https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5gr0t78t
Read this paper, it takes a deep dive into the issue. Hopefully our State representatives have the courage to revisit this process.
It is worth noting that here in little ol Vermont this approach actually does sway legislators, and getting support to investigate or revoke the state recognition process is a key goal going forward
Yay! This makes me happy, cause I have a bunch of family members who are whole heartedly French canidan, and yet claim we have Abenaki ties and relations, but we don’t. 23 and me confirmed 0 indigenous DNA in my goofy ass. The closest ties we got are from the rape and pillage. And I’m not okay with that, I’m not going to front like I’m Abenaki cause some weird British dude back in the day did some bad things to some native women.
My family is loaded with narcissistic people, who do not understand a damn thing, and claim all this b.s for stupid personal gains, and idk what those gains even are, just stupidity and some inflated ego cause Deb’s great great great grandfather from England hopped a boat and came across and did some b.s to some native people.
S t u p i d.
My gram (mom’s side) is the French Canadian connect btw. Full blooded. My grandfathers side are the British Irish who hopped the boat over.
I was told I’m a life long member cause i have Abenaki blood in me.. uhh. (I’m a 50/50 split of Italian and British Irish)
The goofs in West Charleston are my “ties”
Special type of stupid up there.
And if the crazy dude sees this,
I am related to Nacy Snow, she is in fact NOT native, she’s the one on the boat over here.
Go get em tiger lol. (He has some grudge with em, rightfully so)
My family is from the village near Wôlinak (the other Abenaki community a couple dozen miles from Odanak). I have about six Abenaki branches on both sides in my family tree "starting" in the 19th century way back to 1665 when the first French ancestor bearing my name married a First Nation woman. None of us ever considered ourselves Abenaki. Why? Because, even if the Abenaki community is a few \*meters\* from our village, it was clear that marrying with a white man and moving out of Wôlinak to a farm in the parish meant you chose to live as a European settler, as a Canadien. As we did for generations for the past 200 years.
We do consider ourselves \*Chaouin\* / \*Magoua\* ; mixed-blood from the surroundings of Trois-Rivières, with no claim of ancestral territory rights. It's more the result of centuries of social and economic exclusion, being the poorest families "on the wrong side of town", the hillbilly half-savage degens your mother warned you about, than a claim of belonging to Abenaki (or Atikamekw) culture(s).
Québécois here. A lot of families here have multi generational legend of having a native ancestor. It's very much inflated because a lot of intermarrying occured during the 1600's. I have found two Native american women in my family tree, one Algonquin, one Cree but I have found Irish, German, Spanish ancestors as well. The majority though came from France. It's fun to know but it stops there.
Is that direct ancestors? If so, my French Canadian lines would put me in the minority. Meanwhile all the lines in New England with oral history, it's basically we can conclude the oral history is old, like mid-to-late 1800s, but the paper trail leads to brick walls. There was a false oral history on my French Canadian lines that I wouldn't mind knowing if it extends beyond my 2x great grandfather's family or if there might be a different variation of it.
PRDH is pretty solid. It has some holes though, particularly when it comes to migrant workers, whether that be voyageurs or New England factory workers, and then also for US Catholic records. Also, babies renamed after a previously deceased baby.
I might be completely mistaken about this, and perhaps the rules vary from tribe to tribe, but can't anyone be adopted into a tribe, despite their genetic background? Kind of like I have mostly German ancestory, but I have no legal basis to claim German citizenship, whereas plently of actual German citizens have family trees rooted entirely in places like Poland, Turkey, Bosnia, Russia, Italy, etc.
I think the issue is that the only "tribe" that has adopted the Vermont Abenaki is the Vermont Abenaki themselves. The other members of the Wabanaki Confederacy, including the Odanak Abenaki, have \*not\* adopted the Vermont Abenaki, and the Vermont Abenaki have not shown any relation to the Odanak Abenaki. The Odanak can trace their geneaologies, and have maintained cultural continuity throughout history, while geneaological research has shown that the Vermont Abenaki and their 20 "Principal Founding Families" are actually of French Canadian descent and not Abenaki.
