Reply #69: No [View All]

[Bertrand]

Dean is in control of State, not Federal, guidelines so that issue isnt even relevent to Deans opposition of Abenaki sovereignty.

St. Francis said Dean had hurt her tribe's progress by refusing to grant it state recognition on grounds that if he did, it would trigger federal recognition and allow the Abenaki to open a casino on their lands near Swanton in northwest Vermont, as well as making land claims.

Also, Deans argument for not recognizing them is a copout so that Vermont wouldnt grant them land and gaming claims.

Dean, as governor, based his opposition to state recognition for Abenaki on a Vermont attorney general's opinion that said the Abenaki presence has not been constant during the past 100 years, a requirement for legal recognition.

"That's baloney," St. Francis said. "We're the only race that has to prove who we are." The Abenaki have argued they went underground at times in history to avoid oppression.


He used a loophole to repress the Abenaki from the rights they should be entitled to for having a distinct heritage that dates back to when they were "discovered" in the 1500s.