In response to an email asking me “what terrible things” have been done to me by the tribe

Thomas Doughton September 28, 2014

In response to an email asking me “what terrible things” have been done to me by the tribe. I have nothing to hide, so I'm making a public rather than a private response.

I could detail the theft of family photographs, documents, files and an heirloom basket made by my grandfather’s grandmother Mary Ann Dixon Dorus—all stolen when I first worked from the Nipmuc Tribal Acknowledgment Project, the theft discussed in detail in subsequent documentation, available to you. Among items stolen included oral history interviews with my Aunt Toots [Lillian Lane] and my aunt Ginny [Mary Williams] which were submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs by both Chaubungamungamaug and Hassanamesit; both ‘tribes’ claim my family and Chaubunagungamaug defines my extended family, the Nedon/ Dorus/ Dixon/ White family group as one of three Chaubunagungamaug ‘clans’ or family clusters. In terms of Hassanammesit, I did draft a note requesting that they cease use materials stolen from my family in their marketing and publicity; the suggestion was that I and family visit the office to identify our documents and photographs. We've not yet done this. Also in one of the writings to the Interim Tribal Council before undertaking work on the tribe’s behalf, I specifically discussed and wanted clarified slander related to my NTAP employment.

But to offer one example: on July 14, 1999 an article appeared in Worcester Magazine entitled “Bad Blood: Money, power and the Nipmuc Indians’ battle for recognition.” What does it say about me?
The full story can be reviewed at: https://drive.google.com/…/0B0elHJjc0U2Oc0xaWWNweG8zc…/edit…

“I always tell people: ‘Your ancestors were either on the boat, or they were here to greet the boat,’ says Lucy ‘Loving One Swenson,” Mr. Doughton’s ancestors were definitely on the boat.’

In other words, Swenson says, Doughton may read books about Nipmuc history, but she says that doesn’t make an Indian.

‘He has his fancy-schmancy title and his fancy-schamncy degree, but he is no Nipmuc. His credibility is zero,’ she says.

“Swenson who is Morse’s daughter and sits on the state’s Commission on Indian Affairs, says Doughton’s family tree has been doctored to make him look like a Nipmuc. ‘Everybody is coming out of the woodwork. Suddenly it’s fashionable to be an Indian.’ She says a look at tribal roles [sic] on file with the BIA would confirm her charge.

Doughton stands by his Indian roots, If his name is absent from the tribal role [sic] it’s new to him….

Where Doughton stands with the tribe depends on who is asked. Joan Luster, a one-time colleague of Doughton’s and now president of the Nipmuc Indian Association of Connecticut says , Doughton is ‘the most valuable asset the Nipmucs have and they treat him like crap.’

Morse, on the other hand, says Doughton is ‘nothing but a troublemaker. A crook. I wouldn’t hire him to suck a dick.’

But tribal leaders did hire Doughton in the late 1980s as part of the Nipmuc Tribal Acknowledgment Project Inc. In the early 1990s funding—which came from federal and private sources—ran out and Doughton was let go. But allegations followed that he stole tribal property and used tribal funds to support a drug habit. In spite of these accusations, he was re-hired in 1996s by the Grafton band as the ‘petition research coordinator.’ One Nipmuc who asked not to be identified, says they were forced to hire him back ‘since some key documentation vanished after his first term ended.’

Doughton calls all of the allegations ‘bold-faced lies,’ saying in fact some of his own possessions disappeared after he exited the NTAP office. And as far as being rehired, he says it was ‘desperation’ on the part of the Grafton leaders that triggered the employment. By then, he says, they has spent a ‘substantial six-figure sum’ of gaming dollars that had been invested in the tribe and they were ‘less than satisfied’ with the findings of two-high priced consultants they had hired.

‘The federal government was threatening to suspend the application. [Grafton tribal officials] asked me to design a plan that would appeal to the beds as well as to investors, ’explains Doughton.’”

This is just one example and there are many others. As was the case when this article appeared in 1996, I continue to challenge Lucy Ann Swenson to produce proof for her outrageous statements. The kindest comment I can make, even now years later, that Lucy Ann Swenson was mid-led, misinformed, confused or mis-understood something. If this is not the case, then, LUCY ANN SWENSON IS A LIAR. But, in any event, this one of many instances when the “tribe” or tribal members have lied about me and put into the public records bold-faced lies. And, it's not the worst.

[Unnamed here] Oh wow! I too have documents where Dolly wrote some awful things about me but that's truly terrible. I do want to point out that Dolly is not a Nipmuc Nation member.

[Unnamed here]  I remember when that came out and you see how the media likes to exploit this stuff.... i can certainly understand your need to get the facts straight and i laughed when i reviewed the article because you were absolutely right in my opinion that we did not have the expertise to administer funds or programs..... there were questionable people in leadership at the time and would have been a complete nightmare if we did get recognized.... i think its a blessing we didn't..... the level of greed was out of control.... however again i think it is fruitless to dwell on these issues and does not promote progress.... and is irrelevant at this point what Dolly did or said imo ......she has not been involved at all for a long time and wouldn't be worth the energy to re engage her.

