Abenaki Health and Heritage Inc
Indigenous continuity and community-based wellness.
About
Abenaki Health and Heritage Inc (AHH) is an association of tradition bearers and keepers who have dedicated themselves to discovering, learning, and sharing their ancestral and modern culture in order to improve the health and wellbeing of the American Abenaki people. They believe that ethnically legitimate indigenous ways and knowledge are critical to the individual and collective wellbeing of the Indigenous community. That belonging and connection are the best emotional and psychological defenses against a chaotic and traumatic world. The people involved with Abenaki Health and Heritage Inc have learned over the years that a healthy Abenaki ethnic society requires a holistic nurturing and understanding of the culture, the environment, and the people. A strong belief that cultural practice and Indigenous community wellbeing are one and the same.
Meet our Board
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Descendant of the Highgate Springs LaFrances, who sold utility baskets, hunted, trapped, and fished the lake, marsh, and uplands of the lower Missisquoi Valley -- and who were noted by deceased elder Cecile Wawanolet of Odanak as being fluent in Abenaki. He is a bearer of not only his family’s heritage but its suffering through the hardships following the Eugenics Years, down to recent lateral oppression. Perhaps because of this significant Indigenous subsistence and craftworking heritage, Chris has for been on the board of directors at the Sportsman's Club of Franklin County for 32 years and has held many positions, most recently Eagle Scout Board of Review Chair in the Three Rivers District of the Green Mountain Council, Boy Scouts of America. He has been very active in the American Abenaki revival, first through his insatiable thirst for understanding his People, community, history and ecology, as well as sharing that personal and community knowledge in important venues such as the spring, 2023 Abenaki Heritage Press Conference. Chris has sat on at three Boards of Directors of Abenaki NGO’s and currently chairs two. Chris brings this package of extensive battle-hardened leadership and traditional experience to his position as Chair of the Board of Abenaki Health and Heritage, Inc.
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Steve was born to a deep-rooted Indigenous lineage focused within the Highgate and Swanton areas of North Western Vermont. He spent all of his summers in Vermont with his great Aunt and Uncle. It was clear to him at an early age that his ancestors and family shared a special connection to the land. This was evident in the rich, family stories shared with him about farming, fishing, and trapping. Some of his fondest memories are of the many hours spent with his great Uncle Edwin. Steve saw first hand how his uncle planted in mounds and fertilized his garden with suckerfish. His uncle meticulously saved seeds and honored his garden. He was in awe of how his Uncle effortlessly fished with homemade implements on the Missisquoi River in Swanton. With his uncle, Steve spent hours riding through Highgate, listening to stories about his Morits and Barrett ancestors that lived in camps along the Rock River and in the Highgate woods. Steve would explore the vacant chicken coops and back “shed”that was attached to the little house in Swanton that he would visit. There he remembers seeing ash splint utility baskets, paddles, and a couple of birch bark canoes. His detailed family knowledge of Indigenous fishing and horticulture is complemented by his enthusiasm for learning new things such as Wabanaki healing-drumming, Abenaki history and worldview and exquisite wampum carving. His sharing Indigenous family heirlooms have complemented personal memory to become very important elements of Abenaki cultural revitalization. Steve has been an educator in Connecticut for 28years. He is currently an elementary school Principal serving over 500 students from Preschool to Grade 5. He is serving as the Treasurer for two non-profit groups, Abenaki Health and Heritage and Vermont Cultural Conservancy. The time spent as a youth with his ancestors and current focus on drum healing has him grounded and more closely connected to the earth.
