By Tate Sutter ‘24.5
Below, I write about Middlebury College and the Abenaki communities’ future relations. I am not Abenaki nor Indigenous. I am white. I write from an inherent position of privilege created by centuries of deadly policy and actions taken by the United States government and its citizens against the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. My experience is as a Middlebury College student. I provide sources for my information; however, much comes from non-Abenaki peoples.
While many people call this land Vermont, the Abenaki, the first inhabitants of it, call it N’dakinna. N’dakinna is not bound by the colonial borders of Vermont, but spreads through parts of present-day Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Quebec (Longtoe Sheehan). The Abenaki still live in N’dakinna; now, many others live here as well. Currently, there are four state recognized Abenaki tribes in Vermont: the Elnu, Ko’asek, Missisquoi, and Nulhegan bands of the Abenaki Nation. Ever since first coming to this land, settler-colonizers have brought pain and suffering to Abenaki. The seventeenth century Peskeompskut Massacre and the twentieth-century state sponsored eugenics policies exemplify this gruesome past. After a long history of pain inflicted by colonial people and institutions, Middlebury College, a colonial institution on Abenaki land, and Abenaki are cooperating to increase Abenaki presence and visibility along with fostering Abenaki culture. Many of the projects being pursued are essential to protecting and bearing Abenaki culture into the twenty-first century when viewed through the framework of Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Indigenous Projects (Tuhiwai Smith). With these projects, Tuhiwai Smith describes a framework of actions Indigenous groups can take to pursue decolonization. While Middlebury College has made progress at working with the Abenaki, the future holds many opportunities for increased cooperation and stronger relations.
The Abenaki and the College have already cooperated on projects including the creation of the Abenaki Language School and growing Abenaki crops at the College’s organic farm. Jesse Bruchac, a member of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk-Abenaki Nation, successfully directed the first session of the School of Abenaki. With the arrival of Covid-19, the School of Abenaki, originally planned for in-person teaching during the summer of 2020, moved online. The College did not charge any of the students for attending. Currently, enrollment is open for the School of Abenaki during the summer of 2021 (McLaughlin). Like many other Indigenous languages around the world, Western Abenaki faces near extinction. Greater than just a form of communication, languages convey many cultural elements. According to Tuhiwai Smith’s Indigenous Projects, “revitalizing” aspects of Indigenous cultures, especially language, contributes to cultural survival (147, 148). When languages go extinct, part of a culture is lost. By revitalizing the Western Abenaki language, a key element of Abenaki culture will be retained.
Another act of cooperation takes place at the College’s teaching farm. The farm, called The Knoll, grows traditional Abenaki crops to maintain and protect their “genetic purity” (“The Seeds of Renewal Project”). Chief Don Stevens of the Nulhegan Band of Coosuck-Abenaki Nation reached out to Middlebury College about growing traditional Abenaki crops after a successful partnership with Sterling College. The farmers at the Knoll grow Abenaki crops like Skunk Beans and Koasek Corn. After harvest, the best seeds are added to the Abenaki seed bank (Brakeley and Stevens). The seed bank ensures Abenaki crops will continue to feed the first people of N’dakinna. Protecting, as described by Tuhiwai Smith, insolates Indigenous cultures from threats of the colonial world (158). “Protecting” the “genetic purity” of Abenaki crops ensures an important staple of Abenaki culture will endure.
While College-Abenaki cooperation has led to positive outcomes, the future presents multiple avenues of cooperation that should be pursued. On January 28, 2021, the College sent an email announcing the implementation of an official land acknowledgement and a list of initiatives for future reconciliation with Indigenous peoples upon whose land the College is located upon. Little to no information about some of the topics, such as a Clifford Symposium on indigeneity, has been released. I will focus on two of these initiatives: increased Indigenous representation on campus and Abenaki use of College lands.
To create “a greater presence of Indigenous students, staff, and faculty,” (“Middlebury Land Acknowledgement”) the present state of Indigenous presence in higher education, and the reasons for it, must be examined. Native peoples’ relationship to Academia has been plagued by patronization, erasure, and trauma. The boarding schools of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries attempted to assimilate Native children into white society. This “assimilation” was performed through a mix of cultural genocide and physical and mental abuse. The purpose of the schools were, as General Pratt, a strong proponent of assimilation and founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, infamously said, to “Kill the Indian, and save the man” (Dunbar-Ortiz 151). Academia’s force behind the Vermont eugenics movement that targeted Abenaki people, and anthropologists and other historians who stole Native spiritual objects have created a legacy of justifiable distrust (Lutz).
