Vermont's Northland Journal - Memories of a Bird’s-eye View of the Clyde River

Basket Maker Shares Traditional Native American Skills

by Carla Occaso

WEST DANVILLE – A thing of beauty is not easy to come by—at least not in the case of baskets created by Cabot resident Jesse Larocque.

It all started about 14 years ago when Larocque, an Abenaki, wanted a traditional pack basket—the kind you can’t find in stores. So to get one, he decided to learn how to make one the old-fashioned way.

This spring Larocque recounted his adventures learning to make baskets while sitting at Joe’s Pond Country Store lunch counter as he nibbled on French fries and fried chicken. Larocque said he likes this particular West Danville eatery across from Joe’s Pond because of the wooden Indian statue out front.

On this particular late May day, Larocque was waiting to deliver a beautifully executed basket made from strips of black ash to a very special customer—Native American actor Gary Farmer who was in town for his work on the film Disappearances. Farmer arrived much later than the appointed time, Larocque said, because they were both “on Indian time.” While waiting to deliver his goods, Larocque told of how he learned the skill.

“I learned from other Indians in Swanton,” Larocque said of his treks to get instructions right from the source: the late Abenaki Chief Homer St. Francis and tribal judge Michael Delaney—tribal leaders of the entire northeast Abenaki Nation.

They told him making wood strips to weave into baskets is easy: just pound the length and circumference of a black ash tree with a sledgehammer until the first ring comes loose, Larocque said.

He returned home after the first tutoring session, chopped down a black ash and pounded it with a three-pound sledge hammer as instructed, but he did not anticipate how hard it would be. It took a full day of pounding just to get the first ring loose, Larocque said, describing how St. Francis failed to explain the difficulty of the task.

Larocque said he stormed back across to Swanton, to complain of how he had been misled.

“He [St. Francis] told me ‘don’t give up and you’ll be OK’… [and] I was more determined than ever,” Larocque said. “I didn’t give up [but] It was horrible. I got blisters.” Larocque opened his hands to look at them. “You pound until an entire growth ring comes off the tree,” which can take days, he said. “Then guess what you do?” he asked with a smile. “You start pounding again.”

He picked up the weaving and design part himself, he said.

Now, with years of practice under his belt, Larocque demonstrates the skill at Pow Wows—public gatherings of Native Americans to display traditional dances, music and skills—held throughout the year in Vermont and New Hampshire, which is where he met Farmer. Farmer visited Larocque’s basket making demonstration on one of his days off from movie production of Disappearances, and apparently liked what he saw.

Farmer, a tall man who acted in Dead Man, Adaptation and Ghost Dog, arrived about a half hour later than planned and visited for a moment with Larocque before being presented with the basket.

“I offer it for your approval,” Larocque said. “If you approve it, then I sign it for you.” Farmer smiled and approved the basket, saying he planned to give it as a gift to Disappearances director, Jay Craven, later that night.

Larocque has also been a proponent of Abenaki recognition in the state of Vermont. He attended a hearing in February at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum to speak in favor of Senate bill S.0117 seeking state recognition of the Abenaki people. The bill was introduced by the late Senator Julius Canns, R-Caledonia-Orange, Senator Vincent Illuzzi, R- Essex-Orleans and Senator Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia-Orange, among others.

The state does not currently acknowledge the existence of an Abenaki tribe, with the exception of allocating $25,000 to build an Abenaki heritage museum in Swanton about six years ago. Several people who said they had Abenaki heritage testified at the hearing. Most who spoke said they could trace Native heritage back to about the 1600s, including Abenaki Nation Chief April Merrill, who said she could trace her lineage back to Chief Graylock; he is believed to have been born in 1660, and went on to battle for his people against those who wanted to take land from the Abenaki people.

“Our people would like the state to recognize we do exist,” Merrill said. “We have been here for thousands of years.”

Merrill said state recognition would give local Abenakis certain rights and privileges available only to state-sanctioned Native Americans. They would become eligible for scholarships earmarked for Native Americans and would be allowed to legally sell crafts claiming to be made by an authentic tribes person, and would also be eligible for small business and other economic development grants. They also have an interest in different hunting and fishing regulations as well as an interest in being freed from paying state taxes.

Abenaki natives, such as Larocque, can only sell baskets handmade in Vermont under a “Made in Canada” label if they want to say a Native American made them because Canada recognizes Abenakis while Vermont does not.

Past state governments from both sides of the political aisle have not been willing to recognize the Abenakis as sovereign. In 1976, Governor Thomas Salmon passed a resolution to recognize Abenaki, but Governor Richard Snelling rescinded the resolution, according to Senator Illuzzi. Governor Howard Dean strongly opposed a similar resolution introduced in 1999, claiming if Abenakis were recognized, it would lead to land claims, casinos, and other problems.

Chief Merrill said some land claims are possible, but “that doesn’t mean people are going to get thrown out of their houses because the Abenakis are taking the land back.”

Any land claims would have to originate from land the state held as a trustee and then sold illegally, said Fred Wiseman, chairman of the Department of Humanities at Johnson State College; he is also the director of the Abenaki Tribal Museum and Cultural Center. Federal and state laws govern casinos as well, he said.

This year, the bill to recognize Abenaki people passed the Senate on May 17, but only made it through a first reading in the House committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs, and no further action was taken, according to the legislative web site.

Jesse Larocque of West Danville makes traditional Abenaki baskets.
Photo by Carla Occaso