Editor’s note: This oped is by Rep. Tom Stevens, D-Washington-Chittenden 1, a member of the House General, Housing & Military Affairs committee.
On Friday, April 30, the Vermont House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed their version S.222, an Act relating to state recognition of Native American Indian tribes in Vermont. This bill was originally written in the Senate and came to the General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee in the House for review and, eventually, revision.
Without recognition, Abenaki artisans have been unable to sell their wares as authentic, and any galleries who displayed their wares as authentic were at risk of facing large fines for doing so.
Recognition for our Native American citizens has been a long and rocky road. In 1976, Gov. Thomas Salmon issued recognition to the Missisquoi Abenaki, but in 1977 Gov. Richard Snelling rescinded that recognition.
In 2006, the General Assembly passed and Gov. Jim Douglas signed S.117, which recognized the Abenaki people and all other Native Americans living in Vermont as a minority population. This recognition, long sought and especially important after an application by the Missisquoi Abenaki for federal recognition failed, was meant to provide our Native Americans with a legal status so that they might apply to get, among other benefits, recognition of their crafts as “Abenaki made.”
This ability to identify their crafts in this manner would have legitimized their efforts to get their culture, as represented by their crafts, installed in such institutions as the Smithsonian, our national museum.
Without this recognition, Abenaki artisans have been unable to sell their wares as authentic, and any galleries who displayed their wares as authentic were at risk of facing large fines for doing so.
The legislation passed in 2006, as well intentioned and crafted as it was, contained a major flaw that ended up neutralizing its intent: its reliance on calling the Abenaki a minority population, rather than recognizing them, and individual tribes or bands within, as political entities.
The Indian Arts and Crafts Board, responsible for granting the desired craft status, notified the state that its recognition of the Abenaki as minorities was not sufficient, and that Abenaki artisans still could not market their wares as “Abenaki made.”
The House version of the bill has attempted to make a process that was open enough to acknowledge the difficulty of proving certain criteria, including genealogy.
With S.222, the House has taken the fine work of the Senate and, in our opinion, improved upon in a way that may gain federal approval for our criteria in granting recognition to our Native American tribes and bands.
It was clear that we needed to craft criteria that would, first and foremost, recognize our tribes and bands completely and totally. We cannot try to develop criteria that would allow, in its simplest terms, craft-based recognition. The standards we found in federal law and in other states that have recognized their own Native Americans were drawn in a way that was inclusive and reasonable — but they were not necessarily applicable to our Native American tribes and bands.
The House version of the bill has attempted to make a process that was open enough to acknowledge the difficulty of proving certain criteria, including genealogy. We know that one of the reasons federal recognition was denied was the inability to show a continuous local history — a fact exacerbated by the large holes in recordkeeping that exist in towns across the state due to flood, fire or what have you. This lack of consistency in birth and death records certainly has affected certain tribes’ and bands’ attempts to use genealogy as a method for proving their case.
Genealogy, however, is not the sole criteria used to recognize tribes. S.222 attempts to utilize criteria that have been collected not only from the original Senate bill, but from statutes from across the country. This bill also establishes a process that we hope, in combination with the criteria, will gain the approval of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board and allow our Native Americans — including and most numerously, the Abenaki — to receive full state recognition first (and most importantly) and craft recognition for their artisans.
This bill also creates a process wherein the Native American Commission will work with a review panel and the Legislature to process applications from bands and tribes for recognition. This, we hope, will allow the applicants a level playing field and remove personal politics from the decision making process.
Rep. Kesha Ram championed this bill in the House. As we took testimony and chose to go in a different direction than the Senate version of the bill, Rep. Ram worked hard to balance the needs and concerns of all the different groups of Abenaki who reside in our state and had a stake in the outcome of the bill.
We feel the direction we took and the bill we produced will give us a reasonably good chance to gain the recognition we seek for the Abenaki — and at the same time putting the responsibility for creating good criteria directly where it belongs: on the Legislature.
We have seen the pain of having recognition yanked away, and it is real.
We have seen the pain of having recognition yanked away, and it is real. By creating a bill that limits its language to the process and the criteria, the onus will be upon the Legislature to fix any problems that may arise. In years past, we have attempted to provide recognition for the Abenaki and we have failed. If we are to succeed, we must put ourselves in front of the decision-making process on behalf of the Abenaki.
The House version of S.222 is an attempt to right wrongs done to our indigenous people throughout our history. We are hopeful that the Senate will concur with our version of S.222, and if it does, and the governor signs the law, and if the federal government approves our criteria, that it will be seen as a crowning achievement for Vermont, for the Abenaki, and for all Native Americans in Vermont.
