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Written by Administrator
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Wednesday, 03 June 2009 |
Burying the Past
Fair Game
By Shay Totten [06.03.09]
Got Civil Rights? — As we anticipate the celebratory months of the Quadricentennial , not everyone in Vermont is cheering about Samuel de Champlain’s “discovery” of the region and its subsequent settling by Europeans.
Especially the Abenaki: It wasn’t until two years ago that a law passed the Vermont legislature granting indigenous people “minority” status. Seriously. Before that, they were apparently less than a minority.
That same law was intended to allow Vermont’s native tribes to sell traditional arts and crafts. But becoming a “minority group” isn’t good enough for the feds, says Assistant Attorney General Mike McShane. First Vermont has to grant official recognition to individual tribes.
Attempts by tribal members and two chairmen of the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs to tweak the Vermont law have fallen on deaf ears.
“It’s a little frustrating for us when the gay-rights movement was able to get its legislation passed in one session, and we have been trying to get our rights for generations,” said Donald Stevens, who recently resigned as the VCNAA’s chairman. He was the second chairman within six months to resign — Mark Mitchell stepped down last fall.
“All we want to do is get the recognition needed so we can let our arts-and-crafters sell our wares,” said Stevens. “We’re not in this for the land claims, or to build casinos.”
True, it was a white guy — Auditor Tom Salmon — who floated the idea of a casino boat on Lake Champlain or at Killington.
Stevens says some members of the VCNAA appear hostile to the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi St.Francis/Sokoki Band. He and others, including Chief April St. Francis, have complained to the governor and his staff.
The result? After the Abenaki publicly circulated a letter asking the guv to let three specific members go, Douglas went ahead and reappointed the trio last fall.
So many centuries, so little change.
For the entire article go to: http://www.7dvt.com/2009burying-past |