[Unnamed here] One thing Tom forgot to mention so I'll say it here. I was there and drove Tom to the Sutton office the day he was rehired. I distinctly remember they welcomed him back with offerings of tobacco (I'm unsure how sincere). When we entered the conference room we noticed over in the right hand corner of the room in a cardboard box on the floor, what looked to be Tom's old Apple computer. When he realized what it was, he said “there's the computer with all the files you've been looking for over there. The computer was set up and restarted and sure enough, all the material (they had accused him of stealing or destroying from NTAP was right there. Turns out it had been in their possession all along since they locked him out of the NTAP office on Front street in Worcester. At that point I payed special attention to the expressions on peoples faces at the time and watched carefully in the following weeks to see if some official statement would be made to “eat crow” excuse the pun and set the record straight on this. We'll guess what? Never happened and years later I still heard people saying “he stole the files and the money”. He didn't steal the files and he was not controlling any of the Casino Magic money. As for NTAP, NTAP was funded under federal grant money and if he was misleading the Board of Directors as the Executive Director and somehow embezzling the money for some ridiculous drug habit or any other unauthorized purpose he would be in federal prison right now which he is not nor has he ever been.

Tom has good reason to be personally very angry for this and other things that were said and done to him that subsequently cost him his professional employability for a long while until his potential employers learned the truth about what was being said. There are folks out there I know who would have been in jail for serious assault or worse if some of these things were done to them. We may not agree with everything Tom says but remember, you probably don't agree with everything your mother says either and that's okay and no reason to slander her. I must say that over the years Tom has provided more verifiable professionally researched and vetted information than anyone else in the Nipmuc community hands down.

[Unnamed here] I remember this article and several of the things quoted above (and a few more) very clearly. Even that young age, I remember being hurt by those awful, disgusting words. Thanks for resharing, I regret throwing away my copy of the magazine.

[Unnamed here]  May I please ask, what is it that those of you out there that had such terrible experiences, need to be able to move forward? An apology? if so from who? most of the people we are talking about here, i think, have either not been in the picture for over a decade, or dead.... believe me, i know exactly what those people were like and was betrayed by them as well....You have every right to be angry about the way you were treated, and wouldn't blame you....the question about what you need is very sincere and no disrespect intended.... but is this resolvable? if so how?

Thomas Doughton:  Again, I continue to assert that we need to clean up a lot of misinformation and disinformation created by both Nipmuc groups, and, then, begin tackling some of the same misinformation coming from 'new' Nipmucs and wannabees. Personally I have accepted what happened to me and my family; it is indeed history at this point but at the same time I ask how can we go forward as a people if we don't reject the Cisco myths AND don't challenge a newer idea of a 'tribe' created by casino investors. Also, some of the same players from the past continue in decision-making positions, still after all these years making it up as they do along.

Thomas Doughton:  This question of identity and authenticity is not new to Nipmucs. In the 1950s, for example, as Nipmuc organizations were being created there was an intense fight in the community about folks claiming to be Native and Nipmuc. Roswell or Ross Hazard, aka Chief Tumbleweed, to whom hundreds of folks in the area including me are related, was an not an Indian. Nor were Mr. & Mrs. Moffitt; their daughter Elsie did marry Edward Toney but that didn’t make them Indian. Whether to accept these individuals as “voices” of the Nipmuc community resulted in a ‘bloody’ conflict, at one point Jessie Mays and her sister Sarah Sullivan, Zara’s mother,  in public disagreement about the claims of these individuals. Only after her mother's death did Zara start calling herself squaw sachem of the Nipmuc Nation, where no one in her family had ever even claimed to be chief of anything. Many of her mother's Nipmuc friends were shocked. Elders in our community laughed at her claims, they considered them ridiculous. But, in addition to endorsement and acceptance in the powwow circuit of the 1960s, her limited local support came from the likes of Ros Hazard [Chief Tumbleweed] and others of doubtful ancestry. It is a given that many people of color from the South and other areas may have had Native ancestry; our elders never tackled this issue but insisted these individuals claiming to be Native did not speak for Nipmuc community. More and more this became an issue with Zara’s hand-picked ‘tribe’ and ‘council,’ another example involving Walter Bostic Sr., whose family may or may not be of Abenaki heritage, however, some Nipmucs challenged how he happened to be on the Nipmuc Tribal Council. [Or, for that matter, how his second wife, Corinne Bostic is now a Nipmuc author, as defined by Cheryl Stedtler. FYI, one of the three Mrs. Walter Bostic, Angenette Morse was indeed of Nipmuc heritage.]

[Unnamed here] Moving on is very important and the majority of energy expended should be in that direction. At the same time if you have a car in the driveway with a broken axle, you need to fix it in order “move on”. So while it is very important to spend time acquiring and installing a new axle in pursuit of moving on, it's also important to review how the axle got broken in the first place and what you might do differently in the future as you scrape your knuckles under the car and curse whoever for taking it down that damn dirt road after you specifically said "don't do that" and why! This is tough but these sad stories contain valuable lessons and should be told not to paralyze people so they sit crying about the past but to instruct folks and mark the “old minefields” for the future. Some of those old mines are still very much active in many communities in the forms of peoples general lack of knowledge about a subject area, how a group approaches evaluating whether something that is said or heard is really fact, fiction or that the truth cannot be determined based on the existing information or recognizing when personal agendas exist that are exploitative and detrimental to the group.

All groups go through this not just us. The successful ones learn from their experiences (wisdom) and incorporate that as they move on.