Leadership
Roger Longtoe Sheehan served as chief since at least 2016. [2]
| Formation | 2020 (Elnu Abenaki Incorporated) [1] |
|---|---|
| Founded at | Brattleboro, Vermont [1] |
| Type | state-recognized tribe, nonprofit organizations |
| EIN 84-3882521 [1] | |
| Legal status | arts, culture, and humanities nonprofit; charity [1] |
| Purpose | A23: Cultural, Ethnic Awareness [1] |
| Headquarters | Jamaica, Vermont |
| Location | |
Membership (2016) | 60 [2] |
Official language | English |
| Website | elnuabenakitribe |
The Elnu Abenaki Tribe is a state-recognized tribe in Vermont, [3] who claim descent from Abenaki people. They are not federally recognized as a Native American tribe. [3] Vermont has no federally recognized tribes. [3] They are the smallest of Vermont's four state-recognized tribes with 60 members in 2016. [2]
Roger Longtoe Sheehan served as chief since at least 2016. [2]
Vermont recognized the Elnu Abenaki Tribe as a state-recognized tribe in 2011. [4] The other state-recognized tribes in Vermont are the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation, Koasek Abenaki Tribe, and the Mississquoi Abenaki Tribe. [3]
In 2020, the group created 'Elnu Abenaki Incorporated, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, based in Brattleboro, Vermont. [1] Their registered agent is Rich Holshuh. [5]
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 composed primarily of "French descendants who have used long-ago ancestry in New France to shift into an 'Abenaki' identity." [4]
The State of Vermont reported in 2002 that the Abenaki people migrated north to Quebec at the end of the 18th century. [6]
They participate in Abenaki Heritage Weekend, held at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes, Vermont. [7]
Vermont H.556, "An act relating to exempting property owned by Vermont-recognized Native American tribes from property tax," passed on April 20, 2022. [8]
Vermont is a landlocked New England state in the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the state had a population of 643,503, ranking it the second least populated U.S. state ahead of Wyoming. It is the nation's sixth smallest state in area. The state's capital of Montpelier is the least populous U.S. state capital. No other U.S. state has a most populous city with fewer residents than Burlington. Vermont is also well known for being the largest producer of true maple syrup in the United States for over 200 years.
The Abenaki are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predominantly spoken in Maine, while the Western Abenaki language was spoken in Quebec, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
Swanton is a town in Franklin County, Vermont, United States. The population was 6,701 at the 2020 census. The town includes the village of Swanton.
State-recognized tribes in the United States are organizations that identify as Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by a process established under assorted state government laws for varying purposes or by governor's executive orders. State recognition does not dictate whether or not they are recognized as Native American tribes by continually existing tribal nations.
The Pennacook, also known by the names Penacook and Pennacock, were an Algonquian-speaking Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who lived in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and southern Maine. They were not a united tribe but a network of politically and culturally allied communities. Penacook was also the name of a specific Native village in what is now Concord, New Hampshire.
Turkey Tayac, legally Philip Sheridan Proctor (1895–1978), was a Piscataway leader and herbal medicine practitioner; he was notable in Native American activism for tribal and cultural revival in the 20th century. He had some knowledge of the Piscataway language and was consulted by the Algonquian linguist, Ives Goddard, as well as Julian Granberry.
Vincent Illuzzi, Jr. is an American lawyer and politician from Derby, Vermont who formerly served as a Republican member of the Vermont State Senate representing the Essex-Orleans senate district.
Abenaki, also known as Wôbanakiak, is an endangered Eastern Algonquian language of Quebec and the northern states of New England. The language has Eastern and Western forms which differ in vocabulary and phonology and are sometimes considered distinct languages.
Native American recognition in the United States, for tribes, usually means being recognized by the United States federal government as a community of Indigenous people that has been in continual existence since prior to European contact, and which has a sovereign, government-to-government relationship with the Federal government of the United States. In the United States, the Native American tribe is a fundamental unit of sovereign tribal government. This recognition comes with various rights and responsibilities. The United States recognizes the right of these tribes to self-government and supports their tribal sovereignty and self-determination. These tribes possess the right to establish the legal requirements for membership. They may form their own government, enforce laws, tax, license and regulate activities, zone, and exclude people from tribal territories. Limitations on tribal powers of self-government include the same limitations applicable to states; for example, neither tribes nor states have the power to make war, engage in foreign relations, or coin money.
The Wabanaki Confederacy is a North American First Nations and Native American confederation of four principal Eastern Algonquian nations: the Mi'kmaq, Maleceet, Passamaquoddy (Peskotomahkati) and Penobscot. The Western Abenaki are also considered members, being a loose identity for a number of allied tribal peoples such as the Sokoki, Cowasuck, Missiquoi, and Arsigantegok, among others.
The Missiquoi were a historic band of Abenaki Indigenous peoples from present-day southern Quebec and formerly northern Vermont. This Algonquian-speaking group lived along the eastern shore of Lake Champlain at the time of the European incursion. Today, they are part of the Conseil des Abénakis d'Odanak, a First Nation in Quebec.
State v. Elliott, 616 A.2d 210, is a decision of the Vermont Supreme Court holding that all aboriginal title in Vermont was extinguished "by the increasing weight of history." The Vermont Supreme Court has clarified that its holding in Elliott applies to the entire state.
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 Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama (CTNEAL), formerly the Cherokees of Jackson County, is a state-recognized tribe in Alabama. They have about 3,000 members. The tribe has a representative on the Alabama Indian Affairs Commission and the Inter-Tribal Council of Alabama. They are not federally recognized as a Native American tribe.
Jesse Bowman Bruchac is an author and language teacher from the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation, a state-recognized tribe in Vermont. He has dedicated much of his life to studying the Abenaki language and preserving the Abenaki culture. He created the first Abenaki language website.
The Cowasuck, also known as Cowass, was an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe in northeastern North America, linguistically and culturally belonging to the Western Abenaki as well as being members of the Abenaki Confederation. Today, the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People also known as Cowass North American, a nonprofit corporation, is not state recognized, and claims to be the encompassing organization of these peoples descendants. The Koasek Abenaki Tribe of Vermont, the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation(state recognized by VT) and The Ko’asek (Co’wasuck) Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation,(NH offers no state recognition) are also non Federally recognized Native American/Abenaki cultural heritage organizations which attach variations of the Cowasuck appellation as entities..
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The Koasek Abenaki Tribe is a state-recognized tribe in Vermont, who claim descent from Abenaki people.
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