 Good morning everybody. Welcome to House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee. We have a list of witnesses for the next hour and a half or so testifying on JRH-71. When we introduced this bill, we had said that we not only want but need to hear testimony from affected people whose communities have been affected by the eugenics survey and this bill, this resolution which is being treated as a bill is our work towards having a general assembly apologize for what is this strongly discredited science and the impacts that it had on families in many different categories of the monitors. So we have a list of folks here today who are willing to testify just to be clear because I see a lot of new faces or we've had a lot of conversations obviously amongst ourselves and I just want to let you know what we're working with in terms of the process. Number one, states never apologized for anything at this level for this kind of action that we took as a state government. To our knowledge, no one who's been in the building for 35 years or less has any idea and we can't find anything. So this is new territory for us. Number two, because of that and because of the importance of it is our stated desire to get this as right as we can. It's a resolution. A lot of people think, oh, it's just like celebrating your basketball championship team. And it's not. It's a bill. So the language that we shared with people yesterday and that we're working on for now is incomplete. It requires further listening and hearing to make sure that we're on the right path or that we're on a path that is at the very least sufficient for right now. We're not going to pass this bill until it's ready. And that said, and the process will be, once we pass it out of our committee, it goes to the floor and it's talked about, debated as if it's a regular bill. It's not read as the apology because it's not official. Then it goes to the Senate. I trust that they would have a similar set of hearings. And then when the Senate, once the Senate approves it, then the question is, how do we have a ceremony that is an apology? And we're still working on that. We don't know. It won't be. We won't be signing this in a closet. We won't be doing this. We will be doing this in a way that honors what an apology is for. I just want to make sure that's clear that our intent is true and that we want to make sure that we're doing this not just because it's a feel-good thing, but it's the right thing to do. Along with an apology or immediately following an apology, we know through the rest of the justice practices that actions are necessary. I have the intent of working with leadership closely on this. It's finding out what does that mean because one of the debates that we've had in this committee is, well, here is an apology and it should stand alone. There should be no promises in that apology in and of itself. There should be no qualifiers. And so the next step is, so what's next? And I requested a committee bill that will establish a panel of people to determine how to form a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which I would envision that commission would not be a part of the government because we should not be a part of what the next steps are in terms of what we hear the next steps are. And so that would be put forward. And then there are a series of smaller bills that are out there, small and large bills that are on our wall and on other walls that we can take action on and at least at the very least say we will strongly consider them and then it goes through the legislative process which can be fast sometimes and it can be slow sometimes. It will be in depth. There will be no simple little bills that address any of this moving forward. So that's where we are as a committee. And this is a very important step for us and I appreciate you coming and sharing thoughts that we will testify today. And if anybody wants to testify further, please let us know and we will make it through. Chief Don Stevens is here. Please, we'll start with Don. He has an appointment downstairs to actually testify on the Fishing Rights Bill. And then we'll go through. Representative Don, you should be here relatively soon to testify. And then we have other folks. Welcome. Thank you Mr. Chairman and to the committee. Glad to see you again. The thing that I want to say is we've had issues. How has this really affected us? I think from personal levels and from cultural levels it has affected us a great deal. I want to say at the outset is that we are not victims. You'll never hear a victim coming out of my mouth. We are survivors of something that was done to us. We don't like playing that victim card. We are, like I said, we are survivors. Our ancestors are tough. We've endured a lot of things and we are here to honor our ancestors and the people who have come before us. And to make sure that our children have an easier path just like anybody else. So the eugenics survey has affected my family directly. And that's actually what got me into being where I am today. My grandmother died in 1994. I knew my grandmother well. We had coffee, we had donuts, we had all the kind of things that anybody would have with their grandmother. She was not proud of who she was because she was listed on the eugenics sterilization paperwork as being a cripple. She was born as Lillian May and then she was put into an orphanage and was taken out by her older brother. Then she had changed her name to Pauline to avoid the survey and she died as Lillian. She had to change her name three times in order to avoid the eugenics survey. I have all of my eugenic records for my family, including this pamphlet that you see up on the wall. I wanted to show you how human this is. I have letters and stuff in my pocket I didn't want to send to you guys because it has names on them. From the state of Vermont requesting information from Harriet Abbott would request information from the state and from all of the agencies, how they track people. And there's even some references where they said that I'm surprised I don't know how many hawks have carried them away. And I have a list of the defects as they listed us as even if you were a popper you would be considered a defect. So I can pop that in if you want, if you need it, if you don't that's okay. But I wanted to show you this is a pamphlet from 1927. Does that symbol on there make stuff jump out at you? That's from the state of Vermont. That's a pamphlet from the state of Vermont. And as you were aware, as I had mentioned prior, is that if people aren't aware, Nazi Germany was very in tune with the Eugenics program in Vermont and national. Because it wasn't just a Vermont program, it was a national program. But he was very interested on how people were tracked, how they could track people. And obviously in the 1940s, we all know what happened. So in 1931 the sterilization act took place by this legislative body. But if you notice that pamphlet in 1927, I have letters from the Eugenics Survey starting in 1926. That's just on my family. So it started well before 31. So it affected my family deeply. So I'm going to circle back that my grandmother wasn't proud of who she was and she died in 1994. Before my mother died, because she used to get ridiculed and picked on for being native. I wanted her to be prouder heritage. I wanted her to stand in public, dance in a circle, and hold her head up. So I got involved to try to change things. And that's when I was appointed to the First Commission on Native American Affairs by Governor Douglas. And