John Wilmerding
Jul 21, 2017 · 1 min read

Reagan may have said “we have provided”, but what did we Euro-White settlers and descendants take away? There is evidence that the 1776 revolution was also about removing British Royal dampers from white peoples’ expansion into new North American territories. Just prior, in the England-France war (styled the ‘French and Indian War’ among the English), first nations people sided with the French against English expansion, and were largely driven out of Vermont, which was soon to become the 14th State. The name ‘Wantastiquet’ was loosely translated into the ‘West River’, and then ‘Brattleboro’ (where I live) was founded and named after a British colonel who never came to Vermont.

250 years later, many of us recognize that when two rivers flow together, there is no un-mixing them. But racism still exists, and naming ways that cultures are mis-appropriated or displaced is one of the ways we can struggle against it. In Brattleboro, we just voted unanimously in Town Meeting to observe Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day this year, and we will base a new, major festival called Fantastic Wantastiquet upon this important realization.

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    John Wilmerding

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    I’m an elder Quaker educator, musician/musicologist, philanthropist, and peacemaker living in Vermont USA.