Dave Gram of the Associated Press writes not just about the apology being considered by Vermont lawmakers, but about the state’s sorry history in targeting its Native residents, as well as some others, for sterilization:

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — If the state of Vermont had carried out a plan to sterilize his grandmother, Don Stevens said Tuesday, he “wouldn’t be here.”

Many Vermonters of mixed French Canadian and Native American heritage, like Stevens’ grandmother, as well as poor, rural whites, were placed on a state-sanctioned list of “mental defectives” and degenerates in the 1930s and placed in state institutions like the Home for the Feeble Minded in Brandon.

Some had surgery after Gov. Stanley Wilson in 1931 won enactment of a sterilization law. It was designed to reduce the number of people seen as placing demands on public services, and to purify what University of Vermont zoology professor Henry Perkins, a national leader of the so-called “eugenics” movement, called “the fine old stock of original settlers in Vermont.”

Now the Vermont Legislature, which once endorsed breeding people like cattle, is considering a resolution expressing regret. It vows never to repeat “this dark chapter in Vermont’s history” and expresses the Legislature’s “profound sorrow and sincere regret that such a program of sterilization was sanctioned.”

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Sacred Heart Cathedral in Gallup, N.M., overflowed with mourners yesterday as Bishop Donald Pelotte was laid to rest.

Clergy filled more than a third of the church; his former parishioners made up the rest, KQRE’s Crystal Guttierez reports here.

Pelotte, the former Bishop of Gallup and the first Native American Roman Catholic bishop in the nation, lived for his parishioners, people said at his service.

“It’s sad because he’s part of us and this is what we believe in,” parishioner Joe Vargas told KQRE.

His twin brother, an ordained priest, was among the mourners for Pelotte, 64, who served the Archdiocese of Gallup for two decades. The Pelottes are Abenaki.

Gwen Florio

Infection and internal bleeding caused death of first Native American Roman Catholic bishop in the United States, New Mexico station KRQE reports here.

Former Bishop Donald Pelotte of the Archdiocese of Gallup died last week in Florida of an infection that affected his entire body.

Pelotte, whose father was Abenaki, moved to Florida after retiring two years ago in the wake of serious injuries he suffered at his home in Gallup. He said the injuries occurred in a fall, although authorities later questioned that account. (See previous post, here.)

KQRE reports that a vigil for Pelotte will be held at 7 tonight at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Gallup, and a Funeral mass is set for tomorrow at 11 a.m. He’ll be buried in the cathedral’s crypt.

Gwen Florio

Here’s the entire story from the Associated Press:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup says former bishop Donald Pelotte has died at a Florida hospital. He was 64.

The diocese says Pelotte, who was the nation’s first American Indian bishop, was admitted to Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 27 and never recovered from his illness.

The diocese did not release details about Pelotte’s illness. Spokesman Lee Lamb said Thursday that Pelotte’s death was not related to any injuries he suffered during an apparent fall in his Gallup home in July 2007.

Pelotte retired after the incident in April 2008 and moved to Florida.

Pelotte was ordained in 1972. He became the first American Indian bishop in 1990. His father was a member of the Abenaki tribe.