NAFPS Forum

These are the same people we've discussed on other posts. I thought I would give them their own thread. I feel they belong in the fraud section, but that is up to the moderators. Here are a couple of links. One has been posted before and it's from the BIA. My bold

Diana


http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/home/content/84225182.html

http://www.bia.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/text/idc-001529.pdf

New Indian commission chair supports amending state recognition bill
Proposal includes adoption of UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples

By Gale Courey Toensing

Story Published: Feb 13, 2010



MONTPELIER, Vt. – Four years after the state legislature passed a bill establishing the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs, the commission is still struggling to establish its statutory authority "to recognize the historic and cultural contributions of Native Americans to Vermont, to protect and strengthen their heritage, and to address their needs in state policy, programs and actions."

The reason for the long delay? The original bill that created the commission – S. 117 – was flawed. It recognized Vermont's Abenaki "people" and "all Native American people who reside in Vermont as a minority population" instead of specifically naming the St. Francis/Sokoki Band of Abenaki Indians of Missisquoi and other Abenaki bands and tribes as state recognized tribes.

That language doesn't meet the criteria for Native artists to label their productions under the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act.

Now Charles Delaney-Megeso, the commission's new chairman – the third since 2006 – is hoping amendments to An Act Relating to Recognition of Abenaki Tribes will be passed during this legislative session.

Delaney-Megeso, a Mazipskwik (Missisquoi) Abenaki who describes himself as a traditionalist, joined the commission in September 2008. Last November, Gov. Jim Douglas appointed him as the commission chair.


Mostly importantly, the language recognizing Vermont's Abenaki "people" as a "minority population" would be changed. The federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act requires individual Native artists to be members of federally recognized or state recognized tribes. Official state recognition can be granted by the legislature or by a state commission that has been given authority to grant recognition.

The proposal would recognize the Abenaki Nation of Mississquoi St. Francis Sokoki Band composed of the Missisquoi, St. Francis and Sokoki Bands; the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation; the Nulhegan Band of the Abenaki Nation, also known as the Northern Coosuk/Old Philip's Band; and the ELNU Abenaki Tribe of the Koasek.

Instead of the governor appointing commission members and the chair, the bill proposes seating three members appointed by the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, St. Francis Sokoki Band; one member appointed by the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation; one member appointed by the Nulhegan Band of the Abenaki Nation, one member appointed by the ELNU Abenaki Tribe of the Koasek; and one member appointed by the other six commission members from a list of candidates compiled by the state's Division for Historic Preservation.

The commission would elect its own chairman.

The proposed bill also includes state adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Koasek Chief Nancy Millette suggested including the Declaration in the bill, and having served on a subcommittee that worked on the draft Declaration at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Delaney-Megeso strongly supported its inclusion.

"You kept hearing again and again from indigenous people wherever they came from in the world how they were being marginalized. It was more about how do we save the whole culture," Delaney-Megeso said.

He stated clearly to the legislators that he was testifying on his own behalf and not speaking for the commission.

The commission has not taken a position on the proposed bill, he said. One member wants it tabled; another "committed treason" because he testified on the issue.

"And so, on that note, I now speak only for myself," Delaney-Megeso said.

But he was conciliatory.

"I am strongly of the opinion that if we – both delegates from tribes and at-large Native Commissioners – were able to work together at the same table, many of these difficulties could be overcome. Where old wounds now fester, new alliances of trust and mutual aid could be forged."
The bill is wending its way through the process. Neither the Senate nor the House have voted on it yet.

A little update on these fakes. Please keep in mind that the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs is comprised with members of these so called tribes. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110120/NEWS02/110119025/Abenaki-turn-to-Vermont-Legislature-for-recognition



MONTPELIER — Two Vermont Abenaki tribes are ready to have the state Legislature decide whether to grant them official recognition, and two more appear headed that way under new rules the tribes hope will end a long and frustrating process.

The Nulhegan band based in Brownington and the Elnu based in Jamaica won the recommendation of the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs, which has turned the applications to legislators.

"We are finally reaching the apex," commission Chairman Luke Willard said Wednesday at a Statehouse news conference announcing the applications. "I do believe 2011 is the year."

"This gives us our identity," said Don Stevens of Shelburne, chief of the Nulhegan band.

The bands are seeking official state recognition they say will allow members to apply for scholarships set aside for American Indians and to meet federal rules for selling arts and crafts as native-made. Legislators established this new process for recognition last year.

Two more Abenaki bands aren't far behind in seeking recognition.

The Koasek of the Koas based in Newbury won the commission's recommendation, and the state's largest band, the Missisquoi, filed its application with the commission Wednesday afternoon. The commission will prepare a report and forward it to the Legislature on the Koasek and will appoint a panel of experts to review the Missisquoi application, Willard said.

April St. Francis Merrill, chief of the Missisquoi Abenaki based in Swanton, handed out bound copies of the application to commission members. For her, it was an emotional moment. Wednesday would have been her father's 76th birthday, she said. Homer St. Francis was the fiery longtime chief of the Missisquoi band who fought for state and federal recognition. He died in 2001.

"If it weren't for my father, none of this would be happening," Merrill said of the state recognition effort.

Efforts during the past 17 years to attain state recognition have run into repeated roadblocks. Abenaki were granted recognition in 1976 only to have it rescinded the next year over fears that it would lead to federal recognition and land claims. Legislation in 2006 simply granting overall recognition failed to meet federal guidelines for recognition.

That led lawmakers last year, through tenuous negotiations, to set up a new process by which bands would apply to the commission for recognition with detailed information about the bands' members and links to Vermont. Three outside scholars then review the information and decide whether it meets specific criteria. The commission then decides whether to recommend recognition to the Legislature. Lawmakers then vote whether to grant the band recognition.

The law specifies that recognition does not allow the bands to make land claims and establish casinos, as American Indians have done in other states.

Although four bands acted relatively quickly to seek recognition, handing over tribal information for public perusal also gave members pause. Vermont Abenaki long have been wary of making the names of their members public.

In the late 1920s, Vermont Abenaki were subjected to a state-sponsored eugenics campaign that promoted the sterilization of Abenaki as an undesirable population, and for tribal members to deny their heritage.

Mistrust also runs strong among bands of American Indians, some challenging the authenticity and motives of others, with malicious comments spread on the Internet.

The Missisquoi withdrew an application for recognition in the 1980s rather than publicly list its members, Merrill said, but she hopes times have changed, and the information won't be used against anyone.

Merrill said she had mixed feelings as she submitted her band's application Wednesday. "We've been through this process and had it taken away so many times," she said, but she added, "We have a good feeling about it."

Stevens, a former member of the Missisquoi band who joined the Nulhegan after research showed his family had roots there, said receiving recognition will be worth it. He pointed to a silver bracelet on his arm made by a member of his tribe who would be able to sell such jewelry legally as Abenaki-made — likely earning a higher price and generating more demand — if the band earns recognition.

"This process has been bittersweet, because we're the only people on the face of the earth that have to prove who we are," Stevens said.


Contact Terri Hallenbeck at 651-4887 or thallenbeck@burlingtonfreepress.com.