Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation facts for kids

The Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation is a state-recognized tribe and nonprofit organization, called AHA "Abenaki Helping Abenaki", whose headquarters and land are based in Vermont. They are often referred to as the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe or simply, Nulhegan.

The Nulhegan Band has approximately 1,400 members, most of whom reside in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.

Vermont recognized the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation in 2011. The Nulhegan are one of four state-recognized tribes in Vermont. They participate at the state level in many ways, including in the Vermont Commission of Native American Affairs.

They are not federally recognized as a Native American tribe. Vermont has no federally recognized tribes.

Etymology

Sign designating the beginning of the Nulhegan River basin

The Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation draws its name the Nulhegan River, a tributary to the Connecticut River and Nulhegan Basin near Brighton, Vermont. Its name means "the place of log traps." The band is also named for the Cowasuck people and Abenaki people, one of the tribes that inhabited a large portion of eastern Vermont and western New Hampshire.

Leadership

The Nulhegan Abenaki government is made up of a Chief (Sogomo), who is nominated by the councils and decided by election. The current chief of the Nulhegan is Chief Don Stevens. The legislative branch includes an elected Tribal Council of 5 to 13 members, all from within the tribe. The judicial branch is represented by an Elders Council. The government manages the tribe's land, activities, gatherings, and interacts with the state of Vermont in official matters.

Nonprofit organization

The Nulhegan Band founded a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization called AHA "Abenaki Helping Abenaki" in 2006. In 2019, the Tides Foundation provided it with a grant of $50,000.

Lucy Neel, based in Barton and Derby Line, Vermont, is the organization's registered agent. The current officers are:

• Chief Donald Stevens, president
• Nicole St. Ogle, treasurer
• Lucy Cannon-Neel, secretary.

Land

In 2012, the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe acquired some of the first tribal-owned and controlled land in Vermont for nearly 200 years. The 65 acres located in Barton, VT, where the tribal headquarters are, "will be an economic, educational and cultural resource for the tribe, which worked with the Vermont Land Trust and the Sierra Club to acquire the forestland."

History

In June 1812, white settlers recorded that a band of Abenaki lived at Owls Head Mountain on Lake Memphremagog in Potton, Quebec, in the Memphremagog Region Abenaki.

Documenting Abenaki history and heritage in Vermont and New Hampshire has at times been difficult. The national eugenics movement resulted in many Abenaki families being listed in census records as other races and ethnicities; some also underwent name changes from what they say were the original Abenaki or Canadian French. Additionally, the unreliability of family stories, or misinterpreted records from this era, also resulted in non-Abenaki believing they have Abenaki heritage when they do not.

Two Abenaki men fishing in West Swanton around 1900

On June 25, 1978, the first record of a 20th-century repatriation and reburial of Abenaki remains takes place in Center Harbor, New Hampshire. On November 15, 1980, the first record of a repatriation and reburial of Abenaki remains takes place in Vermont after a set of Abenaki remains is discovered at the Putney Historical Society in Putney, Vermont. Blackie Lampman and Richard Phillips ask Beverly Bolding to facilitate the repatriation.

During this time, many groups consisting of small families said they were now returning to their Abenaki heritage after having denied it for the first half of the 20th century. Other claimants to Abenaki heritage also emerged, including those who had never before claimed Abenaki ancestry. This included the Nulhegan, who began as a nonprofit organization. This caused tension between the European Americans claiming Abenaki status and the extant Abenaki First Nations in Canada, such as the Odanak First Nation who see the Vermont Abenaki as illegitimate due to their lack of Abenaki ancestry, and their lack of cultural continuity from any historic tribe.

In 2006, The Vermont Legislature recognized the Abenaki as a "Minority Population" within the State of Vermont under Statute 853. This entitled the Abenaki protections as a disadvantaged race of people. However, since there were no recognized Abenaki Indian Tribes in Vermont, there were "legally" no Abenaki people under the law. On March 16, 2008, the Vermont Indigenous Alliance is formed by Elnu Abenaki Tribe, Koasek Abenaki Tribe, Missisquoi Abenaki Tribe with the purpose of unifying the tribes and pursuing official state-recognition from Vermont. Finally, on April 22, 2011, the Nulhegan was officially recognized by the State of Vermont as an Abenaki Indian Tribe.

In 2013, Wabanaagig TV from the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network in Canada produces the movie, The Vermont Abenaki: A struggle for recognition, which documents the struggle for Vermont State recognition and culminates with the celebration of state recognition.

From August 19 to 22, 2015, the annual Wabanaki Confederacy Conference was held in Shelburne, Vermont. This was the first and only time the Wabanaki Confederacy was hosted in Vermont.

State-recognition

The State of Vermont designated the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation as a state-recognized tribe through Vermont Statutes Title 1, Section 854 in 2011. The other three state-recognized tribes in Vermont are the Missisquoi Abenaki Tribe, Elnu Abenaki Tribe, and the Koasek Abenaki Tribe.

Heritage

The Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation identify as being Abenaki and Cowasuck.

St. Mary's University associate professor Darryl Leroux's genealogical and historical research found that the members of this and the other three state-recognized tribes in Vermont were primarily French descendants who have used old ancestry in New France to shift into an 'Abenaki' identity.

In 2002, the State of Vermont reported that the Abenaki people had migrated north to Quebec by the end of the 17th century.

Activities

The Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe host multiple gatherings every year, including drumming events and an annual pow wow. The first is at the Winter Solstice in late December. The second is the annual Snow Snake Games held at the end of February or early March. The last and biggest gathering is the annual Nulheganaki gathering held every year at the end of August or beginning of September.

Vermont, unofficially in 2016 and officially in 2020, celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day. The state did not want to celebrated Christopher Columbus, due to his role in the genocide of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Celebrations of Indigenous heritage and culture are now held across the state. The Nulhegan Abenaki host "Indigenous People's Day Rock."

In 2020, Nulhegan Band launched the Abenaki Trails Project, which provides educational material about Abenaki historic sites beginning in West Hopkinton, New Hampshire.

The Nulhegan Band has spoken with Middlebury College regarding the college's land acknowledgment, which highlights the Western Abenaki.In State v. Elliott, a 1992) the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that all aboriginal title in Vermont was extinguished "by the increasing weight of history."

State and federal laws

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department granted members of state-recognized Vermont tribes a free permanent fishing license, or if the applicant qualifies for a hunting license, a free permanent combination hunting and fishing license.

Vermont H.556, "An act relating to exempting property owned by Vermont-recognized Native American tribes from property tax," passed on April 20, 2022.

As a state-recognized tribe, the Nulhegan Abenaki may legal obtain eagle feathers and other animals parts of endangered animal species for usage but not sale.

Notable people

• Jesse Bruchac, author and linguist
• Joseph Bruchac, author