Land claims negotiator sues Penobscot Nation> Akins says tribe barred renewal of timber permit

BANGOR — One of the architects of the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act has sued the Penobscot Nation in federal court, alleging that tribal members conspired to ban him from receiving lucrative timber harvesting licenses.

As chairman of the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Negotiating Committee 15 years ago, Andrew X. Akins helped to settle the land-claims lawsuit that won each tribe nearly $27 million from the federal government.

Both tribes used the bulk of the money to purchase large tracts of land in Maine, for which stumpage permits were issued. Akins was the first Penobscot tribal member to receive a permit, which was renewed annually until May 1994.

But Akins claims in his lawsuit, filed recently in U.S. District Court, that a number of fellow Penobscots began to conspire against him sometime before December 1993. It was then, according to court documents, that the Tribal Council drafted an amendment to the permit policy that barred Akins’ permit from being renewed.

The policy, according to the lawsuit, cost Akins income and violated his constitutional laws to equal protection and due process. In the lawsuit, Akins, who now lives in Alabama, requests $500,000 in damages as well as attorney fees.