Vermont’s cemetery care reveals colonial erasure: how genealogical research obscures Indigenous land histories and forgotten labor
Original framing: “A Vermont woman scrubs grime from gravestones and researches who is buried there - AP News” — AP News (via Google News)
The story excludes voices of Abenaki elders, descendants of enslaved people buried in unmarked sections, and poorhouse cemetery advocates. For example, the *Vermont Abenaki Artists Association* has called for land acknowledgments at all cemetery restorations, but these are rarely included. Black Vermonters, like those buried in *Mount Hope Cemetery* (a former segregated burial ground), have no representation in these narratives. Even the WPA-era cemetery workers—often Black and immigrant laborers—are erased from the history of grave maintenance.
This story is not about a woman’s dedication but about **how cemetery care becomes a tool of historical revisionism**—one that centers Euro-American genealogies while erasing Indigenous land rights, enslaved laborers’ graves, and the structural racism embedded in burial practices.
The power structures here are clear: **commercial genealogy profits from privatizing collective memory**, while state-funded restorations often lack accountability to the original stewards of the land. Historical precedents—from colonial bone-picking to WPA-era segregation—show that 'cleaning' graves has always been about **controlling whose stories survive**. The solution lies in **tribal-led audits, public databases of marginalized burials, and reframing cemetery care as sacred labor**, not solitary hobbyism. Without these steps, the scrubbing brush will keep polishing the same colonial narrative—just with a fresher coat of paint.