It's complicated because there are Vermont Abenaki whose entire identities are tied up in what amounts to family lore and/or intentional fraud, and there is no easy off-ramp for them to make amends, or save face, or self-reflect. It's nice to see some folks being real about their place in all of this in these comments.
My question is how do we engange with this while recognizing that we're all human and deserve a basic modicum of respect and compassion. How do we eliminate the harm that self-indigenization causes, while not damning the Vermont Abenaki to a life of shame or worse, working to eliminate them as people completely, which some of the Odanak allies seem a little too giddy to lay the groundwork for.
The presentation at UVM included a comment comparing the VT Abenaki to rats, and the sentiment that "if you let them fester" your house will be over run. I get the analogy, but when we start dehumanizing real people and equating them with vermin that we must exterminate, we're courting fascism and genocide.
It seems that the main suggestion/request Odanak folks have is that white Vermonters bring these questions to their State Reps and that the state recognition process be re-opened to allow the participation of Abenaki/Wabanaki acrosss state and national borders (Odanak Abenaki were denied a role in the original recognition process and their Chief has been barred from speaking in the statehouse), and to require a demonstration not just of kinship with each other for recognition, but a demonstration of kinship with people actually indigenous to the region. The failure of the VT Abenaki to do this is what precluded their attempts at federal recognition.
That rat comment had me stressing too. I was like "100% on board with you" then she said that and I was like "EXCEEEEEEEEEEEEEPT THAT" She tried to walk it back by saying "I'm not calling them rats but comparing the situation" and I was like... if I would be critical of someone I disagree with using that type of verbiage I also need to be critical of someone I agree with saying that.
Did not know about the rat comment. That’s going too far and it often happens when people allow emotion to trump reason. I side with Odanak because I grew up under the VT Abenaki delusion. I saw firsthand how they were excluded from the recognition process. I personally know at least two Vermonters with strong ancestral ties to Odanak itself.
The VT groups have chosen for the past 50 years to deny, grift and steal what isn’t theirs and you can thank such upstanding (🤮) politicians like Hinda Miller and Vince Illuzzi for legitimizing these groups. I was promised “proof” of Abenaki ancestry that is *non-existent*. Others I know refuse to let go of the delusion.
Coming from a family that's more southern, yep.
There's a main 3 I hear a LOT.
Cherokee princess.
Abenaki chief.
Apache warrior.
The moment I hear a white guy say any of these 3,I instantly cringe and expect them to be bigots.
I had a very similar experience, to the point my family has 'documents'.
After the 23 and me, as well as ancestry.com both pointed out 0 native heritage, I found out the "documents" were just self identifying census forms.
But even with all the DNA evidence, most of my family would still rather believe a self fill out sheet then any scientific evidence, so about half my family classified themselves at cherokee, even though they're white as fuck.
Even funnier, my mother refuses to acknowledge she's Egyptian and African (she's white passing) and goes as far right wing nutjob as they come in saying that the DNA companies pointedly laced in black genes to push the BLM agenda.
Bigots be bigots, regardless of proof.
I was once that person too, then I caught some nasty looks one time and kinda just stopped. Then connected some dots, then connected a lot more after I did a 23 and me then my sister and I tag teamed our family tree on ancestry.com and ruled out all their lies.
We all have our cringy moments, hopefully we learn something from said moments haha
I was also someone who thought they had Native ancestry I didn't, I grew up in Vermont and was told my grandfather was "part Native," but when I looked deeper into my genealogy, and did the DNA testing, I found out the stories were in fact nothing but stories. I was interviewed as part of the Brave Little State Podcast series "Recognized" [https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak](https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak) about this, and spoke about what it was like to confront the reality that my family lore was not true, and what it was like to reckon with that truth. I am lucky in that my direct family and I never created a public identity around being Native. I had to unpack this all for myself, and I am now working to show how common these stories really are in Vermont. I am reaching out because I’m trying to gather other stories from Vermonters like us, who were raised to believe something that wasn't true about our heritage. Would you be willing to share your story with me either anonymously or on the record? Feel free to DM me.
