Ok so I started to poke around about what is going on in Vermont and this crap is crazy....I found this about this Skip guy I am starting to think all you Abenaki's are just alot of angry WHITE People parading around pointing fingers saying he's white, your white, she's white,I'm Indian your not indian....sounds like the cold up there has your brains frozen!!!!
My curiosity was raised recently when I saw an old newspaper article that had a quote from Richard “Skip” Bernier who stated he was “100% Abenaki”. I’ve known many Abenaki and Wabanaki people through the years and very few of them have ever said that they were “full blooded”, or if they did, upon further conversation they would admit historical intermarriages with other tribes and Europeans.
Let’s take a look at “100% Abenaki” Richard Bernier’s public Vermont vital records.
Per Richard Bernier’s birth certificate he was born in Barton, Vermont. His race is listed as “WHITE”. His father was Elias Bernier and he is listed as “WHITE”. His mother was Malvina Roberts and she was listed as “WHITE”.
Per Richard Bernier’s marriage certificate, he was married in 1961 at Newport,Vermont. He signed the following oath on this marriage document: “ I hereby certify that the facts given within are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief”. He self identified as WHITE and swore to that as a fact. Hiding in plain sight perhaps? Where was all that pride then in being “100% Abenaki”?
Malvina Bernier married Joseph Elias Bernier on November 22, 1926 in Derby, Vermont. Her color was listed as WHITE. Her 1923 Vermont border crossing card lists Malvina as “FRENCH”. The 1930 US census listed Malvina, her husband and child as WHITE.
Melvina Bernier’s Vermont issued 1982 death certificate was completed by Richard’s sister, Carol. She identified their mother as WHITE.
Richard’s grandfather was Frederick Robert, AKA Frederick Obomsawin. The Obomsawin name is an old Abenaki name, so no doubt that Frederick was Abenaki, but why did he take the last name “Robert”? Perhaps to hide Indian identity just as succeeding generations did (specifically in this case, his daughter and grandson), to protect themselves and their children from discrimination.
Once we look to Canadian records, proof of Indian heritage is revealed. The 1911 Census of Canada indicates Frederick Robert as Indian, his wife Celine Duperron as FRENCH and the children-which would include Richard Bernier’s mother Malvina as “METIS FR.”. Note that US Census reports have no such designated term as “Metis”, which is unfortunate. On these old US census reports, one is either “white or Indian” and the same person might appear as one or the other depending upon the whim of the census taker.
So it appears that Richard is one quarter Indian. This is the requirement set in place by Odanak to be put on tribal roles. If one subscribes to this restrictive definition of “Abenaki”, succeeding generations of Richard’s family are not Abenaki.
I use the example of Richard’s genealogy to point out the pitfalls in depending upon Vermont or NH vital records or census reports for proof of “Indian/Abenaki” blood . For different reasons, Abenaki people appear as “white” on such documents as evidenced by this one example. Other Odanak descendents who were born in NH also have “white” indicated on their birth records. If Richard’s grandfather had not been a part of a French Catholic mission village where the church and the government kept track of “their“ Indians in a paternalistic way, he would not be able to ‘prove” his Abenaki blood by genealogical evidence. If he did not have this “evidence”, would it make him any less of an Abenaki Indian? Then it should be apparent that the Abenaki whose families chose to remain in their homeland of Vermont and New Hampshire are no less Abenaki than those who chose to live in a refugee village populated by many varied tribes.
To say that the only Abenaki are from Odanak or must have ties to Odanak, is ignorant and misguided. There were thousands of Abenaki in NH and Vermont, yet there were only a few hundred at Odanak. And those thousands of Abenaki who were here in the 1600’s have been reproducing all these years. Do the math, there are thousands of Abenaki descendants in Vermont and New Hampshire today, no less entitled to call themselves Abenaki than their Canadian cousins.
