 take up JRHS which just hit our wall late last week and this is a resolution that's really been a long time coming for some people and it is not a simple little bill it does not deal with the simple part of our history and it is something that is well worth I mean certainly hearing this introduction but also considering just as a quick reminder this committee starting ten years ago or so really took hold of the process of recognition and and of state recognition because federal recognition was not open to our native populations and so there was a real push and a real lot of work done over two years to come up with a program of a state of state recognition that honored the the tribes and the clans that were out in Vermont that would be considered while also requiring them to do the hard work to show this government that they are who they say they are again not a simple process for anyone involved and ten years later for for tribes have been recognized by the state but the history goes back so much further and in this case to a darker part of our history so that's why this bill stays in our committee or the subject states starts in our committee and so we see bill we see jr. H7 and representative web who I worked with for years we came in at the same time so a lot of these issues came up not because Kate was in our committee but because she had constituents who were directly impacted by the work we were doing so if you know Kate please just take us through what this is as well so I'm taking that off the screen well for the record I'm representative Kate Webb from Shelburne and I'm here to introduce jr. H7 a resolution apologized into all from others and their families who were harmed as a result of state sanctions eugenically inspired sterilization yesterday January 27th 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz this occasion honors those who survived while remembering those who perished in the Holocaust I mentioned this today because Vermont has its own dark history regardless of how difficult or painful it is to recognize these actions regardless of the fact that we were not present and did not participate in this action so many years ago our forebears did our institutions of higher learning did our legislature of which we are members did it is the sins of the fathers delivered upon the next generation and we are the next generation we must honor the survivors of these actions and allow family stories to be told act one and that's related to ethnic studies may well help to be that vehicle bill we passed last year for true healing to occur we must acknowledge that this was what this was and what caught and the great suffering that it caused to Vermont citizens of the state a state who was charged to protect them although the eugenics movement did not arise did not rise to the level of destruction that the Holocaust did it laid the framework of elimination of people who were seen by some confused stereotypic standard to be undesirable in our state the 1931 sterilization act was passed by this legislation by this legislative body or this legislature perhaps not this exact body destroyed many lives along with the hopes and dreams that children bring without children to carry the abnacate communities in a sense extension continues to occur this was ultimately the basis of the Indian child welfare act to protect the culture the abnacate people who spoke to developing this resolution did not seek to shame anybody demand anything or tear down Vermont institutions instead they asked that we act upon this resolution because it is morally the right thing to do and it promotes healing and we must learn from history and never allow this history to be repeated uvm realized that an apology for their part and realize an apology for their part on the eugenics movement had to be issued in order to start the healing process uvm decided to partner with chief Don Stevens and the abnacate community to uplift everyone looking toward the future many of us participated in the June 21st event you and I did represent a Steven's example to hear a president Tom Sullivan and the uvm board members who stated things such as I believe it is appropriate to state unequivocally that the eugenics survey of Vermont supported by the uvm by uvm on its campus contributed to the stereotype and prosecution and in some cases state sponsored sterilization of members of certain groups sanctioned by law in the state of Vermont in 1931 the destructive impacts of eugenics have been through generation a deeply painful experience so let us move forward together as an educational community to ensure that such a grave injustice never be repeated by providing relevant accessible educational initiatives going forward we have the opportunity to better come to terms with the past and learn from these tragic lessons so uvm sort of for those of us that participated in the recognition ten years ago this was the next this is the next step this is our next level so and let us hear with this resolution follow uvm's lead and adopt a resolution to apologize for the role that we the legislature paid we must admit when we make mistakes and take steps to always do better I challenge the Vermont House of Representative to follow uvm's lead and address the resolution to apologize for the role that we the Vermont legislature played and it comes to you almost in the form of a bill because of the challenges that broke down years ago when I believe it was representative Donahue brought this forward and that people could just not come to consensus so we're going for another try thank you for the building to present this thank you for this and I am a co-signer that I'm also want to acknowledge the horror of the other groups as well that we're targeted here the mixed race French Canadian heritage the poor and disabilities so it's you know he annihilated our Abedaki tribes but he also completely destroyed the lives of all of these other people that are in here as well I guess it is something that so there's a lot of apologies and I appreciate that we're trying to move this forward and I'm with you on this and again this was a this was a identified group not because of their behavior not because of anything it was because they were identified group based on being Abedaki you know I when I was in high school I had an AFS student from Germany living with us and this was in 1968-69 of course I was only two when I was in high school but she that was you know 20 little more than 20 years after World War two and they knew nothing she knew nothing about what had happened in the Holocaust and she said it was painful having everybody asking her about that and she had nothing to say I look at how far Germany has come in recognizing and it's there it's in the forefront now of their conversations and it's time for us good afternoon my name is Michael Chernick I'm on the staff of the legislative council on the attorney that drafted this resolution and also the earlier iterations of it back in 2009-2010 the resolution is titled joint resolution apologizing and expressing sincere condolences to all the monitors and their families who were harmed as a result of state sanctioned and eugenically inspired sterilization and it reads in 1925 UVM zoology professor Henry F. Perkins established the dubious eugenics survey of Vermont to measure defective behavior depravity and immorality and it targeted members of Appanaki bands for monitors that makes racial or French Canadian heritage the poor and persons with disabilities and whereas the General Assembly adopted 1931 acts and resolves number 174 that's the bill that representative Webb was referring to enact the human betterment by voluntary sterilization to prevent the procreation of individuals belonging predominantly to these groups and whereas this eugenically inspired legislation resulted in the