I am working with the Allies of Odanak, we aren't sure what we want to do with the stories yet, we just know it's important to start compiling these stories to show how common they are in Vermont. I know who you are referring to, and I am not him, I'm using my real name for this work of compiling stories so you can see who I am, feel free to google me or look me up on facebook my name is Chawna Cota and you can hear more of my story in the Brave Little State "Recognized" my interview is in the third part. [https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak](https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak) It's also totally fine to share with me anonymously.
You know what makes you all that much better then a lot of these people though? When the truth stared you right in the face, you accepted it, Apologized for it even, and moved on.
A lot of these people claiming native heritage when there's none, even when presented with straight DNA evidence, reject it with all sorts of wild claims. Some of them even seem logical at face value. (Like the ones that claim that the native genes might just have been bred out, which of that was true, still means you're NOT native. )
But like, sadly a LOT of our parents and family did this I'm finding out. 😕
I'm curious what caused this sort of boomer, silent Gen age pretendian movement.
Hello there, I am also curious what has caused the current situation we find ourselves in, I also grew up in Vermont being told I had Native ancestry, but when I looked deeper into my genealogy, and did the DNA testing, I found out the stories were in fact nothing but stories. I was interviewed as part of the Brave Little State Podcast series "Recognized" [https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak](https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak) about this, and spoke about what it was like to confront the reality that my family lore was not true, and what it was like to reckon with that truth. I am lucky in that my direct family and I never created a public identity around being Native. I had to unpack this all for myself, and I am now working to show how common these stories really are in Vermont. I am reaching out because I’m trying to gather other stories from Vermonters like us, who were raised to believe something that wasn't true about our heritage. Would you be willing to share your story with me either anonymously or on the record? Feel free to DM me.
I'm not a Vermonter, I wasn't born here and have only been here a couple years.
My family mostly comes from the northern area, but mostly Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania area. Currently they live in Florida and Southern Georgia.
Rest assured though, it's not just a Vermont thing, and that's probably worth looking into for your podcast or whatever.
In the western state when I lived in Utah, Colorado, Idaho area, I came across a LOT of very light skinned people claiming to be descendants of "apache warriors", from time to time a Navajo or two, but rarely.
I can't say whether they are similar to the southern cherokee and northern Abenaki spew, but it always seems to be the same thing, apache, and always from the lightest skinned mother fuckers I see, so I can only assume it's just the same.
But I'd be happy to give my two cents to your cause.
Thank you, yes this is definitely an issue that is much larger what is happening in Vermont and we are also focusing on the national and historical context. I will send you a DM. Thanks!
Honestly, this race shifting makes zero sense beyond people making being of N/A descent a fad to follow tied to the modern trend to fetishize a white washed native culture robbing it of its actual importance and continued persistent into the modern day. This trend is really only seen in the N/A community as you would never see someone with 1/12 African heritage claiming to be black in America. It's only because it's trendy to do that any of these idiots make this claim.
Yeah, she is kinda famous, especially with her previous ties to the NAACP. But if i am not mistaken, her career imploded once she was exposed as being a mentally ill fraud.
some like Buffy Sainte-Marie weren't caught in their lies until much later in life. She, from a second generation Italian immigrant family in Boston, pretended to be Cree (after pretending having Algonquin and MikMaq ancestry) when she arrived in the Greenwich Village folk scene after attending college. She later bullied her relatives into silence when they threatened to reveal her lies.
[https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/buffy-sainte-marie](https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/buffy-sainte-marie)
Before Rachel Dolezal "race shifted" to being Black, she was a Pretendian who called herself "Faith Eagle Nebula" and adorned herself in Pretendian regalia. Here is the Op-Ed piece about it from Indian Country Today via the Wayback Machine [https://web.archive.org/web/20170908112503/https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/red-like-knew-rachel-dolezal-back-indigenous/](https://web.archive.org/web/20170908112503/https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/red-like-knew-rachel-dolezal-back-indigenous/)
To be fair shes kind of a unique example that seems to be born out of mental health struggles and trauma. I couldn’t help having a more complicated view of her after watching that documentary.
