New Indian Commission chair supports amending state recognition bill
Proposal includes adoption of UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples
By Gale Courey Toensing
Story Published: Feb 13, 2010

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Four years after the state legislature passed a bill establishing the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs, the commission is still struggling to establish its statutory authority “to recognize the historic and cultural contributions of Native Americans to Vermont, to protect and strengthen their heritage, and to address their needs in state policy, programs and actions.”

The reason for the long delay? The original bill that created the commission – S. 117 – was flawed. It recognized Vermont’s Abenaki “people” and “all Native American people who reside in Vermont as a minority population” instead of specifically naming the St. Francis/Sokoki Band of Abenaki Indians of Missisquoi and other Abenaki bands and tribes as state recognized tribes.

That language doesn’t meet the criteria for Native artists to label their productions under the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act.

 Now Charles Delaney-Megeso, the commission’s new chairman – the third since 2006 – is hoping amendments to An Act Relating to Recognition of Abenaki Tribes will be passed during this legislative session.

Delaney-Megeso, a Mazipskwik (Missisquoi) Abenaki who describes himself as a traditionalist, joined the commission in September 2008. Last November, Gov. Jim Douglas appointed him as the commission chair.

An advocate and activist for indigenous rights for decades, Delaney-Megeso was the Missisquoi St. Francis/Sokoki Abenaki Band’s ambassador to the Vermont and U.S. governments during part of the 1990s.

He was an indigenous representative to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2002 – 2004, and helped draft the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.