Visit Vermont
Vermont has no federally recognized tribes. Not because the Abenaki aren’t here; because the federal government decided they weren’t Indigenous enough.
The Abenaki have called this land home for at least 13,000 years, long before Vermont was a word or a state. European colonization brought disease, war, land theft, and Vermont’s own 1927 eugenics program, which classified Abenaki families as degenerate stock and led to the forced sterilization of dozens of Indigenous women.
Today four state-recognized Abenaki nations operate across Vermont, and the culture they’ve kept alive is available to visitors willing to go find it. You’ll find a recreated Abenaki village in Burlington, archaeological sites where humans lived 9,000 years ago, annual Heritage Gatherings in the Northeast Kingdom, and four tribal governments that have outlasted every effort to erase them.
This page covers museums where Abenaki history is preserved, landmarks shaped by millennia of Native presence, the four recognized nations and their territories, and the events where living American Indian culture is on full display. Plan more than one day; the state is small and the history runs deep.
Museums
Ethan Allen Homestead Museum, Burlington
Most visitors come for Ethan Allen. They leave talking about the Négôni Alnôbaakik Village, a recreated mid-1800s Abenaki settlement built with the intertribal organization Alnôbaiwi, featuring a wigwam, cooking hearth, shade tent, and seasonal Indigenous craft workshops and ceremonies.
The museum’s Abenaki exhibit was significantly upgraded in 2023 and covers Indigenous history in the Lake Champlain basin from ancient occupation through the eugenics era to the present. The museum is at 1 Ethan Allen Homestead in Burlington; check ethanallenhomestead.org for seasonal village programming schedules.
Chimney Point State Historic Site, Addison
Chimney Point sits on a Lake Champlain bluff where humans have lived continuously for at least 9,000 years, making it one of the longest-occupied sites in New England. The museum documents Native American, French Colonial, and early American history in layers, with the Indigenous occupation forming the deepest foundation.
Exhibits show how Abenaki and earlier peoples used this bluff for fishing, hunting, trading, and gathering long before Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1609. The site is open seasonally from late May through mid-October; call (802) 759-2412 to confirm hours before visiting.
Vermont History Museum, Montpelier
The Vermont History Museum in Montpelier holds a permanent collection spanning the state’s full human story, with dedicated content on Abenaki presence, displacement, and survival across centuries. The Freedom and Unity gallery addresses Vermont’s 1927 eugenics program and its direct targeting of Abenaki families with a directness rare for a state-funded institution.
The museum is at 109 State Street in Montpelier and is open Tuesday through Saturday. The Vermont Historical Society research library next door holds significant Abenaki archival material for visitors who want to go deeper than the exhibit floor.
Vermont Abenaki Artists Association, Burlington Region
The Vermont Abenaki Artists Association isn’t a single museum building, but its rotating exhibitions at venues across the state represent the most sustained effort to present Abenaki visual art on its own terms. Associated artists work in traditional media including black ash basketry, beadwork, and birchbark alongside contemporary forms.
Check abenakiart.org for current exhibition locations and dates. When you buy directly from a VAAA-affiliated artist, you’re investing in an American Indian artistic tradition the state of Vermont tried to sterilize out of existence a century ago.
Landmarks
Missisquoi River Delta, Swanton
The Missisquoi River delta in Swanton is the ancient heart of the Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi’s homeland, a place the Abenaki call Mazipskoik, with confirmed continuous human occupation going back 7,500 years. In 1942, the federal government established the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge here and displaced the Abenaki families who had lived on this land for generations.
The refuge is open for hiking and wildlife watching, but the land carries weight that visitor brochures don’t mention. You’re walking trails on ground the Missisquoi Nation has been fighting to reclaim since the refuge displaced their families.
Lake Champlain (Bitawbagok), Burlington Region
The Abenaki name for Lake Champlain is Bitawbagok, meaning the lake that lies between. It was never a border; it was the center of Abenaki life, a travel corridor and trade network connecting what is now Vermont, New York, and Quebec for thousands of years before European contact.
