The address Monday by the leaders of Maine Indian tribes to both houses of the state Legislature emphasized the need for mutual respect. It is an especially fitting topic after years of strain from the land claims settlement act of two decades ago, but mutual respect might come more easily if it were preceded by an understanding of mutual interest.

The tribes, here for many thousands of years, want to thrive culturally. They need healthy natural resources, opportunities to be strong economically and the dignity that comes from a significant level of self-determination. Maine towns, here for a couple hundred years, need precisely the same things. These common requirements for continuity provide an important opening for mutual understanding and, from that, mutual respect.

There are, without doubt, important differences between Maine municipalities and the tribes, with the disparity in the level of governmental sovereignty being only the most obvious. The tribes have the burden of oppressive racism against them historically and the advantage of a distinct and identifiable lineage from which to draw. Maine’s overwhelming majority of non-Indians can simply assume that their evolving culture will dominate in the state; the Indians will have to remain vigilant to maintain theirs.

Yet it is impossible to look at the towns along the Penobscot River, particularly so farther north, and Down East, toward Passamaquoddy lands, and not see the slow erosion of vitality as the common enemy. The loss of vitality can be measured in any number of ways; the most damning might be the lagging population size. Where there are more deaths than births, more young people finding reasons to leave rather than opportunities to stay, more “For Sale” than “Now Hiring” signs, a culture creeps closer to its demise. And in the areas directly around tribal lands, what happens on one side of the line deeply affects the other.

Penobscot Nation Chief Barry Dana told the Legislature, “Too often we have been locked in the ancient struggle of the land claim. We need to find ways to work together as partners. We need to creatively use the tools available to us for the benefit of all.” Gov. Rick Doyle of the Passamaquoddy Tribe said, “While our past has been discolored by distrust, we are willing to walk forward in friendship to help raise the quality of life of my people and all the people of Maine.”

Those are powerful invitations, reciprocated by Maine lawmakers. They suggest a chance to go back, for instance, to the settlement act to see not how the document limits state-tribal relations but where it allows the relationship to grow. This is an important moment for improving the way the tribes

and the state have interacted. It is a chance for the two sides to work together to rescue their different, but allied, cultures.