I served another term, partial term after that. And Tom knows the history. He's been here for a long time. So I was in a lot of other legislators that's been around. And we also worked with Ann Donahue in 2010 to start the first Apology of the Eugenics Program, which got shelved in the committee and never came out. So we've been working on this for a long time to make sure that this bill comes... And it's not because we want something special, right? I like analogies, and this is what I did when I worked with Tom Sullivan from UVM who gave us that apology last year. I said, if you always worry about what's going to happen and how to treat the wound, you might die of the infection from that wound. In order to heal, you have to rip the band-aid off and treat the wound, even though it's painful, so that way it heals and you can move forward. What I'm hoping with this bill, we're not looking for any grand scheme of things. We just don't want it to happen again. This legislative body recognized the Abenaki people as an Indian tribe in the United States in 2011. And unfortunately, I know this may not be popular, but only dogs, Indians, and horses need to have pedigree to prove who you are. That's sad in this country. But you also have the power to take recognition away if you don't like something, because we got recognized by you. What it can be given can be taken away. I'm hoping that part of this bill is that you will never try to eliminate us ever again, or cause us to go extinct ever again. This is why this is important. This is because of a whole race of people, a whole race of people. And I'm bringing the human aspect of my grandmother here, who sits with us, to say, we deserve to be who we are. We deserve to be recognized. We're the only race that cannot self-declare. So which I'm not going to go into that, but I'm saying is, but we want us to never be eliminated ever again. So an apology goes a long way of asking that the state never do anything to remove our existence, whether it be by sterilization, whether it be by removing recognition. We're asking for a partnership, an equal partnership to uplift people. That's all. We're not asking for a whole bunch of stuff. Give me, give me, give me. It's about just acknowledging the fact that something bad happened. We won't do it again. And the reason I go down that road is because that affected our culture. Because of this sterilization program, my grandmother had to change her name three times. What do you think it's done to other families outside of mind? And they say, well, they haven't actually weren't visible. Well, why not? Are you going to raise your hand when somebody might want to sterilize you, or put you in the poor farm, or put you in St. Joe's orphanage, or Brandon's School for Boys, or the Vermont Industrial School, the Vermont State Prison? That's where we all went when we didn't comply. So I'm trying to say is that we are not looking, we are looking for being given the promises that were made to us a long time ago. That's why I'm testifying on the hunting and fishing bill. Those are in statute, I mean, in deeds and land grants, but we're just asking the state to honor those agreements, right? We're not asking for something special. So I'm just trying to say we're not here for, give me these, give me that. It's the right thing to do. And that's what I told Congress to solve it. If you do nothing else in your legislative career, apologizing for a wrong that the state had done, you've owned up to it, you've moved forward, and that's something you can go to bed at night and say, you know what, it's okay to be wrong, but let's not repeat it. Let's say sorry. And that's why I'm showing you this because we know by that symbol how far a little act can go. And I'm not even going to try to understand why that symbol is on a state of Vermont pamphlet. All I know is I wanted to show you how a little thing can end up going horribly wrong and just to remind you of the human aspect of the destruction it has. So a lot of our people had to either go and do their culture underground or they assimilated because if they could take, if they could become anything other than Indian, they might have a chance at survival. And that's what it's about, surviving. You do what you have to do to survive and for your kids. I'm here today because my grandmother did what she had to do because she was sterilized. My mother wouldn't be here and either would I. It's personal to me. Very personal. Look at what we've done for our people. Just one family. There's many families that are doing a lot. Lucy does Title VII Indian Education to help educate our people. We're trying to bring back and be part of the fabric of Vermont that we've always been. And we're just asking for help. An equal shake. An equal roll at the dice. And to never be eliminated ever again. And I'm going to leave it at that. And if you want any more documents that'll show anything, when it comes to my family in particular, you heard from Braden Brethrenmoner, probably Nancy Gallagher, that book was written about some of the Phillips as my family because we were huge targets of that. We still have a lot of hate out there with people saying race-shifting and fake and fraud and all these kind of things. Like, no, we proved ourselves. There's still hate out there. And because we have to prove ourselves, there will always be hate. So I'm asking for your support to never eliminate this. Again, I know I keep repeating it because it's important. And I just want to say thank you for letting me testify. And I'm always one phone call or email away. And I'm hoping that regardless if you pass this bill or not, or if it's ultimately passed, the mere act that you guys are taking it up and listening, we're making headway. I hope it's passed. And I look for opportunities to uplift us anytime that you have a bill. I'm hoping someday maybe we can have full-time places in the statehouse just like Maine does, where we can advise legislators on things about how this impacts our people or how it impacts the state or environment with the climate. So there are a lot of things we can do to help be a resource. But everything takes time. So thank you. If you have any questions, please. Were you able to take a look at the current version of the work? I did. And is there anything in there that stands out as insensitive or long or are we continuing on the path that you find sufficient? I think you're continuing on a path that's good because the real work starts after it's passed, right? Or even now, even if it's not passed, the mere fact that you will even listen to us or that you will even have us here testifying on bills or people were even taking up hunting and fishing rights or other things, we're making progress. So this is necessary because it's the right thing to do, but that's not going to change overall our relationships, right? It's going to make it better and stronger because we know you care that you're willing to say, I made a mistake and that we're not going to repeat that. We're going to uplift you. That's what this means. And I'm going to be right there to help you with that as much as I can and to work on building our relationships and building because what are we all here for? I'm here to uplift my people and my citizens. You're here to also uplift the citizens of Vermont, right? So Vermont's not going to get any less diverse. If anything, it's going to get more. There's going to be more disadvantaged people here. So the question is, how does the culture shift to be sensitive to that diversity while still