Both hydropower companies, Great River Hydro in Vermont and New Hampshire and FirstLight Power in Massachusetts, were required to do a Traditional Cultural Properties (TCP) study, in addition to archaeology and historic building studies, to identify and address hydropower facility impacts to Native People’s cultural considerations. Regrettably, neither company has adequately engaged the Abenaki and other Native communities in this work.

On June 5, a newly expanded exhibit exploring the history, culture and present experiences of Native people in what we now know as Vermont opens at the Ethan Allen Homestead in Burlington’s Intervale. Vermont Indigenous Heritage Center coordinator Fred Wiseman says there’s a lot to see in this compact exhibit…. "But where it gets interesting,” Wiseman says, “is my favorite exhibit, the Abenaki in Vermont 1800-1970. Because that's a period people really didn't believe that Native people were in here at the time.”

Contemporarily, she said Northfield residents may think of Pauchaug in relation to the Pauchaug Brook Boat Launch. However, she said the whole area has “been known as Pauchaug for hundreds if not thousands of years.” The Pauchaug Brook Wildlife Management Area spans the territory from the east side of the Connecticut River in Northfield toward Routes 10 and 63, and up from the Pauchaug Ramp Road to the New Hampshire state line. According to Jacque, the Indigenous word “Pauchaug” also has multiple rough translations. One translation, she said, means “at the crossing,” while another translation means “at the clear place.”

The concept of building the Peskeompskut (Great Falls) mishoon (dugout canoe) began during a lunchtime conversation between David Brule and Jonathan Perry at the 2nd Street Bakery on 4th Street in Turners Falls following a monthly Battlefield Grant meeting. Two years later the actual construction of the 18-foot-long vessel was started at the 2019 Pocumtuck Homelands Festival with 55 consecutive hours of fire carving and scraping and the goal of launching it the following year as part of the 2020 festival.

“ For myself, I’d like to think that the memory of the place by the Great Falls is being re-examined through this joint town-tribal project for a reason….working to preserve the site has brought Northeastern tribal descendants and townspeople together…So long as we allow space for differences, and above all treat the people who perished here with the dignity and respect they did not receive in life, we will be making some advances towards healing and draw more meaningful lessons from this war.”

---Elizabeth James-Perry, Aquinnah Wampanoag artist and historian

On Friday, the National Congress of American Indians sent a letter to the Rutland City Board of School Commissioners and Rutland City Public Schools administrators to reiterate its support of the board’s decision to retire the “Raider” name and arrowhead logo. A Washington, D.C.,-based nonprofit founded in 1944, NCAI is, according to its website, “the oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization serving the broad interests of tribal governments and communities.”

The Rutland Raider mascot is still up for debate. In the next several weeks, a new committee will decide whether the Rutland School Board adhered to its own rules when it voted last October to abandon the high school mascot and its arrowhead imagery. Committee members met for the first time on Tuesday. If the committee decides the board violated processes while deciding on the change, it could propose reinstating the Raider mascot.

Brooks said he believes that educating people on the topic of eugenics is important during a time like this because it’s still so relevant in the community. “I think it’s important to understand that this is really a contemporary issue that we are dealing with right now and to urge everyone in our community to consider what can be done to help heal these wounds,” Brooks said.

NAGA’s involvement, however, does not always sit well with members of local Indigenous communities. In an email interview with the Herald, several leaders from Vermont’s various Abenaki Tribes commented on NAGA’s letter and the Rutland mascot issue in general.

In 2021, by an act of humanism, solidarity, and reparation, the Passamaquoddy tribe has been reunited with 140 acres of their unceded Ancestral territory – part of the largest island in Kci Monosakom, (Big Lake) Maine. To the Passamaquoddy people, it’s more than land return; it is the return of a stolen family member. In this short film, we join Passamaquoddy community members who are finally able to reunite with their non-human Relative.

Land-grant universities broadened access to higher education in the United States — but only at the expense of Indigenous Americans. Nearly 11 million acres of land were taken from tribes and Native communities to fund the universities, according to an investigation by High Country News. That investigation, published a year ago, has since won awards and sparked calls for change.

Nipmuc Tribal Council member Liz “Coldwind” Santana Kiser: “This is a time when we can remember what happened on May 19, 1676,” she said. “It’s a horrific day for the Nipmuc people, but it’s a day that we can remember and we can reflect.” Santana Kiser emphasized the importance for the community to both remember the massacre, while also finding ways to move forward and work together with Native people.

Vermont should “sincerely apologize and express sorrow and regret” for its deadly role in the eugenics movement 100 years prior, the state Senate decided Wednesday. On a unanimous vote, senators gave preliminary approval to a joint resolution, J.R.H.2, that lays out the eugenics movement’s history in Vermont, the General Assembly’s role in supporting it and the harm that the movement caused to huge swaths of Vermonters.

Following the student group’s demands, UVM created a Renaming Advisory Committee in March 2018 in order to look further into Bailey’s history with eugenics at UVM according to an August 2018 Cynic article. Both the UVM Renaming Advisory Committee and the Board of Trustees voted to remove Bailey’s name in October 2018. However, three years later, questions are being raised about whether this was the right decision and what more could still be done.

The Vermont Senate Committee on Government Operations (under Chair Jeanette White) has completed its deliberations upon JRH 2, a House-originated bill that offers a detailed official apology from the General Assembly for the actions and impacts of the State-level Eugenics Program and its policies.

The Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi Leadership shared a reflection on a COVID-19 vaccine clinic held April 25 at the Abenaki Tribal Office…

A general interest article overview of the archaeological survey work beginning in Squakheag/ Northfield, MA for the Schell Bridge replacement project. A project off to a rocky start, as far as acknowledgement and meaningful, respectful inclusion in a Federally-overseen process (for what that is worth). Locally, cooperation and collaboration are promising; higher up the ladder, it begins to fall apart, rapidly.

Community College of Vermont has convened a three-part series of Abenaki speakers this year, hosted online. The third and final speaker, Melody Walker - member of the Elnu Abenaki - presented on Thursday, April 15th, and the video recording is linked below. Melody’s presentation centered upon “Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Healing, and the Path Forward”. Within her community, Melody has focused on cultural revitalization and concepts of personhood.

A newly minted set of National Scenic Byways and All-American Roads includes Massachusetts Route 2 - the so-called Mohawk Trail - and further enshrines the erasure and replacement of Indigenous presence in the landscape here. The author repeats the contrived narratives and ahistorical tropes that have bolstered public (mis)conceptions of this memoryscape without question, and reinforces the skewed narrative created to promote American automobile tourism, and all the disconnects that come with it.

“Land recognition” entered the city’s agenda Monday over the strong objections of some members of the Board of Aldermen.

The board narrowly voted Monday to have the General Committee discuss the city engaging in a land recognition — a formal acknowledgement that the land where Rutland is located was once Native American territory.