The Mountain Times
By Amanda Gokee/VTDigger
A eugenics survey in Vermont sought to “breed a better Vermonter” by sterilizing and institutionalizing Indigenous people, French-Canadians, and people who were mixed-race, poor or disabled.
Ninety years after the 1931 survey got underway, lawmakers are proposing an official apology for the state-supported program that tore families apart.
Abenaki people in Vermont say the ripple effects of the eugenics movement are still felt today and an apology from the state is an important step in repairing the relationship.
“You have to at least acknowledge that there’s a wound there before it can heal,” said Chief Don Stevens of the Nulhegan band of Abenaki, one of the four tribes in Vermont that gained state recognition in 2011 and 2012.