keeping the roots of the original Vermonters and people who are here, right? So I think you're on a great path home and the committee, but I think we can always make things stronger and continue to work on things to help our people, all of our people. Because we all have a stake in this land. You might, you know, this is our land and this is, we care about our land and you care about Vermont too, right? I mean, we all care about making our state and our land strong. And we're in your sovereign, right? Vermont's the sovereign state. You can do what you want. Well, I'm saying you don't have to get caught up in the mess. That's why I'm proud of Vermont because they're not getting, you see how much anger and stuff against minorities and other things that's happening at a national level. You're actually trying to partner with us. I mean, that says a lot for Vermonters just in general. So, hey, Ann, how are you? I'm representative of Wall Street and Kulaki. I just want to also just remind Chief Stevens. The time? Yeah, they'll wait for me, they said. Okay, you mentioned a presence at the State House in Maine. Has the Native Americans had some kind of presence at the State House in Maine? Oh, they do. They have two, they had, or they do have, the State of Maine had said we want to hear from our Native voices. So they actually have two representatives from the Maine tribes. Well, I think one pass my body and one pass my body. And they advise, it's a full-time job that legislators can go to to say, how does this impact your people? Or what do you think about this? Or how do we meld it? And there was a big, they had walked off the thing because the governor was having a big conflict with them. But they do, the legislative body did say we need an office of Native American Affairs. We need one of those bills in. Or at least full-time representative. I have to leave here and go back to a normal job because I don't get paid as being cheap. But I do this because it's important. Well, then my follow-up was that the result of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, they had Maine. I believe it has something to do with that and also when they actually got recognized federally. I think it was part of all of that. And they continued to fight for representing their people. And that's all we're doing is equal representation. And we have something to give. Yeah, I grew up about 10 miles away from an obstacle. So yeah, pretty familiar with it. Yeah, so that's just one state. There's other states that have full-time lobbyists or representation. Okay, thank you. Yeah. John. Chief Good, may I ask some personal questions, Dr. Graham? Yes, please. You said she was listed on the survey as a cripple. Yes. And then she was taken away from her family and put in the orphanage? She was put in Washington in an orphanage in T.C. Yes. And did she have a disability? She did. She had polio when she contracted polio and it made one foot shorter than the other. And it left her with a boot on one side of that bay. And my mother actually, my mother and my father never graduated high school. I'm the first one to actually even graduate college. Is that she stayed home because she was the oldest girl to take care of her mother and prepare meals for the other children. My mother did. So my grandmother was bedridden for two years. But she had bouts where it would come back and she would be bedridden and all of this. But yes, I have the defect thing here if you need to see it that lists her. So she was forcibly removed from her family? I don't know the circuit. She was removed and put into an orphanage. I don't know the circumstances behind it. Okay. Because that's not in the eugenics records. That is from the family saying that she was taken from her home and put in Washington, D.C. in the orphanage and then taken out. I don't know the circumstances around that particular. I'm not saying the eugenics survey did that. How many years until your older brother was able to? I don't have a brother. Taken out by her brother. Her brother? Yeah. Her older brother. You said he was able to take her out of the orphanage? She was a teenager. I mean, she was there for a few years and then he took her out because he was older and then raised her. Because you have to think her mother and father. She's listed in all of the relatives up to that point. They would move around to avoid it. All of the other relatives, the royal gypsies and all kinds of things. But once she went into that, they kept doing their thing and the brother didn't want her staying there and picked her out and raised her. He was the oldest brother. Thank you for that. Yeah. If you were still around this evening, Brian Blanchett was before me. Right. Yeah. He's an Abenaki artist and he's doing parlor. at UVM they're actually going to grow our crops and I have a meeting at the horticultural farm tonight. I'm always unfortunately have a lot of things that go on. That's on the way home. That's a yes. That's a six. Thank you so much for sharing and we know we know where to find you. Yeah and thank you. Thank you for doing what you do. It's important. It's important work so. Okay, well I'm off. Thank you. Thank you. You picked up from 2010, right? Exactly. Welcome. Thank you very much Representative Andon. One of the co-sponsors and I appreciate so much that this committee is taking this up and recognizing the seriousness of it. And I know some people feel like apologizing for something we didn't do but we represent the state now. We are the state and I think one of the things we have to be conscious of is that this does apply to what we do now and really relates to I think the chief was just referencing as well. If you're a part of a disenfranchised community, you recognize that the members of that disenfranchised community may change but how we as a state, how we as a people respond often doesn't change unfortunately and I think one of the things in common both then and for some people now is the relationship of saying when we don't like your behavior or we're scared of you or we have images of you that are maybe not accurate. The answer is we should do something like institutionalize you or protect the public from you just based on that label and that's something that the psychiatric survivor community that I'm a part of feels very much today as well as in the past and when you look at the governor's comments, I shared some of those, the governor's comments back at the time eugenics editorials that were going around. It was all about you know we've got so many pressures keeping up these institutions so that we have these people locked up. We got to address that by not allowing more of their kind to be reproduced and that that was a big driver and identifying who were those insane connected directly to you are you are insane because you have poverty, lack of education, you're in a labeled group rather than what might be clinically accurately defined as somebody having a psychiatric disability. I did a lot of research a few years back trying to determine who the people were in the Vermont State Psychiatric Hospital Cemetery in Waterbury. There was unmarked graves in the cemetery and I was trying to restore their dignity by actually identifying and being able to say who they were and as a part of that I actually was able to identify a number of them and one of them was a woman who was deaf and I didn't know a lot about her personal history until actually an article was written by Associated Press and it actually went nationally about the work I had been doing and a couple