Indigenous peoples | Abenakis from Odanak denounce Vermont groups

At the end of April, a delegation of Abenakis from Odanak, Quebec, traveled to Vermont. Why ? To denounce four groups of Abenaki recognized by this state, but not by the American federal government. Many of the members of these four groups have ancestors from Quebec.

Mathieu Perreault
The Press

“These people came to see us in the 90s,” explains Jacques Watso, member of the Abenaki Council of Odanak, near Sorel, speaking of the Vermonters. “They wanted to reconnect with their ancestral traditions. We welcomed them, we showed them the language, the traditional making of baskets. But at a certain point, we started asking questions about their ancestors, and they never had answers. So when they applied for recognition in the United States, we tried to intervene. But we were told we weren’t Americans. »

None of the four Abenaki groups targeted by the Odanak delegation (i.e. the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation, the Koasek Abenaki Tribe, the Elnu Abenaki Tribe and the Missisquoi Abenaki Tribe) agreed to grant an interview to The Press. In the Vermont media, Don Stevens, of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation, denounced a “suppression” of their Aboriginal identity in reaction to the visit of the Odanak delegation.

The story begins in the 1970s, in Vermont, when the “Missisquoi Band”, under the leadership of “Chief” Homer St. Francis, demanded hunting and fishing rights.

At the beginning of the millennium, the Missisquoi band asked to be recognized by the American federal government. In late 2002, Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell released detailed evidence that there had been no presence of Abenaki groups in the state for 200 years. In 2005, the federal government rejected the Missisquoi Band’s request for the same reasons.

Groups and genealogy

“For there to be recognition of an Aboriginal group, in Canada as in the United States, there must be continuity of community practices in an established territory,” explains Eric Pouliot-Thisdale, Innu-Mohawk genealogist and researcher at the ‘Montreal university.

Faced with this failure, the “Abenakis” of Vermont, who estimate their number at 6,000, split into four groups and convinced the State to create a Commission on Native Affairs.

In 2011, the latter recognized four Abenaki groups. This gives them the right to sell Abenaki crafts and gives them access to Vermont grants reserved for Aboriginals.

“Commission members were part of these four groups,” says Christopher Roy, an anthropologist who teaches at Temple University in Philadelphia. They said that the Abenakis of Vermont had to transmit their customs secretly because of racism. »

This secrecy made it possible to circumvent the embarrassing fact of the absence of Abenaki groups listed by the Vermont authorities in the 19^e and XX^e centuries, which motivated in 2005 the rejection of the request made to the federal government. It was then only necessary to prove, through genealogy, the presence of Abenaki ancestors.

Why didn’t Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell oppose recognizing the four groups in 2011? “Federal recognition could lead to the establishment of a casino and land claims,” ​​says Ms.^e Sorrell, who retired in 2017. Recognition by Vermont did not confer those rights. »

The denunciation by the Odanak delegation did not disturb the relations of the State of Vermont with the four Abenaki groups. Mr. Stevens, from the Coosu Abenaki Nation, collaborated in 2020 on an Abenaki language program at Middlebury College. “We will continue to teach Abenaki, an endangered Algonquian language that is part of the local culture in our region,” said Sarah Ray, communications manager at Middlebury.

Important nuances

Some of the members of the four controversial groups are really Abenakis with ancestry from Odanak, according to Douglas Buchholz. This Abenaki genealogist from New Hampshire blogs against the recognition of the four Vermont groups, Reinvented Vermont Abenaki.

Diane Cubit, an Abenaki from Albany, New York, is a member of the community of Odanak, yet in Quebec. “When I was young, my family discovered a connection with the Abenakis of Odanak through Vermont,” she says. In the 1990s, Homer St. Francis gave me a Missisquoi Band membership card and I participated in their activities. The dances were weird, it was different from what my grandmother had taught me. »

The case of John Sherwin illustrates these administrative difficulties. This security guard at a Las Vegas shopping center has Abenaki ancestry from Odanak, according to research by Mr. Buchholz and Mr. Roy. He is nevertheless part of the Missisquoi band. “Being a member of Missisquoi allows me to recognize my Aboriginal roots,” says Mr. Sherwin. I do not understand those who want to divide us. Why didn’t he take the steps to register with the Odanak community? “I served in Iraq, I had a divorce, I can hardly make ends meet, all these procedures are too complicated”, he explains.

French-Canadian ancestors

Most members of the four Abenaki groups in Vermont invoke a Quebec ancestor to justify their Aboriginal ancestry.

“We see Lanctôt who have become Longtoe,” says Jacques Watso, member of the Abenakis of Odanak Council, who went to Vermont in April. There was a lot of Quebec immigration to Vermont during the industrial revolution, and sometimes that generated opposition among Vermonters. So they took that story of discrimination and turned it into discrimination against aboriginal people. Instead of embracing their agricultural Catholic French-Canadian heritage, they choose aboriginal culture because they find it more beautiful, more noble, with mysticism. »

This claim of indigenous roots has also affected the Cherokees, according to Circe Sturm, a Cherokee anthropologist at the University of Texas who has published a book on the subject, Becoming Indian: The Struggle Over Cherokee Identity. “We have seen many cases of Cherokee roots invoked by public figures who turned out to be non-existent,” said Ms.^me Sturm.

This is the case of Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was a candidate for the Democratic presidential primary in 2020, as reported by several media, including NPR.

About 60 indigenous groups are recognized by various states, but not by US federal authorities, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). The federal government recognizes half a thousand indigenous groups in the United States.