Odanak Abenakis to press their case before UN in Geneva that Vermont Abenakis are frauds

The Abenakis of Odanak in Canada, known as the W8banaki Nation, are returning to the United Nations to denounce Vermont's recognition of four Vermont groups as Abenaki, this time traveling to Geneva, Switzerland, to make their case.

In April, a delegation from Odanak attended the 23rd session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, where Chief Rick O'Bomsawin said, "We strongly denounce the theft of our culture, our identity, and our traditions by self-proclaimed groups from Vermont. This fraud jeopardizes our sovereignty over our ancestral territory, Ndakina, directly affecting our ability to occupy and use it for our traditional activities."

The ancestral territory O'Bomsawin refers to extended from Canada into New England, and included Vermont.

This time, in Geneva, the W8banaki Nation will be represented by Abenaki Council of Odanak councillors Jacques Watso and Martin Gill, who were also in the New York delegation. They will be before the UN from July 8-12, at the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Canadian Abenakis travel to UVM to denounce Vermont Abenakis

The Odanak Abenakis have also presented their case against the Abenaki tribes in Vermont at forums held at the University of Vermont, most recently in April, about a week after attending the United Nations forum in New York.

Prior to the April event at UVM, Vermont's Abenaki chiefs held a press conference of their own to defend their identities as Abenaki, and a call by Rick Holschuh, chair of the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs, for "discussion, an open and healing exchange among our own people."

"We are legally Abenaki, we are morally Abenaki and our ancestors are Abenaki, and I am Abenaki and I am proud," Don Stevens, chief of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk-Abenaki Nation, said at the press conference.

Chief Shirly Hook of the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation and Chief Brenda Gagne of the Missisquoi Abenaki Nation also attended the Vermont press conference.

United Nations has a role to play in ending identify theft, according to Canadian Abenakis

At the United Nations forum in Switzerland, Watso and Gill will call on governments, international bodies and indigenous organizations to denounce and correct the "injustices committed against our people by the State of Vermont."

"The theft of identity and of cultural and spiritual heritage by self-proclaimed groups, or by those recognized by states such as Vermont, is an important component of the W8banakiak's loss of decision-making power over our ancestral territory, the Ndakina," Watso said in a statement.

Watso added that the UN has a role to play in "putting an end to this practice."

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.