The "Abenaki" of Vermont: A Living Culture Video

we're native we're here we've always been here we're not leaving one of my dearest friends was not a host said gosh my family said there were no Indians in New England that is a very common situation particularly for New England native people because we went underground we had we in some ways cease to exist in the history books and in people's minds we go into the school system to help educate and and they all say well you don't look Indian you know well what do they look like you know you're seeing the natives that are out west with the dark hair and the dark skin and dark eyes what I can say to that is IMM Nakki I may have a zl-- eyes and brownish-blond hair but I am Who I am and I know Hawaiians so many many people in from all heads of American blood I bet some of you I do do you any of you know so there's how many of you can you put your hands up one two three four five six seven eight nine ten there is a difference on the way we grew up and the way someone else's kid grew up you're I think within the Abenaki families even though they don't realize how much I've been a kadhi have in them the culture plays a really strong role in a kid's life boys ready I did a lot of squirrel hunting as a as a child not so much big gain but small gain I used to go quite a bit with my mother and and then dad would take us bird hunting I used to have friends come to the house some of them wouldn't eat there because they didn't know what we were eating field things coming before you can hear them you can smell things that other people can't smell and all of these things is Europe that everyone has but because of being sheltered and you don't have to watch for anything the alertness goes away you know when it comes to the environment we're very educated people in our own way we are taught of how the environment works and how to protect in order to give respect you have to acknowledge the fact that every other creature on this earth as is important in the scheme of things that is important to creation as you are and if everyone and everything is treated with that respect then we have to be living in a good way which is why native people living in a traditional manner take only what they need you don't go out and kill because it's a sport because it's fun there's nothing fun about killing your relative everything on this earth is our relation o deers buddies here a little while ago this looks like a couple of deer right through here don't reform baby case because it's got a pretty white trail I hope I'm going away travel with it the basis for our spirituality is that the creator created all of the things that are in the world including the world itself out of its own spirit and made it physical and the earth itself is alive so as the Sun all of the living things that are on the earth are the children of the earth because they come from the earth with the help of the Sun all spirits are things that keep people alive or animals or grass or anything else are all connected to the one spirit so that creation for us is not a man creating but rather a pure spirit creating all life now with all life coming from one spirit then we're related to everything that's alive because we're all of a common spirit so in our spiritual feeling the earth and the Sun and all of the plants the insects the animals and everything are all related to us and and one of our prayers is to say we thank you creator for giving us all our relatives and the relatives support us they support our life and then later on we go into the ground and help to support their life so we all are connected in that way in a spiritual sense as well as a physical sense because of this we try to teach the children that it's very important to recognize that all life belongs to the spirit and no life belongs to us all all life is sacred in our belief system first person that you pray to is the Creator then your ancestors then your elders and the children and that's always been something that's been taught for years and years as long as I can remember it was important who our family was it was important who our ancestors were it was important what our great-grandfather's had done and where we came from you know my father loved his grandmother and because we were told about her every day it was like we knew her in spirit she was right with us no matter where we went we she walks with us every day of our life because of what he told us about her that's a good one that's pound almost Pillman hi I went with my father pretty much took me fishing hein probably when I barely could walk no if it's in my blood I pretty much do the same thing my father did when he was alive they pretty much fish for a living back when he was younger in the wintertime when he got into fish like this he would always get down on one knee and keep close to himself so people couldn't see him really pulling them up you know I remember I was fishing over at the breakwater and got into the perch that's when my father was older and he just took a ride down and he was watching me from the shore and I was down on one knee you know reminded of him out there some guys will come and hit them like this and they're going to sit here for two three weeks they're going to fish until there's nothing left you know I was brought up not to waste neither you know no matter how big or small it is I won't just kill it to leave in the bucket forget about it it's pretty fun out here quiet you're by yourself holder is me I'm older than you are probably older than everyone here an elder is a person with knowledge that will help his people and just cause your hair turns gray does not make you an elder just because you lived a little bit longer and does not make you an elder in the Native community your elders are your wisdom your spiritual guidance if you want some wisdom you go to an elder and if they've got it they'll tell you if they don't they'll tell you who to go to see what we can find here oh there's some good ones here boys just tradition that's passed down from generation to generation the week that you and mommy have off maybe we can make sign up author here yeah and you can teach me because I never got yes that's right well I haven't taught your mother either sometimes it's the grandparents teaching this tradition sometimes it's the parent sometimes it's an uncle this is a good tree there cuz they're quite a few good ones up here if there was a family gathering and we would sit down and we would talk about important things the children were included in that conversation and our views were listened