years maybe within a year or later I got an email from a woman in Connecticut and she had read the article and she said that woman who was identified in the article she was my great great aunt and I have been trying for so long and for so many years to find out what happened to her and all we knew in our family history is that when she was about 20 years old that she was for family deaf and the family couldn't the family was very poor and she couldn't work or earn income they couldn't they couldn't sustain her and so we know she was institutionalized somewhere and that's the last we ever heard of her and obviously there's there's real parallels here in terms of how people get labeled at different times in history she actually she actually died in childbirth at the Vermont State Hospital and this woman said and now for the first time I know that it was not just my great great aunt but I had a relative that I never knew about this little baby that had been born but but also died childbirth so it's part of our history it it continues to be an issue for many disenfranchised communities today and I think the awareness of a resolution like this is really really important so I thank you for your work thank you and for your life on legislative life on advocacy for the psychiatric community so I'll ask you the same question I asked Chief Stevens especially considering that you worked on a previous version of an apology of it's important for us to get this as right as we can we were able to take a look at what we have what the working draft is now I mean obviously we're still not done with it but have you are you do you have thoughts about what we have so far yeah I think it's very good I think it's important to you know to to be inclusive and recognize it that it affected a lot of people to identify some of the groups that we know we're directly effective and I think the language you've you've been incorporated at this point it is good different groups were affected more severely than others we can't really pin that down or try to put a hierarchy so just recognizing the groups that we know were affected as I think the way you've done that is really very good I know you're right across the hall and so there's a pot hole for us to find I'm sure you'll help us find it I just want to ask who was the governor at the time that this bill was sorry do you know you mentioned oh rats I don't have it off the top my head but I sent all of you I think the there was a governor Wilson mentioned I'm not sure was it the one okay yeah okay it's in the documents that I followed and it's interesting I also from the research I had done you know ten years ago one of the things I sent you was the list of all these other states who had eugenics plus and they all had different and it goes to who's disenfranchised they had different groups who were targeted based on that particular state and who it was that they were perceiving as a threat in their in their state so it's interesting is I started doing research this year just about because the first question I had was how do you apologize and I just noticed that there was around 2000 the year 2000 between 2000 2004 there was a number of states that did apologize California and maybe North Carolina again for different populations right I had that list and I have not updated that I think maybe many others who have done it since then but that was it's interesting there was a there was a cluster of states that was in the air and then not so much really I mean since then thank you thank you for thank you for for sponsoring next up on our list we have Lucy and welcome back we know you're here on the day that we did the first walk through the bill so if you'd like to just introduce yourselves and yourself and just please share your story I'm Lucy Neil I'm a school nurse in Charleston Vermont West Charleston Vermont that's in the middle of nowhere pretty much if you've heard of the N.E.K. I'm also the Indian Education Coordinator from my tribe and we service North Country Supervisory Union and Orlean Central Supervisory Union my story my grandmother passed away when my dad was a month old when she left eight children and a farm and my father never was able to get that maternal nurturing as an infant he was sent to various relatives to be raised until he was old enough to go back to the farm to work my grandfather would talk about our need of heritage openly but a lot of the siblings wouldn't my oldest his oldest sibling which was my aunt was an undesirable because she did the ultimate horrible thing she had a child out of wedlock the child was taken away and put up for adoption and it psychologically impacted her for the rest of her life she married maybe six months later and ran a dairy farm and with her husband but she totally denied what had happened to her it was gone from her mind and she always blamed my uncle that it was his fault they could have kids she would have been an amazing mom I did research to try to find the child and I did I was very fortunate to be able to find Marie and she was raised by people that were not native and knew nothing of her heritage and she's 80 years old now and learning her who she is I do a curriculum in my title seven program I go from school to school in our area and I'm very cautious I guess is the word I want in the teachings for the early childhood and elementary we teach our culture we teach pre-contact but life was like here in Vermont then and then we move on to when Europeans came and how our culture changed and then natives today I'm I'm often asked if I live in a teepee and so true and middle school and high school the demographics is different eugenics does come up and I'm very delicate about it it's there it's real we need to own it everybody needs to own it I have a lot of mixed feelings that happen it's there I have some of my siblings that don't acknowledge their heritage and it's on both sides of my family my pepe on my mother's side when I was a girl would take me to pick gooseberries in New Port Center and when he'd come and get me I never had a container and I always thought he was a little special he would walk up to a tree and he talked to the tree and then he cut a piece of bark off the tree and then take little strips he'd sew up the sides he'd make me a canoe and that was my container to pick my gooseberries so we do that year after year after year when it came time for recognition I shared that story and they asked me how do you have your basket and your canoe and I said no I don't I said but you know I says I have the one he made my grandmother when they were dating and there's a little red cross marker and it circa 1932 so I used to take it and show it to the kids but I don't anymore it's very fragile anymore but the Department of Preservation has been very good in artifacts that they don't need anymore that I can show the kids and that they can touch my focus now I mean I know the past is the past it's happened we need to own it I wish I had gotten to know my grandmother I met with a one of my dad's cousins a few years back she's in her 90s and she remembers my grandmother and one of the traditions I'd say I wish I had more traditions that I could pass on to my kids because those are important and she said that every Christmas that my grandmother would make a fish soup and that was a tradition so I asked her if she had the recipe because that would make my heart happy and she didn't so that for me now is a goal you know for me it's fish soup now apology would be really nice I have mixed feelings on it I don't know