 Well, good morning. My name is TJ Dunham and I'm a Vermont's attorney general joined with me today is chief Don Stevens Representative Brian Chiena representative Tom Stevens representative Carol Odey rest for representative Jessica Brumstead. I am here to add my support and ask the Vermont legislature to pass H 716 which Representative Brumstead and representative Chiena are the sponsors of what H 716 would do would exempt members of the Abnaki tribe from paying a license fee for hunting and fishing in the state of Vermont Why I support this is simply because it's the right thing to do and we should look back at our history and Acknowledge it's the right thing to do In 2006 the Vermont General Assembly Formally recognized the Abnaki people They acknowledged that Vermont was originally the home to several indigenous Native American people now known as Western Abnaki Tribes who originally inhabited all of Vermont for hundreds of years beginning long before the arrival of Europeans The General Assembly also recognized that carefully maintained oral traditions show that native peoples have long lived in the Champlain Valley And that they demonstrate that the Abnaki people farmed Vermont's River Plains since 1100 they also hunted and fished this land for centuries and When European settlers came here and treaties were negotiated and did Dave share for my offices here who At the request of Don Steven asked us to do some legal and almost historical research into this issue The Abnaki people have always made a claim to hunt and to fish these lands and More important they always reserved their right to hunt and to fish These lands which is now Vermont is part of and when we look at it why this bill is appropriate now We are in a unique period of time in our nation's history We are going back and revisiting our history We're in a period of reconciliation. We're in a period of reckoning And in the spirit of that of understanding the history of our state Of understanding and acknowledging the history the proud history of the Abnaki people And recognizing that they've reserved these rights and have made this claim for hundreds of years For centuries the state of Vermont should simply recognize this claim And exempt them from these license fees because it is the right thing to do It is the right thing to do for the state of Vermont is the right thing to do For the Abnaki tribe and in the spirit of history and the spirit of reconciliation This bill should be passed. So chief i'm proud to stand with you I want to thank you for asking us to look at the historical record To look at the law to understand our history To acknowledge our history and to look back at our history As I said at this unique time where we are revisiting our history in so many different ways This is the right thing to do. So let's do it chief. I look forward to working with you I thank you for your leadership. I thank you for your friendship And I'll turn it over to you. Thank you. I appreciate that tj Did you want to put something up you can before I start Oh, no worries Thank you. There you go Great Well, I want to say kway greetings Today today is a really a historic day In the grand it seems like an average day, but today is a historic day I mean we all acknowledge and we see what's happening in the nation today is that there's still a lot of hate and lateral violence But it really brings me hope In working with tj over these last Year or close to it on trying to get people to acknowledge Our sovereign rights And of hunting and fishing that we never ceded That we we As a people Have struggled since before europeans are here And there's always been like I said a lot of hate and lateral violence, but vermont Has risen above the national level You have the legislators you have the the the state departments including the attorney general's office where where there was adversarial relationships before We have found a way to get above that And work in partnership to uplift people and to acknowledge our rights I also want to say that For the people who always fear what they don't understand We are not asking for anything special This the fish and wildlife department already gives free licenses to senior citizens They already give licenses to the veterans of this of this Great, you know country they give they give free licenses to disability people with disabilities All we're asking is to people that the state of vermont honors our ancient agreements Of vermont before vermont was even a state That we always retained our rights to hunt and fish our sovereign rights to hunt and fish And as a tribal leader we try to work in a government-to-government relationship with the state of vermont And the state of vermont has been and as you see as we continue to uplift they reject Violence against minority people They are trying to do the right thing and this is a huge step in our history And and with the attorney general's office And all I can say is that I urge The legislators to follow And without the legislators support of doing this we would still be in the same place we are and now that the The fish and wildlife are coming out saying there's not enough hunters in the woods That we're we're seeing a lot of people that aren't going into the woods anymore that we see That The governor wants to bring in more tourism and also mentioned to bring more hunting and fishing People to come and enjoy the outdoors and also that They're having a hard time managing to deer her Well, we're here on our rights. Let us come. There are people that live out of state Our citizens that would love to come in and be able to hunt guess what they'll spend money in lodging They'll spend money on items They'll actually help and we might even be able to bring in some educational funds if we work with the fish and wildlife department To do to provide education, right? So i'm not going to continue To stay up here a long time, but I just want to say you're right. It's the morally the right thing to do We acknowledge the fact that you had the Wherewithal to stand up as the attorney general in the state of remont and acknowledge