Middlebury College can begin to address some of the challenges Native students face in accessing higher education through scholarships and Native student organizations. Native students can feel uncomfortable in an education system “where the dominant culture of privilege perpetuates control of institutionalized hierarchy and Western pedology” (Burk 5). Middlebury College is a colonial institution, and Native peoples that have suffered from colonialism may feel uncomfortable attending such an institution. While some Native students may not desire to attend Middlebury, the College should still make access easier to Native populations especially the Abenaki upon whose land the College is located. The College should follow the examples of schools like The University of Minnesota at Morris and Fort Lewis College that provide tuition waivers to Native students (Red Shirt-Shaw). While Middlebury did not profit directly from the Morrill Land Grant Acts like the University of Minnesota and Fort Lewis College, it still benefits and profits from Native lands. In 1934, the College sold 21,859 acres to Green Mountain National Forest (Bushnell). The proceeds from this sale funded the construction of Forest Hall (“Plaque on Forest Hall”). Presently, the College owns, under the settler-colonial definition of land use, roughly 6,000 acres of land in Vermont. Middlebury should provide Abenaki students “free tuition to challenge the loss of land and knowledge they’ve lost access to” (Red Shirt-Shaw 6). The colonial education system is not created for Native success. However, ways have been found to increase Native students’ achievement in the current system of higher education. Native students feel more comfortable with an increased number of Native staff or faculty present (Melvin 50). “Student support services… such as indigenous and cultural counseling centers, organized Native American peer mentoring programs, and tribal clubs” provide help and community to Native students on college campuses (Melvin 50). Two of Tuhiwai Smith’s projects, Connecting and Networking, can be experienced in Native spaces on campuses. Connecting details the importance of forming relations between Indigenous peoples that have faced similar challenges from colonizers (Tuhiwai Smith 148). Like Connecting, Networking focuses on the importance of creating trusted relationships (Tuhiwai Smith 156, 157). Native student organizations provide connections and create networks between Native students from varying experiences and cultures (Tuhiwai Smith 148, 156, 157). It should be noted that Middlebury has a very low population of Native students, so the creation of Native student organizations could prove difficult with the current state of Native enrollment (“Fall 2020 Student Profile”).
Indigenous representation among the College faculty and staff proves essential to the College’s mission of education and to increasing Natives students’ comfort. Exact numbers of Indigenous faculty and staff are not available, and even if such figures were available, colonial classifications of race and ethnicity often differ from Indigenous definitions. Previously, I discussed why Native peoples may feel uncomfortable around or working Academia. Even with this discomfort, positions should be made available to Native people especially those in the Abenaki community.
If Middlebury wants to impart upon its students a respect for the world and its peoples, Indigenous voices must be taught and heard. Middlebury prides itself on robust language and study abroad programs to educate its students on the world. Indigenous perspectives and knowledge are integral to a more complete understanding of the Earth. The College should create more classes and course material promoting Indigenous sovereignty. Academia and colonial institutions often discount Indigenous perspectives. Another benefit of Indigenous staff and faculty is that Native students may feel more comfortable around them (Melvin 50). A fulltime position dedicated to the College’s relationships with the Abenaki and other Indigenous groups would demonstrate the strengthening of the long-term commitment to addressing the College’s colonial impacts. Preferably, this position would be held by someone from the Abenaki community. I have heard that the creation of this position is not currently viable due to the College’s present finances. Covid-19, and the economic crisis that accompanied it, led the College to issue a temporary hiring freeze (Miller). While the College’s finances are complex, it seems that an institution with a $1.008 billion endowment (in 2016 since that was the last available figure) could fund an important position like this (“Endowment Overview”). This position would coordinate and organize the efforts to complete the initiatives presented in the land acknowledgment announcement along with other efforts towards reconciliation with the Abenaki.
The second focus of this paper is Abenaki use and possible recovery of College lands. Collaboration between the Abenaki and Middlebury around College owned lands could lead to the Abenaki having access to thousands of acres of lands in the Green Mountains and the Lake Champlain Valley. The most likely path forward will be a land use agreement between the College and Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk-Abenaki Nation. A land use agreement, if fashioned similarly to the one between the Abenaki and the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, would allow for Abenaki people to harvest plants for “traditional medicines, food, and crafts” (Porter and Stevens). Currently, a draft of a land use agreement, created between Middlebury College and Nulhegan, has been sent to the College administration (Lapin). If approved, the agreement will give at least the Nulhegan Band, if not all Abenaki, access to College lands. Since the agreement has not been finalized, the terms of the agreement could still change. Agreements signed between Nulhegan and the State of Vermont, Green Mountain National Forest, The Nature Conservancy, and other groups could be a potential model for Middlebury College (“Partnerships”). For centuries, the Abenaki fought against land theft and colonialism. Land use agreements do not atone for the centuries of marginalization and persecution, but they begin a correction. While not fully returning land back to the Abenaki, this is an important step towards reconciliation between the College and the Abenaki.
