Sovereignty is not just a tribal issue

Maine citizens are losing their sovereign rights every day. Almost no one knows this better than the people living in and around T5 R8. They are getting a taste of what it’s like to be an American Indian.

They’re losing their inherited and historical privileges to hunt, to gather, to recreate and to carve a living from their native land.

It’s easy to blame Roxanne Quimby for making the rent unaffordable for nine family lots and for Bowlin Camps. However, what about the previous landowners of T5 R8 who sold out to J.D. Irving Ltd. in the first place?

Back then, why didn’t they offer camp owners the option to buy their lots before selling everything off to Quimby? Greed: probably. Lack of foresight: definitely.

What about the decades of relief given to J.D. Irving for registering an entire township in “tree growth”? Is it fair to Maine taxpayers for Irving to sell T5 R8 at, or above market value to Quimby, without owing at least some kind of payback tax to those of us who didn’t get tax breaks?

Are we expected to help carry affluent paper company CEOs on our collective shoulder forever because they grow trees? It is fair for Quimby to impose her restrictive standards on the nondominant culture of sportsmen in the T5 R8 region to the extent that it wipes out people’s livelihoods and century-old traditions of sustainability?

We are told she plans to eventually give the land to the federal government, or the state of Maine; but only after hundreds of years of hunting, fishing and sustainability have gone down the same slippery slope as those who used to roam with the buffalo on the Great Plains. It seems that one again, destructive American history repeats itself.

I’ve been fighting for environmental and economic justice for three decades in Maine. I’ve fought in almost every river-access, anti-dam and anti-pollution battle that has ever been brought to public forum in the recent history of all branches of the Penobscot River.

I’ve served as an advocate for American Indian sovereign rights and the right to economic justice for all tribes in Maine. I’ve watched supposed non-racist Maine residents vote for gambling for the white man while at the same time voting against similar rights for Indians.

I’ve watched huge out-of-state corporations bring millions of tons of toxic waste into our pristine river basins in the name of regional economic advantage for all, when, indeed, the corporations were the only ones that stood to gain.

In every battle I’ve helped to fight, I’ve found myself sitting across the table from the very same lawyers of the very same law firm. This firm represents every paper, hydroelectric, gaming and waste management company. It doesn’t matter what the issue is; it’s always big business being represented by one huge law firm from Portland.

The other side is always comprised of economically less-fortunate people. Seldom have the poor people won. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

So, let’s say Quimby eventually gives T5 R8 to Maine or the federal government. That’s swell – except the historically rich hunting-fishing-outdoor recreation subcultures of Patten, Stacyville, Shin Pond and Matagamon will have disintegrated by then.

As if Maine, or the already overburdened national park system, or for that matter, Quimby herself, could possibly be better stewards of the waters and lands surrounding Katahdin than the Wabanaki were; or than the founders of Bowlin Camps have been. How naive. After all, why else would Quimby want to buy an entire township if not for its inherent beauty and healthfulness which has been preserved by those who came before her?

To whom do we have to thank for the preservation of beauty and ecological healthfulness of this region? Well, of course, that would be the people who have been driven from their lands centuries ago and people like “Mother Nature” (Muriel Fortier), the forager-gatherer who is being forced to leave her beloved home by virtue of her inability to pay the rising rent.

Shame on Quimby and shame on all of us for allowing our colorful, backwoods subcultures to be swallowed up by the homogeneity of Maine’s dominant culture. Shame on the state for subsidizing paper company pollution so a few can get rich at the expense of clean water and air that belongs to all of us. Shame on everyone who is allowing this to happen, because, when we lose our Maine heritage of hunting, fishing and free access for multi-use recreation, we lose our soul to “the man.”

We allow powerful corporations to triple-dip at our expense: first they get a huge tax break for growing trees, then they cut all the trees and make a bundle of money, then sell the land to private citizens like Quimby, making even more money.

The end result? A private citizen gets to own a whole township for which she pays taxes at a reduced rate without being required to allow public access for recreation or subsistence or even meager, local livelihood. Maine loses its Maine-ness and becomes just like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut or Rhode Island.

Every citizen of the entire world suffers the loss of a place that used to be different from the rest of everything else. Every citizen suffers except the rich ones, who are laughing all the way to the bank.

Dr. John C. Frachella is the director of the Bangor Children’s Dental Clinic