Joining this commentary: Pablo Bose, professor of geography and director, Global and Regional Studies Program; Dona Brown, professor of history and director of graduate studies, Department of History; Paul Deslandes, professor of history and chair, Department of History; Melanie Gustafson, professor of history and director of undergraduate studies, Department of History; Adrian Ivakhiv, professor of environmental thought and culture; David Massell, professor of history and director, Canadian Studies Program; Cheryl Morse, associate professor of geography and co-director, Environmental Program; Walter Poleman, senior lecturer and director, Field Naturalist Program; Amy Seidl, senior lecturer and co-director, Environmental Program; Richard Watts, senior lecturer of geography and director, Center for Research on Vermont.
“Odanak.” The Abenaki word means “at the village” and refers to the Odanak First Nation, a Native reserve in Quebec two hours’ drive north of the Vermont border.
Odanak is home to the irrefutable and historically documented descendants of Abenaki people from across northern New England, including Vermont, who sought refuge in British North America (now Canada) from an expanding United States by 1800.
Like Native Peoples across the continent, Odanak’s residents carry the historical traumas of epidemic diseases, colonial wars, massive land dispossession, and forced assimilation by church and state.
Yet, remarkably, the existence of the Odanak First Nation was unknown to our students, most of our colleagues, and nearly all Vermonters.
It was to address this disquieting gap in our knowledge that we, as educators, invited a delegation from the Odanak First Nation to share their history and explain their position on the process of Vermont state recognition of 2010-12. The event, titled “Beyond Borders: Unheard Abenaki Voices from the Odanak First Nation,” included delegates from the Canadian and Quebec governments and drew over 1,000 participants in-person and online. You can view the event here.
Calling this event “lopsided,” as was done in a commentary in this paper, because Vermont’s state-recognized tribes were not invited to share the stage, misses the point of the event: to let marginalized voices speak.
Asking Odanak’s delegation to speak and teach was essential in expanding and rebalancing Vermonters’ understanding of Indigenous history in northern New England.
While Odanak was and remains largely unknown to Vermonters, the members and chiefs of the four Vermont tribes are prevalent in our newspapers and airwaves: in demand by journalists, conservation groups, schools, colleges and universities. Representatives of the four state-recognized groups have participated at multiple UVM and other Vermont events this spring.
Inviting Odanak’s delegation also offered a corrective for the Abenaki of Odanak, whose voices have been absent from our public discourse. Odanak’s elected leadership was excluded from representation on the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs when state recognition was granted. They were also barred from testifying in Montpelier, because they do not live within the borders of Vermont — borders, we should remind ourselves, they did not draw.
In both respects, Vermont is in violation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was made plain in the event’s closing statement by Regional Chief Ghislain Picard, who speaks for the 43 First Nations’ chiefs of Quebec and Labrador.
Article 18 states that “Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights,” while Article 32 makes plain that “Indigenous peoples have the right to determine their own identity or membership in accordance with their customs and traditions,” and Article 36 speaks pointedly to this international case, making clear that states cannot use the excuse of international borders, as did Vermont, to bar Native Peoples from deliberation.
Yes, the Abenaki of Odanak brought a controversial message to UVM. As their citizens made clear in the Grand Maple Ballroom, Odanak’s members view the Vermont groups as neither Indigenous nor Abenaki.
And they have watched with growing vexation and hurt over the last decades as their identity has been appropriated, their traditional territory claimed by others, and their market for Native crafts eroded.
Is this position a radical one? The view from Odanak in fact aligns with Vermont’s own 2002 investigation into the identity of the “Missisquoi Abenaki,” and with that of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2005, both of which found no historical or genealogical links with any historic Abenaki community; and with the work of French-Canadian social scientist Darryl Leroux, who finds no discernible Abenaki ancestry among the great majority of Vermonters who claim it. Leroux also points out major flaws in the state recognition process.
As Vermonters grapple with the injustices committed against Indigenous Peoples and their homelands, we are best served by taking a listening and learning stance, one that acknowledges the complexity of identity and that is not afraid of controversial knowledge.
Listening and learning was in fact the main goal of this event. We appreciated the courage of Dean Bill Falls in welcoming our Native guests to campus, despite public pressure on him not to do so. And we applaud our open-minded students, who came informed of the complexity of these issues and who themselves repeatedly applauded the courage of the Abenaki to speak their minds on U.S. soil for the first time in a generation.
May all Vermonters follow their lead in being open to new learning and different perspectives.
