Center for Research on Vermont
Moccasin Village Project, The : Reconstructing the History of French-Abenaki Communities on the Winooski Intervale
March 26, 2007
| Length: | 1:45:47 |
| Next Air Dates: | No upcoming airtimes are currently scheduled |
Tags:
Winooski Intervale, VT Eugenics Project, Moccasin Village Project, French-Abenaki communities, Abenaki storytelling, Abenaki cultureProgram Description:
The French-Indian people in Chittenden County lived in small neighborhood communities identified by names known only to them, and Moccasin Village in Burlington's Old North End was one of these. Despite repeated attempts at forced assimilation such as eminent domain, increased taxes, institutionalization, and eugenics, the Abenaki oral tradition of storytelling has allowed these communities and their ancestral traditions to endure beneath and within an external French-Canadian identity. Judy Dow, who has deep ancestral roots to Moccasin Village, and Nancy Gallagher, author of Breeding Better Vermonters: The Eugenics Project in the Green Mountain State, began collaborating in 2004 in an effort to document and restore to public memory the history of Abenaki culture in Winooski Intervale communities and in Vermont at large. In this program they present their findings on the various means of adaptation to social, political, environmental, and economic changes that enabled the Abenaki culture to survive.
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