Post - Christmas

These days after Christmas have been fairly quiet. The main event was a day with John and Cynthia - Wednesday - and that was a very relaxed, lovely day that included some gift-giving, snacks, a very nice meal, and a lot of good conversation. It was cozy sitting by their wood stove in the iving room with a white pine Christmas tree they brought in from their land, candles burning and a fine array of crackers, cheeses and dips. One very interesting conversation had to do with a controversy that has been going on for some time - 2-3 decades - between Quebec-based Abenaki indigenous peoples and Vermont based groups who claim to be Abenaki. The Odanak First Nation and Wôlinak First Nation - the Quebec groups - believe that the "Vermont Abenaki"- four distinct groups (Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation and the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuck Abenaki Nation) who have actually been recognized by the state of Vermont as being Abenaki - are in fact imposters: they cannot provide any evidence that they are actually descendents of known Abenaki ancestors. They are self-proclaimed Abenaki who are mis-representing Abenaki culture, language and history, and receiving financial benefits to which they are not entitled. John brought this up because he knowns some of the Vermont Abenakis, and there is going to be an event in Westminster in January dealing with this controversy. I researched this a bit online - there is an extended discussion of it on the 'Vzermont Public" website (Vermont Public Radio and Television), and it is an incredibly complex and sensitive issue - but it is also fascinating and timely. The Vermont Abenaki claim that for much of their existence in Vermont, they had to remain "hidden" - from government officials, census-takers, etc. - to escape persecution, and this has compromised their ability to trace their ancestries. Part of that persecution, they claim, grew out of the "Eugenics" movement in Vermont of the 1920's-30's, an infamous piece of Vermont history in which hundreds of people deemed "undesireable" were sterilized. The Vermont Abenaki claim that indigenous peoples were regarded as undesireable and potentially targets of that sterilization campaign - thus their need to hide their identity. The Quebec-based Abenaki dispute that claim. Various individuals and groups - both indigenous and non-indigenous - have weighed in on one side or the other. Someone we know - Eve Jacobs-Carnahan - who works in the Vermont Attorney-General's Office, authored an extensive report on why the Vermont-based groups had failed to receive Federal recognition as tribes. I have been unaware of all of this. But now I am, and I may try to go to the Westminster meeting.

Scenes from our day with John and Cynthia.