A tribute to resilience and healing from Abenaki singer-songwriter Bryan Blanchette. In his words, “This song was inspired by the Birch Trees reclaiming the industrial scarring of the quarries in Graniteville, VT. They're creating an inspiration for decolonization.”

A new initiative is set to shed more light on local Abenaki history and their existing culture via programming through Retreat Farm. “This is an Abenaki word, A-T-O-W-I, and it means together in space and time,” Rich Holschuh, director of the Atowi Project, said during the Brattleboro Rotary Club meeting held remotely Thursday.

The cultural outreach organization will improve a trail at the Retreat Meadows and add signs telling the history of the area through “Abenaki eyes” among other projects, Holschuh said. An event in August at the farm announced the undertaking.

On its third and final reading, the VT House of Representatives voted unanimously to adopt JRH 2: a “Joint resolution sincerely apologizing and expressing sorrow and regret to all individual Vermonters and their families and descendants who were harmed as a result of State-sanctioned eugenics policies and practices.”

In the Vermont State Legislature today, the House Floor Vote on JRH.2 - the Vermont State Eugenics Apology. DIscussion and deliberations begins at 7:30 into the video. Click through to YouTube to watch. The Resolution will next pass to the Senate.

This is a sad and hard-won day, but a sign that continuing moves toward balance are dawning. We are our ancestor’s dreams; may we honor those responsibilities to those who have come before and those yet to arise.

Here in Vermont, educational institutions are now starting to adopt land acknowledgments, too. Rich Holschuh, representative of the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, said it’s fitting that schools are leading the way since “they’re in the business of enlightening and sharing information with other people.”

Several lawmakers choked up Friday afternoon as a House committee unanimously signed off on a bill apologizing for Vermont’s role in the eugenics movement. “If I don’t accomplish anything else in the Legislature, I’m so happy to have been part of this,” said Rep. Tommy Walz, D-Barre.

Another school in Vermont is changing its mascot. In a 4-1 vote, the Danville School Board said goodbye to the “Danville Indians” Tuesday. But for one school board member, changing the school identity was no easy task. “This was definitely the hardest decision I have ever had to make as a school board member,” said School Board Chair Bruce Melendy.

Mohegan Chief Lynn Malerba presents this video, produced by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights & shared with The United South and Eastern Tribes, focusing on The Broken Promises Report and the lack of public awareness regarding Native American History.

Community College of Vermont has convened a three-part series of Abenaki speakers this year, hosted online. The second speaker, Don Stevens - Chief of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation - presented on Thursday, March 18th, and the video recording is linked below

Maple sugaring had been practiced by many Indigenous communities across North America before the arrival of Europeans, including the Abenaki people of Vermont, who have resided in the northeast since the glaciers receded an estimated 11,000 - 10,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age. Long before the arrival of European explorers and French missionaries, Abenaki peoples followed a multi-step process for collecting and condensing sugar maple sap into sweeteners; a process refined and passed down orally from one generation to the next.

Community College of Vermont has convened a three-part series of Abenaki speakers this year, hosted online. The first speaker, language keeper, musician, author, and artist Jesse Bowman Bruchac (Nulhegan Abenaki) has presented already and the video record is linked below.

Join CRC and partners, Rich Holschuh – Atowi Project, David Brule & Joe Graveline – the Nolumbeka Project and Janel Nockelby – MA DCR Great Falls Discovery Center, in this follow-up to our January LiveStream presentations on hydropower relicensing. This month's theme is traditional cultural properties.

For millennia, the Kennebec River was the nucleus of Wabanaki food-systems, diplomacy, and ceremonial life. After hundreds of years of industrial development, it has become unsustainable for Wabanaki peoples and our aquatic relatives alike. The future of Atlantic Salmon and several other sea-run fish now hinges on the restoration of this waterway.

Cooking this way, using traditional Abenaki foods and techniques, gives Lawyer a feeling of fulfillment and honor, and it’s a continuation of his relationship with his ancestors. But, for the most part, indigenous voices haven’t been part of the local food conversation since the time of colonization, when the people who were already living here were pushed aside by European settlers.

In case you missed this live event last week, here's the archived YouTube video of "#Abenaki Storytellers of Ndakinna", from South Hero Land Trust.

Recently, on a ski near my home, it hit me: There is a history that stretches far beyond the relatively recent colonial settlement of Vermont, and I know little to nothing about it. Around that same day, I noticed a friend on Facebook was tagging her own ski outings with the location marker “ancestral lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy.” I wanted to know more and began looking around for a history lesson.

An in-depth examination of Vermont's Eugenic Survey and its lasting effects, in the series from VTDigger - an official apology for which is being considered by the legislature, in the form of JRH2

A eugenics survey in Vermont sought to “breed a better Vermonter” by sterilizing and institutionalizing Indigenous people, French-Canadians, and people who were mixed-race, poor or disabled. Ninety years after the 1931 survey got underway, lawmakers are proposing an official apology for the state-supported program that tore families apart. Abenaki people in Vermont say the ripple effects of the eugenics movement are still felt today and an apology from the state is an important step in repairing the relationship.

Like many notable historical figures, Atiatoharongwen was cited as having a sharp mind. At eight, he learned the customs and history of Kahnawake, and took up religion and politics. He was fluent in Mohawk, Abenaki, as well as English and French, which helped him in diplomacy with notable figures like George Washington, Louis-Joseph Montcalm, Pontiac, and Richard Montgomery.

The listener-sourced investigative podcast series known as Brave Little State, a regular feature on Vermont Public radio, carried a well-received episode this week. In answer to a listener who wondered “how to do their place-name pronunciation homework” preparatory to moving to the state, the hosts compiled audio files contributed by other listeners explaining the “proper, local” enunciations of familiar toponyms. In a welcome inclusion, traditional Abenaki referents were included alongside more familiar contemporary labels.