The Rutland Raider mascot is still up for debate. In the next several weeks, a new committee will decide whether the Rutland School Board adhered to its own rules when it voted last October to abandon the high school mascot and its arrowhead imagery. Committee members met for the first time on Tuesday. If the committee decides the board violated processes while deciding on the change, it could propose reinstating the Raider mascot.

Brooks said he believes that educating people on the topic of eugenics is important during a time like this because it’s still so relevant in the community. “I think it’s important to understand that this is really a contemporary issue that we are dealing with right now and to urge everyone in our community to consider what can be done to help heal these wounds,” Brooks said.

NAGA’s involvement, however, does not always sit well with members of local Indigenous communities. In an email interview with the Herald, several leaders from Vermont’s various Abenaki Tribes commented on NAGA’s letter and the Rutland mascot issue in general.

In 2021, by an act of humanism, solidarity, and reparation, the Passamaquoddy tribe has been reunited with 140 acres of their unceded Ancestral territory – part of the largest island in Kci Monosakom, (Big Lake) Maine. To the Passamaquoddy people, it’s more than land return; it is the return of a stolen family member. In this short film, we join Passamaquoddy community members who are finally able to reunite with their non-human Relative.

Land-grant universities broadened access to higher education in the United States — but only at the expense of Indigenous Americans. Nearly 11 million acres of land were taken from tribes and Native communities to fund the universities, according to an investigation by High Country News. That investigation, published a year ago, has since won awards and sparked calls for change.

Nipmuc Tribal Council member Liz “Coldwind” Santana Kiser: “This is a time when we can remember what happened on May 19, 1676,” she said. “It’s a horrific day for the Nipmuc people, but it’s a day that we can remember and we can reflect.” Santana Kiser emphasized the importance for the community to both remember the massacre, while also finding ways to move forward and work together with Native people.

Vermont should “sincerely apologize and express sorrow and regret” for its deadly role in the eugenics movement 100 years prior, the state Senate decided Wednesday. On a unanimous vote, senators gave preliminary approval to a joint resolution, J.R.H.2, that lays out the eugenics movement’s history in Vermont, the General Assembly’s role in supporting it and the harm that the movement caused to huge swaths of Vermonters.

Following the student group’s demands, UVM created a Renaming Advisory Committee in March 2018 in order to look further into Bailey’s history with eugenics at UVM according to an August 2018 Cynic article. Both the UVM Renaming Advisory Committee and the Board of Trustees voted to remove Bailey’s name in October 2018. However, three years later, questions are being raised about whether this was the right decision and what more could still be done.

The Vermont Senate Committee on Government Operations (under Chair Jeanette White) has completed its deliberations upon JRH 2, a House-originated bill that offers a detailed official apology from the General Assembly for the actions and impacts of the State-level Eugenics Program and its policies.

The Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi Leadership shared a reflection on a COVID-19 vaccine clinic held April 25 at the Abenaki Tribal Office…

A general interest article overview of the archaeological survey work beginning in Squakheag/ Northfield, MA for the Schell Bridge replacement project. A project off to a rocky start, as far as acknowledgement and meaningful, respectful inclusion in a Federally-overseen process (for what that is worth). Locally, cooperation and collaboration are promising; higher up the ladder, it begins to fall apart, rapidly.

Community College of Vermont has convened a three-part series of Abenaki speakers this year, hosted online. The third and final speaker, Melody Walker - member of the Elnu Abenaki - presented on Thursday, April 15th, and the video recording is linked below. Melody’s presentation centered upon “Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Healing, and the Path Forward”. Within her community, Melody has focused on cultural revitalization and concepts of personhood.

A newly minted set of National Scenic Byways and All-American Roads includes Massachusetts Route 2 - the so-called Mohawk Trail - and further enshrines the erasure and replacement of Indigenous presence in the landscape here. The author repeats the contrived narratives and ahistorical tropes that have bolstered public (mis)conceptions of this memoryscape without question, and reinforces the skewed narrative created to promote American automobile tourism, and all the disconnects that come with it.

“Land recognition” entered the city’s agenda Monday over the strong objections of some members of the Board of Aldermen.

The board narrowly voted Monday to have the General Committee discuss the city engaging in a land recognition — a formal acknowledgement that the land where Rutland is located was once Native American territory.

Video of a presentation by Vermont State Archaeologist Jess Robinson on April 18, 2021, sponsored by the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum in Burlington, VT.

The benighted refusal to listen to voices from the Native community is deeply troubling, and indicative of the deep-seated and willful persistence of historical patterns of dismissal and erasure, in Vermont and elsewhere. We continue to await a sign that the Board itself invites a substantive dialogue, on not only this immediate example, but the mindset that leads to it. As a public educational institution, the very mission of the Board is to accept responsibility for this charge, and move toward awareness and understanding.

Abenaki people have thrived within N’dakinna, their homeland, for more than 10,000 years. While the people and their culture have changed during this time, the core values of their ancestors have remained constant. Melody Walker Brook, citizen of the Elnu Abenaki Band of N’dakinna and former chair of the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs, describes how these core values can help shape a more beautiful future.

The Penobscot language was spoken by almost no one when Frank Siebert set about trying to preserve it. The people of Indian Island are still reckoning with his legacy.

Join in for the Dummerston Historical Society’s Quarterly Meeting and Program via Zoom on Thursday, April 15, at 7 p.m. A brief business meeting will be held first, focusing on a review of 2021 activities and the budget. Following the business meeting, the program will feature Rich Holschuh, an independent historic and cultural researcher.

Part of the Community Conversation series with the Vermont Chapter of Sierra Club, recorded on April 7, 2021 and archived at YouTube here.