sterilization of remandors often without their fully informed voluntary consent and whereas the devastating impact on the lives of the sterilized individuals and their families was irreversible and whereas on June 21 2019 the University of Vermont issued a formal statement of sincere apology for its unethical and regrettable eugenics role and the General Assembly on behalf of the state of Vermont should issue a similar apology now therefore be it resolved by the Senate House of Representatives that the General Assembly apologizes and expresses its sincere sorrow to all remandors and their families who are harmed as a result of state sanctioned and eugenically inspired sterilization and a resolution and that is it so Michael again is this is this past the Senate already this resolution is new this biennium there was a resolution in the 10 9 10 biennium and again in the 11 12 biennium they never left the house never made it to the floor there are lots of discussions that went on at the time as representative Webb alluded to and it died in committee but this has this is the first reading that I have done of this resolution in any committee in either chamber it's a house resolution and just as a matter of fact a policy resolution can only have sponsorship from one chamber okay thanks and so just to be clear though I mean and this is this is clear I think through your language that I believe she was a sponsor back in 9 through 11 yes it was in her primary focus was for the depraved however people were defective I think there was a focus on mental health but did not ignore it certainly references to abenaki communities were in the prior versions of the written all the virgins going all the way back to nine it was always some reference to this is holistic this is this is apologizing this for the program this program this version the way I drafted apologizes to any and every group it certainly highlights the impact on the abenaki communities on the French Canadian community on mixed race communities and individuals who had various disabilities be they physical mental but it's meant to be an apology to everyone who was impacted if you need me for further drafting at any point along the way you know how to reach me yes the record committee any thoughts amongst ourselves right now pretty powerful introduction yeah I think is this something I mean we'll discuss this further but I mean I'm inclined to want to do more research sure that this is a great thing to do or say to go below beyond my heart and to get more background on what we're talking about because I think for a lot of people it may not be the knowledge of what this this was again is a dark period of our life of our history but if this is something that we want to take up and we can do the work on it and make sure it's not as broad tomorrow you're concerned earlier to make sure that it says specific as we need it to be in order to feel like it's the right words to express our regrets I told the support I told the support too much about the scope of other groups not named in the resolution perhaps effective you know don't be the history of the panel there is a history book called reading better monitors that we can find some we can access that information you know and then there is this and I don't ever want to use this in the case of this to create balance you know there's you know it's easy to say but to be fair in 1927 this might have been it's like it's it was a duty before it was accepted here and so learning about what that means and what it and what it again what it did to unsuspecting people without the consent over a long period of time I mean I think that there were still some laws kind of like what we find in some of the laws there's some sections there's DNA of this of this program in our statutes until the 70s and so you know while the program may have ended there were pieces that orally that was still our work in our stash man just crazy about that but that's that's kind of what we're up you've been renamed their library they took the doctor put his name off the library or how one of the two I'm sorry Bailey or how okay you know as part of this so I think if I don't feel like we need to do more research myself but if the committee does I think we should invite someone in from UVM who's kind of went through this process of what they did you know that the devastation to all these communities and I would just say from the disability perspective this is profound that people are sterilized against their will or without any kind of consent at with all of the people so I I love that this is what the law stated and it devastated all of these communities and that we are positive I think to all of them and I would say it says to all Vermonters that's been impacted by this because of the family had a disabled child that child was sterilized you know and so it impacts so it's I I think this is well thought out I think this is overdue and I don't think we need to spend too much more time you know kind of revealing the inhumanity of this myself but and I hear that I hear that mostly with my heart but that sense of making sure that when we present this on the floor to the public of the world that we have a clear understanding I mean this can leave this committee in particular given a privilege to look at the effects of this in a way that I just makes it I think a little bit deeper a deeper understanding is always what we'll seek you know this is an opportunity to do that I'm not I'm not saying that we're gonna take months or even we'll take the time that we need in order to hear what we need to hear and be prepared to present this on the floor and make sure that when we talk about this we're talking about this as the right thing to do yeah one of the benefits of hearing testimony on this is that we can hear from folks whose families have been affected by this program and by this but what we've done in the state and there's not many opportunities for folks to express the violence that has been done to pass generations so that's one of the things that I value about taking testimony about because what you just said reminded me we had the testimony had an open burn pits and wrenching that was and then just as we could testimony on fire blocking and the firemen had lost two children on fire and they're put that human face on it I think that's really important adds so much depth to what we're trying to do when tropical storm I closed the state hospital it did something that men couldn't do just to close that place down and walk through I don't know who's been able to see it who was able to see most of the remnants of what was there is gone now but the tunnels that were in that building that went from Randall Street all the way out to the back end of the River where someone could be transported underground could be chained against the wall could be asked to you know just the place was and no matter this was a very distinct chamber for a lot of people of course and again this much good work is done there many different pieces of mental health care but was still the state hospital for the same and this still happened there I was not the only one who was not only happy that it was closed but also disappointed that it took an act of God if you will to close it because it was something that we couldn't do and this is this is another piece of the larger puzzle of coming to terms with things that we work with and work for I'm sure I think it's I think it's really again with my heart I could vote this out today so I think part of the learning of that should be who proposed with the creator of the eugenics who that was what the purpose was it was targeted and how it obviously affected the month yes and the history called reading better launchers certainly gives a pretty broad view of when you start a study of that but start with that thank you