Updated 10/9/23
Why the change in a holiday
that began in 1937? Columbus Day was designed to celebrate Italian-American
culture and heritage. Starting in the 1970s, alternatives to the holiday emerged
as attention was called to the fact that Columbus and other Europeans
interactions with the indigenous peoples resulted in hundreds of years of
violence and slavery; forced assimilation and conversion to Christianity; and a
host of new diseases, e.g. small pox, that killed off over 90% of native
peoples within 150 years of Columbus's arrival. It was also noted that Columbus didn’t “discover” the Americas nor
prove the world was round, since that was already common knowledge. In fact, he
thought the world was pear shaped. Columbus’s voyage was economic in nature-a
better trade route to the east. Slave trading was a lucrative opportunity
and he captured natives for such purposes.
While
Columbus may have been a very brave and skillful sailor, he was also a deeply
flawed human who set the stage for the Spanish conquistadors who looted and
killed natives by the thousands. How Columbus Sailed into US History Thanks to Italians
Columbus
was also not the first European to reach America. Leif Ericksson arrived
well before Columbus in what is today Newfoundland and it’s very possible that
St. Brendan’s voyage from Ireland took place 500 years before Ericksson and
1,000 years before Columbus. However, all of them are “Johnny come latelies,”
as the Americas were occupied, possibly as early as 16,000 years ago.
To read more
on how the Americas were populated, check the following resources:
•
First Humans Entered the Americas Along the Coast, Not through the Ice:Evidence mounts against the traditional story of early human migration through
an ice corridor.
A
24,000-year-old horse jawbone is helping rewrite our understanding of human
habitation on the continent
So what about Cavendish? The following information
is based on what is currently known
through archeology and other studies. As we learn more, we will continue to provide updates.
There
is archaeological evidence at Jackson Gore, Ludlow, VT that dates back 11,000
years, shortly after ice age ended. Judging from the tools uncovered, these
hunter/gatherers were highly skilled craftsmen who traveled far and
included trading with other groups, as a high percentage of the stone used for
the tools came from Maine. Cavendish would have had Indians traveling through
the area via the Black River and/or what became known as the Crown Point Rd. The
Paleo-Indians would have fished and hunted game depending on the time of
year, and may have spent days or weeks here depending on whether food was
plentiful.
The most practical group
size was large enough to hunt cooperatively but
small enough to be self-sufficient and
mobile. It was probably an extended
family of men, women, and children
totaling 10 to 25 people. The human
population in this part of the world at that time was low, and the
territory that a few dozen groups like
this shared may have included hundreds
or even thousands of square miles. At times several groups probably gathered
together to hunt or fish; to exchange information, goods, and stories; to
celebrate, to make friends, to resolve conflicts; and to meet potential
spouses. Links were formed among the groups through these activities and
through family ties. History & Culture Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center
Tools
used about 5,000-7,000 years ago, called the Archaic period, have been found in
Cavendish fields, indicating there might have been an Indian settlement away
from the river. Just 37 miles to the South of Cavendish in Keene, NH there is
evidence of a winter settlement that is over 12,000 years old. Even closer is
Bellows Falls, where petroglyphs can be found.
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| Bellows Falls Petrogylphs |
Since the first settlements in Bellows Falls, numerous Indian graves have been inadvertently dug up throughout the village and near the falls. There is a tradition among longtime residents that the section of town located on the west side of Main Street, across from the Square, was once an Indian burial mound (Hayes 1907:29). Additionally, two centuries of excavations for roads and building construction near the petroglyphs have uncovered numerous skeletal remains throughout the village and on the island leading to the bridge that crosses the Connecticut River. Lyman Hayes interviewed the late Dr. S.M. Blake who indicated to him that “the whole distance across the island had, in a much earlier period, been used for an Indian burial-ground. The bodies were uncovered sitting upright, having been buried in a sitting posture with the knees drawn up to the chin, in a circular hole dug deep enough so that the top of the heads came within a foot or two of the surface of the ground” (Hayes 1907:29). Even the mound just to the west of the petroglyphs, where a power substation is located today, was once an Abenakis burial mound. It would seem that the village was erected upon what could be one of the largest burial sites in all of Vermont, and perhaps in all of New England. This was and still is a very sacred place to the Abenakis. The Abenaki and the Bellows Falls (VT) Petroglyphs
The
first people of Cavendish would be part of the Abenaki Nation, which is part of
the Wabanaki Confederacy, and not dissimilar to the Abenaki described in A Brief History: From the Koas Meadows to You Today.
The Abenaki Native
Americans have been living in the same region for 10,000 years. Today, this
area comprises Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and southern Quebec. The Abenaki
Alliance in Vermont and New Hampshire consists of four tribal bands, much like
America is divided into states. These tribal bands include the Missisquoi (St.