that And to urge that the legislators and the governors follow through with a commitment of our ancient agreements and honor those And we're not taking anything away from people It's just giving us the rights that we already agreed to way back when and just to allow us to be able to sustain our people because We live off the land. We're one with nature. We just want to have our rights recognized So, thank you Orioni Thank you Thank you, chief Stevens next I'd ask again one of the Co-sponsors of this bill was representative Brian Sheena from the city of Berlin to say a few words Representative Jessica brumstedt from shelbert is also a co-sponsor. We thank you both for your leadership representative. Sheena Thank you We're we're at a time in our history Where we can no longer Ignore what has happened in the past and we have an opportunity now To make things right in the present so that we can have a better future for everyone And in this time, there's a lot that we could be doing as a state To reconcile what happened in the past And um, and there's many ways we could be doing that. We did Change columbus day to indigenous peoples day as one way of recognizing And uncovering What really happened in history and honoring who was here first We're we're standing on lands that were have been inhabited by abanaki people for thousands of years And we need to recognize that in every possible way And in everything we do And so as part of moving towards reconciliation and and towards a better future We have to take action to make things right We need to apologize as a state for the harm that the state has caused towards abanaki people And in addition to an apology, we need to take actions to make amends And one of those actions A simple action Is to allow abanaki people to hunt and fish And to get free licenses from the state It's the least we can do as a state to begin to make things right And and we and we need to honor the cultural and religious practices And freedom of abanaki and all other indigenous people And acknowledge that hunting and fishing is more than sustenance. It's a sacred act Thank you Thank you representative chena Next representative carol odi from brollington is a member of the committee of jurisdiction and i'd ask representative odi to say a few words Thank you tj It is The house natural resources fish and wildlife committee that will be taking up this bill We look forward to doing so and i am personally Very pleased to be able to work on this bill. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you representative odi Before i open it up for questions. I just want to acknowledge because I know we'll get this question I know representative odi will get this question We're going to be talking about revenant And this does not exempt the abanaki people from the hunting or fishing regulations. It's just to the fee And I went online this morning and a five-year fee for Fishing is 134 dollars for a five-year license 134 bucks for hunting combination. You get a bit of a deal. It's 229 bucks for five years I don't think we're talking a lot about a lot of money here I think as chief steven said I think as representative chena pointed out That this is an opportunity for us just to acknowledge the history of this state The tradition and culture of the abanaki people And a recognition that they have always reserved their right to hunt and fish on these lands Long before we came here and continue to assert that that reservation of rights during the time when europeans came And treaties were negotiated They always made the claim to hunt into fish and today We simply seek to acknowledge it and i'm proud to stand with you chief and members of your tribe So with that charlie, do you want to say anything? Sure? Sure This is charlie delaney Hi, um I'm a citizen of the uh, know he can call us luck tribe I considered an elder now It was many years ago This come this bill comes full circle for us many years ago we had a A fishing where we're given citations and arrested uh, I was one of many people who went in front of judge will check and our and they State of remand at that point in the legal system Recognized our aboriginal, uh, rights or created that question for us to go forward And uh, and all the years that have been sued There was a lot of things that we we didn't realize or didn't think that would be possible For this day and things like this to happen But it's because of the, um, state of remand Realizing changes here The leadership that we have today with our chief And other people that have worked hard on this It wasn't just one person. It wasn't just me. It was many people over many years For us to have this relationship with the state of remand And it's something that that it's good going forward And there'll be other things in the future that will be asking support on And we appreciate Who we are today? We appreciate the state of remand and and what it has to do And uh, I thank you for that Oh Thank you charlie Finally, I asked carol mcgranahan to come up and Say a few words carol Hi, i'm carol mcgranahan, and i am chair of the remand commission on native american affairs I want to thank everyone who has been involved the legislature the Especially brian has worked closely with us Chief and all the other members of the commission and members of our apenaki community For making this possible I think the probably the most historic and impactful event Was when we were recognized as being here and being a people And that was the opening of the door We now have our display here in the state house. We have indigenous people's day And with this hunting and fishing Bill and several others that are before the legislature We're going to continue to make progress form relationships And It's it's all positive. I can't thank you enough for everything Thank you Thank you Before I open into questions again, I just want to thank Rumstead and representative china for co-sponsoring this bill. I believe representative web From shellburn and representative carol odi. Thank you for being here and the invitation to For your committee to take this bill up under