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Rating: 
Summary: It affected many Vermonters...
Review: Including my grandmother's cousin, who was seized, put in a mental institution, and sterilized. The reason? He was Abenaki. Of course, to the government of Vermont he was a mentally ill "river-rat" (a term that is still used in a derogatory fashion today), one of the faux-French who "infested" the area around Swanton Vermont, known to us as Mazipskwik.All the families I know in the area have stories - about why they learned to use violin or guitar to celebrate (if you drummed, the police were called, and you were likely to end up in jail), about the mysterious lack of children in some families, about who was locked up, who disappeared, and even mysterious "miscarriages" after visiting the doctor. This book documents some of these stories. It continues today - we are Indian enough to be discriminated against, but not Indian enough to be recognized as such by the governments of Vermont or the United States, to get what few benefits might be gained from being Indian, or for the surviving victims of the Vermont Eugenics Survey to be recompensed in any way for the pain and suffering they've been through. Ms. Gallagher, thank you for telling Vermonters the truth about their past racism. I just wish someone would write a good book about how Vermonters still express their racism in subtle ways.
Rating:
Summary: It affected many Vermonters...
Review: Including my grandmother's cousin, who was seized, put in a mental institution, and sterilized. The reason? He was Abenaki. Of course, to the government of Vermont he was a mentally ill "river-rat" (a term that is still used in a derogatory fashion today), one of the faux-French who "infested" the area around Swanton Vermont, known to us as Mazipskwik. All the families I know in the area have stories - about why they learned to use violin or guitar to celebrate (if you drummed, the police were called, and you were likely to end up in jail), about the mysterious lack of children in some families, about who was locked up, who disappeared, and even mysterious "miscarriages" after visiting the doctor. This book documents some of these stories. It continues today - we are Indian enough to be discriminated against, but not Indian enough to be recognized as such by the governments of Vermont or the United States, to get what few benefits might be gained from being Indian, or for the surviving victims of the Vermont Eugenics Survey to be recompensed in any way for the pain and suffering they've been through. Ms. Gallagher, thank you for telling Vermonters the truth about their past racism. I just wish someone would write a good book about how Vermonters still express their racism in subtle ways.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Gift
Review: Perfect gift for student who is going to college in Vermont
Rating: 
Summary: Yes it happened here
Review: This book presents a relatively unknown piece of our history through the studied eye of a scientific historian. It doesn't go into sensationalism regarding the unfortunate outcomes of things that the social engineers of the times did, but rather presents them in such a way that some readers may ask "so what?" The seeming normality of the endeavor along with it's ultimate outcome should lead us to ask some serious questions about what we're doing with our genetic knowledge and such things as "women's choice" today. It is an important book by virtue to the maxim that "those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it".
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