Tribes, state discuss future Indians unsure of Baldacci road map

BANGOR – There were no apologies and no promises made during a closed-door meeting between state and tribal leaders Wednesday, a week and a day after voters dealt Maine’s two largest Indian tribes a severe blow by soundly defeating their plan to open a potentially lucrative casino in southern Maine.

After the meeting with Gov. John Baldacci and his top advisers, tribal leaders, still stinging from the Election Day trouncing, said they were not altogether convinced that partnering with the state would secure their economic futures.

“I can tell you there will be no singing and dancing on the reservations tonight,” Passamaquoddy Rep. Fred Moore III said after the meeting, held in a conference room at Bangor International Airport.

“We are still in the process of evaluating our relationship with the state of Maine,” he continued. “It is severely and possibly irreparably damaged … and we don’t hold out much hope for improvement.”

The Wednesday meeting, called by Baldacci, was designed as a first step to mend fences with the tribes, which have found themselves at odds with the administration on several high-profile issues of late.

Not the least of those issues was a plan to build the $650 million casino projected to provide the Penobscot Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe with between $50 million and $100 million in annual revenue.

Despite Baldacci’s active opposition to the plan, the governor said he wanted to assure tribal leaders that the state meant to help them achieve their economic goals.

“I wanted everyone at the table to understand that we only do well if everyone in the state is doing well,” said Baldacci, after joining Penobscot Nation Chief Barry Dana in front of a throng of television cameras outside the airport.

Dana, in his post-meeting remarks, sounded slightly more conciliatory than did the Passamaquoddy spokesman.

“It really wasn’t a time to make promises. It was a time to rebuild relationships,” Dana said. “The tribes felt a great blow [in the casino vote], and it’s time we pick up the pieces and see what we can do from here.”

One thing the state hopes to do in the next 30 days is meet with tribal leaders several times – with the help of an independent mediator – to form some concrete goals for the tribes’ economic futures, according to Baldacci spokesman Lee Umphrey.

One of the few specifics to come from the meeting was the governor’s suggestion that the tribes consider a wind power farm as a source of revenue.

The respective tribal councils are expected to consider participating in the summit at meetings beginning today.

Convincing the tribes to sit down with the governor’s office at all was no easy task, with tribal leaders still fuming over Baldacci’s active campaign against the casino. Adding insult to injury, casino supporters say, was a newspaper photograph showing a beaming Baldacci shaking hands with former Gov. Angus King in celebration of the casino’s defeat last week.

But the governor’s opposition could give the tribes a political advantage as they look to the state for help in improving their economic prospects.

“It gives them another argument in that they can say that they tried something, but it didn’t work,” said Amy Fried, a political science professor at the University of Maine. “But I’m sure the governor’s office would still scrutinize any proposal.”

While the administration isn’t likely to reverse its positions on casino gambling or tax-free tobacco – a wish of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs -Baldacci aides signaled a willingness to talk about other prospects, including changes to the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act.

“Everything is on the table,” Umphrey said, specifically referencing the settlement, which tribal leaders have complained affords them less independence than other federally recognized tribes.

Wednesday’s meeting came just days after Passamaquoddy representatives, voicing their displeasure with the casino vote, walked out of a Nov. 6 meeting of the Maine Indian State Tribal Commission, the body created by the settlement as a forum to discuss changes to the law.

In the past year, the nine-member commission – comprising four tribal delegates, four state delegates and one chairperson – has been considering changes to the act that would reduce state oversight in tribal matters.