Francis/Sokoki) [Swanton], the Elnu [southern Vt], the Nulhegan [Northeast
Kingdom] and the Koasek [central] . Each individual tribal band is governed
by a Chief and a Tribal Council, yet they are all part of the Abenaki
Alliance....
Historians have often
confused which band or tribe some of the eastern Indians were from. If they saw
an Indian in one location, they assumed that person was a member of the local
tribal band. Many historians have called all Abenaki “St. Francis Indians.”
Other historians have used that term just to refer to the Abenaki of Odanak,
who reside in Southern Quebec. This has often led to confusion about the
history of the Abenaki people.”...
Hollywood moves have
portrayed all Native Americans as having copper skin, dark brown eyes, and long
black hair. This is far from the way the eastern tribal people looked. In 1542,
sieur e Roverval, Governor General of New France, described the appearance of
the Abenaki people in his letters. He wrote, “They are a people of goodly
stature and well made; they are very white, but they are all naked, and if they
were appareled as the French are, they would be as white and as fair, but they
paint themselves for fear of heat and sun burning.” In 1637, Thomas Morton of
Massachusetts wrote, “Their infants are borne with hair on their heads and are
of complexion as white as our nation: but their mother in their infancy make a
bath of walnut leaves, husks of walnuts, and such things as will stain their
skin forever, wherein they dip and wash them to make them tawny.”
Between
1500-1609, it’s estimated that there was a minimum of 10,000 Abenaki in VT.
With the arrival of the Europeans, by 1760, the population in VT and Southern
PQ had dropped to 1,200. Reasons included disease, the Europeans pitting one tribe
against the other, involvement in various wars, and movement into Quebec. The Abenaki
were a peaceful people and were not well suited to war.
During
the American Revolution, Abenaki ranger units and warriors fought on the
American side. By 1840 there were confirmed 1,000 Abenaki in northwestern VT
and 1,500 by 1910. Totals in other parts of the state for this time period are
unknown. In 2006, the VT Legislature recognizes the Abenaki people and created
the VT Commission on Native American Affairs. The 2000 US Census shows 2,460
Indian people and 3,976 who cited “Indian” as one of two or more races in VT
for a total of 6,396 focused in northern and central VT.
So why aren’t these people
readily known? Vermont has a very dark history when it comes to its native
peoples. With the arrival of the
Europeans, life changed dramatically for the Indians. They lost their land,
were persecuted, and/or died from diseases they had no immunity to. Consequently, those of Abenaki descent would
be known as “dark” or “colored” French or gypsies. Many would have changed
their name and it was very common for parents not to tell their children of
their Indian heritage until they were adults.
Along
with French Canadians, poor people and those with disabilities, the Abenaki
were coerced into sterilization. In 1931, Vermont passed the eugenic sterilization law, "A Law for Human Betterment
by Voluntary Sterilization." Vermont's eugenic solutions -- in the form of
identification, registration, intervention in families with problem or backward
children, and sterilization of those deemed unfit to conceive future
Vermonters-was in effect until 1957, though the majority of sterilizations
-200- took place between 1931 and 1941. A total of 253 people were sterilized,
80% of whom were women. However, though the sterilization was reported to end
in 1957, the Abenakis continued to be sterilized in the United States,
including Vermont
As
recently as 2002, the Vermont Attorney General’s office said the Abenaki didn’t
have a “continuous presence” in Vermont as they all migrated to Canada. Not
only was this incorrect, but starting in 2011, there is state recognition of
• Elnu Tribe of the Abenaki southern VT,
• Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki (Northeast Kingdom)Nation
• Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi (Swanton)
• KoasekTraditional Band of the Koos Abenaki Nation (northeast and central VT and NH
regions) .
 |
| Gratia Belle Ellis |
We
have confirmed one former Cavendish resident, Gratia Denny, as being of
Abenaki dissent. Her Grandmother Gratia Belle Ellis, born 1843, was an Abenaki
Indian and spoke Algonquian. It is expected there are others in town who share
similar heritage, some of whom may not be aware of it.
Learn
More About the Abenaki at the websites listed above, as well as the following
resources:
• Malian’s Song: The book, Malian’s Song, is based on an eyewitness Abenaki
account of Robert Rogers’ 1759 raid on the Abenaki village of St. Francis. For
many years the only information about the raid included in history textbooks
was based on Robert Rogers’official report. In 1959 ethnologist Gordon Day
recorded Elvine Obomsawin Royce telling a very different story of the raid that
had been passed down in her family for generations. Here Jeanne Brink,
granddaughter of Elvine, reads an English translation of her grandmother’s
story
• The first humans in what’s now Vermont found a very different place: The first occupation of Cavendish was most likely about 11,000 years ago when they came seasonally to fish and hunt along the Black River (Mikazatekw in Abenaki). VT Digger
Additional Resources
Learning About First Peoples and How They Lived: Facebook Album of CTES’s 4th graders day long
workshop with experimental archeologist Charlie Paquin.
A
History of the Abenaki Tribe
Abenaki
Documentary
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