MILTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Car fanatics gathered at the Milton Library to learn more about the history of racing in Milton and other parts of Vermont. Partnering with the Milton Historical Society, the event turned back the clock to the 1960s with vintage cars.

The showcase featured five different cars. Families enjoyed having a hands-on experience with racing equipment — and themed gift baskets as part of a raffle to benefit the Milton Library and Historical Society.

“It gives the older people something to bring their younger grandchildren and stuff to do and a few of the newer residents,” spokesperson Bill Ladabouche said.

Dozens of people showed up to the event, and they are excited to start planning for next year.

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Dead of Summer Music Festival announced its featured charity disc golf tournament at Hunter Park in Manchester, Vermont this July. The event spans two days – July 13 and 14 – and sees a stellar lineup of performers from all over.

Saturday July 13 is the main event featuring a one round recreational singles tournament. The following day consists of a doubles match. All entrants will have the opportunity to win some great prizes for the top finishers on both days, all for a good cause. This July is the 5th annual Dead of Summer Music Festival which boasts a large, diverse lineup of bands and solo artists.

Some headliners include Pink Talking Fish Ensemble, Neighbor, Max Creek, and many more. To support the fundraising effort, tee box sign sponsorships are currently available. Now and throughout the festival weekend, raffle tickets for some great band merchandise and other giveaways can be purchased. 

The musical acts appear July 12, and continue throughout the disc golf tourney, until its closure on July 14. At least 18 bands see the two stages over three days at Hunter Park. The park is seated on 25 acres in the Green Mountains of Manchester Vermont. The festival features performances as well as RV camping and tent camping, over 25 vendors. This family friendly festival also offers 2 days of yoga, kid’s set, and tie dying. Gates open at 9am Friday July 12th. 

For more information on Dead of Summer Music Festival and the charity disc golf tournament, click here.

The authenticity of Vermont’s Abenaki tribes was once again rejected by a Canadian sociologist on Thursday evening at the University of Vermont.

Professor Darryl Leroux said his research using an extensive Canadian genealogy database has shown the families in Vermont originally claiming to be Abenaki were “clearly French-Canadian.”

“There’s such obvious and compelling evidence these groups do not represent Abenaki people in any way and have no Abenaki ancestry,” Leroux said. “How did the state of Vermont recognize them as such and why did they recognize them after writing a report saying they were not Abenaki? That’s something I still don’t understand.”

Leroux said he has met with “a couple of” Vermont legislators about the issue but couldn’t get answers to his questions.

Pretendians threaten sovereignty of Native American nations in the U.S. and Canada

An audience filled the Livak Ballroom at the University of Vermont’s Davis Center Thursday evening for the third in a series of three presentations contending Vermont’s four Abenaki tribes are fake.

There were similar presentations in 2022 and 2023 at UVM.

Professor David Massell of UVM’s Department of History introduced the speakers for the event, which included Gordon Henry, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan’s English and American Indian and Indigenous Studies departments; Pam Palmater, a podcaster and documentary filmmaker who advocates for indigenous issues; and Leroux, an associate professor at the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa.

Palmater is citizen of the Mi’kmaw Nation and member of Eel River Bar First Nation in Canada. Henry is an enrolled member of the White Earth Anishinaabe Nation in Minnesota.

Palmater and Henry kicked off the symposium by discussing how widespread the problem posed by so-called “pretendians” − non-native people who claim to be Native Americans − is in both the United States and Canada.

“It’s literally a threat to our sovereignty, our nationhood/citizenship, our culture and political standing in the future, so I feel passionately about the topic,” Palmater said of Native American imposters.

Vermont Abenakis can’t show they actually descend from Abenakis, according to Canadian professor

Leroux, speaking last, addressed the issue of Vermont’s four Abenaki tribes, which have received state recognition, but failed to achieve federal recognition, a decision that was initially backed by the state of Vermont.

“One of the primary reasons that really stands out in both the federal decision and state’s research is that the group wasn’t able to demonstrate they actually descend from Abenaki people,” Leroux said. “That’s the key. You have to demonstrate that at some point in time you actually had Abenaki people in your lineage. They have not been able to demonstrate that.”

Three of the four Abenaki chiefs in Vermont held a press conference earlier this week to denounce Thursday’s event at UVM and the ongoing effort by the Abenakis of Odanak in Canada to convince the state of Vermont to rescind its recognition of the Vermont tribes.

Canadian Abenaki chief says Vermont is ancestral territory

Rick O’Bomsawin, chief of the Abenakis of Odanak in Canada, was not scheduled to speak, but he stood up at the end of the event to say his tribe is willing to work with anyone to “bring the truth out about our real history and the important history of Vermont.”

“Vermont is our ancestral territory,” O’Bomsawin said. “We left this land in the hands of the good people of Vermont to take care of, to watch over, not to become us, not to take over our history.”

O’Bomsawin and a delegation from Odanak recently made their case against Vermont’s Abenakis at the 23rd session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosi@gannett.com. Follow him on X @DanDambrosioVT.