consideration. We appreciate that invitation With that we'd open it up for questions That these rights aren't legally valid I think when you get into the treaties which we've gone through and whether or not they apply Because as a successor government as the chief said, you know, that's an open question I I think the fact of the matter is that I support this and we hope that any legal question Is resolved by passage of the bill As far as the logistics those who are eligible the license is free To go somewhere and pick up the tag Yeah, yeah, this is this is just the license feed all other regulations apply And Yeah, sorry. I'll answer some of that as well We have a great relationship with the fish and wildlife service. If you don't know we carry eagle feathers You know, we have cultural permits And we work closely with the with the fish and wildlife department So we would do the same as what they do in the federal Arena is that we would certify That the citizen is an enrolled citizen of our tribe and that would give the fish and wildlife the Certification knowing that they were legitimate. If that's what you want to call it A citizen of one of our recognized tribes because this pertains to the four recognized tribes in the state So since we know who our people are we would certify that they are an enrolled member Of our tribe or enrolled citizen and then we would they would provide that to the fish and wildlife department And then they would be able to issue that that tag So we would still be involved with that and hopefully we would also be involved with some of the educational We already do educational things at camp kehoe and and dead creek days and a few things So we work pretty closely with the fish and wildlife department. So it's it's not like a willy-nilly thing So that's why I said it's not really affecting a lot of people or or and having a valid license The enforcement the law enforcement team or the fish want game wardens would still be able to enforce it and not have to determine Who's who so it's just like you said, it's just the fee Like they provide every other senior citizen or other people with free licenses We'd just be another category in that in that free license system and and every all the processes would still stay in place So it shouldn't be that intrusive Yes, roughly how many people would be affected by this? Well, it depends right? I mean, we have probably about 6,000 people in tribal roles throughout the state But not everybody hunts and fish some people already get free licenses because they're senior citizens Some people are already active military who get the licenses. So we're not talking a huge number It's not going to be all of a sudden A drain as as we said on the system It's just honoring our rights But also there are a lot of people that are citizens our territory goes from Turner's Falls mass up into lower Canada across New Hampshire and to moosehead lake in main Right now even the governor had said he would like to get more people in the woods and increase the number of people To help manage the deer herd Well, we have non Vermont residents that are citizens of ours that would love to come and hunt And and and be on our property up in up in the northeast kingdom and around Vermont And that they would come in and they would they have to have a place to stay They have to eat that they would bring some revenue in as well. So it might even offset whatever Costs that might happen No questions. Yeah Yes, and I'd ask the representative Stevens to speak on that Sure, thank you Um Yes, we are actively looking at that Is a joint resolution right now in the language in that is very simple As it should be We've taken a long time Very long time to apologize for the eugenics survey UVM made it an apology last year To start this process, but and here in the state house We started 10 years ago with one that actually was put together prior to recognizing the Abenaki tribes And we know that the Abenaki were really A target of this eugenics survey along with french canadians or or The names that we don't we take have taken out of the statutes feeble minded Miss not miscreants, but just people who are considered subhuman essentially Huge mistake in our dark dark history here in the state of Vermont So the language that we're working on is very simple Um, but we're still taking testimony on it. We're still taking recent We're making research on it We're trying to find out exactly how far this this research went to make sure we get it right and to make sure we do it with humility and regret and make sure that it's an honest Apology from the state at least from the general assembly's perspective And hopefully as a whole government what we did in the 20s 30s and 40s was Was terrible Simply terrible and we need to make amends and so listening To folks whose families were affected by this is an important part of it and getting them getting the history right Is an important part of it. So we're in the process of doing that now other questions Well, I want to thank again chief Stevens and the Abenaki people for your advocacy For your courage and for your leadership. I want to thank you for pushing our office for For taking a look at this. I want to thank Dave share From my office who looked at these treaties There's a lot of them and They're unclear And they're really old And I would just say from a personal note, you know, this this was fascinating as somebody who loves history But acknowledging that the history we may know is not always accurate And that we have to be cognizant of the lived experience of people who would be here before us To reconcile their experience with the history that we think we know And to do the right thing and that's why we're here today Not only on this bill, but certainly as representative Stevens So eloquently talked about Saying sorry goes a long way. You know, we should never be afraid to do that so I certainly support that resolution and it supports The right of the Abenaki people to be exempt from fees because it's the right thing to do and we should have the courage to do it Thanks for being here