Representatives of the governments of the two Abenaki First Nations — Odanak and Wôlinak, also known collectively as W8banaki Nation — once again attended the United Nations this week to raise their concerns about identity fraud. They also called on different governments to take action on the issue.
Jacques T. Watso, an elected member of the Abenaki Council of Odanak, made comments during the 17th annual session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) in Geneva, Switzerland. That body advises the U.N.’s Human Rights Council on the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Speaking in French through an interpreter, Watso said W8banaki Nation’s self-governance, which is a right of Indigenous peoples according to the U.N., is undermined by the U.N.’s current language around self-determination for Indigenous peoples.
“For some Indigenous peoples, this is a principle that allows them to ensure their cultural and very survival and often combat ignorance and violence,” he said. “Nonetheless, for some nations, such as ours and many others, this is a direct entry door for the theft of our identity, our culture, our language and our history.”
Watso said without clearer language about who gets to self-identify, non-Indigenous peoples can appropriate Indigenous identity.
“These people … are undermining our history and they are stealing our suffering — the suffering via which our ancestors went before us, and experienced before us,” he said. “We are very concerned for our future generations, whose inheritance is being stolen.”
This is the second time in recent months that W8banaki Nation has addressed this topic before the U.N. In April, two youth Abenaki representatives traveled with a delegation to New York City and spoke about the increasing number of people calling themselves Abenaki based on a distant ancestor or family lore, versus belonging to — and being claimed by — the Abenaki Nations.
Representatives from numerous Indigenous nations said they were having similar experiences. They said they were witnessing people they knew didn’t belong to their nations — or saying they were from nations the representatives had never previously heard of — taking up positions of power and resources set aside for Indigenous peoples.
For W8banaki Nation’s part, it specifically says Vermont’s state recognition process needs review after legitimizing groups it says are not Abenaki.
Gov. Phil Scott continues to defer this issue. His office told Vermont Public this week that since state recognition was enacted in the Statehouse, his office has “no authority to review or revoke recognition — that can only be accomplished through legislation introduced and acted on by the General Assembly.”
A couple of lawmakers have expressed interest in learning more and working with the Abenaki First Nations. House and Senate leadership, however, did not provide comments for this story.
Meanwhile, Vermont state-recognized tribes — the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, the Elnu Abenaki Tribe, the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation and the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation — continuously dispute claims of fraudulence. They say that though they have “different lived experiences” from W8banaki Nation, they have “equally valid voices as a sovereign group of people.” They also argue that they’ve gone through a “rigorous process of recognition” through the state of Vermont.
Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs Chair Rich Holschuh, who is also an Elnu spokesperson and member of the Abenaki Alliance organization representing all four state-recognized tribes, called W8banaki Nation’s denouncements of Vermont state recognition “self-serving” and counter to the intent of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
“Rather than building upon the goals of UNDRIP for recognition and restoration of the relationships of People to Place, the Declaration’s platform is being weaponized to re-impose the very governmental authoritarian structures that it proposes to deconstruct and reconcile,” Holschuh wrote in a statement this week. “This runs completely counter to the worthy and long overdue aspirations of UNDRIP.”
Holschuh added that “the negative messaging from W8banaki Inc. is being conducted around us, and not with us, for obvious self-promotion. This is telling and the public needs to be cognizant of this aspect.”
According to VTDigger, Holschuh said in the spring that state-recognized tribes planned to have a meeting with Odanak leadership. At that time, Odanak First Nation Chief Rick O’Bomsawin said he was willing, and he actually issued a public invitation for such a meeting in March 2022.
Vermont Public asked Odanak First Nation whether such a meeting has been set, but did not hear back by press time.
A longstanding issue
As a result of European settler colonial violence and removal, Odanak and Wôlinak First Nations are now headquartered in Quebec, and have ancestral homelands not only in the province but Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts. They’re recognized by the Canadian government, with whom they have treaties. And for many years following colonization, they were the only visible Western Abenaki nations.
Then in the 1970s, groups calling themselves Abenaki suddenly began popping up in Vermont, saying they had lived in secret to avoid persecution. Ever since their emergence into the public half a century ago, the self-proclaimed “Vermont Abenaki” have advocated for rights and recognition, including a failed petition for federal acknowledgement by the U.S.
While Odanak First Nation was initially supportive, in 2003 it denounced these groups due to lack of historical and genealogical evidence that they were Abenaki. More recently, Wôlinak has joined Odanak in this position.
According to the National Congress of American Indians and the United Nations, it is up to Indigenous nations to collectively determine who belongs, and who does not. Both those bodies also identify Indigenous nations as maintaining historical continuity and sovereignty since before they first interacted with settlers.
But in 2010, the Vermont Legislature passed a law creating a state recognition process, and in 2011 and 2012, four groups became state-recognized as Abenaki tribes.
W8banaki Nation has pointed out that it was largely excluded from this process. Some members of the groups that went on to be state-recognized specifically asked that Odanak First Nation not be involved. The Senate also limited testimony to Vermont residents, even though many Odanak and Wôlinak citizens and officials live outside the state.
Vermont’s recognition process has looser criteria than what is required for federal recognition and also for enrollment in many Indigenous nations. Mainly, the language of the state recognition law does not explicitly require groups to document their descendancy from historical Indigenous peoples.
Reports by state and federal authorities and a recent peer-reviewed paper show that almost all the core families making up the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi — which is by far the largest state-recognized tribe — have not or cannot demonstrate their Abenaki ancestry.
The stakes
As denouncements by Odanak and Wôlinak First Nations have grown in intensity, state-recognized tribes have said they are being unfairly scrutinized.
And in his statement this week to Vermont Public, Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs Chair Rich Holschuh questioned why W8banaki Nation would use a “mind-boggling amount of funds … to wage this unilateral attack.” He suggested the answer by referencing public statements from W8banaki Nation officials about potential monetary compensation and political recognition in the United States.
“… In great part by renouncing the existence of anyone outside of their own Canadian First Nations enfranchisement,” Holschuh wrote.
He added that Vermont state-recognized tribes, meanwhile, seek dialogue and reconnection: “We are not in competition or challenging anyone else’s authenticity.”
Since state recognition, these four groups — Missisquoi, Elnu, Koasek and Nulhegan — have received free hunting and fishing licenses, certain property tax exemptions, and some federal benefits, including grants and the right to label arts and crafts as “Indian produced.” Members of state-recognized tribes also get priority as appointees to the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs, curate museum exhibits, give cultural presentations and are writing Abenaki curriculum materials. Last fall, a Stowe resident gave just over 350 acres in Wheelock to Nulhegan as part of a “land restoration.”
W8banaki Nation said in a written statement last week that Vermont state-recognized tribes are contributing to the “loss of decision-making power over our ancestral territory, the Ndakina.”
To make that stop and correct it, Jacques T. Watso, the Odanak First Nation elected official, said that the United Nations, as well as governments in the United States and Canada, have a role to play. And that’s by supporting W8banaki Nation.
“We know the road that we have walked on, we know what future we want for our people,” Watso said.
He added that this future would not be determined by anyone else.
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