Today I was so pleased to receive the below press release in my email account.  For the first time in over 200 years, yet less than after two years of official state recognition, the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe of the Northeast Kingdom, has a collectively held forest of their own.  This small corner of Mountain and Earth is a historic step forward in the epic task of setting our troubled past right.  

    Personally it was my absolute honor to work on this project over much of the past year as the Conservation Organizer with the Vermont Sierra Club (a position I have since left).  Special recognition is owned to the Vermont Sierra Club, the Vermont Land Trust, the multitude of organizations which supported the project such as the Vermont Workers Center and 350 Vermont , and most of all to the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe (Chief Don Stevens and Luke Willard in particular) for making this happen.

    Solidarity!  Here is to seeing a next Abenaki forest in the thousands of acres!

For immediate release: December 17, 2012

For more information, contact:

Tracy Zschau, Northeast Kingdom Director, Vermont Land Trust, (802) 748-6089, tracy@vlt.org

Elise Annes, V.P. for Community Relations, Vermont Land Trust, (802) 262-1206, elise@vlt.org

Luke Willard, trustee Nulhegan Abenaki, (802) 751-5043, lukewillard@live.com

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Nulhegan Abenaki Attain First Tribal Forestland in More than 200 Years

Land Purchased by Tribe and Conserved with Vermont Land Trust

    Barton – Today, the Nulhegan Abenaki officially took ownership of the first Nulhegan tribal forestland in 200 years. The 65-acre parcel, located off May Farm Rd. in Barton, will be an economic, educational, and cultural resource for the tribe. The tribe worked with the Vermont Land Trust and the Sierra Club to secure the forestland. Title to the property will be held by the non-profit, Abenaki Helping Abenaki, Inc., which was created a number of years ago to preserve the culture of the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe. The Vermont Land Trust holds a conservation easement on the property to ensure it remains undeveloped in perpetuity.

    The Nulhegan tribe has just over a thousand members and was officially recognized by the State of Vermont in 2011. The tribe lost the last of their land in the late 1700s; since then they have used town halls and private land owned by individual members for their meetings and celebrations.

    “There are Abenakis that own their own land,” said Luke Willard, a trustee of the Nulhegan Abenaki, who was pivotal in organizing this effort. “But we didn’t have a community place to meet like towns do. We were always borrowing places to meet; it’s difficult to maintain a government when you don’t have a central place.”

    The tribe will use the land to hold meetings, events, and celebrations. They will also use the forest to educate tribal and non-tribal children in traditional land stewardship such as sugaring and finding and using medicinal plants.

    “Part of our creation story is that the creator wanted us to be the stewards of the land,” said Don Stevens, Chief of the Nulhegan Abenaki. “After the land was taken from our ancestors, we were no longer able to be the stewards we were asked to be. Our hearts are heavy with that burden. With our own forest, we can pick up the soil, feel it, smell it, and know that our ancestors walked on this land and it is ours to protect. For this land, we are able to fulfill our promise.”

    There is currently a small sugaring operation on the land. The tribe plans to expand sugaring and grow produce using small-scale traditional Abenaki agricultural methods in existing clearings. The forest will provide other economic benefits such as firewood for those in need, hunting opportunities, and a place to gather traditional medicinal plants.

    “In spring 2013, for the first time in two centuries, we will be harvesting sap as a community,” said Luke. “Our ancestors taught this art to the colonists. We will be able to produce the first syrup as a community, as did our ancestors who were on this land hundreds of years ago.”

    Currently, the Nulhegan Abenaki do not have any tribal income. Proceeds from sugaring will help the tribe invest in further stewardship of the land and will support a youth education program for tribal and non-tribal children.

    The land will also be the new home of the Seventh Harvest, a community garden/teaching program that has been operating on Luke’s personal land. This year they had eleven families participating, growing food in the traditional Abenaki way, where corn, beans and squash are planted in a mound of soil, arranged so each plant benefits the other. “When I first saw the land I came across a clearing,” remembers Luke about his initial visit to the new forest. “I picked up the soil and it was this wonderful humus. I knew right off this soil would grow amazing food.” He expects that between 15 and 20 families could grow food in the clearing as part of the Seventh Harvest program.

    The land also has a trail system, which will be open to the public for pedestrian recreation.

    “It is very exciting to be part of the creation of a new type of community forest in Vermont,” said Tracy Zschau of Vermont Land Trust. “It would not have been possible without the hard work of the Tribe, Abenaki Helping Abenaki, and a diversity of funders and supportive members of the public.”

    The acquisition and conservation of this land was supported by private donations, the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, the Vermont Community Foundation’s Innovations and Collaborations Grant program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the Competitive State Wildlife Grant Program, the VT Chapter of the Sierra Club, and the Open Space Conservancy Inc. (OSC).  OSC, an affiliate of the Open Space Institute, Inc. established the Community Forest Fund with a lead grant from Jane’s Trust to support the creation and expansion of community forests in northern New England.