The lake is still the most accessible part of Vermont’s Indigenous landscape for visitors, with paddling, sailing, and ferry crossings available from Burlington. Moving across Bitawbagok on the water is the most direct way to understand what this place meant to the people who named it.
Greylock’s Position, Missisquoi Wetlands, Swanton
In the 1720s, an Abenaki leader named Greylock operated from a fortified position somewhere in the Missisquoi wetlands and launched raids deep into Massachusetts and Connecticut. He became the most effective Native military resistance figure in 18th-century New England, and the English never captured him.
The precise location of Greylock’s base has never been found; it remains somewhere beneath the marsh grass and cattails of the Missisquoi delta. That mystery is itself a kind of victory.
Moze-o-de-be-Wadso (Mount Mansfield), Stowe Region
Vermont’s highest peak carries an Abenaki name that describes it exactly: Moze-o-de-be-Wadso, meaning the mountain that looks like a moose’s head. The summit ridge, visible from the west as a human face in silhouette, is the feature the Abenaki named, and the hiking trails that draw thousands of visitors each year follow paths Indigenous travelers used for centuries.
When you’re standing on the summit, you’re in the air above a landscape that has been deeply known for 13,000 years. The mountain hasn’t changed; only the people who know its true names have been pushed to the margins.
Nations and Territories
Vermont is unusual among U.S. states: four state-recognized Native American nations and zero federally recognized tribes. The Abenaki were denied federal recognition by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2007, a decision that costs them reservation land, federal services, and legal standing under federal Indian law.
All four recognized nations are Abenaki, and all four maintain tribal governments, cultural programs, and community gathering spaces without a reservation land base. Visitors are welcome at tribal events; reach out through each nation’s website before arriving, and remember these are functioning governments, not cultural exhibits.
Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi, Swanton
The Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi is Vermont’s largest recognized nation, operating from tribal offices in Swanton near the ancient homeland of Mazipskoik on Lake Champlain. The community has maintained continuous presence on the Missisquoi River delta for at least 7,500 years and organized formally as a tribal government in the 1970s.
Vermont officially restored Missisquoi hunting and fishing rights in 2020, rights first affirmed by a court in 1989 and then stripped by the state legislature. The nation continues to advocate for land and resource protection in the Missisquoi watershed; visit abenakination.com for current programs and contact information.
Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe, North Troy
The Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe holds traditional territory in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, one of the most geographically isolated corners of New England. State-recognized in 2011, the Nulhegan are the stewards of the Nulhegan River watershed and have built community visibility through cultural programming, especially their annual Heritage Gathering each August.
The Nulhegan Heritage Gathering at Mount Norris Scout Reservation in Eden is the most accessible public Abenaki cultural event in Vermont. Check abenakitribe.org for event dates and current tribal programs.
Elnu Abenaki Tribe, Southeastern Vermont
Elnu means real people in the Abenaki language. The Elnu Abenaki Tribe, state-recognized in 2011, holds traditional territory across southeastern Vermont in what was historically Cowasuck band homeland along the upper Connecticut River region, and the tribe centers its sovereignty work on language revitalization and ceremonial practice.
Elnu does not operate a public cultural center, but the tribe participates in regional events and is reachable at elnuabenakitribe.org. Engagement is welcome; extractive tourism is not.
Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation, Connecticut River Valley
The Koasek are the traditional stewards of the upper Connecticut River valley, the land the Abenaki called Koas for its fertile river meadows between present-day Vermont and New Hampshire. State-recognized in 2012, the Koasek maintain ceremonial and agricultural traditions tied to the river they’ve called home for thousands of years.
The Koasek participate in regional Indigenous events and support Abenaki language revitalization alongside the state’s other recognized nations. Visit koasek.org for current programs; the Connecticut River itself is the best map of Koasek territory.
