The demolition of the former Meeting Waters YMCA building took yet another turn Tuesday night. Representatives from the local Abenaki tribe asked the Rockingham Select Board that no additional excavation be done during the upcoming demolition of the town-owned dilapidated building.

Bellows Falls has several ancient Abenaki burial sites, said Gail Golec, an archaeologist from Walpole, N.H., who appeared before the board with local resident Diana Jones, who said she is an Abenaki descendant.

Original episode aired November 8, 2021 - Filmed on location in Wantastegok with producer Sangita Chandra and videographer Bob Oliver; final cut with Shayna Seymour.

A program from Boston’s WCVB - ABC affiliate, part of the Chronicle Main Streets and Back Roads series.

Another piece of Abenaki history has been reclaimed with the creation of the Sibosen Trail. Pronounced SEE-boo-sehn, which is Abenaki for “river stone,” the trail runs along the West River in what’s known as the Riverstone Preserve, 21 acres of land owned by the Friends of the West River Trail that also includes 2,240 feet of shoreline.

Vermont Governor Phil Scott has re-affirmed the statutory establishment and observance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day statewide by Act 18 of 2019, with an Executive Proclamation. The document also cites Act R-114 of 2021 which offers a legislative apology for the state’s complicity in historic eugenics policies, and assures ongoing commitment to equity for Indigenous peoples in the state of Vermont.

Indigenous Peoples Day has been recognized in Brattleboro for years, and a celebration at Retreat Farm holds even more meaning. “This makes it real,” said Rich Holschuh, director of the Atowi Project based at the farm. “People are face to face learning from each other. It’s more than symbolic. It’s lived.”

On Sunday afternoons during September 2021, the Friends of the [Justin] Morrill Homestead in Strafford, VT hosted “The Abenaki Experience: Prehistory to Present,” a speakers’ series designed to foster an understanding of the long and complicated history of the indigenous people of this area.

The Connecticut River Museum will be hosting a day of stories and songs with the Nehantic Native Nation and the Elnu Abenaki Tribe next month. The outdoor event is planned for Sept. 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the waterfront lawn at the foot of Main Street.

The following article describes situations and conditions that also exist here in N’dakinna - Abenaki homelands - and the Northeast in general, often with even less oversight and protection, due to a 400-year-deep history of colonization, erasure, and contemporary ignorance. Petroglyph sites, hydroelectric dams, and historic industrialization are graphic demonstrations that you don’t need to look beyond your own familiar landscapes to witness the pattern of usurpation and disregard. It’s all right here, now.

On this episode of Root Words, We talk with Chef Jessee Lawyer, Professor Fred Wiseman, and Chief Don Stevens. And we’ll hear little about the Abenaki community’s connection to this land, game animals, and traditional food ways, and we’ll hear how these living traditions have continued to evolve and grow through contemporary times.

In this episode Moccasin Tracks talks with Anthropology Professor Robert Goodby who is publishing a new book with the help of The Harris Center and Cheshire County Historical Society in New Hampshire. His students from Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH. have been part of his historical digs and findings.

Daryl Peasley of the Abenaki Trails Project looked around at the crowd and smiled. Peasley, along with Heather Mitchell, director of the Hopkinton Historical Society, combined to sponsor a paddle trip on the Contoocook River to highlight the history of Native American activities along the river.

Cecilia Brooks is an elder of Wolastoqey, Mi'kmaq, Mohawk and Korean ancestry who calls St. Mary's First Nation home. She specializes in traditional plant knowledge.

Brooks grew up in different countries because her dad was in the U.S. military. He was her first teacher of traditional Wolastoqey knowledge, but she got her first taste of foraging from her Korean mom.

Over the years the Connecticut River has been many things for those who have lived along the waterway. When the Abenaki were the only people here the river was used for transportation, trade, cultural gatherings, and food. The river was then known as Wantastegok and native crops were grown along the riverbanks. For the Abenaki the river is much more than recreation and entertainment, it is the basis of indigenous society.

One initiative to help do so at Retreat Farm is the Atowi Project, named for an Abenaki word meaning “together in space and time.” The project, now being formulated, is intended to “establish places for Native voices to be amplified, celebrated, and respected” and “help restore the Native relationship to the land and its inhabitants and communicate these vital perspectives to the broader community.”

Both hydropower companies, Great River Hydro in Vermont and New Hampshire and FirstLight Power in Massachusetts, were required to do a Traditional Cultural Properties (TCP) study, in addition to archaeology and historic building studies, to identify and address hydropower facility impacts to Native People’s cultural considerations. Regrettably, neither company has adequately engaged the Abenaki and other Native communities in this work.

On June 5, a newly expanded exhibit exploring the history, culture and present experiences of Native people in what we now know as Vermont opens at the Ethan Allen Homestead in Burlington’s Intervale. Vermont Indigenous Heritage Center coordinator Fred Wiseman says there’s a lot to see in this compact exhibit…. "But where it gets interesting,” Wiseman says, “is my favorite exhibit, the Abenaki in Vermont 1800-1970. Because that's a period people really didn't believe that Native people were in here at the time.”

Contemporarily, she said Northfield residents may think of Pauchaug in relation to the Pauchaug Brook Boat Launch. However, she said the whole area has “been known as Pauchaug for hundreds if not thousands of years.” The Pauchaug Brook Wildlife Management Area spans the territory from the east side of the Connecticut River in Northfield toward Routes 10 and 63, and up from the Pauchaug Ramp Road to the New Hampshire state line. According to Jacque, the Indigenous word “Pauchaug” also has multiple rough translations. One translation, she said, means “at the crossing,” while another translation means “at the clear place.”

The concept of building the Peskeompskut (Great Falls) mishoon (dugout canoe) began during a lunchtime conversation between David Brule and Jonathan Perry at the 2nd Street Bakery on 4th Street in Turners Falls following a monthly Battlefield Grant meeting. Two years later the actual construction of the 18-foot-long vessel was started at the 2019 Pocumtuck Homelands Festival with 55 consecutive hours of fire carving and scraping and the goal of launching it the following year as part of the 2020 festival.

“ For myself, I’d like to think that the memory of the place by the Great Falls is being re-examined through this joint town-tribal project for a reason….working to preserve the site has brought Northeastern tribal descendants and townspeople together…So long as we allow space for differences, and above all treat the people who perished here with the dignity and respect they did not receive in life, we will be making some advances towards healing and draw more meaningful lessons from this war.”

---Elizabeth James-Perry, Aquinnah Wampanoag artist and historian

On Friday, the National Congress of American Indians sent a letter to the Rutland City Board of School Commissioners and Rutland City Public Schools administrators to reiterate its support of the board’s decision to retire the “Raider” name and arrowhead logo. A Washington, D.C.,-based nonprofit founded in 1944, NCAI is, according to its website, “the oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization serving the broad interests of tribal governments and communities.”