Missisquoi Abenaki renew hope for federal recognition

SWANTON - Chief Lawrence "Moose" Lampman hopes to do what other chiefs before him, including his father, failed to do.

He wants to obtain federal recognition for the Missisquoi band of Abenaki Indians, his tribe of over 2,200 individuals. The political fight will be expensive and arduous, but he is prepared to maneuver legislative red tape despite an ongoing battle with lung cancer.

Lampman, 63, sat in his office in the tribal council building on Grand Avenue in early August. To his right hung a weathered photo of his great-grandmother, an Abenaki like him.

"I want to see federal recognition, and I want to see this building bustling with people and life," Lampman said. That day, it was just him and his sister in their respective offices. The large main space inside the front door, decorated with artifacts and an Abenaki flag, was empty.

There are three ways an American Indian tribe can obtain federal recognition. The first and most common way is the administrative route, which goes through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The second is by an act of Congress and the third is by a United States court decision.

The Missisquoi band of Abenaki tried once before via the administrative route, but their application was denied in 2007 — 27 years after they began the lengthy petition process. At the time, they were known as the St. Francis / Sokoi band of Abenaki.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs said in its 66-page decision the tribe did not meet four of the seven criteria for recognition, such as failing to provide sufficient evidence that the tribe had existed as a distinct community from "historical times" to present. Historical times in this case meant first sustained non-Indian contact, which was during the 1600s for Vermont Abenaki tribes.

While the Missisquoi band cannot re-petition through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, they can still obtain federal status through the judicial and legislative branches of government.

A friendlier political atmosphere in Vermont may aid the Missisquoi band this time around. Tribe leaders met with representatives from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy's offices and Rep. Peter Welch's office on June 15 to discuss federal recognition. Tom Berry, a policy adviser, sat in for Leahy.

"We've offered to help them with information gathering and communication with federal offices," Berry said. "We're certainly supportive."

Previously, the Missisquoi Abenaki faced steep opposition from political figures in Vermont. They were granted state recognition on Thanksgiving Day 1976 by then-Gov. Thomas Salmon only to have it rescinded months later when a new governor, Richard Snelling, took office. Judge Joseph Wolchek granted the Abenaki aboriginal hunting rights in his decision for State v. St. Francis in 1989, but the Vermont Supreme Court overruled him in 1992's State v. Elliot.

Lampman feels good about the June meeting and the cooperation between his tribe and Vermont's delegation.

"I come away from it positively," he said. "They are willing to support us, and we need to get along."

Federal recognition comes with benefits that Vermont tribes aren't currently receiving. Federally recognized tribes have access to programs and commodities and can apply for tribal land, according to Nedra Darling at the Office of Public Affairs with the U.S. Department of the Interior.

U.S. Census data shows the poverty rate among American Indians and Alaska Natives was 28.3 percent in 2014, almost double the national poverty rate of 14.8 percent that year. Lampman believes benefits from recognition could drastically improve living conditions, health care and education for members of the Missisquoi band, but they have to pay to get there.

"You need professional archaeologists and anthropologists and lawyers and lobbyists," Jeff Benay, the Director of Indian Education in Franklin County, said. "And you need money."

It took the Pamunkey tribe in Virginia decades and over $2 million to receive federal recognition last year, despite having ties to Pocahontas and a reservation granted by the English government in the 17th century. In Connecticut, the Schaghticokes earned recognition in 2004 only to have it taken away on Columbus Day in 2005. State officials successfully appealed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to reverse its decision; they cited a lack of evidence of the tribe's social continuity in the 1800s, but the tribe alleges the appeal was made to prevent them from opening a casino.

The costly recognition process is especially challenging for tribes in the Northeast and on the East Coast, who have less documentation than tribes further west. Eastern tribes often made verbal agreements with early settlers rather than documented treaties with the U.S. government, making their existence harder to track and prove through records.

This, in addition to opposition over political issues like gambling, has impacted the ability of tribes like the Missisquoi band to be recognized. In the Bureau of Indian Affairs' eastern region, there are just 29 federally recognized tribes in the 27 states it comprises. In comparison, Alaska alone has 227 recognized tribes.

One of the obstacles that the Missisquoi band of Abenaki faced in their initial process was the pervasive belief that federal recognition would grant the tribe the ability to "steal" land through lawsuits. Homer St. Francis, who was chief from 1974 to 1980 and again from 1987 to 1996, was vocal about his aspirations to control large areas of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine that were once Abenaki land.

According to Darling, a federally recognized tribe can only apply for federal land. In Vermont, the options are limited. The Missisquoi band would likely only be able to fight for the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge, a wetland area of just over 10 square miles in Swanton. With state recognition, which the tribe received in 2012, they have no right to claim land or real estate.

Lampman denounced St. Francis' methods, which gave many Vermonters a negative perception of both the tribe and federal recognition.

"You can't do that in this day and age," he said. "If you put all your time and effort into anger, you'll get nowhere."

Eugene Rich, tribal council co-chairman for the Missisquoi band and a police officer in Swanton, said the image created by St. Francis was out of step with the tribe's current needs and aspirations.

"We have no intention of building a casino or stealing land," he said. "We just want to help our kids, maybe get access to college funding. The days of Homer St. Francis are gone."

According to American Indian education and scholarship center Catching the Dream, most college scholarships and grants for American Indian students require a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood, which is issued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and requires that an individual be part of a federally recognized tribe.

That means even state recognized Abenaki in Vermont are blocked from applying for and receiving a majority of educational aid designated for American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Benay believes federal recognition is possible for the Missisquoi Abenaki, but that it will take a lot of work.

"It has to be done more rigorously than anything that has ever been done before," he said.

In June 2015, the federal recognition laws were updated to improve the process for tribes — most notably, tribes now only have to prove their continuing existence back to 1900 rather than to historical times. This was one of the criteria that the Missisquoi band failed to meet in their previous attempt.

The regulation changes, combined with new research and archaeological finds and cooperation with the state, are what Chief Lampman and others hope will make the difference in the recognition process. But for Lampman, the updated system is still backwards in many ways.

"We shouldn't be taking the money out of our pocket to prove our existence," he said. "They should have to prove us wrong with their money. I've got hospital bills; we're all suffering."

Lampman plans to step down as chief after this year due to his health, at which time someone new will be elected to carry on his work. But he hopes to begin the recognition process before he leaves, and is optimistic about the tribe's future.

"Recognition is just a stroke of a pen," he said. "That's it. It's simple."

This article was first posted online Sept. 4, 2016. Follow Abbey Gingras on Twitter at @abbey_gingras