Ms. Gagne - Disturbing Behavior from a Self-Identified Abenaki Woman

It is astounding that Ms. Gagne and Ms. Hook, white European women with absolutely no historical connection to the Abenaki Nation people, attempt to demonize one of our most treasured and talented citizens, Mali Obomsawin.

As was plain from Seven Days coverage, Ms. Obomsawin is a passionate defender of Indigenous rights with a degree from Dartmouth. And she is an extremely talented musician.  I have seen her play live – a moving experience! She contributes to the growth and well-being of our people in our ancient territory.

What contribution does Ms. Gagne make to her community? Teaching kids to sneak into the back of a ballroom to attend a scholarly event in April? Why did both Mr. Gagne and Mr. Holschuh think devising a plan to disregard registering to attend, sneaking in with children in tow after the registration table and and everyone who registered came into the event, lights went down for the Akwesasne Women Singers (AWS) started singing, this group snuck into the back seats, ignoring the rules to attend that every other adult abided by? Why not register? What was this group of people, with Richard Holschuh, children in tow attempting to subvert?  Interrupting when a speaker used an expletive? Lurking when it ended like she wasn’t sure what to do next to disrupt the speakers? Did the children she dressed up and brought to UVM that day understand what the program was all about?

I watched has they came in after lights went down, drumming upfront looking into the crowd with the AWS along with Mali O'Bomsawin in total disbelieve. This one action told me all I needed to know about there intentions and character.

Ms. Gagne tells a good story, I will give her that. I know the young Penobscot man who respectfully went to the back to speak separately with the “adults” and witnessed his actions and theirs.

Both Ms. Gagne and Ms. Hook hope to draw our attention away from their lack of Abenaki genealogy, but that is the issue. If they’d paid attention in April, they would have learned how Pretendians pose a problem to Indigenous people and universities across North America.

Obviously, Ms. Gagne did not attend secretly and slid into the event after the security and registration tables closed nor did she intend to listen to scholars invited to speak at UVM. The scholars did NOT once speak about self-identified Abenaki VT groups specifically, but to educate about the threat of "pretend-Indians" are to sovereign First Nations.

Last word: Indigenous people DO NOT dress in regalia (the self identified had on what I would consider "costumes") for a scholar event, bring "drums", children who would be bored, sneak into a registered event at a college purposely without registering, use children for their newspaper article to come later, all of this charade was a plan for newspapers and the cameras. Nice try though...

Denise Watso

Citizen of Abenaki Nation

A Federally Recognized Nation