Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Photo courtesy of Manchester Historical Society

(This story is by Cherise Madigan, of the Bennington Banner, in which it first appeared.)

Dorothy Canfield Fisher was a prolific local writer, and her namesake rests at various institutions in Arlington today including Fisher Elementary School. In 1957 a Vermont childrens literacy program was established in the authors honor, and the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award has recognized outstanding childrens writers over the last 60 years.

Fishers reputation has been questioned in recent weeks, as Essex educator and artist Judy Dow has led the fight for the removal of Fishers name from the award. Dow, who has both French Canadian and Abenaki roots, claims that Fisher not only stereotyped French Canadians and Native Americans in her extensive works, but played an active role in the eugenics movement.

In an address to the Vermont Department of Libraries in April, Dow presented evidence of Fishers ties to Vermonts eugenics movement and argued for the removal of Fishers name from the award.

The reason I started this was because our children are our most precious gift, said Dow. To name an award for a childrens book after someone who was a eugenicist is so wrong.

Now, the decision rests with State Librarian Scott Murphy, who will hear a recommendation from the Board of Libraries on July 11 and make a final decision thereafter.

Its a touchy situation and its really hard to look at these issues with our current morals and values and to judge history based on that, said Murphy. Im trying to get as much input as I possibly can from citizens before I make any decision. I have to be very careful to make sure we are taking the proper steps for Vermont.

The allegations of Fishers eugenicist entanglements stand in stark contrast to the authors identity as an accomplished writer and social activist, promoting adult education programs and prison reform alongside her organization of World War I relief efforts. Fisher was honored as one of the 10 most influential women in the United States by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, a trailblazer in her own right.

Though Fisher made valuable contributions to society and literature, her ties to Vermonts eugenics movement raise questions. While some argue that her involvement was tangential, others claim Fisher was more deeply involved.

The Vermont eugenics movement, led by University of Vermont professor Henry F. Perkins, insisted upon the reality of a racial hierarchy in which degenerate classes of people including Vermonts French Canadian population, native peoples including the Abenaki, and African-Americans were doomed by heredity. These degenerates, Perkins insisted, posed a threat to Vermonts way of life and cultural identity in an era when a declining population and economic stagnation topped the list of challenges faced by the state.

She was a progressive, but it was the progressive party that was running the eugenics program, said Dow. She was a product of the time, and the product of the time was eugenics.

The eugenics movement resulted in the creation of the Vermont Eugenics Survey, running from 1925 to 1936, as well as the formation of the affiliated Vermont Commission on Country Life.

The VCCL was created by Perkins in 1928 to provide a comprehensive survey of the rural regions of the state, with the Eugenics Survey at its center and core. Fisher was among the more than 70 individuals recruited to contribute to chapters of the organizations 1931 publication, Rural Vermont: A Program for the Future. In this survey, contributors were charged with answering the question, What is happening to the old Vermont Stock?

Fisher was most heavily involved in VCCLs Committee on Tradition and Ideals, focusing heavily on increasing the number of tourists and second home owners in Vermont. In 1932, just one year after a sterilization law sponsored by Perkins and the Eugenics Survey was passed by Vermonts Legislature (through which at least 250 feeble minded Vermonters were sterilized between 1933 and 1960, according to the Department of Health), Fisher accepted a position on the commissions executive committee.

It is not surprising that a writer from an earlier time might have beliefs and opinions that we now condemn, said state Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington. This is not just evidence of prejudice: The possible connection to the eugenics movement that had unjust and tragic consequences is of concern.

Many of Fishers writings contain problematic racial stereotypes that may have been a byproduct of her era, though many of Dows critics argue that authors should not be judged by their fictitious works. It is not certain that all of Fishers representations are pure works of fiction, however.

Dorothy Canfield Fishers book Bonfire was based on a study the Eugenics Survey of Vermont did on Sandgate, said Dow. You can go through the report and pull out the names, and match the names used in Bonfire to the names in the report.

A 1928 study by the Vermont Eugenics Survey titled Key Families in Rural Vermont Towns, featured Sandgate as an example of rural degeneracy. Indeed, many of the names mentioned in the Town Gossip section of the report can be found in Fishers novel Bonfire, which is set in a fictionalized Vermont town entrenched in poverty and populated primarily by French Canadians and French Indians. In Bonfire, residents of this community are depicted as primitive, and irresponsible sub-normals. At one point, a character is described as half-hound, half-hunter, all Injun.

Outside of her fictional works, Fisher was the author of a state tourism pamphlet produced by the VCCL which aimed to recruit superior, interesting families of cultivation and good breeding. Additionally, in a 1941 commencement address, Fisher praised the residents of Manchester for taking in the nomadic Icy Palmer, a Tuscarora Indian abandoned at a local sugarhouse in 1924. Though her intentions seem valiant, Fisher denies in the address that Vermont was home to any measure of ugly racial hatred and oppression, while insisting that no Native American populations ever found a true home in the state.

I am, of course, deeply disturbed by the allegations concerning Dorothy Canfield Fisher. We always hope that those we honor have an honorable past, but almost always they do not, said Melissa Klick, a native Vermonter with both French Canadian and Abenaki heritage, and the owner of the Icy Palmer Candle Co. Icy Palmers funeral was not allowed to be held in a church, and she bowed to white people as they passed; she was assisted but not socially accepted by the Manchester community.

While a heated debate rages on whether Fishers name should remain on the book award, Murphy will ultimately rely on the feedback of Vermonts residents and libraries to decide the issue.

The whole point of this award is childrens literacy, and if this name is going to deny a certain group of people that involvement, then thats significant. Theres somebody thats feeling pain, and Im cognizant of that, said Murphy. On the opposite side is the idea that judging history by todays point of view can be dangerous, and can sometimes do more harm than good.

Regardless, Fishers complex history has opened the door for a meaningful dialogue on Vermonts troubling history with eugenics.

I feel we must use historiography to keep examining our past to improve our understanding of the future, said Klik. Lets move forward to make sure that the ignorance that shaped Canfields prejudices no longer has a place in Vermont, nor any other corner of America.

We change everything thats outdated as time goes on, so why wouldnt we change this if its offensive? said Dow. Its time that the oppressor listens to the stories of those that were oppressed, and thats a good start.

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Author under scrutiny for long-ago ties to eugenics - vtdigger.org