Members of the Odanak First Nation, an Abenaki reserve in Quebec, discussed history and division across the U.S.-Canada border at the University of Vermont on Friday — and advanced controversial views about who should be considered Indigenous.
Odanak leaders do not recognize any of Vermont’s four state-recognized tribes — Elnu, Nulhegan, Koasek and Missisquoi — as Abenaki and assert that New England is their unceded territory, known in the Abenaki language as Ndakinna, or “our land.”
Speakers at the morning-long event said Odanak leaders were largely excluded from Vermont’s debate over whether or not to recognize Abenaki tribes. Odanak leaders initially supported the push for state recognition (then led by Homer St. Francis, a Missisquoi chief) but opposed the movement by the early 2000s, they said.
Jacques Watso, an Odanak councilor, told the UVM audience that he and other Abenaki of Odanak do not think Vermont should have the authority to determine who is Indigenous.
Speakers also said there are people in Vermont who claim to be Abenaki but have only distant Abenaki heritage — or none at all — which they say amounts to cultural appropriation.
For Mali-Agat Obomsawin, an Odanak community organizer who spoke on the second of two panels focused on tribal history, this pulls attention away from critical issues such as land access and poverty, which she finds frustrating.
“We don’t want to be here fighting this,” Obomsawin said. “But these fake people who are stealing our identities are getting in the way of us addressing bigger issues.”
Friday’s event, which drew hundreds of people to UVM’s Dudley H. Davis Center and hundreds more to a livestream, has spurred pushback since it was announced.
The event was sponsored by UVM’s history department and Canadian studies program, and was supported by the Consulate General of Canada. Two Canadian officials spoke at the outset, including Marie-Claude Francoeur, Quebec’s delegate to New England.
“Sometimes you don’t always like what you hear. But at least if you’re in the room, you hear it and then you can make something of it,” Francoeur said.
Richard Menard, the current Missisquoi chief, wrote in an email to state legislators April 21 that the UVM event would only serve to delegitimize Vermont’s Abenaki tribes.
He said the Missisquoi have documentation proving Odanak leaders have supported the Vermont tribes in the past and that by allowing the event to go on at a public institution, the state was undermining efforts to repair past harm to Abenaki people.
Menard also said none of Vermont’s tribes were invited to speak at the event.
“This discussion does nothing to reconcile tribal and state governments,” he wrote. “It will be the impetus for continuing strife between the tribe and the state.”
Speakers said Abenaki of Odanak are often considered “Canadian” Abenaki, while the tribes in Vermont are considered “American.” But these distinctions should not exist, they said, since the U.S.-Canada border runs straight through Abenaki territory.
“Abenaki people are still reckoning with borders not of their own making — and are still frustrated in their efforts for cross-border recognition,” Christopher Roy, an assistant anthropology professor at Temple University, said in remarks read at the event.
Roy’s remarks were read by David Massell, who heads up Canadian studies at UVM.
Odanak speakers on Friday showed family photographs and newspaper clippings they said showed the historical presence of their ancestors in Vermont. For generations, they said, Odanak have sold hand-woven baskets in the area around Lake Champlain.
Obomsawin, the community organizer, told the audience it can be difficult to define who is “Indigenous” and who is not. But she said that since Abenaki culture is based on collectivism rather than individualism, community consensus is a key determinant.
“You cannot claim to be Indigenous,” Obomsawin said, “if the Indigenous community doesn’t claim you back.”
