- Sentiments of a protester during Burlington, VT March on Global Day of Action, October 15. Over 500 people participated in the Global Day of Action in Burlington, VT in solidarity with the occupations occurring throughout North America and around the world. Other rallies and marches happened in the VT towns of Montpelier, Rutland and Brattleboro. Photo: Langelle/GJEP
On Friday, October 28, Occupy Burlington (VT) began their encampment in City Hall Park. At the first General Assembly of the Occupy Burlington encampment, GJEP ED Anne Petermann grounded the space in the history of the Indigenous Peoples of the region: the Abenaki. She opened the circle by stating, via “people’s mic” that, “the land that this encampment is on is the traditional land of the Abenaki People. This land was never ceded, never signed away in a treaty, but was stolen. It is occupied by the state of Vermont. In 1992 the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that any rights the Abenaki People had to their traditional lands was no longer valid due to “the increasing weight of history. For these reasons, I am asking the Occupy Burlington encampment to recognize that this land is Abenaki land. This land is called Ndakinna.”