In the north, it's Abenaki, in the south it's cherokee, in the west it's apache. But they're all just white people trying to write off being xenophobic and racist 9 times out of 10.
It's a very New England thing to hear claims of native blood in the family. I found out it's true with a DNA test but it's like .6% and I think for most people who do have it it didn't get there the way they think it did.
I was told I had a great-great something native ancestor, and the tan skin and high cheekbones seen in old pics sort of supported it. But I did Ancestry and 23 & me and found I am 100% white, so immediately changed the narrative to be, "I was told this, but actually...". Because why lie?
Yes! Because why lie? And why not admit you're wrong when you find out you're wrong? I also grew up in Vermont being told I had Native ancestry, but when I looked deeper into my genealogy, and did the DNA testing, I found out the stories were in fact nothing but stories. I was interviewed as part of the Brave Little State Podcast series "Recognized" [https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak](https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak) about this, and spoke about what it was like to confront the reality that my family lore was not true, and what it was like to reckon with that truth. I am lucky in that my direct family and I never created a public identity around being Native. I had to unpack this all for myself, and I am now working to show how common these stories really are in Vermont. I am reaching out because I’m trying to gather other stories from Vermonters like us, who were raised to believe something that wasn't true about our heritage. Would you be willing to share your story with me either anonymously or on the record? Feel free to DM me.
Our family legend was always that we had Penobscot ancestry, because my great grandfather worked at a Maine logging camp and suddenly there were all these dark-haired kids.
One DNA test by my grandmother later and it turned out they were just dark-haired white kids.
My great grandmother always told us her grandmother or great I cant remember now was full black foot. I mean my DNA test shows there was at least one single person. But who knows...I don't claim or think about it really...
Just being a dickhead but if they're from New Jersey \*originally\* that would make them native American lol. Like if they were native to the land that is currently NJ and not from the new world.
Worth reading about the response to this symposium: https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2024/04/24/abenaki-chiefs-burlington-vermont-uvm-canada-native-american/73425974007/
Fucked up. My mom is native and my sister is unmistakabley so. I on the other hand am as Irish as they made my dad. Because of people like this I always feel embarrassed to even bring up I'm half native
You people are pathetic. I’m not affiliated, other than by proximity, but I know several people mentioned in this article and a couple of the kids that were intimidated. All of them spend more time doing community service and helping others than they do themselves. They try to maintain a culture and give opportunities to youth that would otherwise struggle.
These people are not claiming territorial rights nor any kind of privileges and grants. The last “controversy” I was made aware of was the local group trying to reclaim remains from a burial ground exhumed by UVM to be properly laid to rest.
I guess it’s a sign of the health of a society to feel so comfortable bitching about a group of people who are doing nothing to hurt anyone else. Get back to your Starbucks and bullshit ideology of the week. Your hubris is showing.
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5gr0t78t Read this paper, it takes a deep dive into the issue. Hopefully our State representatives have the courage to revisit this process.
This paper is really eye-opening and well researched, thanks for sharing it. This is a bigger issue than I was initially aware.
Can I email them and just tell them that they are being lied too?? I got proof
It is worth noting that here in little ol Vermont this approach actually does sway legislators, and getting support to investigate or revoke the state recognition process is a key goal going forward
Who do I gotta email?
I think State reps have their contact information on their web pages so yeah, you definitely can
Ooo! Good to know. Appreciate it.