to with respect if an Abenaki child was walking down the street the child knew that there was 50 or 60 set of eyes that were watching them around the clock everybody in the community helps raise that child there were many things we learned growing up that you do just because that's the way your family does we take Rainey bass-fishing he was in in the car seat he wasn't very old did he get fish no but he was always with us at the river so he knew the children very much part of the community considered individuals loved respected honored that people didn't have a written language so that everything that that was happened in our history had to be carried so when you start with that piece you're gonna go you're gonna continue so you're going to want to start probably under that one push that down Jackie's very interested in learning about plants been is to a certain extent I try to work in as much as I can teaching them about the culture and they belong to the dance group too so the Abenaki culture has been a part of their lives that's going to follow them through their whole life and and hopefully they'll teach their children to good looks good a lot of times when I'm making baskets I'll think about my great-grandmother making baskets and feel a sense of connectedness they're the things that I learnt the most from from my grandparents we're how to treat each other their way of of teaching was more as a guide rather than a teacher there are some lessons this is what it's all about I just come off go out with my dad he's taking us all bearing whole loving kids fishing burying gathering berries deer hunt mush rye my father taught me when I first started picking hide goal I pick all the big ones on top I'd swear right out picking my boy did the same thing with my boy he do this Jackson go around pick just the big ones we get at the end of the day and you'd say how come dad you got more berries than I do I go home so well you're going to learn this same way I learn can't be afraid to get dug up because some of your your best berries are under the bushes they never let go of certain parts of the culture they almost did their fishing nails to their trap and they always hunted they almost gathered berries and I think that was a way of life though you know for them that was survival and I mean we grew up the same way I mean I enjoyed blackberry picking you enjoy going fishing and you love watching the little ones learn bring it back and pause for a second let it settle there you go nice cast there you go really go on so I've got my line a little loose I want to bring that in right tighten it up a little bit there we go yeah I would tighten it up a little bit oh hey did you see that I got a bite oh yeah I've got him good to look at him he's like waterskiing huh what is he Oh a bass I guess my father sums it up best um he told me once that that he always knew that that he was from a native family from an Indian family but he also always knew that he was never supposed to know so things weren't talked about I grew up proud of who I was from the day I was born my family was always on the front line so my name stuck out and I knew a lot of other families that weren't so public and and I never could figure out why they weren't public with it I knew they were on Mackey but I I couldn't figure out you know why they wouldn't be proud of it they were ashamed of it until I found out about the eugenics movement and I didn't find that out until my late teens so and I have elders that still live in this community that will not say that they're I've neck and I know they are my mother had a combination of being very proud of being Indian and very ashamed of being Indian because at the a time of the her life that she grew up and she was actively discriminated against my mother for instance you know she's very Abenaki she knows it I was hesitant to come to any of gatherings or drumming's at first because you know what's this all about is it safe you know these kind of things she's still from that generation she came to a gathering and first time she heard the drum in it it brought tears to her eyes it moved her so much it was it was a living thing that stirred inside of her you know there's different connections that are being made we're all related we're all family no matter if you live at odhh net in Canada or Vermont or New Hampshire Maine I'll be there in just a second take these two here and then these two and then these two okay a lot of these younger kids are being told at a very young age who they are you know and how to be proud of who you are and hold your head up and don't be ashamed of who you are you know that's being taught a lot more nails and you're going to have to thread a bead onto it and it's going to be kind of hard but if you twist it the bead will go on fine I'll show you Rob how you coming at me see now you got to get some beads you got to put through I really you know I throw them on the fact that we're going into another generation of kids and I have great nieces and nephews and I just I I'm hoping that ten years from now that these kids are going to be doing the dances and doing the language and you know everything that we didn't get to do violent ones way I'm sorry man school yes about a black is how keep that picked on at school so evade report they said he was a idli every day said that he was just a squirrel how come he wasn't running around half naked with a wigwam so they didn't think he was idiot so he don't worry studies as taught to his grandmother his uncle he made a report saying that he was a deal how they worried what they were like do you know some of the stuff that was in that just about all of it I just hope that when this video is done that it educates from honors about the Abenaki and our way of life and you know we need to live in peace and harmony and you know the racism has got to stop I've been saying that for years and years and I know I've lived it and if one child can learn to stop racism then it's worth it the videos with that's all I'm good to say

Channel: Reinvented Abenaki

Views: 25,167

Rating: 4.8068967 out of 5

Keywords: Abenakis, Abenaki, VT Folklife Center, Swanton, Vermont, New Hampshire, Odanak, Wolinak, April St. Francis, April Merrill, Louise Lampman, Blackie Lampman, Jeff Benay, Jeffrey Benay, John Moody, Donna Moody, Fred Wiseman, Frederick M. Wiseman, Jesse Bruchac, Jessie Bowman Bruchac, Joseph Bruchac, Lynn Murphy, Molly Keating, Al Greyhawk Milano, John Running Deer, John Brin

Id: aBNadSGA86c

Length: 27min 58sec (1678 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 27 2014