Posting by Charlie True

Note: the following was too long to be posted as a comment, so it is being posted here.



When Douglas Lloyd Buchholz began his lengthy campaign to prove that there are few, if any, real Abenaki people left in New England, my first thought was that we should put up what I call a “wall of silence” concerning him. His very public, hurtful treatment of our people deserves such a reaction from us, and, I believe, would reflect traditional behavior toward someone who has dishonored us. I was also aware of his history of craving constant attention; he has gone to great (outlandish) lengths to call attention to himself. I did not want to feed that need. That’s why I have remained silent until now.

So why am I speaking up now? An attack on me personally means little or nothing to me, since I have nothing to hide from anyone. Some of our people call me “speaker”. That’s not a big deal; never has been. We have joined together in circles over the years, where my voice had equal value with others in the circle. Occasionally one person is required to speak for the group, and I was the person selected for the task. I need to speak up and point out that Douglas’ “history” of the Abenaki Nation of New Hampshire is rife with errors. Names, dates, places, events are all wrong. There are quite a few people out there who can attest to this. I could list each item individually, numbering each item, so that no one has to “do the math” as Douglas likes to say. But I have more important things to share at this time. I would only point out that someone who purports to be our “modern day historian” has more research to do; more attention to the actual facts, before he shares his masterpiece with the whole world. A historian has a responsibility to research and report the known facts, in as objective a manner as possible.

Douglas has obviously selected out his “truths” to support a very subjective (obsessive I would say) thesis: “Just about everyone here in New England and beyond who says they’re Abenaki is an outright liar.” Incidentally, I have myself known many Abenaki people who have worked hard to accomplish, or attempt to accomplish, positive things for our people. Shouldn’t a comprehensive “history” of our times report such selfless acts occasionally? It’s obvious to me that Douglas has chosen to dwell only on negatives.

One of the underlying implications of Douglas’ blog, in my opinion, is that it’s time for our people to just “lay down and die”. It’s time for us to say to the dominant culture: “You’ve been right all along. The Abenaki people never existed in your state, were all killed, or ran away from our homeland to Canada. We’ve just been playing at being Indians, but we’ve been caught up with.” When I was still on speaking terms with Douglas, and began to realize the direction in which he was going, I repeatedly tried to convince him that he was about to do major harm to the Abenaki people. We didn’t need more public airing of our political dirty laundry. We especially didn’t need more rubbing of salt in that Abenaki wound of having little or no documentation of our ancestral heritage. I have observed over the years the pain experienced by Abenaki people who could not produce a piece of paper that would cause a white person to say: “Yup, by God, you really are one of them there Injun people aintcha?” In those days I often joked (but I was half serious) with Douglas that he should apply for a job in the Vermont Attorney General’s office because they would have to love him; he was working hard to support their claim that there were no valid Abenakis living in Vermont today. I don’t think he ever got my point.

In my estimation, at least 95% of Abenaki descendants today have no paper documentation of their heritage. When I first learned that our immediate forebears were “hiding in plain sight”, that is avoiding any public record of their heritage, I was angry. In time though, understanding that native people are, above all, about the survival of the people, I came to understand that they were protecting their children; that assimilation into the white world was the only way they could survive. And the documents of the time reflect that sense of survival. At that time everyone must be white.

But we do exist, and we will continue to exist. Sorry, Douglas, we’re not convinced that it’s time to bring an end to our people. And if a group of Abenaki grandmothers got together, I think you would be marched out of town real fast. Hopefully, we will come to ignore you, except of course those people who may seek to benefit somehow from your negative campaign.

There are and will be children among us, some with blond hair and blue eyes, who are destined to carry forward the embers of our ancestral fires. They need a lot of help from us in preparing for that, because they face a very difficult walk going forward.

I’d like to share with you some of the adult behaviors that I have seen, and assume these children are also seeing. Over the years I’ve noticed an increasing, almost frantic, search for a genealogical record that says “Indian” or “Abenaki”. There’s nothing wrong with searching for our historic ancestors; it’s good to understand as much as possible about who we came from. But when we feel an absolute need for “Indian” documents to prove our Abenaki ancestry to someone, we are playing a “white man’s” game, and missing a central point for ourselves. Perhaps Douglas would prefer that our people cower in a corner, or stay in a closet, because they have not located that elusive document. Do our children really need that piece of paper to know, and to express, who they are?

Band or tribal I.D. cards seem to be much sought after. Years ago, when a sizeable number of members in our group insisted that we should have cards, a member of our council, who was motivated by a personal need at the time, was selected to make up a draft card for us. Her sample was modeled on cards in use by another group at the time. When I saw the proposed format, turned the card over and started to read the top line, I did an uncharacteristic “head through the ceiling” maneuver. The heading on the back said something like: “This is to convey Indian status on….” When I retained my composure, I said: “We do not convey Indian status on anyone; only the Creator does that!” We have never issued “Indian cards”. Do our children really need them to know who they are?

During the time that legislation was passed in Vermont supposedly “recognizing” the Abenaki people and others, my dear wife Rhonda, the computer-literate one in the family, shared with me such e-mail comments as: “We are recognized at last. Now I can proudly say that I’m Abenaki.” Huh? Were there really Abenaki people out there depending on a government to say that it was O.K. to be who you always knew you were? Do we want our children to look to governments to validate who they are?

There are many more examples of people seeking their indianess outside of themselves, who don’t seem to understand that they’re missing the central point, and may be misleading the children who will carry our embers forward. Folks, we may be missing the central lesson that our children need to learn. Instead of looking outward, we need to look downward, as we stand on our homeland, between our own two feet. The children need to learn that the strength , wisdom and spirit of our ancestors have their source in something that’s still available to us, and that they need. Mother Earth literally vibrates with the creative energy that flows through all living things. We need to teach our children, before anything else, that this energy can flow through them, if they seek it, and that it is a source, through their Abenaki ancestry, of great power. Let’s stop playing our ridiculous adult games and start teaching them where they really come from, so that they can go forward with the real ancestral strength that they will need.

And as for you, Douglas Lloyd Buchholz, our people in time will put up a “wall of silence” and look for someone else to tell the full story of the Abenaki people in recent times.

And as we, and our children, become more and more rooted in the spiritual energy of our homeland, we will become stronger against the negative energy that you and others have chosen to bring to us. Then we will be truly healed from the painful sicknesses that have been part of our recent history.

Now that I’ve shared some of my heartfelt opinions with you, it appears to me that maybe I have put myself out there as some kind of knowledgeable elder-I clearly am not. In fact, I’m thinking that maybe in a hundred years or so I might have learned enough to share some acquired “wisdom”. For you computer folks, I’ll throw in an “LOL”.

Wlinanawalmezi and thanks for listening.

Charlie True
Kcicasco@aol.com
November 7, 2009