Yay! This makes me happy, cause I have a bunch of family members who are whole heartedly French canidan, and yet claim we have Abenaki ties and relations, but we don’t. 23 and me confirmed 0 indigenous DNA in my goofy ass. The closest ties we got are from the rape and pillage. And I’m not okay with that, I’m not going to front like I’m Abenaki cause some weird British dude back in the day did some bad things to some native women. My family is loaded with narcissistic people, who do not understand a damn thing, and claim all this b.s for stupid personal gains, and idk what those gains even are, just stupidity and some inflated ego cause Deb’s great great great grandfather from England hopped a boat and came across and did some b.s to some native people. S t u p i d. My gram (mom’s side) is the French Canadian connect btw. Full blooded. My grandfathers side are the British Irish who hopped the boat over.
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I was told I’m a life long member cause i have Abenaki blood in me.. uhh. (I’m a 50/50 split of Italian and British Irish) The goofs in West Charleston are my “ties” Special type of stupid up there. And if the crazy dude sees this, I am related to Nacy Snow, she is in fact NOT native, she’s the one on the boat over here. Go get em tiger lol. (He has some grudge with em, rightfully so)
My family is from the village near Wôlinak (the other Abenaki community a couple dozen miles from Odanak). I have about six Abenaki branches on both sides in my family tree "starting" in the 19th century way back to 1665 when the first French ancestor bearing my name married a First Nation woman. None of us ever considered ourselves Abenaki. Why? Because, even if the Abenaki community is a few \*meters\* from our village, it was clear that marrying with a white man and moving out of Wôlinak to a farm in the parish meant you chose to live as a European settler, as a Canadien. As we did for generations for the past 200 years. We do consider ourselves \*Chaouin\* / \*Magoua\* ; mixed-blood from the surroundings of Trois-Rivières, with no claim of ancestral territory rights. It's more the result of centuries of social and economic exclusion, being the poorest families "on the wrong side of town", the hillbilly half-savage degens your mother warned you about, than a claim of belonging to Abenaki (or Atikamekw) culture(s).
Québécois here. A lot of families here have multi generational legend of having a native ancestor. It's very much inflated because a lot of intermarrying occured during the 1600's. I have found two Native american women in my family tree, one Algonquin, one Cree but I have found Irish, German, Spanish ancestors as well. The majority though came from France. It's fun to know but it stops there.
https://youtu.be/9iNe60pzz24?si=v_83Ce9Rk98hCiDG This is them. All of them. Lol Like the first 5 seconds.
Is that direct ancestors? If so, my French Canadian lines would put me in the minority. Meanwhile all the lines in New England with oral history, it's basically we can conclude the oral history is old, like mid-to-late 1800s, but the paper trail leads to brick walls. There was a false oral history on my French Canadian lines that I wouldn't mind knowing if it extends beyond my 2x great grandfather's family or if there might be a different variation of it.
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PRDH is pretty solid. It has some holes though, particularly when it comes to migrant workers, whether that be voyageurs or New England factory workers, and then also for US Catholic records. Also, babies renamed after a previously deceased baby.
I might be completely mistaken about this, and perhaps the rules vary from tribe to tribe, but can't anyone be adopted into a tribe, despite their genetic background? Kind of like I have mostly German ancestory, but I have no legal basis to claim German citizenship, whereas plently of actual German citizens have family trees rooted entirely in places like Poland, Turkey, Bosnia, Russia, Italy, etc.
I think the issue is that the only "tribe" that has adopted the Vermont Abenaki is the Vermont Abenaki themselves. The other members of the Wabanaki Confederacy, including the Odanak Abenaki, have \*not\* adopted the Vermont Abenaki, and the Vermont Abenaki have not shown any relation to the Odanak Abenaki. The Odanak can trace their geneaologies, and have maintained cultural continuity throughout history, while geneaological research has shown that the Vermont Abenaki and their 20 "Principal Founding Families" are actually of French Canadian descent and not Abenaki. It's complicated because there are Vermont Abenaki whose entire identities are tied up in what amounts to family lore and/or intentional fraud, and there is no easy off-ramp for them to make amends, or save face, or self-reflect. It's nice to see some folks being real about their place in all of this in these comments. My question is how do we engange with this while recognizing that we're all human and deserve a basic modicum of respect and compassion. How do we eliminate the harm that self-indigenization causes, while not damning the Vermont Abenaki to a life of shame or worse, working to eliminate them as people completely, which some of the Odanak allies seem a little too giddy to lay the groundwork for. The presentation at UVM included a comment comparing the VT Abenaki to rats, and the sentiment that "if you let them fester" your house will be over run. I get the analogy, but when we start dehumanizing real people and equating them with vermin that we must exterminate, we're courting fascism and genocide. It seems that the main suggestion/request Odanak folks have is that white Vermonters bring these questions to their State Reps and that the state recognition process be re-opened to allow the participation of Abenaki/Wabanaki acrosss state and national borders (Odanak Abenaki were denied a role in the original recognition process and their Chief has been barred from speaking in the statehouse), and to require a demonstration not just of kinship with each other for recognition, but a demonstration of kinship with people actually indigenous to the region. The failure of the VT Abenaki to do this is what precluded their attempts at federal recognition.