how to explain that you know I mean what will it do yes we're sorry but it's done it caused a lot of heartache we can't forget so we need to teach it we need to we need to own it and deliver it I don't know what else to say I do have a question about do you work on finding out how to make a canoe oh yes I have that one right down to a science it's very very basic in my Indian education program we do a lot of after school we have a lot of kids that parents work till 5 o'clock so we provide a program for them it's babysitting yes but they're learning we our next semester this semester we did art and we did drum singing and drumming so they learned the to respect the drum and the etiquette for the drum and singing actually in May they're going to be we've been asked to perform on NPR for moccasin tracks at Goddard College and those kids are so psyched they can't stand themselves next semester we're going to be making drums and rattles and we're going to be working with Birchbark so they'll be able to do their designs on the Birchbark and does your work you're in a kingdom as is there's there's acreage that we have right in Barton and I think it's 65 acres on Mayfarm Road in Barton we harvest we use it my brother is a sugar maker so he has the lease on the land for making syrup and we have a contractual of arrangement there and so we get so much syrup that we can sell and he boils it for medicinal and eventually I'd like to see it as an outdoor classroom for the kids so that they can have more hands on for just the basics tree identification point identification tracking just the common little basic things I've been a Boy Scout for a hundred years so I do this to I've been the camp nurse at Norris for ten years and so it's in it's it's there so but kids need to learn just the basics because we've forgotten that and there may come a time where we're back to basics again where they need to learn how to cook over an open fire or use a Dutch oven or you know that kind of thing and I have fun doing it so thank you Mary first I want to thank you for your testimony and all that you do well it's it's difficult to forget what has happened do you feel that in time you would be able to accept our acknowledgement of a terrible deed and be able to move on yes why explain this the people that affected they're all gone now they've all passed away so those are the ones that need the apology and they're not here I guess that's the way I see it I have a lot to be thankful for and it's kind of like what you've Stephen said too we're survivors you know we get out there and we just we just do yes I would accept the apology your programs are really interesting and I wish they could be in all schools and do you offer access to your programs to all children in the schools under my title seven is for just Orleans County and Oksu and I do go to other schools I've been all over the state I've been to I've been to Bristol I've been here in this area in Burlington I've been to South World I've been to I get confused pull me somewhere near broader borough so I do travel and I do have a kit that I bring and yeah I go all over I think I was a little unclear in your own supervisory unions are all children able to access your program yes yes thank you and we're working on pollen school this work I was a school nurse also and it was it's close now and so we're hoping to have an educational area there just for us and and that would enable other schools to do a field trip and and come and see make a cultural area and an educational area and let other areas come so we're working on we have a lot of things happening thank you thank you thank you thank you next up I have Kirsten working welcome to Kirsten it's the first time you've been in our community and I'm sorry I didn't introduce everybody to everybody here representative Tom Stevens from Waterbury representative Wood suggested that I contact you it's accessible thank you very much representative our own virgins Radlesof and Barnard representative Lisa Hingo from Berkshire representative Marianne the military's one to me John Galaki South Burlington Tommy Walsh from Berry City Mary Howard from Rutland City chip triano from standard thank you very much so for the record my name is it's Kirsten Murphy that's how I choose to pronounce it and I'm the executive director for the Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council I'm a joint here today by my colleague Matt Sparrows who is the outreach director at Green Mountain self-advocates which is a quite a veteran being in the building indeed indeed although he's suffering from a toothache today so I'm gonna be the one testifying so just for context DD councils are a creature of federal law DD councils developmental disabilities councils exist in every state and territory and our goal is to ensure that public policy supports citizens with developmental disabilities to live meaningful lives of their own choice and inclusive communities I am first off very humbled to be here today in the presence of the others who have testified and I am acutely reminded that two of my three children if they had been born in a different time would have spent time in institutional settings or it certainly we would have been encouraged to do that I will also say that my two older children are both college graduates but their behavior and the labels that were put on them in early childhood still would have been more or less a straight line to institutional settings I very much appreciate the work you're doing on joint resolution seven and the council is fully in support of the work especially the ongoing work and the process that you outlined at the beginning of today's hearing it is important that the Vermont and the General Assembly take responsibility for this very troubling chapter in our state's history as I know you're aware eugenics is a pseudo science rooted in racism and ableism that purported to improve humanity by practices that would cause certain groups of people to have higher birth rates than other groups of people in Vermont that range from promoting increased family size for white Europeans and to marriage restrictions and the outright sterilization of people with disabilities the poor people of color and members of the abenaki tribes in adopting acts and resolves number 174 in 1931 the Vermont General Assembly created a legal path to a documented 253 sterilizations which is undoubtedly an undercount although the procedures were said to be voluntary in practice they were not at the Brandon training school for the so-called feeble minded were people with developmental disabilities and also people with psychiatric conditions often sent people were more or less required to undergo sterilization at some point in order as a condition of their release back into the community. Thankfully the science of genetics is advanced beyond a simplistic notion that genes determine human behavior or account for social constructs like race but we've made a lot less progress toward renouncing the attitudes that gave rise to eugenics in the first place and here I'll focus my comments on disability those similar things could be said about the other groups targeted by the genetics movement eugenics movement the strongest reason to make this long overdue apology is the fact that ableism and other is are still very much at work in Vermont to take just one slice of what that looks like I'm going to point to a an excellent study by the Vermont Department of Health in all categories survey heart disease cancer diabetes asthma all of the major causes