Two Abenaki First Nations headquartered in Canada contest the legitimacy of Vermont’s state-recognized tribes. How are Vermont lawmakers responding? 

Last October, Brave Little State published “Recognized”: a three-part investigation into contested claims that Vermont’s four state-recognized tribes are not legitimate. The Abenaki First Nations making those claims have called on Vermont lawmakers to reconsider the state recognition process. 

Reporter Elodie Reed followed up on her original reporting and shared her findings with The Frequency podcast host Mitch Wertlieb. We’re resharing their conversation here.

You can find a transcript of that conversation here.

You can listen to the entire “Recognized” series here. 

This story was reported and produced by Elodie Reed, with help from Mitch Wertlieb. The Brave Little State team is Josh Crane, Burgess Brown and Sabine Poux. Angela Evancie is Brave Little State’s Executive Producer. 

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P.S. This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the response of Vermont's state-recognized tribes to scrutiny of the state recognition process. Additional context has also been added about genealogical documentation cited — but not made public — in state recognition applications.