Indigenous tribes on either side of the US-Canadian border are arguing over who’s entitled to compensation from Ben & Jerry’s for its Vermont headquarters, which some say is on stolen land.
Chief Rick O’Bomsawin of Quebec-based Abenaki Bank Council of Odanak told The Post that if Ben & Jerry’s plans to return land to indigenous tribes, his group should get it.
“That is my territory,” the Canadian head of The Post told Friday. “The territory they speak of is definitely my people’s territory. This territory is our homeland.”
O’Bomsawin’s comments got here in response to recent claims by Nulhegan Ban of Vermont’s Coosuk Abenaki Nation, whose boss said he could be fascinated with returning the land.
Don Stevens, head of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation, one among 4 Abenaki tribes recognized in Vermont, told The Post last week that Ben & Jerry’s should contact him if he starts “truthfully” dialogue concerning the return of the earth.
But O’Bomsawin says the Vermont tribe that received state recognition of its claim to Native lineage did so based on “rumours.”
“They can not prove any connection to the Abenaki people,” the top of The Post told. “The Abenaki people left Vermont and Latest Hampshire [some three centuries ago] and moved to Canada.
The query of who’s the rightful owner of the land on top of which Ben & Jerry’s is positioned gained momentum after the ice cream giant tweeted on July 4 that the US was “stolen land of indigenous peoples.”
The tweet, which sparked widespread outrage, also prompted a Canadian tribe to publicly declare that it’s the rightful owner of the land where Ben & Jerry’s is positioned.
“Wobanaks [another spelling of Abenaki] The nation agrees that compensation is due for the land,” the Canadian tribe said in an announcement after a council meeting on Monday.
“But have in mind that Odanak and Wôlinak are the one two officially recognized Abenaki communities,” the Canadian tribe added. “It’s subsequently necessary that compensation isn’t distributed amongst self-proclaimed Abenaki groups.”
Earlier this 12 months in March O’Bomsawin he invited tribes from Vermont who claim to be of the identical lineage to meet for talkscontinuing to claim that they’ve not released genealogical and historical evidence showing that they’re Abenaki.
This week’s statement from the Canadian Tribe was the primary reported Newsweek.
In response, a spokesperson for the Vermont-based group countered that “it’s unlucky that a non-US legal entity is interfering in a conversation out of the country for political and financial gain.”
A representative of the Vermont-based Abenaki Alliance told The Post that the group “was never our motivation” to seek compensation, but nevertheless met the state’s recognition criteria after presenting documents proving its genealogical heritage.
The alliance is “accountable for Indigenous matters that involve the Vermont homelands,” and Ben & Jerry’s July 4 message “regarded a Vermont-based corporation within the Abenaki homelands, now referred to as Vermont,” the spokesman added.
Stevens told The Post in an interview last week that he “looks forward to any correspondence with the brand to see how they’ll higher profit indigenous peoples.”
Stevens said Ben & Jerry’s should contact him because the corporate’s headquarters, positioned at 30 Community Dr. in South Burlington, Virginia, positioned within the Western Abanaki area.
“If you happen to take a look at [Abenaki] traditional way of being, we’re people connected with the place. Before the recognized tribes within the state, we were those who were on this place,” Stevens said, adding that the Abenaki see themselves as “stewards of the land.”
The post asked for comment from Ben & Jerry’s.
Additional reporting by Shannon Thaler