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GWILAWATO>
GWILAWATO "He Looks For Something" #1
March 22, 2008
EDITORS COMMENTS:
Hi Everyone!
This is our first website newsletter and I hope to fill you
in on all my travels, research, book releases and
interesting items in the genealogy related fields of my
interests.
Please take the opportunity to let others know of this
newsletter. For now, I will produce it on an irregulard
time schedule until we have enough subscribers. For now,
this is a free service and I intend for it to be free. The
outline will be simply titled below in the areas of my
research. The format is plan as the webmaster designed it
this way so most systems can read the newsletter with ease.
I want to thank you all for your present and past support
of all my work. Because of you, I have now produced 22
books and lectured in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire,
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Brunswick; and have
has my vendor table and services in all those States over
the past 35 years. I thank you.
LOYALIST:
April 2008 Release of the Loyalist Quarterly Newsletter
Inside This Issue
Editor’s Comments, Massachusetts Loyalist’s Interest,
Latest Updates to Loyalist Directory, The 225th. UEL
Conference at Saint John New Brunswick Canada, Emery Query,
Maryland Loyalists, Interests to Rhode Island Loyalists,
Misc. Loyalists Listings, A Look at One UEL Branch, More
Loyalist Celebrations, Loyalist Regiment Muster Rolls
1777-1783, New Jersey in The American Revolution 1763-1783,
Petition From SC Backcountry Prisoners – Jan. 1776, South
Carolina Prisoners, Loyalist Stamps Through the Years,
Loyalist Children, Loyalist Women, Some Loyalist Ontario
Architecture, The 1780 Diary of Loyalist Lieut. Anthony
Allaire of King’s Mountain, My Schedule Loyalist & Vendor
Appearances
NATIVE AMERICAN:
Abenaki sects join to oppose bill
Published: Friday, March 21, 2008
By Terri Hallenbeck
Free Press Staff Writer
EAST MONTPELIER -- Representatives of three of the largest
bands of
Vermont Abenaki said Thursday that they believe pending
legislation
that sets up a process for granting state recognition will
leave them
out in the cold.
"We have a flawed commission and a flawed bill," said Nancy
Millette,
former chief of the Koasek Traditional Band based in
Newbury.
She and representatives of the St. Francis/Sokoki band of
Swanton and
the Nulhegan Band of Newport held a news conference at the
Ndakinna
Cultural Center, an American Indian museum in East
Montpelier, to
speak out against the bill.
April St. Francis Merrill, chief of the St. Francis/Sokoki
band, said
she believes the Vermont Commission on Native American
Affairs would
vote against recognition for her band because various
commissioners
have expressed opposition.
The bill, expected to be voted on in the Senate next week,
is
designed to fix a flawed 2006 law that was supposed to
grant Vermont
Abenaki recognition but because it failed to recognize
specific bands
it did not meet federal regulations to allow artists to
sell their
work as native-made. As the representatives spoke Thursday
there were
crafts in the museum gift shop that may not be marketed as
native
made.
The commission, created by the 2006 law, is charged with
making
recommendations to the Legislature on how to correct the
flaws.
Merrill, Millette and the Nulhegans had asked legislators
to grant
their bands outright recognition because they have
long-standing
history in Vermont. The Senate Economic Development,
Housing and
General Affairs Committee decided instead to grant them
temporary
recognition to let them market their work, but then require
them to
go through a recognition process with the commission and
allow the
state Attorney General's Office a chance to object.
The mere mention of the Attorney General's Office raises
the ire of
the St. Francis/Sokoki band, who fought that office for
years during
the band's failed effort to gain federal recognition.
Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex/Orleans, said he'll look at
removing
the Attorney General's Office from the process, but he
thinks
concerns about the commission's fairness are unwarranted.
Commission member Tim de la Bruere agreed. He is one of the
members
the bands are concerned about. De la Bruere is of Odanak
descent, and
Millette said some Odanak have declared that their band is
the only
one with a history in Vermont.
De la Bruere said that is the opinion of some radical
Odanak, but not
the overall band.
The commission recommended that all bands go through the
same process
to gain recognition. De la Bruere defended that route
Thursday,
saying it will defuse future arguments about any group's
existence. "I guess it would just add to the legitimacy of
recognition," he said.
Some parts of that process raised issues with the St.
Francis/Sokoki,
Koasek and Nulhegan bands.
Merrill said the bill would require bands to reveal
members'
genealogy, something her band is unwilling to do out of
concerns that
the information could be used to discriminate against
Abenaki who
have fought discrimination for generations.
Although the process cites documentation of genealogy,
commission
Chairman Mark Mitchell said it was not the commission's
intent when
recommending the recognition process to make bands reveal
information
about individual members. Commissioners understood concerns
about
revealing individual members' family information, he said.
The bill's requirement that at least 51 percent of a band's
members
live in Vermont to qualify for recognition would make it
impossible
for Millette's group to gain recognition, Millette said,
because the
band sits on the Vermont/New Hampshire border.
"It was totally designed to destroy the Koasek Nation
because they
think the majority of our nation are in New Hampshire,"
Millette said
of the commission, which recommended the recognition
process that's
in the bill.
Jeff Benay, commissioner of the former Governor's Advisory
Commission
on Native American Affairs who has worked with the St.
Francis/Sokoki
for decades, said the fact that these three groups were on
the same
page was remarkable. Historically, the bands have
mistrusted each
other, but they came together in the past couple of weeks
on the
recognition issue.
He said others have argued that having all bands go through
the same
recognition process is fair, but he contended that what's
fair to the
three bands is to acknowledge that they have proven
themselves to the
state and deserve outright recognition.
Contact Terri Hallenbeck at 229-1297 or
thallenb@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
CANADIAN FRENCH:
I am going to print more of my volume 3 of the French and
Native North American Marriages & Records. Due to popular
demand, I am now low in stock and will print more the week
of 24 March 2008.
NEW ENGLAND GENEALOGY:
IRISH:
MISC:
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