Missisquoi Abenaki Tribe

The Missisquoi Abenaki Tribe is also known as the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi. They have also gone by the name St. Francis-Sokoki Band of the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, the Abenaki Tribal Council of Missisquoi, and the St. Francis/Sokoki Band of the Sovereign Republic of the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi.[4]

Vermont recognized the Missisquoi Abenaki Tribe as 2012.[6] The other state-recognized tribes in Vermont are the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation, Elnu Abenaki Tribe, and the Koasek Abenaki Tribe.[5]

In 2015, the group created Maquam Bay of Missisquoi, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, based in Swanton, Vermont.[1][2] Their registered agent is Richard Mendard.[3]

Their mission is "To promote wellness in the Abenaki community through holistic approaches that integrate health, education, and the environment."[2]

The Maquam Bay of Missisquoi board of directors are:

• April Lapan, treasurer
• Brian Barratt, director
• John Lavoie, director
• Holly Lafrance, director and secretary
• John Lavoie, secretary
• Chris Lafrance, director
• Cody Hemenway, director
• Arthur Blackhawk, director..[3]

The Missisquoi Abenaki Tribe is the only Vermont state-recognized tribe to have petitioned for federal recognition.

Under the name St. Francis/Sokoki Band of Abenakis of Vermont, the group applied for federal recognition first in 1980, then 1992, and finally in 2007.[7] Two of them were denied and one of them was withdrawn due to legal issues with the State of Vermont. The group applied for but was denied federal recognition as a Native American tribe in 2007.[8] The summary of the proposed finding (PF) stated that "The SSA petitioner claims to have descended as a group mainly from a Western Abenaki Indian tribe, most specifically, the Missisquoi Indians" and went on to state: "However, the available evidence does not demonstrate that the petitioner or its claimed ancestors descended from the St. Francis Indians of Quebec, a Missiquoi Abenaki entity in Vermont, any other Western Abenaki group, or an Indian entity from New England or Canada. Instead, the PF concluded that the petitioner is a collection of individuals of claimed but undemonstrated Indian ancestry 'with little or no social or historical connection with each other before the early 1970's'...."[9]

Vermont grants state recognition to the Missisquoi Abenaki Tribe in 2012.[10]

The Missisquoi Abenaki Tribe is one of four state-recognized tribes in Vermont. It had 60 members in 2016.[11]

St. Mary's University associate professor Darryl Leroux's genealogical and historical research found that the members of this and the other three state-recognized tribes in Vermont were composed primarily of "French descendants who have used long-ago ancestry in New France to shift into an 'Abenaki' identity."[6]

In 2002, the State of Vermont reported that the Abenaki people had migrated north to Quebec by the end of the 17th century.[12]

The State of Vermont sponsored the Vermont Eugenics Movement (and later the Vermont Commission on Country Life), Led by Henry Perkins of the University of Vermont, from 1925-1935, which systematically institutionalized and sterilized “undesirable” populations based on physical fitness. It disproportionately targeted people based on class, physical condition, and race, particularly poor, French Canadian, Black, and Native American households. Although the University of Vermont has documented 253[13] people being sterilized through this program, sterilizations were not always documented and the real number is unknown. The University of Vermont formally apologized for its role in eugenics in 2019.[14]

The Missisquoi Abenaki Tribe participate in Abenaki Heritage Weekend, held at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes, Vermont.[15]

The Tribe maintained a USDA food shelf for the local community and held a BIPOC COVID-19 vaccine clinic in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vermont H.556, "An act relating to exempting property owned by Vermont-recognized Native American tribes from property tax," passed on April 20, 2022.[16]

• State v. Elliott, 616 A.2d 210 (Vt. 1992), Vermont Supreme Court decision

• Leroux, Darryl (2019). Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. ISBN 978-0887558979.

• Official website
• Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs
• Petitioner #068: St. Francis/Sokoki Band of Abenakis of Vermont, VT, U.S. Department of the Interior
• State v. St. Francis