A Place of Encounter and Learning

Just under the water, where the Kwenitekw (Connecticut) meets the Wantastekw (West) River in what we now call Brattleboro (Wantastegok), lie ancient petroglyphs and, nearby, burial sites sacred to the Abenaki. Submerged since 1909 when the Vernon Dam was built, the petroglyphs are a message that remains relevant today, said Rich Holschuh, spokesperson for the Elnu Abenaki and executive director of the Atowi Project, to “stop, pay attention, and recognize that something important is happening here.”

For years, Holschuh and Abenaki descendants have been working to understand the significance of the place and why it remains important to people who have been here for 12,000 years. “This is a place people wanted to be during their lives, and at the end of their lives,” he said. “It’s a place of spiritual exchange.”

When the owners of the land decided to sell in 2022, it was well understood in the community that the Abenaki wanted to protect the land from development and further disturbance. So they gave the tribe an opportunity to make a bid before it went on the market.

“I began to contact everyone,” said Holschuh, who launched a public fundraising campaign through the Atowi Project, “including the Vermont Community Foundation. Through all of these concerned community individuals, be they the person next door or somebody far away, or a large nonprofit, philanthropic organization, or a donor advised fund, we were able to raise over $330,000 in six weeks. I was stunned.”

Now under the stewardship of the Elnu Abenaki, Holschuh sees an opportunity for Wantastegok to be a place of encounter and learning. “We don’t, any of us, hold all of the understandings,” he said, “but things are not going well on a grand scale. We’re so used to it, we don’t see it. Patterns of separation and erasure are at the heart of what’s happening all over the planet. It’s incumbent on us to respond locally and choose how we interact with the landscape.”

“We can value traditions and things we have been taught, and we can use those understandings to inform what we do moving forward. We’re not stuck in the past. We’re informed and we’re grounded. Wantastegok is a place where we can be mindful and intentional about doing that.”

Funding to increase public conversation around racial equity is a part of the Community Foundation’s effort to ensure that Vermonters are not held back by their skin color or ethnicity.

Our extended family is committed to land conservation and supporting our neighbors who have experienced the harm and trauma of poverty and discrimination. We were inspired and moved when we learned from our VCF philanthropic advisor about the Elnu Abenaki tribe’s effort to protect the land.

Last Chance Donor Advised Fund

“Petroglyphs in Vermont? I had no idea!” When donor advised fundholder Laura Keanon was growing up in Bennington, she learned little to nothing about the Abenaki in school. “We never talked about people who didn’t look like us,” she said.

Keanon, who now resides in Maryland but maintains strong connections to Vermont, is among seven donor advised fundholders who joined the Foundation and community-led efforts to support the Elnu Abenaki in their bid to purchase two acres of ceremonial land surrounding the ancient Petroglyphs.

“It’s important to me to learn about these opportunities from the VCF. By bringing resources together, we provide an opportunity for something to really develop, for a project to be funded in a way that is not just a one-off.”

Collective giving through the Community Foundation provides fundholders with a way to give together for greater impact. In the case of the Atowi Project, donor advised and discretionary funds contributed more than $200,000 toward the tribe’s goal of $325,000 to purchase the land. Coming to the project for a variety of reasons, from land preservation to racial equity, fundholders joined Abenaki descendants and community members, whose years-long efforts to build relationships and fundraise laid the groundwork for success, to protect the land.