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"Recognized" is a special series from Brave Little State about Abenaki peoples and the ongoing dispute about who belongs to their communities.

Darryl Leroux is a French-Canadian scholar who studies white settler identities. He published a paper last month in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal focusing on claims to indigeneity in Vermont and New Hampshire.

The photo, according to Odanak officials, depicts the Panadis family in Highgate Springs in 1894. And descendants of the Panadis family, who are Abenaki citizens of Odanak, say they object to the photo’s “misleading� use in an exhibit curated by members of Vermont state-recognized tribes.

On Monday night, the Missisquoi Parent Advisory Committee as well as members and leaders of state-recognized tribes told the UVM officials that two presentations held at the school in the past year have promoted the erasure of their communities.

Chief Rick O’Bomsawin of Odanak First Nation � currently based in Quebec, whose ancestral lands include Vermont � says no one contacted Odanak officials during the state's Truth and Reconciliation selection process.

For the first time, the New Hampshire-based MacDowell program is honoring an artist from the Wabanaki lands where the residency takes place.

The chief of Odanak First Nation has invited Vermont’s state-recognized tribes to visit the Quebec-based Abenaki community.This comes in the midst of Odanak First Nation as well as Wôlinak First Nation � another Abenaki community based in Quebec � continuing to assert that Vermont’s state-recognized tribes have not shared the genealogical and historical evidence showing they are Abenaki.

Beverly Little Thunder has served on the nine-person Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs since 2019. In her email letter, Little Thunder said she was stepping down because of “deceit and dysfunction.�

A University of Vermont official apologized for causing harm to state-recognized tribes through an event hosted by the school last spring.The event, held last April, featured Abenaki representatives from Odanak First Nation in Quebec. They reiterated their stance that Vermont’s state-recognized tribes have not provided genealogical or historical support showing they are Abenaki.

A new sign at Sweet Pond State Park has an Abenaki word: Amiskwbi. It means beaver water. Not everyone is happy about it.