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If the 19th century was one of the Abenaki blending into the cultural background of Vermont, then the 20th century was one of pride, display, and the fight for recognition. In the early years of the century, Abenaki inhabitants of Vermont started to wear outfits, often more similar to plains tribes than those of the East, to set themselves apart from their neighbors as they used their background to sell goods and services to the increasing tourist trade. This greater visibility also brought persecution as the State's ill-advised eugenics program targeted Abenaki people, along with French Canadians and those with disabilities, as undesirable and subject to cultural integration programs and even forced sterilization.
By the 1960s and 1970s Vermont's indigenous people had joined the Pan-Indian identity or "Red Power" movement. Abenaki activists started pressing the State of Vermont and the Federal Government for official tribal recognition. This movement came to a head in the early 1990s when the State of Vermont denied tribal recognition based on lack of continuous tribal organization and inhabitation within Vermont. Outrage, combined with thoughtful documentation by dedicated historians, led to state level tribal recognition of the Missisquoi, Nulhegan, Koasek and Elnu bands of Abenaki in 2011 and 2012.