On June 14 in Springfield, Northampton, Greenfield, and Brattleboro, there will be marches and rallies to protest Trump. Details are at www.NoKings.org.

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On May 13 in the Pioneer Valley town of South Hadley, about 100 janitors, dishwashers, other workers, and supporters held a rally. “This is my second year working at Mount Holyoke college," Philip Bernashe told the Valley Post in a voice phone interview on May 21. He is one of 170 workers at the college who are members of a union, SEIU Local 32BJ.

Bernashe said, “Our union contract expires on June 30. I work in the kitchen, mostly receiving food deliveries and keeping the storage area organized. I also receive deliveries of silverware and plates. If they're busy I help with washing the dishes. They don't pay enough for me to pay my bills. I work for DoorDash on the side.”

As of 2023, the college's endowment was more than $1 billion.

Bernashe said, “There are three shifts a day in the kitchen. There are people working there from 6 a.m. until midnight. Sometimes the dishwashers work until 1 in the morning. Some workers take the bus to get to work. I'm from Chicopee (Massachusetts) originally. Now I live in Holyoke. Going on strike is the last resort but we will do it if we have to.”

There will be more rallies. Details will be available by contacting the workers via their web site: www.seiu32bj.org.

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Peter Thomas lives in the Pioneer Valley. Until he retired, he was an Anthropology professor at the University of Vermont. He earned his PhD at UMass Amherst. On May 17, Thomas gave the Valley Post permission to publish the following essay, which he wrote:

In 1978, while directing the consulting archaeology program at UVM, I received a contract from the National Park Service to do an archaeological survey in the Missisquoi Wildlife Refuge in Swanton, Vermont. Along the north bank of the river, where Robertson’s Lease of 1765 established seven Abenaki farmsteads, we recovered ceramic and stone artifacts for 1.5 miles, confirming that this same area had been a focus of Native settlement for several thousand years.

This project began a quarter-century of dialogue with the Abenaki community at Missisquoi. I worked with them to address the reburial of human remains. Young members of the community worked alongside my field team in Highgate where we were excavating Native sites spanning thousands of years. 

Everyone I met was open, enthusiastic, respectful and proud to be engaged. They were certainly not self-obsessed and self-serving “wannabes.” These folks directed their efforts towards the welfare of their family, extended families and community.

The emergence and revitalization of the Missisquoi and other Abenaki bands in Vermont that I had observed was not unique. This upwelling of tribal activity was sparked by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and ‘70s in which marginalized and disadvantaged communities throughout the country stood up and demanded recognition, respect and civil justice.

The Narraganset, Mohegan, Pequot, Mashpee, Nipmuc and Stockbridge also made their presence known at this time. Some received federal recognition; others did not. They are all still here. 

In 2012, I was asked by the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs to review the documentation which the Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi, St. Francis/Sokoki Band had submitted with its request for state recognition. Contrary to recent accusations in the press, I was not paid to do so.

Criterion 6 of the Legislature’s nine conditions for state recognition asked how the tribe would “address the social, economic, political or cultural needs of its members with ongoing educational programs and activities.” The listed accomplishments demonstrated the enormous commitment of time and initiatives of the Abenaki Tribal Council, Abenaki Self-Help Association and the Abenaki community at large to improve the condition of its people.

In 1976 there were enormous obstacles to community betterment. According to documents submitted as part of the recognition process by the Missisquoi, in 1976 nearly 40% of the Missisquoi families had no income from employment; 66% of the heads of households had neither a high school diploma nor GED; health and housing conditions were alarming. 

These challenges were met by developing an affordable housing project, expanding basic literacy, and preventing school dropouts.
Also from the documents the Missisquoi submitted: Looking back some 35 years, the Abenaki drop-out rate at Missisquoi Valley Union High School was 70% with 50% leaving school before ninth grade. In 2012, the drop-out rate was 3% and conversational Abenaki was being taught at the local high school.

In 1982, fewer than 5% of the Abenaki who graduated received any post-secondary education. By 2009, 40% of Abenaki high school graduates went on to college; several were pursuing advanced degrees. 
In 1980, the Federal Commissioner of Administration for Native Affairs identified the Abenaki Self Help Association as one of the 12 outstanding Native social service agencies in the country. This is not a record that any group of “pretendians” could have ever achieved.

A parallel revival also seems to have occurred at Odanak. Gordon Day, when working for the Museum of Man in Canada to record Native Abenaki speakers, made these early observations in 1956:
“Superficially this band appeared to be almost totally acculturated. Their houses and clothes were Euro-Canadian. They had had the attention of Christian missionaries for 300 years; They had not hunted and trapped for a living since about 1922; Certain elders did remember Abenaki traditions, which as children they had heard from grandparents who were born in the early 19th century … The one native trait which was apparent was the language, which was then spoken as the language of choice by about 60 of the elder generation. By 1968, Gordon could count only 22 Abenaki speakers.”

Like all of the Vermont Abenaki tribes, Odanak worked to revitalize their history and Native culture. Each tribe has their own history — their own story — and each has the right to pursue its own future. 
I am deeply saddened by all the vitriolic clamor that has been going on in the press. Regardless of Odanak’s current agenda, when Missisquoi petitioned for state recognition in 2012, the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Narraganset, Wampanoag (Aquinnah), Mohegan and Haudenosaunee all sent letters of support. The refrain that I’ve heard from tribes across the U.S. — “We know who we are!” — should not be ignored. 

I thought that we as Vermonters were long past the days when our fourth-grade Vermont history books informed us that “Indians never lived in Vermont.” Do we want to be troubled again with such a stamp of ignorance and regressive policies? I, for one, vote no!