feet tall, rising from a rosette of curl, coarse leaves. The seeds can readily be gathered and ground into a coarse flour to make firm, thin, dark griddle cakes quite similar to buckwheat…

“The land knows you, even when you are lost.” ― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

It's interesting to see the persistent significance of Indigenous names in the local sense of place, in this paragraph from the 1774-1874 Centennial Proceedings of the Town of Newfane (Burnham & Merrifield)…

The eleventh moon of the Western Abenaki solar year is known as the Freezing Current Maker - Mzatanos - following the preceding tenth month of Penibagos, the Falling Leaf Maker. The days are growing much shorter, the vibrancy of summer has come to the end of its cycle.

A poem written by Allison Mason Watts and published in the Brattleboro Reformer September 15, 1937. The sentiment in this period poem is reflective of the well-established New England colonial narrative of heroism and triumph over adversity in the form of “uncivilized savagery and an inhospitable landscape.”

The Peskeompskut Audio Tour explores the nuanced local history of Peskeompskut, an important Native American settlement sieged in 1676 during King Phillips War. The goal of this project is to ignite interest in Indigenous, Colonial and Industrial Era history and to honor the continuance the Nipmuc, Wampanoag and Abenaki people through the use of story.

On Friday, September 30th, Rich was invited to address the lunch gathering on the topic “Ways of being: Does Place Matter?” CES student Sarah Jane O’Connor (‘22.5) wrote about the time together on the program’s webpage.

The tenth moon of the Abenaki solar year is known as the Leaf Falling Moon, Penibagos, following the preceding ninth month of Skamonkas, the Corn Maker Moon.

Rich was invited to share a “Spark Story” at the Vermont Council for Rural Development’s (VCRD) annual Leadership Summit, held at VT Technical College (VTC) on August 10, 2022. Start the video at 57:05.

I have spent many years within the world of higher education and in spaces dominated by Western Society. In the past year I transitioned from that world into a space surrounded by my fellow Indigenous people. It has changed me for the better. Recently, I attended a conference and it reminded me that living in relationship to place and to community are THE best medicine for the spirit.

Yesterday’s full moon (September 10, 2022) marks the current lunar month Skamonkas . The ninth month of the Abenaki lunar calendar is the Corn Maker Moon, following the preceding eighth month of Temezôwas, the Cutter (Harvest) Moon.

The Elnu Abenaki Singers from July 31, 2022. Presented by Saint-Gaudens National Historic SIte and in collaboration with the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association.

My grandfather’s garden was an act of love for everyone he cared for. I wish I had taken the time to appreciate just how beautiful he was, sitting in his lawn chair at the edge of his garden covered in sweat and dirt watching his garden grow. He was always smiling in those moments.