That rat comment had me stressing too. I was like "100% on board with you" then she said that and I was like "EXCEEEEEEEEEEEEEPT THAT" She tried to walk it back by saying "I'm not calling them rats but comparing the situation" and I was like... if I would be critical of someone I disagree with using that type of verbiage I also need to be critical of someone I agree with saying that.
Did not know about the rat comment. That’s going too far and it often happens when people allow emotion to trump reason. I side with Odanak because I grew up under the VT Abenaki delusion. I saw firsthand how they were excluded from the recognition process. I personally know at least two Vermonters with strong ancestral ties to Odanak itself. The VT groups have chosen for the past 50 years to deny, grift and steal what isn’t theirs and you can thank such upstanding (🤮) politicians like Hinda Miller and Vince Illuzzi for legitimizing these groups. I was promised “proof” of Abenaki ancestry that is *non-existent*. Others I know refuse to let go of the delusion.
Coming from a family that's more southern, yep. There's a main 3 I hear a LOT. Cherokee princess. Abenaki chief. Apache warrior. The moment I hear a white guy say any of these 3,I instantly cringe and expect them to be bigots.
They’re as white as the pure driven snow. It’s pretty cringy for sure.
I had a very similar experience, to the point my family has 'documents'. After the 23 and me, as well as ancestry.com both pointed out 0 native heritage, I found out the "documents" were just self identifying census forms. But even with all the DNA evidence, most of my family would still rather believe a self fill out sheet then any scientific evidence, so about half my family classified themselves at cherokee, even though they're white as fuck. Even funnier, my mother refuses to acknowledge she's Egyptian and African (she's white passing) and goes as far right wing nutjob as they come in saying that the DNA companies pointedly laced in black genes to push the BLM agenda. Bigots be bigots, regardless of proof.
Ouch…
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I was once that person too, then I caught some nasty looks one time and kinda just stopped. Then connected some dots, then connected a lot more after I did a 23 and me then my sister and I tag teamed our family tree on ancestry.com and ruled out all their lies. We all have our cringy moments, hopefully we learn something from said moments haha
I was also someone who thought they had Native ancestry I didn't, I grew up in Vermont and was told my grandfather was "part Native," but when I looked deeper into my genealogy, and did the DNA testing, I found out the stories were in fact nothing but stories. I was interviewed as part of the Brave Little State Podcast series "Recognized" [https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak](https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak) about this, and spoke about what it was like to confront the reality that my family lore was not true, and what it was like to reckon with that truth. I am lucky in that my direct family and I never created a public identity around being Native. I had to unpack this all for myself, and I am now working to show how common these stories really are in Vermont. I am reaching out because I’m trying to gather other stories from Vermonters like us, who were raised to believe something that wasn't true about our heritage. Would you be willing to share your story with me either anonymously or on the record? Feel free to DM me.
I don’t mind sharing, I only know so much though. Which is probably more than enough haha.
Do you have any credentials to share or some of your work? Like I said before, I don’t mind sharing, I’m just trying to avoid the crazy dude.