At this point, the College has not indicated interest in permanently returning land back to Abenaki; however, the process and some potential obstacles will be discussed here. Under Tuhiwai Smith’s framework, the action of Returning strengthens Indigenous peoples and their cultures by decolonizing lands and relationships; “returning” College land to the Abenaki would be as step towards decolonizing the land (155). I believe that the College should return land back to Abenaki. However, if the College decides to return land to the Abenaki, it is unclear who would receive the land. Out of the four recognized tribes, the College has primarily worked with Chief Don Stevens of the Nulhegan Abenaki. I believe that the College should not decide who receives land, but the decision should be made within the Abenaki community. Another factor is the monetary value of lands. Different valuation systems exist around land. Having listened to Joseph Bruchac, Chief Don Stevens, Vera Longtoe Sheehan, and other Abenaki people talk, my understanding is that Abenaki people’s relationships with land is often characterized by reciprocity and gratitude. In Abenaki culture, lands values cannot be simply reduced to a monetary number. The College still mostly adheres to the dominate settler-colonial system of the economic value of lands. Focusing on the economic value of College lands enables a clearer discussion with those situated in the solely economic valuation of lands. The College does not profit from its lands (Lapin). It owns 3,212 acres of land in the Champlain Valley excluding the lands of the central campus (Lapin et al, 1). Some of the Valley lands are leased to local farmers while others remain undeveloped. The College also owns 2,883 acres in the Green Mountains including the Bread Loaf Campus (Lapin et al, 1). The returns from Bread Loaf Preservation Fund pay for the Mountain lands; no such endowment exists for the Valley lands (Lapin). With the College currently losing money on Valley lands, this provides additional motivation, other than simply doing what is right, to return land to the Abenaki. What decreases the Colleges motivation, is it would not receive the funds generated from the sale of the lands if they are returned to the Abenaki. If lands were returned to the Abenaki, numerous other considerations, which I have not even thought of, would be sure to surface. While returning lands to the Abenaki would require large amounts of work and time, the repatriation of land to the Abenaki provides a real and substantive step to fulfil the process that began with Middlebury’s land acknowledgement.
While Middlebury College and the Abenaki have collaborated to protect Abenaki crop purity and to revitalize the Western Abenaki language, the College must continue to work towards truth and reconciliation. Throughout the collaboration between the College and the Abenaki, the Abenaki embody Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Indigenous Projects of revitalizing, protecting, connecting, networking, and returning. Because Middlebury College is a bureaucratic institution, progress advances slower than many desire. Written above are potential actions that the College could pursue; however, future collaboration should not be limited to these topics. It is important to acknowledge that I’m white and not Indigenous. I write through the framework of Tuhiwai Smith; however, I do not know what the Abenaki people and individuals want and need. While I interviewed professors about their roles in College-Abenaki relations, I did not speak with any Abenaki representatives. This paper does not include an Abenaki perspective on future Abenaki-Middlebury College relations. In this light, this paper is not a plan forward, but a discussion of potential actions the College could take. Middlebury College can do what is right and set an example of a college that cares about Indigenous people. This opportunity should be actively pursued, and the necessary resources should be dedicated towards achieving this.
Work Cited
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https://www.middlebury.ed u/office/announcements/previous-announcements/temporary- hiring-freeze. Accessed on 06 May 2021.
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Porter, Louis and Don Stevens, “License between Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department and the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk-Abenaki Nation.” Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. 1 January 2021, https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/1ebc3e2b-6eca-4a7e-a94a-1a8b35f2525b/downloads/Abenaki%20Collecting%20License%202021.pdf?ver=1619286113983.
Red Shirt-Shaw, Megan. “Beyond the Land Acknowledgement: College “LAND BACK” or Free Tuition for Native Students.” Hack the Gates: Radically Reimage Admissions, August 2020, https://hackthegates.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Redshirt- Shaw_Landback_HTGreport.pdf, Accessed on 22 April 2020.
“The Seeds of Renewal Project.” The Vermont Indigenous Heritage Center, www.alnobaiwi.org/seeds-of-renewal, Accessed 27 April 2021.
Tuhiwai Smith, Linda. Decolonizing Methodologies Research and Indigenous Peoples. 10th ed. Zed Books, 1999.