Eugenics in Vermont and the Hidden Lives of the Abenaki

The state is unique in the fact that 71 Percent of the entire population is native to the state. No other state is as homogenous as this. No other state, therefore, is challenged to the same extent to prove the quality of its native stock.

- Elin Anderson, Selective Migration from Three Rural Vermont Towns, 1931

Eugenics began as a well-intended social project. During the period of World War I there was a study conducted by the U.S. Army for the draft. Perkins found that men from Vermont appeared to have a higher incidence of defects such as diabetes, epilepsy and mental deficiency. Perkins saw this as an opportunity for the betterment of Vermont genetics and set out to fix the problem through social reform.

In Breeding Better Vermonters: the Eugenics Project in the Green Mountain State, author Nancy Gallagher refers to the three "D's" that were beginning to show up in higher numbers during the late 19^th century-- delinquency, dependency and mental defect. During the first three years of Perkins's project, evidence was gathered through town records, social workers, government officials, police men, and other various informants. Significant information was gathered about families who were found to have the these defects. It became clear that many were extended families and tribes.

In 1927 Professor Perkins briefed the legislature with the findings of his studies. He had taken information on over 60 Vermont families in order to compile the "Pedigrees of Degenerate Families". Looking back today it is little more than a list of those families that were different in some way. The main focus became the Abenaki Indians, the Gypsies, Pirates and River Rats. Any family with non-white traits became scrutinized. The picture perfect white landscape of Vermont was threatened by their very being. Perkins was criticized for his lack of scientific method in retrieving and analyzing data and in 1928, Perkins voluntarily suspended his pedigree study. For the families targeted by the study the damage could not be undone. They were looked down on socially and made to feel as though their differences were wrong and had to be hidden.

It is during this period that the Abenaki were forced to fit in with other families around them. Many learned to play the violin or guitar because drumming would summon the police and you would likely end up in jail. Many Abenaki were forced to become "French-Canadian" in order to avoid the mysterious miscarriages that happened after a visit to the doctor or the removal of children from the family. Due to the fact that they were in hiding, many Vermonters still believe that there were never Abenaki people that settled in Vermont. It is also due to the underground lifestyle that Vermont Abenaki could not sell their wares as authentic Indian goods.

Perkins had to convince Vermonters that his project was a worthy one. His mission entailed three objectives, research, public education and publishing of his findings. He focused his plan on collecting information on those with mental defects, particularly those who came from poor, inbred and substandard families. He had already begun to focus in on the Abenaki, Gypsies and the so-called Pirates of Lake Champlain. During this period it was very important for each family member to have a bedroom and for a house to have water and a bathroom. Because these particular groups did not live the average lifestyle, they were considered a substandard breed. Within the Eugenics program was the "A Law for Human Betterment by Voluntary Sterilization" which passed in 1931.

After the publication of Rural Vermont, the Eugenics Survey started an educational campaign in order to spread the word about human betterment. Using Rural Vermont as a guidebook, their ideals were pushed through study groups, schools and libraries.

According to a report published by Perkins in 1946, there were approximately 200 "voluntary" sterilizations performed. John Moody, an ethno historian, claims that the number was much higher and possibly in the thousands. The state population was approximately 352,000 people at the time. This would mean that the target populations would be substantially diminished.

It was during this time period that the Abenaki were left with little choice but to go underground. The groups that were targeted were largely traveling and hidden. The Abenaki were out in the open and the obvious targets. Many Abenaki were forced to assume other identities or hide their heritage. "It is my opinion that the "new racism" of Vermont's elite eventually permeated Abenaki society, leading to shame at being different or fear that we or our children would be "discovered" by the state of Vermont and have evil things done to them. " (The Voice of the Dawn: An Autohistory of the Abenaki Nation, pp. 147-49). The easiest route for the Abenaki to take was to fit in with the French-Canadians of Vermont.

The history of Eugenics is a sad and damaging one. What it left behind is a loss of culture and a trail of broken families. The Abenaki of Vermont were the hardest hit. To this day in Vermont, the Abenaki are suffering the effects of the Eugenics Program. When the Abenaki went into hiding, they broke their historical trail. Because the tribe has not been a continuous entity, and many show up with the ethnicity of French-Canadian, it is difficult to decipher who belongs to the tribe.

In an article in the Boston Globe titled Eugenics Victims Heard At Last, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes is quoted saying, ''It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or letting them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.'' Ultimately, this is what we are doing today. In 2007, the Abenaki are still struggling for state recognition. The same fear of the tribes that caused the Eugenics program in Vermont so many years ago is still here. With fears of the Abenaki trying to reclaim lost land or opening casinos in Vermont, we are still practicing Eugenics by holding the Abenaki people back from the Wobanakik that was theirs to begin with.

Eugenics, The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding, is something that most people associate with Nazi-Germany. What few people choose to remember is that Eugenics has played a major role in American History as well. During the first half of the 20^th Century, Eugenics flourished within Vermont. Zoology Professor, Harry Perkins, played an important role in the push for Eugenics. A native Vermonter born in 1877, Perkins met, and fell under the influence of, Charles Davenport, a leader in the human genetics field and a leading supporter of the eugenics movement.