Abenaki to continue fight for recognition

November 15, 2005

By LISA RATHKE The Associated Press

SWANTON — The head of the Abenaki Indians living in Vermont said Monday the group would continue to pursue federal recognition as a tribe and would ask the governor for money to help in the effort.

April St. Francis Merrill, chief of the Abenaki Nation Missisquoi Sokoki band, said the group deserved the same amount of money that the attorney general's office has spent opposing its bid for state and federal recognition.

"While we struggle on our own to win federal recognition, the attorney general's office of Vermont is spending a significant amount of scarce taxpayers' dollars," she said.

The attorney general's office has questioned the Abenaki's heritage in Vermont and has argued that federal recognition would lead to land claims and casino gambling.

Last week, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs found the Abenaki have failed to meet four of seven criteria required for the designation and said it planned to deny the application.

Gov. James Douglas' spokesman Jason Gibbs said the governor had been neutral on the question of federal recognition.

"He's said the process would carry itself out and that he would be happy to abide by whatever the federal designation is."

On the question of money to support the Abenaki's push for recognition, Gibbs said the governor's office had received no such request.

"We will look at it and evaluate it when it arrives," he said.

"The governor has recently expressed support for economic development and education investments in their region of Vermont," Gibbs said. "I suspect his view will be that state money would be better spent on economic development and education areas, rather than on lawyers."

The federal agency found the Abenaki failed to show they had descended from a historical Abenaki tribe, that the tribe has existed since 1900, and that it has been part of a continuous community. The Abenaki have 180 days to revise their application.

"So this is far from being over for the Abenaki," Merrill said.

She said the group failed to send all the materials in its original application and said it would also provide more information to prove the number of Abenaki living in Vermont.

But she acknowledged that the group has little money — about $4,000 to $5,000 — to work with a lawyer and complete its petition.

She estimated that the attorney general's office had spent about $400,000 researching the Abenaki. Deputy Attorney General William Griffin said Monday that his office had spent $86,000 — on a part-time staff lawyer and consultants in about two years.

Merrill also criticized the attorney general's office for commenting on the bureau's preliminary findings when the process is not yet over and the Abenaki are preparing to respond.

"Despite the best efforts of the AG's office to harass, hinder, and block our petition, the Abenaki Nation will proceed," Merrill said.

Griffin said his office had received inquiries about the Abenaki's application and said the information from the bureau supported the state's belief that "the claims of this group are not supported by evidence."

Link to Report

Bureau of Indian Affairs: No federal recognition for Abenaki

By Lisa Rathke, Associated Press Writer

November 10, 2005

MONTPELIER, Vt. --The Abenaki Indians have failed to prove they are entitled to federal recognition as a tribe, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs said Thursday.

The Abenakis did not meet four of seven criteria necessary for federal status, the bureau said.

The Abenaki did not show that the tribe has existed continuously since 1900; descended from a historical Indian tribe; and had been part of a continuous community, the report said.

The bureau also said the evidence shows that Abenakis' political authority was limited to only a few members and only since the mid-1970s.

The finding by the federal agency is preliminary; the bureau will take comments for 180 days and then will make its final report.

"That gives them time to focus on those four and to provide more evidence to meet the criteria," said Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

A group claiming to be descendants of the Missisquoi Abenaki tribe, who lived in northwestern Vermont and southern Quebec between roughly 1600 and 1800, first filed its petition seeking federal recognition in 1982. The group withdrew the petition in 1989 and refiled it in 1995.

The Abenakis said they had 1,171 current members, but the bureau said "no evidence has been submitted for more than 90 percent of the membership to demonstrate that those individuals have applied for membership or even know they are on the membership list."

Attorney General William Sorrell, whose office had opposed the petition, said he was pleased with the 158-page report.

"This has never been about trying to discriminate against the group seeking tribal recognition," he said. "Since there are so many rights that typically flow from federal recognition, it is extremely important that the stringent legal tests for recognition be met."

April Rushlow Merrill, chief of the Swanton/St. Albans Abenaki Tribe, did not return a phone call seeking comment. The Abenaki plan to hold a press conference Monday to respond to the findings.

The group did meet three requirements: it submitted its governing document and membership criteria, the members do not belong to other Indian tribes and the group is not involved in congressional legislation that has prevented federal recognition.

The group now has six months to revise its application.

Only three applicants have gained federal recognition after the bureau has proposed denying their petitions, Darling said.

Since the law was put in place in 1978, 15 tribes have been acknowledged and 19 have been denied, she said.

The status gives them the opportunity for government to government relationship with the federal government, she said, making them eligible for federal programs.

Opponents, including the Douglas administration, fear federal recognition could lead to land claims and casino gambling.

William Griffin, the deputy attorney general, said the bureau's conclusions matched the state's.

"Their findings were entirely consistent with the findings the attorney general's office had made in our research, that this group does not represent descendants of the historic tribe," he said.

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Last updated on November 15, 2005