Burlington officials are moving ahead with plans to replace a monument to an Abenaki chief with a new sculpture commissioned by the Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi, which is one of four groups recognized as Native American by Vermont’s state government.
But the Missisquoi group’s involvement in the project has spurred protest from one of Burlington’s state representatives, who has also been a vocal critic of the state’s past tribal recognition decisions. Independent Rep. Troy Headrick told Burlington officials last month they should seek input on the project from two Abenaki nations based in Quebec, where tribal leaders maintain that many members of Vermont’s state-recognized tribes can’t claim continuous ties to historic Abenaki people, or to any Indigenous people.
“It is deeply concerning that the Abenaki communities at Odanak and Wôlinak, whose documented ancestral ties to this region are well established, have not been consulted in this decision-making process,” Headrick wrote in an email about the monument plans to Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and her chief of staff. He shared the message with VTDigger.
Headrick’s comments have brought contentious questions about Abenaki identity in Vermont before Burlington city leaders. These questions have also colored state legislative debates in Montpelier and other nearby state capitals this year.
At issue in Burlington is a sculpture known as “Chief Greylock” that was installed in the city’s Battery Park in the late 1980s. Greylock was an Abenaki chief who is famed today for leading Abenaki people during wars against English colonists in the 18th century.
The sculpture was “named and embraced by the Abenaki community,” although it was not a direct representation of Indigenous people historically in Vermont, according to a memo about the project from Doreen Kraft, executive director of Burlington City Arts, a city department that supports local artists.
Moreover, Kraft told the Burlington City Council earlier this month, city officials have been worried about the structural integrity of the wooden statue for years. An analysis last fall found that it was significantly rotted inside and in danger of collapsing.
Following that report, officials decided the artwork should be taken down for public safety, Kraft said. The sculpture was taken down last Thursday, with only its base left, according to Joe Magee, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.
In its place, Burlington plans to put up a new wooden sculpture donated to the city by the Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi, which is based in Swanton. Under a March 2022 resolution approved by the city council, the Missisquoi group is, “the tribal authority to represent Abenaki matters” between local Abenaki people and the city government.
The new sculpture, according to photos in city council documents, has a similar shape to its predecessor though adds on clear references to the Missisquoi group, including the group’s flag and the words “Missisquoi Abenaki.” It also bears carvings of wildlife and an “Indian head,” Brenda Gagne, the Missisquoi chief, said in an interview.
The piece is meant to focus on Missisquoi’s history more broadly, rather than on Greylock, himself, Gagne said.
But Headrick told city officials in an email that decisions about the design of the new sculpture should have included input from other sources. Among those sources, he wrote, should have been Odanak and Wôlinak First Nations, both of which are headquartered northeast of Montreal but claim Vermont as part of their ancestral territory.
The First Nations’ leaders have argued for years that many members of the four groups the state of Vermont recognized as Abenaki in 2011 and 2012 are, in fact, not Indigenous. Odanak and Wôlinak leaders have accused the state-recognized groups of appropriating Abenaki culture. In letters and public statements, the First Nations’ leaders have also urged organizations in Vermont to work with them, rather than the Vermont-based groups, when seeking Indigenous people’s perspectives.
The groups that the state of Vermont has recognized have asserted that they can, in fact, claim Abenaki identities and have repeatedly urged the First Nations to stay out of their affairs. In addition to the Missisquoi, those groups include the Elnu Abenaki, Nulhegan Abenaki and the Koasek Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation.
Several weeks after Headrick’s email to the mayor’s office, city officials pulled an item off the agenda for a July 14 city council meeting that would have allowed the city to formally accept the new sculpture already commissioned by the Missisquoi group.
In an interview Monday, Magee characterized that decision as a temporary pause so the city can do further structural analysis of the old sculpture’s base, which is set to also be used for the new one. He said the delay in formally accepting the new sculpture was not due to questions about tribal identity or legitimacy, and emphasized that the city still plans to accept the new artwork.
Magee said the city has not reached out to Odanak or Wôlinak leaders. He would not say whether or not the city planned to reach out to them. He emphasized that the city would continue to abide by the 2022 agreement to work with the Missisquoi group.
“The city has had a good working relationship with the Missisquoi Abenaki tribal council since the adoption of the resolution in 2022, and you know, we want to continue and maintain that relationship,” he said.
“The administration is aware of the conversations happening on a larger level,” he added, referring to assertions about the Vermont groups’ legitimacy. “And the city does have an interest in figuring out how we can engage with other bands, other tribal councils, to fully honor Burlington’s history — and the history of Burlington land as Indigenous land,” he said.
Daniel Nolett, the executive director of Odanak First Nation’s tribal government, said in an interview Tuesday that he hoped Headrick’s outreach would prompt Burlington officials to contact him or someone else in his office.
Nolett said his family is directly related to Greylock. While he understands that the now removed sculpture was a public safety threat, he added, he wished he had gotten a heads-up from the city.
“The statue was in the state that it was — it posed a safety issue, so it had to be taken down,” he said. “That’s not an issue. The only issue is that we should have been part of this project for the new statue.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the organizational structure of Burlington City Arts.