of death the Vermont Department of Health has found that people with disabilities are twice as likely to experience these illnesses. To add to that picture note that reducing the rate of chronic conditions which are diseases that last for a long persistent time is one of only three metrics that Vermont has been asked to improve by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid through its health reform efforts. So it's considered important. Now note that 90% 9 out of 10 Vermonters with disabilities have at least one chronic condition and two thirds of adults with a disability have two or more chronic conditions. That's almost three times as often as adults without a disability who have chronic conditions at a rate of 23%. Given how important this metric these metrics are to Vermont's success in health care reform you would think that health care for people with disabilities would be top of mind. It is not. Now to be clear to state the obvious the increased incidence of disease for people with disabilities in almost all cases has absolutely nothing to do with the disability triggering such a condition. But everything to do with what society judges to be important for people with disabilities. Research also indicates that doctors are less likely to refer patients with disabilities for routine screenings like mammography or colonoscopy. And they are less likely to counsel people with disabilities about sexual health diet and health behaviors like exercise. One in five adults with a disability do not get the emotional support they need. This is a Vermont statistic and rates of depression in Vermont are three times higher for Vermonters with disabilities. Among people with intellectual disabilities specifically marriage is the exception and becoming a parent remains rare. The attitudes that underlie these facts are not that far removed from what drove the state sponsored eugenics policies. Some lives are more valuable than others. Some groups to procate some groups should not. While a necessary first step to be truly meaningful. This apology should raise questions about how as a state we do or do not truly support the groups targeted by eugenics in the 1920s and the 1930s. I note that when the University of Vermont issued a similar statement of apology. President Thomas Sullivan promised to provide ongoing educational initiatives aimed at ensuring that such a brave injustice never be repeated. Joint Resolution 87 provides a similar opportunity for self reflection and public education. And I believe that you've spoken of your commitment to that. Last fall a representative John Colacchi suggested to the Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council. The disability must be on the agenda in every legislative committee. Whether it's housing, public transportation, health care, human services, building codes, criminal justice. The disability community is underserved and struggling. I hope this joint resolution brings you a step closer to considering the many ways Vermont can address those inequities. Thank you. Did you have an opportunity to read the current draft? I did and think it's stronger than the first draft and think that you're on the right track. If you just think of something that can help us make it better, that would be great. Just contact us and let us know. But I thank you for your testimony. If I could put in a soft pitch tomorrow evening Thursday, we're having a storytelling event in the cafeteria. We'll have 11 stories about living with a disability in Vermont and putting representative Colacchi there. You might have gotten this in your mail box. Great. Thank you. Is there anyone in the room right now who might want to make a comment who's not on the list? We have a little bit of time. Yes. Well, then pop right out. If you could identify yourself for us, that would be great. My name is Ruth Goodrich. I live in Cabot, Vermont. I'm a business owner and I'm the Vice Chair of the Cabot Select Board as well. I share Avnaki Heritage. Lucy Neal is a great friend of mine. We work together on a lot of projects with youth throughout the years and Boy Scouts and otherwise. And I've accompanied her on some of her trips to schools and things where we've done lessons and participated. It's kind of fun to go and flow regalia and share a part of history that these kids wouldn't get in any other way. And I was very intrigued. I didn't find out about this until Lucy gave me a call this morning when she was on her way and said, hey, come on down. We'll go do something afterwards. And as I've sat here and listened to this testimony and the emotions that are in there, I'm going back through my mind. My father's family has Native American Heritage. And I'm thinking back to the different times I've heard my relatives. I had eight wonderful people in my life, older relatives of the family to share stories. And there was a great history of oral tradition where you tell these stories from the days gone by. And it was really interesting as I got to know Miss Lucy and I got to know more about the eugenics program. A lot of it was kind of a little bit of an eye opener because it wasn't spoken of in our family. But as I have gotten into doing extensive genealogy history throughout all branches of my family, I began to see where they hid in plain sight in order to survive and protect their families. My great-grandmother married a very wealthy farmer in the Berkshire area. As a matter of fact, my father was born in East Berkshire and many of my families buried up there. And to protect her family, to protect her children, to keep her children. And that was her way of doing so. There wasn't anybody going to come take kids away. So that was how, and then it wasn't really spoken of, but Dad often said that she was half habanaki. His mother was half habanaki. His mother was a full-blood. And so it piqued my interest by quite a bit. And I thought to myself, what would I do today if a legislative act went through that said, okay, I would have to endure something like that? And as I thought about that on the trip down, I thought as I held my beautiful little blue-eyed blonde-haired granddaughter that's nine months old before I came here today, what would I do if someone came and said, we're taking this child from you because you're not worthy to raise her because of this reason or that reason? Somebody else decided this. I thought, oh, over my dead body. And I think we would all feel that way today. It would be a terrible injustice to think you could do that to another people simply because of their color or their heritage or their religious beliefs. And we all know how history goes. The winner writes the history. It's our job today, knowing the truth, not only to apologize, but how do we correct this? And don't ever let it happen again. Passionately, never let this happen again. We're above that. We're better than that today. Common sense would simply dictate human decency in that there have been some really atrocious things done in the name of this or that, whether it's a political view or whatever. But we have a duty today to do what's right. And when you talked with Lucy about her work in the schools, I've seen that. I have seen this woman sitting over here, a very humble woman, changed tens of thousands of lives of children in the many years that she's worked with them. She's worked at Fillmont Boy Scout Ranch at Norris. She's worked within the communities. She's worked within her tribe. She's I have this much of the same heritage that she does. And she's encouraged me to become a member