Hidden Roots

Book excerpt: Howard's family are Abenaki Indians who fled to New York from Vermont in the early twentieth century. They hid their Indian ancestry to avoid the Vermont Eugenics Project, an attempt to sterilize those who were infirm, mentally ill, of mixed heritage, or illegitimate. Many Abenaki were victims of this program and as a result the Abenaki culture faced possible extinction. In this story Howard's Uncle Louis, an Abenaki, tries to prevent that possibility by helping the boy learn the ways and culture of the Abenaki people.