STATE OF VERMONT‘S RESPONSE TO PETITION FOR FEDERAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE ST. FRANCIS/SOKOKI BAND OF THE ABENAKI NATION OF VERMONT STATE OF VERMONT WILLIAM H. SORRELL, ATTORNEY GENERAL Eve Jacobs-Carnahan, Special Assistant Attorney General December 2002 Second Printing, January 2003 CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................. v MAP ......................................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. vii INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND...............................................................................................1 Historic Tribe Elusive ...................................................................................................1 Major Scholars of the Western Abenakis .....................................................................3 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY .......................................................................................5 Seventeenth-Century History is Sketchy ......................................................................5 Some Noteworthy Events of the Seventeenth-Century ................................................7 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ..........................................................................................8 Population Movements In and Out of Missisquoi During the Eighteenth Century ..........................................................................................................................8 Grey Lock‘s Dominance ..................................................................................10 Epidemic and Slow Repopulation: 1730-1740 ...............................................11 Missisquoi Villagers Move to Odanak/St. Francis: 1744-1760 ......................12 Return to Missisquoi: 1763-1775.....................................................................16 Abandonment of Missisquoi During American Revolution ............................22 NINETEENTH CENTURY.........................................................................................28 The Insubstantial Evidence of Continued Tribal Presence in the Nineteenth Century ........................................................................................................................28 Comments on Recent Scholarship ..............................................................................36 i Countervailing Evidence that the Missisquoi Did Not Return to Vermont as a Tribe After 1800 ..............................................................................................41 Travelers, Historians, and Surveyors of Indians ..............................................41 Federal Census Enumerations ..........................................................................46 Sightings of Indian Visitors and the Basket Trade ..........................................50 Rowland Robinson‟s Indian Friends ................................................................55 French-Canadian Migration to Vermont .........................................................61 Caughnawagha Claims Presented to Vermont Legislature .........................................64 TWENTIETH CENTURY...........................................................................................67 Twentieth Century Claims of Abenaki Continuity .....................................................67 The Eugenics Survey of Vermont ...............................................................................67 ANALYSIS OF CRITERIA ....................................................................................................78 CRITERION (A)—IDENTIFICATION BY OUTSIDERS ....................................................78 1900 to 1929 ...............................................................................................................82 Researchers Identify Vermont Abenakis as Tribe of the Past ........................82 Federal Government Records Identify Only a Tiny Number of Individual Indians ...........................................................................................87 Records of the Vermont Eugenics Survey Do Not Identify Any Abenakis ..........................................................................................................89 Newspapers Fail to Identify Any Abenaki Tribe in Vermont ........................92 Swanton Birth Records ...................................................................................93 1930 to 1947 ...............................................................................................................94 External Observers Silent on Existence of Any Contemporary Abenaki Tribe .................................................................................................94 ii 1948 to 1973 ................................................................................................................96 Researchers Failed to Discover Any Contemporary Vermont Abenaki Tribe .................................................................................................96 Other Material Attests to Absence of Abenaki Tribe From Vermont ..........108 1974 to 1981 ..............................................................................................................110 External Observations ...................................................................................110 1982 to Present ..........................................................................................................118 External Observations ...................................................................................118 Summary of Failure of Evidence to Satisfy Criterion (a) .........................................119 CRITERION (B)—COMMUNITY ......................................................................................121 Swanton Church is French Canadian, not Indian ......................................................123 No Indian Cemetery was Used by Petitioner‘s Ancestors in Twentieth Century ......126 No Indian School Existed in Franklin County ..........................................................128 Petitioner‟s Ancestors Were Active Participants in White Business and Social Groups ............................................................................................................128 There Has Not Been a Continuous Geographic Concentration of Indians in Franklin County .........................................................................................................131 The Petitioner Did Not Immigrate to Vermont as a Group at Any One Time...........132 The Abenaki Language Was Not Spoken by Petitioner ...........................................140 Cultural Practices Were Not Retained in Any Abenaki Community in Vermont ....................................................................................................................141 Membership in the St. Francis/Sokoki Abenaki is Loose and Fluid .........................142 There Were No Social Ties Between the Bulk of Petitioner‟s Ancestors and the Visible Abenakis in Vermont ........................................................................144 Summary of Failure of Evidence to Satisfy Criterion (b) ..........................................147 iii CRITERION (C)—POLITICAL AUTHORITY ..................................................................148 Vermont Abenaki Silence in the Face of 1950‟s Caughnawagha Land Claims ........149 Creation of Abenaki Tribal Council in 1974 .............................................................152 The Petitioner‟s Political Organization was Dominated by One or Two Families ......................................................................................................................154 Summary of Failure of Evidence to Satisfy Criterion (c) ..........................................160 CRITERION (E)—DESCENT FROM HISTORIC TRIBE .................................................160 An Overview of the Progenitors ...............................................................................162 Moody‟s Genealogical Work is Incomplete and Speculative ...................................166 Petitioner‟s Family Charts Do Not Trace Back to Any Historic Lists of Known Abenaki Indians ...........................................................................................169 Petitioner‟s Family Charts Do Not Include Anyone Identified by Federal Census as Indian From 1870 to 1910 ........................................................................172 Petitioner‟s Other Lists From Censuses are Speculative ..........................................175 Petitioner‘s Evidence of Indian Births is Contradicted by the Original Records ......................................................................................................................177 Individual Family Genealogies Contain Unproven Assumptions of Abenaki Heritage ......................................................................................................................183 Petitioner Self-Identified as White ............................................................................191 Summary of Failure of Evidence to Satisfy Criterion (e) .........................................194 CONCLUSION