of the tribe. And I'll tell you the one reason, the one reason that I don't is because if something like this happened again, I'd be had a target on my back a mile wide. And how it would affect my family. That's the only thing holding me back. And that's a shame really, because it's a wonderful heritage. Now I share a lot of other heritage as well, Scotch, Irish, English, French, German. Look what's happened throughout history and all these different things. And let's just pick on one theoretically. Yeah, how many people in this room have French ancestry? Probably quite a lot. Maybe some of you don't know. How many of you have English ancestry? What if somebody came along and said, Okay, French, you're a deviant, we're going to get rid of you. That's a scary thought. That's a scary thought. So we as as those of us that work in the communities and serve our communities, we have a duty to do what's right. And if my grandmother and my great grandmother had been putting me these programs and sterilized, my family would not exist. I would not exist. My children would not exist. And I can tell you that every member of my father's family served in the military honorably, served in the South Pacific in Europe and all the theaters survived came home and had families and raised good, solid members of the community that served in public offices. My mother worked with Governor Douglas to raise the money and to create the Veterans Cemetery Chapel in Boundary Royalton, Vermont. My daughter served honorably in military in Iraq and came home with the Army accommodation, though very highly decorated war veteran who would not exist today if this had happened to my ancestors. So these are pillars of the community coming out of these families working harder than ever to do more than the average person because of the struggle. It's made them stronger. Some of them it's a roadblock to their progression. And they need that apology for that to happen so they can move on. And so their ancestors can rest and not whatever the afterlife is, rest and turn on. And I think that it would be wonderful to see a program in all Vermont schools supported by the legislature to have this heritage taught in schools. And I'm sure Ms. Lucy could create that program for you. And that would be an honor to their heritage. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for your time. In your interest. I'm Carol Irons, IRONS. I've been at the elder. Another story. But my family hid in plain sight. I'm old enough I'm pushing 80. So my parents were starting their families when the eugenics program was getting started. We hid in plain sight. And yet, as my mother's siblings mature, they although they had been so poor as children that the they had hobos you know back then that would camp in the woods and would come into town to maybe split some firewood and get a free meal and all. And they always came to my grandmother's house because they had signal systems set up. And this was a friendly, a friendly house and she would never turn somebody away. She had been widowed. She had eight children. Because her husband had been a stone cutter and he died of stone cutters tuberculosis. But she was French and Indian, primarily Abhinaki and Penobska. So she would never turn anyone away but it was usually a pot of soup that was some kind of knuckle bone if she could get it from the butcher and some cabbage leaves and whatever else she could find to put in it. And a fellow was splitting wood one day for her and they got to talking and he learned about her circumstances and that was the last hobo that ever came to the door. They were too poor for the hobos to want to take advantage of a family that was strapped like that. And yet this this woman would own him with eight kids and with the state breathing down their back and they're hiding in plain sight. She made sure every single one of her kids not only went through high school, which was unusual in the 20s, 30s. They most of them went on to some advanced training. One of my mother's sisters set up the whole basic adult education program for the state of Vermont. That was Alice Kootz Aldrich. Another one of my mother's sisters was one of the first women legislators here. And then after a break when she worked with the Red Cross and walked the Burma Road with the refugees in the war, she came back and also served as a senator here. And she her pictures down in the women's exhibit under the stairs. We didn't put her under Abinaki place. Mr. Sheets was pretty upset. He said, there's no record that she was Abinaki. Well, of course not. If there'd been a record that that family was Abinaki, they would not have been able to grow up and to provide service to the community. Because one of the ancient values was that how well the group does determines how well the individuals do. And so you always serve family and community. It wasn't just all about you. And they live that value. My mother was state librarian here for a while. Others in the family did things in their communities to provide service for children or for the adults. One of them was very active with the Girl Scouts and touched the lives of hundreds of young girls in the Northeast Kingdom. When we were trying to find out more about it because nobody talked about it. I was a little kid and I kept asking if we were Indian. I was preschool. I did not know that the elders in the family called me their little Indian because they would never tell me. And something was missing from my identity. And I knew it. But they wouldn't they wouldn't ever tell it because it wasn't safe. And I was I was born in 1940. So I was running around in the 40s and wanted to be an Indian and was told no I wasn't Indian. And that was that was the practice spoke to my spirit. They did teach us about some of the plants they taught us about some of the animals they taught us the old value system. Which was that on your breath you give voice to your spirit. And so you'd better be speaking to truth. Because if on your breath you're giving lies or distortions or deceit. That's the sign of a twisted spirit. And you better be generous. You take when you go to visit a relative you take a bag of groceries or something to share with them to nurture them as well as you. And if you don't do that if it's all about you when you're gathering it all to yourself that's the sign of a withered spirit. And those are values that were terribly important. So those people grew up and provided a lot of service to this state and nobody ever knew that they had Native American blood because they were hiding in plain sight right up until they were in their 80s. I who finally got one aunt on then to sort of admit she was Native American. But what she told us was first they find out all about you. Then they come for you. And she would say nothing else. So this is eugenics cast a very long shadow. And it does still bother people. I worked for elders as an elder care clinician with the mental health clinic. And I had elders who still wouldn't admit their native heritage and I knew they had a native heritage. And then when they realized I did they. Well, you know, somebody said something about that. But then they wouldn't talk about it. And a lot of them didn't really know. Our teachings and our ways were not passed down because it wasn't safe. And so we're just now trying to recover our culture. And some of us have had to go a long ways and dig pretty deep to try to learn various elements of the culture. And now we're trying to put on camps and education programs. I've been doing it as Lucy does it with