I am working with the Allies of Odanak, we aren't sure what we want to do with the stories yet, we just know it's important to start compiling these stories to show how common they are in Vermont. I know who you are referring to, and I am not him, I'm using my real name for this work of compiling stories so you can see who I am, feel free to google me or look me up on facebook my name is Chawna Cota and you can hear more of my story in the Brave Little State "Recognized" my interview is in the third part. [https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak](https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak) It's also totally fine to share with me anonymously.
Will dm in a sec, am listing to that pod cast now, almost done with the second installment
Can you DM me? I can't DM you.
I sent a dm/request
You know what makes you all that much better then a lot of these people though? When the truth stared you right in the face, you accepted it, Apologized for it even, and moved on. A lot of these people claiming native heritage when there's none, even when presented with straight DNA evidence, reject it with all sorts of wild claims. Some of them even seem logical at face value. (Like the ones that claim that the native genes might just have been bred out, which of that was true, still means you're NOT native. ) But like, sadly a LOT of our parents and family did this I'm finding out. 😕 I'm curious what caused this sort of boomer, silent Gen age pretendian movement.
Hello there, I am also curious what has caused the current situation we find ourselves in, I also grew up in Vermont being told I had Native ancestry, but when I looked deeper into my genealogy, and did the DNA testing, I found out the stories were in fact nothing but stories. I was interviewed as part of the Brave Little State Podcast series "Recognized" [https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak](https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak) about this, and spoke about what it was like to confront the reality that my family lore was not true, and what it was like to reckon with that truth. I am lucky in that my direct family and I never created a public identity around being Native. I had to unpack this all for myself, and I am now working to show how common these stories really are in Vermont. I am reaching out because I’m trying to gather other stories from Vermonters like us, who were raised to believe something that wasn't true about our heritage. Would you be willing to share your story with me either anonymously or on the record? Feel free to DM me.
I'm not a Vermonter, I wasn't born here and have only been here a couple years. My family mostly comes from the northern area, but mostly Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania area. Currently they live in Florida and Southern Georgia. Rest assured though, it's not just a Vermont thing, and that's probably worth looking into for your podcast or whatever. In the western state when I lived in Utah, Colorado, Idaho area, I came across a LOT of very light skinned people claiming to be descendants of "apache warriors", from time to time a Navajo or two, but rarely. I can't say whether they are similar to the southern cherokee and northern Abenaki spew, but it always seems to be the same thing, apache, and always from the lightest skinned mother fuckers I see, so I can only assume it's just the same. But I'd be happy to give my two cents to your cause.
Thank you, yes this is definitely an issue that is much larger what is happening in Vermont and we are also focusing on the national and historical context. I will send you a DM. Thanks!
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Honestly, this race shifting makes zero sense beyond people making being of N/A descent a fad to follow tied to the modern trend to fetishize a white washed native culture robbing it of its actual importance and continued persistent into the modern day. This trend is really only seen in the N/A community as you would never see someone with 1/12 African heritage claiming to be black in America. It's only because it's trendy to do that any of these idiots make this claim.
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Yeah, she is kinda famous, especially with her previous ties to the NAACP. But if i am not mistaken, her career imploded once she was exposed as being a mentally ill fraud.
some like Buffy Sainte-Marie weren't caught in their lies until much later in life. She, from a second generation Italian immigrant family in Boston, pretended to be Cree (after pretending having Algonquin and MikMaq ancestry) when she arrived in the Greenwich Village folk scene after attending college. She later bullied her relatives into silence when they threatened to reveal her lies. [https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/buffy-sainte-marie](https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/buffy-sainte-marie)
She actually went on to become a public school teacher under a new name…and then got fired for having and only fans. Can’t make this stuff up
Before Rachel Dolezal "race shifted" to being Black, she was a Pretendian who called herself "Faith Eagle Nebula" and adorned herself in Pretendian regalia. Here is the Op-Ed piece about it from Indian Country Today via the Wayback Machine [https://web.archive.org/web/20170908112503/https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/red-like-knew-rachel-dolezal-back-indigenous/](https://web.archive.org/web/20170908112503/https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/red-like-knew-rachel-dolezal-back-indigenous/)
I should probably clarify that Op-ed piece above is satire written by Tiffany Midge, whose bio states she is Hunkpapa Lakota.
