'Recognized': An update

By Elodie Reed,

Published March 28, 2024 at 4:40 PM EDT

A photo showing five people standing on a curved white balcony overlooking other people on the floor below who are clapping and looking at the five people. The people on the bottom floor are sitting or standing by curved wooden desks, and the carpet is bright gold and red swirls. — From left, state-recognized tribe representatives Rich Holschuh, Linda Sheehan, Roger Sheehan, Don Stevens and Brenda Gagne receive applause from Vermont House lawmakers after being recognized by Craftsbury Rep. Katherine Sims on Tuesday, March 12, 2024.

Two Abenaki First Nations headquartered in Canada are contesting the legitimacy of Vermont’s state-recognized tribes. How are Vermont lawmakers responding?

Brave Little State is Vermont Public’s listener-driven journalism show. Last October, we published “Recognized”: a three-part investigation into contested claims that Vermont’s four state-recognized tribes are not legitimate. The First Nations making those claims continue to call on Vermont lawmakers to reconsider the state recognition process.

Reporter Elodie Reed followed up with lawmakers about how they’re responding to that request. She spoke with The Frequency host Mitch Wertlieb about her reporting. We’re sharing that update in your Brave Little State podcast feed this week.

You can find a full transcript of their conversation here.

Credits

This story was reported and produced by Elodie Reed, with help from Mitch Wertlieb. The Brave Little State team is Josh Crane, Burgess Brown and Sabine Poux. Angela Evancie is Brave Little State’s Executive Producer.

We’ll be back soon with more people-powered Vermont journalism. As always, our show is better when you’re a part of it:

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Corrected: April 3, 2024 at 2:09 PM EDT

This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the response of Vermont's state-recognized tribes to scrutiny of the state recognition process. Additional context has also been added about genealogical documentation cited — but not made public — in state recognition applications.