Rotary Rag 05.03.17

 

Thank you Jim and Spud! Next week will be Lisa.

 

 

Rich Holschuh, Victoria Chertok, Josh Hashagen, Jacques Riley

 

 

42 days of school left; The Career Center is wrapping up their touring season, raffle winners will be announced soon; this summer she will hopefully be working in a car dealership and fundraising for Anaheim (July 25 for a week)

 

 

missed Kevin last week, so was appropriately serenaded

 

 

Sadie’s was 4/30/08; Jim M.’s is 05/08/13.

 

 

 

 

Nick drew his own card. Congratulations.

 

 

This Rotary member ran bocchi ball tournaments for Seniors. Nick guessed Drew, then it went to Will, to Jerry, to Amelia, to Cindy—the correct answer! She ran these cut-throat tournaments at summer resorts in the Catskills.

 

 

 

Guest Speaker: Rich Holschuh, introduced by Tristam Johnson

 

(Apologies for misspellings--especially of Native words.)

 

Tristam has gotten interested in indigenous issues through the work at Pine Ridge. He learned about what is happening in VT. Rich is working on these issues locally.

 

Rich introduced himself in the native language of people of this region. He is on the VT Commission on Native American Affairs. He has been working on the change from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day.

 

Rich shared that he did not grow up speaking the language; there are very few native speakers alive; most of them live on the reserve in Quebec. He did not grow up with his indigenous ancestry as part of his culture. There were snippets from his grandfather who came to VT from Montreal. The best way to identify Native groups are by their language families. There is wide variety amongst the groups and there are various dialects.

 

What is indigeneity? It is about re-establishing connections. They want to reach out to people who have faced a similar situation around the world. Right here, at Fort Dummer, is where the clash of cultures and Colonialism in the US began. The native people of this place are the Abenaki. The word Abenaki can be pronounced many ways locally; Wombanaki is the name for the group in the native language; this place is called the Dawn Land because they saw the sun first. In the native language, people introduce themselves by saying they are part of the place they are of. People who are separated from their place is damaging on a deep level for generations. The West River’s name (the Lost River) is Wastangut, which might be the genesis of the name of Wantastiquet mountain. Water and rivers are central to the culture; water is life.

Indigenous people have been in this region for thousands of years. The hieroglyphs in the West River might be older than the pyramids. Until recently, VTers were told in history classes there were no native people here. He shared a history book from 1794 that contains the first mention of native peoples in European history.

 

The Commission works on current issues for native peoples. They are average VTers for the most part, although they tend to be in poverty, have greater occurrence of substance use disorders, discrimination, greater drop-out rates, etc. The Commission has been around less than 10 years and they are still getting their feet under them. They meet monthly and are volunteers and are only reimbursed for mileage. Commissioners are appointed by the Governor. They are working with the state on a Native-based substance use disorder treatment program, which has proven effective in other states. They are doing a lot of educational outreach.

 

The Commission represent the interests of all Native people in the state, particularly the 4 recognized bands of Abenaki. The Abenaki do not qualify for federal recognition because they have been here so long. There are 567 recognized tribes in the US; of those about 30 are east of the Mississippi river.

 

The group was very grateful for Rich’s presentation.

 

For more information on the Commission, see http://vcnaa.vermont.gov/. For information about the Abenaki, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abenaki or http://www.native-languages.org/abenaki.htm.