Ben & Jerry’s called on the U.S. to return “stolen indigenous land” to American Indians during its Independence Day message last week. Now a tribe in Vermont is asking the famous ice cream company to personally partake in that effort.
Don Stevens, chief of the Nulhegan Band of The Coosuk Abenaki Nation, told the New York Post on Friday that Ben & Jerry’s headquarters in South Burlington is located on Western Abenaki land.
If the company is “sincere,” Mr. Stevens told the newspaper, then he “looks forward to any kind of correspondence with the brand to see how they can better benefit Indigenous people.”
“If you look at the [Abenaki] traditional way of being, we are place-based people,” the chief told the Post. “Before recognized tribes in the state, we were the ones who were in this place.”
Mr. Stevens said that the Abenaki people view themselves as “stewards of the land.”
The state of Vermont recognizes four tribes that are descended from the Abenaki people, including the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe. The Abenaki Alliance told Fox News Digital that their people had inhabited the land that included Vermont for 12,000 years.
Ben & Jerry’s July 4 message took aim specifically at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, and called on the U.S. to return the land to the Lakota Sioux tribe.
Republican Gov. Kristi Noem came to the defense of her state’s most famous monument after the message went viral last week.
“We can learn from the men on that mountain, we can do better, but boy, they led us through some challenging times,” Mrs. Noem told Fox News on Thursday. “We should be proud of America and knock off what Ben & Jerry’s is doing.”
Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield co-founded Ben & Jerry‘s in 1978. They sold the company in 2000, and as part of the agreement, the company has maintained its voice in social causes.
It has long supported Democrats and liberal causes.
