The Vermont commission that helped recognize four groups as Abenaki tribes more than a decade ago recently held an event to explain — and at points, defend — the process.
That’s as the state recognition law faces increasingly vocal criticism from the only two federally recognized Western Abenaki Nations, which say Vermont has legitimized people who haven’t adequately demonstrated their Abenaki heritage.
But during the presentation hosted by the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs at the Statehouse last Wednesday, in front of about 75 people, leaders and supporters of state-recognized tribes maintained they are Abenaki.
At the center of the dispute is what happened after the American Revolution, around 1800. According to the First Nations of Odanak and Wôlinak, Abenaki peoples fled the southern parts of their territory, including Vermont, for reserves north of the Canadian border. In the two centuries that followed, numerous newspaper clippings show Odanak citizens visiting and moving back to their homelands in the U.S.
State-recognized tribes have said, however, that some Abenaki families always stayed in Vermont and secretly lived among white settlers to avoid persecution — and those are the families who have become visible in the past 50 years and make up the groups today.
“You've got people that are down here, they're Vermont Abenaki, you got folks on the other side of the border, they're Canadian Abenaki,” said Roger Longtoe Sheehan, the chief of the state-recognized Elnu Abenaki Tribe, last week. “Our families don't always match, because we didn't move up there.”
Investigations by the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and several news outlets, including Vermont Public, have failed to find evidence for Abenaki communities separate from Odanak and Wôlinak. (Those investigations also did not find much evidence for the often-cited theory that the Eugenics Survey of Vermont targeted people for being Abenaki.)
Panelists at the Statehouse event challenged publicly available records as “biased,” “incomplete,” “inaccurate” and “European-centered.”
Marge Bruchac, University of Pennsylvania anthropology Professor Emerita and member of the state-recognized Nulhegan Band of the Coosuck Abenaki Nation, said there were instances of U.S. Census records characterizing Abenaki descendants as white, and that this concealed “continuing presence.”
“Even well-known families were subject to misidentification,” Bruchac said. (All of the example families provided by Bruchac — Tahamont, Somers, Watso, Sadoques — have clearly documented ties to Odanak First Nation.)
Former longtime state archeologist Giovanna Peebles argued that broader tools than documentation, including oral tradition, had to be considered to understand the indigeneity of state-recognized tribes.
“It was apparent, immediately apparent to me and other archeologists here that Vermont Abenakis had a different sense and knowledge of the land than non-Abenaki, the non-Native people,” Peebles said. “The Vermont Abenakis base their identity on many things, including documents, if and when they're available, genealogies, if and when they're available, and on their traditions, stories and values passed down in spoken form from one or more ancestors.”
(In the past, Odanak and Wôlinak First Nations have pointed out that genealogical and historical documentation establishing ancestry, kinship and ongoing community connection is a norm for belonging in Indigenous communities in the U.S. and Canada — including for the citizenship criteria determined by each individual nation.)
But rather than defending who they are, leaders of state-recognized tribes said last week that they would rather be tending to their communities.
“What we do is farm and take care of our kids, grandchildren and family,” said Shirly Hook, the co-chief of the state-recognized Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation. “And we would like to continue doing that.”
“Us having to keep telling people who we are is kind of obnoxious to me, it gets old,” said Brenda Gagne, the chief of the state-recognized Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi. “As for the state of Vermont, they’ve stuck with us and have done, and I pray that they keep doing that.”
What the state does is being watched by organizations that have previously supported state-recognized tribes, like the Burlington-based company Seventh Generation.
In 2022, the company gave a $70,000 grant to Abenaki Circle of Courage — an afterschool program that Gagne has been involved in for decades. Part of that grant supported the development of Abenaki curriculum materials by members of state-recognized tribes.
This winter and spring, the Abenaki First Nations of Odanak and Wôlinak asked Seventh Generation to stop any distribution of the project. And last week, the company responded to the First Nations by email, saying it was not involved in the distribution of the curriculum, and it would follow the state of Vermont’s lead.
“Seventh Generation is not equipped or prepared to determine one group’s indigeneity or collective identity,” the email read. “We will ensure we stay aware of any developments on state recognition of Indigenous tribes.”
West Milton Rep. Michael Morgan, a Republican, told state-recognized tribes last week that he’s spoken with many lawmakers about the issue, and isn’t hearing a lot of calls to reexamine the state recognition process.
Though Burlington Rep. Troy Headrick, an Independent, did sponsor legislation this year that would in part reassess the validity of previous state recognition in Vermont, including possible revocation. Headrick also invited the Abenaki First Nations to the Statehouse in February, the first time they’ve had such an invitation in decades.
“Maybe there's a pocket of some people that have issue or want to do something to change the Indigenous peoples’ status here,” Morgan said. “But I don't believe there's any groundswell movement.”
Burlington Rep. Brian Cina, a Progressive/Democrat who has worked on past legislation with state-recognized tribes, asked what they needed from lawmakers.
In response, Don Stevens, the chief of the state-recognized Nulhegan Band of the Coosuck Abenaki Nation, said legislators could prioritize them as constituents over the Abenaki First Nations.
“I think what we need is to be really clear by the legislators that, look, this issue is done, let’s move forward in partnership,” Stevens said. “Why are we entertaining a foreign entity in a foreign country over your own constituents?”
While the Abenaki First Nations of Odanak and Wôlinak are headquartered in Quebec, they have citizens in what they say is unceded territory in the northeastern U.S., including Vermont.
And in a statement responding to last week’s Statehouse event, the First Nations expressed concern about the Legislature platforming state-recognized tribes and “spreading false information” about Abenaki identity, history and culture.
They said this hurts “true descendants” of the original peoples of Vermont.
"The Abenaki Nation remains the guardian of its identity and culture and will continue to defend its rights and heritage against all forms of appropriation,” said Abenaki Council of Odanak Chief Rick O’Bomsawin in the statement. “The recognition granted by the State of Vermont to these four groups is unjustified — it is imperative to correct the errors made and restore the truth.”
The First Nations said the legislation sponsored by Rep. Troy Headrick, that would reexamine Vermont state recognition, would be a “concrete” way to address the issue.
The bill has been introduced and assigned to a House committee, but is not expected to go forward this year.
