Vermont Does Not Have a Pretendian Problem
A Letter to the Editor of Seven Days by Margaret Bruchac (Northampton, MA) in response to Chord and Discord: Odanak Musician Mali Obomsawin Talks Music, Community and Vermont's 'Pretendian Problem (09/27/23)
Vermont does not have a "pretendian problem" — it has an "incendian problem." By highlighting the incendiary opinions of a few outspoken individuals — who have no legal authority whatsoever to adjudicate anyone's Indigenous identity — journalists are contributing to a firestorm of slander, provoking troubling conversations among Native people and the general public.
As a simple point of fact, no individual holds the inherent right to determine who is or is not legally "Indian" in the United States or Canada. Nothing in any federal, provincial or state law, and nothing in any traditional Indigenous practice of governance, gives any Native American or First Nations person or tribe the legal right to judge the identity of any other Native American or First Nations person or tribe. Such determinations can only be made by and within a sovereign tribal nation, over its own citizens.
Under Vermont Statute Title One, Chapter 23, the Abenaki nations in Vermont are legally recognized and identified as "Native American Indian People." Under the United States Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, they are legally recognized as Native American artists, "defined as a member of any federally or officially State recognized tribe of the United States."
Although many Abenaki people are being slandered as a direct result of this biased reporting, they have nonetheless received personal reassurances from many respected citizens of American and Canadian tribal nations who are appalled by the recent media coverage that is causing an enormous amount of unnecessary chaos and confusion.