the kids. I've done it some of the adults trying to pass on some of the basic foundational teachings, the spiritual practices. So it's lower and plant lower and history, a little bit of language, just enough to at least get people started. And they'll become the teachers for the next generation. So that's really what we've gotten started in the Northeast Kingdom. And now in the Northwest Park, the Circle of Courage, they have a title seven program there they have had for many, many years and they teach children over there. We hadn't had it in the Northeast Kingdom. So it's starting and we just appreciate the support and the interest. And yeah, when you look at Washington, people are getting scared. Maybe he's coming back. Maybe what my aunt cautioned us about may bear fruit. So we're wary. We're watching it. But I thank you for your efforts and your interest. And let's hold it, hold it strong and not let it happen again. Thank you. I think it's clear. And the eugenics survey is something that we did. General Assembly, the state did. What I hear to go is that kind of a heartbeat. It's not the bias that you felt that you that that the admonachio felt is not just related to eugenics survey. It goes back much further than that. Yeah, we knew the earth has a heartbeat. It's the reason we began to use drums is because the drum was a way to amplify the heartbeat of Mother Earth. In our ceremonies, that steady drum beat. Actually, I think some studies have been done that the participants in those ceremonies of those dances, their heart literally comes into resonance with the drum beat. So it brings us together as one in our groups and our communities for our ceremonies. I'm one of the ones that was arrested upon the lower mountain when they were putting in that wind turbine project. And some of us that feel so strongly about that and continue to watch Act 250 get weakened or or changed in ways that really don't protect the the forests and the mountains and the waters the way it ought to or the way it used to. Regardless of the rationalizations, it's it's sacred. The land is what took care of us for 10,000 years. And it is being ravaged with rationalizations that that's protecting the planet. And it's it's heartbreaking. And I had trouble walking, but I got up there. I couldn't walk back down. So I had to be arrested because I needed to ride down. We'll put our we'll put ourselves out there some more. We're going to have to. The value system here is about with the corporations. I'm not talking about you as individual people, but the value is always growth in order to have more consumption. It's all about money. It's greed. And we've lived in harmony with the earth. It was one of our values. It was a requirement that you lived in harmony. You never took more than you actually needed and needed just in a very fundamental way. You need to be warm. You need to have something to wear. Moving through the forest and picking berries. You don't go naked. It's pretty bloody that way. You know, we wanted to have we were we were healthy people. We were nutrition wise. We were healthy. But we gathered the plant nation fed us the swimmers fed us the four-legged fed us. And in turn we gave back by taking care of them and trying to make sure we never decimated their populations. Now the whole thing is well we can take that forest because we're going to protect the planet. It's going to reduce global warming by putting up these big spinning. They use that as an example. But by clear-cutting over a hundred acres on a ridge line it totally changed the water flow on both sides of a whole mountain range. And you wouldn't see the damage of that just in the next year. What the state hasn't looked at is that the damage ripples out in concentric circles over time. So decades from now that damage is still traveling. It's been we've got far less songbirds in the area. The water is coming off the mountain now. The whole configuration of the mountain range was changed. Plastic and bulldoze and it's an impermeable surface up there. The water washes off in totally different ways. It doesn't follow the old channels. So it's surface washing. So it's polluting the rivers on each side of the mountain range. The Black River flows north into the South Bay of Lake Memphomego. It's it's heavily polluted with with silt and runoff. The Missuscoye River rises on the west side of that mountain range. And that that kind of damage will show over time. The wildlife patterns have changed. The birds no longer the geese no longer fly down through that valley. While those spinning turbines that look kind of lazy like they're turned in but the outer point of them is going well over 200 miles an hour and you've got a whole row of them. It changes the air turbulence. Songbirds don't have to get into the blades. Their lungs are destroyed if they get too close. Because the air pressure has changed and it explodes and collapses. So they drop. And nobody's looking at how many birds have been killed. Nobody's looking at the fact that the moose wintered up there. No longer can. It's an impermeable surface up there. So the moose were going down slow while they were building that. There's fewer bears. They're a little lower on the mountain. There are some black bears still. But it's well once you change the bird population if you understand how the environment works you're going to change the plant population. That's going to affect the herbivores. The small animals and the larger ones. And again plant population and then without the birds you don't have the same insect population. You've probably got more ticks and you know mosquitoes and black flies and because the birds aren't collecting them as much. But the plants over time will change. The waters are changing. You know this tears us off. This land took care of us for 10,000 years. You could hardly go up there hunting them. There's a few deer on the lower slopes. The fish are not as... the river is kind of muddy so I think there's you know affecting the fish populations and those birds that are water birds that feed off the fish. It's yeah it hurts. We're destroying the very land that takes care of us. I mean that's that's not what I came here to talk with you about but I think if you really wanted to move forward you would start moving back to the ancient teachings that Odzi Hozo gave us about how living living in a good way on the earth that nurtures us. The standing ones the plant people that both feed and heal us. All the other beings that are part of the web of life. If you really want to move forward you wouldn't be talking about more development, more growth, more consumption and that's the whole model of the modern world. It isn't just humans. Every nation's scrambling to see how much they can grow and develop and consume more. It's destroyer the world that takes care of us. So I would urge you on the other kind of bills that you're talking about to begin looking into indigenous values as perhaps developing a different model of how to really help this state set an example in this country and in this world to a way of living that is that can be sustainable. That has a chance of taking care of people and the grandchildren and the great grandchildren. Our people try to make decisions for what's best for the next seven generations. That's a guiding principle for decision making. I'm sorry I didn't mean to come give me a lecture about that. Wonderful. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. All right committee we're going to take a break now. I want to thank everybody for coming in.