"A major focus of the St. Francis-Sokoki Band during the late1980s was to prepare for the Fish-In trial. They argued that they were free to fish under the concept of aboriginal right, that any indigenous group has claims to the land and its resources unless they have been explicitly "extinguished" by legal means such as treaties or obvious techniques such as extermination. ... The trial went on in the summer of 1989. The State of Vermont claimed that it had the rights to the land under the doctrine of transfer of sovereignty between European colonial powers. This argument has been long overturned in constitutional and international law. In August 1989, noting that the state of Vermont could not show any evidence that it had extinguished title, Judge Wolchick dismissed the charges of illegal fishing against those who could prove that they were Abenaki citizens.
One of the programs to promote sovereignty was to purchase and display Abenaki tribal license plates (seen above). Abenakis were being harassed for displaying them in Franklin County, Vermont. Michael Delaney (the tribal judge) and others told me personal stories of car impoundments and physical abuse attending what was technically a charge of driving without a valid license. It seemed to me that the police targeted the relatively powerless Abenaki citizens of Franklin County. At the time, I lived in Johnson (Lamoille County), Vermont, and was active in college and community affairs, cub scouts, Johnson and Lamoille County Planning Commissions, and the board of the Vermont Council on the Humanities. I attempted to use my stature and community involvement to dramatize the increasing police pressure put on the Abenakis. I registered with the tribal council and obtained one for the plates for my car. Would I be arrested? Well, I tried. The Lamoille County deputy sheriff's son was in Cub Scouts with my boy, and I parked next to his car. I even talked to the deputy with my foot on the rear bumper - nothing. At the time, the Vermont Council on the Humanities office was across the street from the sheriff's office, so I parked next to the sheriff's car - nothing. Well, if I cound't get nailed in Lamoille County, maybe I can get arrested in Franklin County on my trips to the tribal headquarters - nothing. I drove with those plates for six months and attracted no attention from the state or local police.
...However, a family of modest means living near me also displayed the Abenaki plates. Within seventy-two hours their car was impounded. It was assessed exorbitant storage fees, that would have forfeited their only transportation, had not the Abenaki Defense Fund paid the authorities the fee. Months later, I asked the deputy sheriff why I had not been detained. He said, "We know you're trying to be a do-gooder and we don't need the aggravation." When questioned about the other family, he replied, "Oh them - well, that's a bad family anyway, and they don't do anything without us knowing about it." I later learned that this family was targeted by the Vermont Eugenics Survey for extinction. Long shadows of eugenic ethnic cleansing remain."
Quoted from Fred M. Wiseman, The Voice of the Dawn: An Autohistory of the Abenaki Nation, pp. 162-3.
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