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Fred lives in the house built in Swanton by his grandfather in 1909 and comes from generations steeped in the hunting and fishing lore of the Lower Missisquoi River Valley. Because of this experience, Fred had the fortune to learn little known stories, worldview and skills from many long-gone mid-20th century American Abenaki elders, herbalists, hunters and fisherfolk. Indigenous heirlooms from his great-aunt’s family have figured in Wabanaki Confederacy, Seven Nations, and other international ceremonies in the United States and Canada. He has been producer and associate producer of movies about American and Canadian Abenaki history and culture, is author of peer- reviewed historical works, has been museum curator and director, College Department Chair, and led Abenaki cultural organizations. Wiseman received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Abenaki Artists’ Association for his intertribal service in securing Vermont Abenaki tribal recognition, and received an honor ceremony by the Chiefs, Children, and Elders of the Sipayik and Indian Township Passamaquoddies for his years of service in horticulture, history and culture revival to their communities.
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Bonita has the unique experience of growing up in Vermont Abenaki Culture and also expressing it publicly with no shame or fear. From a young age, she danced, sang, learned language, performed, and practiced culture taught from Jeanna Brink, Jesse Bruchac, Fred Wiseman, and many other culture-bearing Abenakis. Bonita traveled on the Abenaki education dance and culture circuit from the late 1990s in both the Swanton-based Rainbow Dance Group and then Brink’s W’Abenaki Dancers. She has also starred in three documentaries “Against the Darkness” in 2005 and "1609: The Other Side of History" Documentary” in 2008 by Dr. Frederick M. Wiseman, and "Waban-Aki: People from Where the Sun Rises” by Alanis Obomsawin. This profound lived Indigenous experience led to her being chosen as the youngest witness to testify on the record for Vermont state recognition. Bonita has earned her B.A. from Dartmouth College and her M.S. from the University of Edinburgh, both degrees in Environmental Studies/Science. During that time, she conducted the first known needs assessment in the Missisquoi community regarding domestic and sexual violence in partnership with Voices Against a Violence. She also managed a library of unique and out-of-print materials for Abenaki language preservation at the Ndakinna Education Center in Greenfield, NY. Since graduating, Bonita has continued to invest in her community, both through cultural practices (sun dancer during the Green Corn ceremony) and non-profit work. In 2022, she was the MC at the 2022 intertribal cultural awareness program at the Leahy Center/ECHO Lake Aquarium in Burlington and at the 2023 Abenaki intertribal Heritage Press Conference at the nearby Seventh Generations Hall. Along with Chan, Bonita is the face of the ancestral Abenaki future.
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Joanne's Indigenous kin hail from the Highgate Springs area and throughout Northwestern Vermont. She is a keeper of community and family stories about Indigenous life along the border. She recently retired as Chief of the St. Francis Sokoki Band (Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi) after serving on the Board of Directors of the tribe's nonprofit, Maquam Bay of Missisquoi for many years. In her role at the Vermont Department of Mental health, she has worked to highlight the need to address the historical and intergenerational trauma within the Abenaki community through a variety of programming. She also Chairs the State of Vermont Abenaki Equity Workgroup which strives to ensure equity for the Abenaki People in State of Vermont programming, services, and resources. For the last two years she served as a Schweitzer Mentor at the UVM Larner College of Medicine, working with medical students to understand the need for educating medical providers about the unique health needs of the Abenaki People. Currently, she is on the Advisory Board for the Vermont Public Health Institute whose mission is to promote innovative approaches to health equity through community-based and evidence-informed strategies to improve the health of all Vermonters. The desire to improve the health of the people in her community has also led to her efforts to create an illustrated book to address historical and intergenerational trauma in the community and to co-author an heirloom American Abenaki cookbook with the hopes of returning some traditional recipes and crops to the Abenaki community.
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Chan is Joanne’s son and has always been aware of his unique heritage. Although still a graduate student, he is already an accomplished dancer, having working with tradition bearers and elders to perfect dance movement and regalia. His spirit and expertise as a craftsperson in wampum work allowed him to rebuild a Great Council Alliance Belt, intertwining academic skills and tradition in his learning journey. He specializes in analyzing historical records and genealogical data, some of which has led to major breakthroughs in documenting early and mid-20th century American Abenaki cultural and genealogical history. Along with Bonita, Chan is the face of the ancestral Abenaki future.
