SOUTH BURLINGTON, VERMONT: Ben & Jerry's has become the target of ire of a Native American chief in Vermont after the ice cream brand criticized the US on the 4th of July. In a tweet from its official Twitter handle, the brand said, “This 4th of July, it's high time we recognize that the US exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it.”
It also added, “Here’s why we need to start with Mount Rushmore. The faces on Mount Rushmore are the faces of men who actively worked to destroy Indigenous cultures and ways of life, to deny Indigenous people their basic rights. The Indigenous-led Land Back movement is all about restoring the rights and freedoms of Indigenous people. It’s about dismantling white supremacy and systems of oppression and ensuring that Indigenous people can again govern the land their communities called home for thousands of years.”
‘We are place-based people’
However, Don Stevens, who is the chief of the Nulhegan Band of The Coosuk Abenaki Nation, fired back at Ben & Jerry's whose headquarter is reportedly built on indigenous land in South Burlington, Vermont, and told The New York Post that he “looks forward to any kind of correspondence with the brand to see how they can better benefit Indigenous people.”
Stevens continued, “If you look at the [Abenaki] traditional way of being, we are place-based people. Before recognized tribes in the state, we were the ones who were in this place,” before adding, “Humans have a responsibility to take care of resources in places because we have the ability to destroy.” South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem also reportedly said, “I'm not going to listen to a bunch of liberal Vermont businessmen who think they know everything about this country and haven't studied our history.”
‘Lead by example’
Many online users did not miss the chance to blast the firm. A user tweeted, “It’s so cute to see ultra-wealthy cosplay Marxists pretend to hate the US & its capitalist system that got them wealthy, to virtue signal how ‘righteous’ they are. Maybe they should donate 90% of their material wealth to poor indigenous Indian communities.”
Another user suggested, “Ok this should be easy then. Shut down and donate all of your land, facilities, and assets to indigenous people.” The third user commented, “It's actually time for them to close their business down and give the land to native americans. You know, lead by example.”
“Your factory is on stolen land. Native Americans, primarily from the Abenaki tribe, have lived in Vermont for 10,000 years. In 1609, French explorer Samuel de Champlain was the first European to set foot in Vermont,” the fourth one asserted. The fifth user added, “Is Unilever going to give its real property in the United States to Native Americans, or is this just empty virtue signaling from some rich people?”
What is Coosuk Abenaki Nation?
As per Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Abenaki is an Algonquian-speaking North American Indian tribe that united with other tribes in the 17th century to furnish mutual protection against the Iroquois Confederacy.” It added, “Abenaki descendants numbered some 8,000 individuals in the early 21st century.”
