[NYPOST] Indigenous tribes on both sides of the US-Canada border are squabbling over who is entitled to compensation from Ben & Jerry’s over its Vermont headquarters — which some claim sits on stolen land.Chief Rick O’Bomsawin of the Quebec-based Abenaki Bank Council of Odanak told The Post that if Ben & Jerry’s plans to return land to Indigenous tribes, it should be his group that receives it.
"This is my territory," the Canada-based chief told The Post on Friday. "The territory that they’re speaking of is actually my people’s territory. That territory is our homeland."
O’Bomsawin’s comments came in response to recent claims put forth by Vermont-based Nulhegan Ban of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation, whose chief has said it would be interested in seeing the return of the land.
Don Stevens, chief of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation, one of four tribes descended from the Abenaki that are recognized in Vermont, told The Post last week that Ben & Jerry’s should reach out to him if it was "sincere" in starting a dialogue about the return of the land.
But O’Bomsawin says that the Vermont-based tribe, which received state recognition of its claims of Indigenous lineage, did so on the basis of "hearsay.