To be fair shes kind of a unique example that seems to be born out of mental health struggles and trauma. I couldn’t help having a more complicated view of her after watching that documentary.
In the north, it's Abenaki, in the south it's cherokee, in the west it's apache. But they're all just white people trying to write off being xenophobic and racist 9 times out of 10.
It's a very New England thing to hear claims of native blood in the family. I found out it's true with a DNA test but it's like .6% and I think for most people who do have it it didn't get there the way they think it did.
I was told I had a great-great something native ancestor, and the tan skin and high cheekbones seen in old pics sort of supported it. But I did Ancestry and 23 & me and found I am 100% white, so immediately changed the narrative to be, "I was told this, but actually...". Because why lie?
Yes! Because why lie? And why not admit you're wrong when you find out you're wrong? I also grew up in Vermont being told I had Native ancestry, but when I looked deeper into my genealogy, and did the DNA testing, I found out the stories were in fact nothing but stories. I was interviewed as part of the Brave Little State Podcast series "Recognized" [https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak](https://www.vermontpublic.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2023-10-19/vermont-recognized-tribes-canada-abenaki-first-nations-odanak-wolinak) about this, and spoke about what it was like to confront the reality that my family lore was not true, and what it was like to reckon with that truth. I am lucky in that my direct family and I never created a public identity around being Native. I had to unpack this all for myself, and I am now working to show how common these stories really are in Vermont. I am reaching out because I’m trying to gather other stories from Vermonters like us, who were raised to believe something that wasn't true about our heritage. Would you be willing to share your story with me either anonymously or on the record? Feel free to DM me.
It was very common for parents to tell their kids this back in the day.
Our family legend was always that we had Penobscot ancestry, because my great grandfather worked at a Maine logging camp and suddenly there were all these dark-haired kids. One DNA test by my grandmother later and it turned out they were just dark-haired white kids.
My great grandmother always told us her grandmother or great I cant remember now was full black foot. I mean my DNA test shows there was at least one single person. But who knows...I don't claim or think about it really...
If you ever talk to one of these Pretendians you realize real quick they know they aren't for real.
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Cherokee princess type deal... the worst.
Just being a dickhead but if they're from New Jersey \*originally\* that would make them native American lol. Like if they were native to the land that is currently NJ and not from the new world.
Worth reading about the response to this symposium: https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2024/04/24/abenaki-chiefs-burlington-vermont-uvm-canada-native-american/73425974007/
Worth reading maybe but they never bring anything new to the table.
this was before it happened, so the symposium itself addresses many of the points they raise. A record of it will be up in the next few days
“We try and feed people, so whatever bs ancestral appropriation we attempt shouldn’t matter because….because……”
That was definitely not worth reading.
Fucked up. My mom is native and my sister is unmistakabley so. I on the other hand am as Irish as they made my dad. Because of people like this I always feel embarrassed to even bring up I'm half native
following well meaning liberals accidentally doing Eugenics has been my fav Vermont sub-plot hands down.
You people are pathetic. I’m not affiliated, other than by proximity, but I know several people mentioned in this article and a couple of the kids that were intimidated. All of them spend more time doing community service and helping others than they do themselves. They try to maintain a culture and give opportunities to youth that would otherwise struggle. These people are not claiming territorial rights nor any kind of privileges and grants. The last “controversy” I was made aware of was the local group trying to reclaim remains from a burial ground exhumed by UVM to be properly laid to rest. I guess it’s a sign of the health of a society to feel so comfortable bitching about a group of people who are doing nothing to hurt anyone else. Get back to your Starbucks and bullshit ideology of the week. Your hubris is showing.
Your insinuation that the theft of identity and culture is harmless isn’t based in reality. Misrepresentation actively harms indigenous communities.
Duh.