Events
Nulhegan Abenaki Heritage Gathering, Eden (August)
The Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe hosts its annual Heritage Gathering each August at Mount Norris Scout Reservation in Eden, a full day of drumming, traditional dance, craft vendors, and community celebration that’s open to the public. It’s one of the only events in Vermont where you can encounter multiple Abenaki nations and allied Indigenous peoples in a single space.
This is a public, family-friendly event and not a closed ceremony. Photography policies vary by performer and vendor; ask before pointing a camera, accept any refusal without argument, and put the phone away during dances. Check abenakitribe.org each spring for the confirmed date.
Abenaki Heritage Weekend and Native Arts Market, Swanton and Odanak (Summer)
The annual Abenaki Heritage Weekend connects Vermont Abenaki communities with the Odanak First Nation in Quebec for shared celebration of language, art, and culture across the US-Canada border. The event includes a Native Arts Market featuring work from Vermont Abenaki Artists Association members, and the cross-border dimension is the point: that border crosses Abenaki territory, not the other way around.
Ceremonial portions require explicit permission to photograph; the arts market is open and vendors welcome conversation. Check abenakiart.org for current dates and locations; buying directly from VAAA artists is one of the most direct ways to invest in living Indigenous culture in Vermont.
Alnôbaiwi Programs at Ethan Allen Homestead, Burlington (Year-round)
Alnôbaiwi, the Vermont intertribal organization that manages the Negôni Alnôbaakik Village at the Ethan Allen Homestead, runs Indigenous craft workshops, educational programs, and seasonal ceremonies throughout the year. The programs are led by Abenaki community members and offer structured, respectful entry points into living Native tradition.
Summer programming emphasizes outdoor village activities; fall and winter shift the focus indoors. Check alnobaiwi.org or ethanallenhomestead.org for the current schedule; this is one of the best entry points for visitors engaging with Abenaki culture for the first time.
Indigenous Peoples Day Events, Statewide (October)
Vermont replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day in 2016, and the four recognized Abenaki nations organize public events each October to mark it. Burlington, Montpelier, and Swanton typically host the most visible programming, ranging from community meals and educational panels to public ceremonies.
Events vary year to year in scope and public access. Check the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs at vcnaa.vermont.gov each September for a current list of events and guidance on which are open to outside visitors.
Northeast Open Atlatl Championship, Addison (Summer)
The Chimney Point State Historic Site hosts the annual Northeast Open Atlatl Championship, a public competition using the atlatl, the spear-throwing weapon Indigenous peoples across the Americas used for thousands of years before the bow. The event takes place on a site with 9,000 years of continuous human occupation, which gives it weight most sporting competitions lack.
The competition is open to beginners who want to try the atlatl for the first time; check historicsites.vermont.gov for the annual date and admission information. Throwing a weapon your hand can barely figure out on ground where people used it perfectly in 7000 BCE is a clarifying experience.
Vermont rewards more than one trip. The four Abenaki nations span the full length of the state from the Connecticut River valley to the shores of Lake Champlain, and no single visit covers all of it.
The most logical route starts with the Lake Champlain corridor: the Ethan Allen Homestead in Burlington, Chimney Point in Addison, and the Missisquoi homeland in Swanton. Then drive east into the Northeast Kingdom to understand Nulhegan country, and give the Connecticut River valley at least a half day for Koasek territory.
When you’re here, buy directly from Native artists at the Heritage Gathering and the VAAA markets; the money stays in the community. Ask about photography before pointing a camera at any ceremony or ceremonial object, follow each nation’s guidance without argument, and remember that a public event is not automatically an open one.
Abenaki culture in Vermont is not a relic. It survived eugenics campaigns, federal erasure, colonial land theft, and a century of official denial, and it’s still here; come to Vermont and engage with it on those terms, because the culture is alive and it deserves to be met that way.