Abenaki elder Jeanne Brink, who worked to preserve Abenaki culture in Vermont, died earlier this month at the age of 80.

Brink grew up in Berlin and spent most of her life in Washington County. She said in a 1991 interview that while she always knew she was Abenaki as a kid, and was proud of it, she didn’t pay attention to it until later in life.

“Growing up, she was taught to assimilate to the American culture,” said Brink’s daughter, Jeannette Gray.

Brink did get exposure to Abenaki language and traditions through her grandmother, Elvine Obomsawin Royce , and other relatives, who would make baskets and share family stories.

One such story dated back to the French and Indian War. The anthropologist Gordon Day recorded Brink’s grandmother's account, passed down to her by relativ

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