Kwai (greetings) Editor,
As a leader of the Nulhegan Abenaki tribe and as the grandson of someone listed by the eugenics survey as defective, I have personal knowledge about the subject of eugenics in Vermont. My family and many others were considered those so-called poor, disabled, and defective people — unworthy of breeding.
The college professors and staff members who carried out the eugenics survey in the 1920’s and beyond were misguided and wrong. It is still equally wrong and misguided to decide who is worthy of existing or “unworthy” of telling their lived experiences.
Since four generations of my ancestors and hundreds of family members are listed in the eugenics survey, I would say that we were targeted. It is easy to find in those eugenics records that my family is listed as being Indian and selling baskets while being called “gypsies.”
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It is misleading to suggest that Canadian Tribal families were the only Abenaki Indians selling baskets in the United States. Odanak has stated themselves that they were not affected by the eugenics survey and had left the United States prior to the 1800s as a tribal entity. I agree, some families still visited and traveled to Vermont like many other people do today. This is all a matter of public record. I am willing to educate people on the Vermont indigenous “gypsy” and family experiences for those who are willing to learn.
Whether people want to argue who is “Indian” enough or “targeted” is not really my concern. The fact that people’s lives, like my grandmother’s, were affected by UVM and state-sponsored sterilization programs is the real issue. Deciding worthiness or people’s “status” should never be allowed to happen again.
The work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is to tell the stories of the families directly affected by the eugenics survey regardless of their race, social class or medical condition. Let these families heal from the trauma and pain that other families weren’t subjected to and tell their lived experiences.
Waolowzi (be very well),
Don Stevens
Chief of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation
Read the story on VTDigger here: Don Stevens: My family’s experience of Vermont’s eugenics survey.