Tribes seek help from Feds Intervention pursued as step to sovereignty

Maine’s Indian tribes are taking steps to get the federal government to intervene in their effort to be considered sovereign nations by the state of Maine.

In a resolution signed earlier this month at the United South and Eastern Tribes Inc. semiannual meeting at Cherokee, N.C., the USET board of directors stated that they upheld the Wabanaki tribes’ position that their sovereign rights were being denied by the state of Maine. The four Wabanaki tribes in Maine are Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Micmac.

The resolution comes after a bill passed by the Maine Legislature that made some revisions to the Maine Implementing Act that put into action the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980. But not all recommendations proposed in the original bill were included, and on April 24, Gov. John Baldacci signed a watered-down version that didn’t address all of the tribes’ concerns.

“I think it is fair to say that the legislative process is very disappointing in that aspect,” Penobscot Indian Nation Chief Kirk Francis said Tuesday. “All the changes that were proposed, even the final bill, were such a compromise on the tribe’s part to try to take baby steps that not even being able to get that approved really told us a lot about getting that document changed to protect tribal sovereignty wasn’t going to happen in the state process.”

The Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes have representation in the Maine Legislature, but neither representative is allowed to vote, Francis explained.

“The tribes obviously can’t change anything through the legislative process because we don’t have a vote in Augusta,” the chief said. “We have to rely on the state of Maine to make those changes. We just don’t think there’s any appetite to deal with it.”

In an attempt to gain national support, the Penobscot Nation drafted the resolution with input from Maine’s other tribes and presented it to USET, Francis said Tuesday.

“I think the resolution really is a product of not being able to get anything done with the Maine Implementing Act through the state process,” Francis said. “It appeals to the federal government to intervene.”

The USET resolution requests that the U.S. Department of Interior intercede on behalf of the Wabanaki tribes to notify the state of Maine of its responsibilities in protecting the tribes from any state legislative or judicial impacts to tribal governments.

USET is a nonprofit, intertribal organization that collectively represents more than 20 member tribes at the regional and national level and helps them improve quality of life while protecting the tribes’ natural resources and interests.

“The Wabanaki tribes cannot continue to maintain such a system that has failed to be a model for tribes nationwide, when powers of government are constantly challenged in courts, and [the] Legislature of another sovereign, the state, corrupts the basic foundation of each of the Wabanaki tribes,” the resolution reads. “This type of suppression committed against the Wabanaki population manifests itself in the lack of services, poverty, illness, shortened life expectancy, and general welfare of the tribes as resources need to be dedicated to ward off state and private party infractions and injustices.”

USET states that the only solution for a government-to-government relationship to be successful between the tribes and the state of Maine is for Congress and the Department of Interior to become fully engaged in supporting the tribes against all individual state actions detrimental to tribal government rights.

Francis said he’s hopeful that the National Congress of American Indians will pass a similar resolution in June at its semiannual meeting.

“It’s time for the Department of Interior to get involved,” Francis said. “The resolution is really starting the process in getting the federal government, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Congress involved in trying to get these issues addressed. There’s something really wrong going on, and it’s time that the federal government intervened.”

The tribes have had brief conversations with both the Department of Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs, but haven’t received any final word on whether the department intends to get involved with the issue.

“The [USET] resolution is just one step in consolidating our support and getting the message across strongly that there’s something wrong and it needs to be fixed,” Francis said.

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