What is State Recognition?
According to the Native Nation's Institute at the University of Arizona, "recognition—also referred to as “acknowledgement”—is the formalization of a government-to-government relationship between a settler-colonial government and a Native nation government. In the United States, there are two different recognition classifications: federal and state. Each designation offers tribes a political relationship with an external government as one avenue of many to assert governing authority."
State recognition, more specifically, often refers to the formal acknowledgment by state governments of a tribe’s existence and its right to engage in government-to-government relationships with said state. Though the recognition process varies by state, according to the research of scholars Alexa Koenig and Jonathan Stein, as of 2013, 21 states - Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaiʻi, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia - recognized 73 tribes that were not federally recognized.
In Vermont, the process and criteria for state recognition were put forth in S.222 (Act 107) An act relating to state recognition of Native American Indian tribes in Vermont in 2010. Through this process, Vermont has recognized 4 tribes: the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, Elnu Abenaki Tribe, Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation, and Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation.
For more information about state recognition, Vermont's state recognition process, or Vermont's state recognized tribes, please see the following links.