Understanding #TribalSovereignty

"For more than 40 years, the state of #Maine has used legislation passed in 1980 to deny the #WabanakiNations’ inherent tribal sovereignty, excluding the Houlton Band of #Maliseet Indians, Mi’kmaq Nation, #PassamaquoddyTribe, and #PenobscotNation from many rights and protections guaranteed by Federal Indian Law. This has resulted in decades of social and economic barriers for the #Wabanaki people and surrounding communities."

Who We Are

"In June of 2020 the tribes in Maine (Mi’kmaq Nation, #HoultonBandOfMaliseetIndians, Passamaquoddy Tribe and Penobscot Nation) formed the #WabanakiAlliance. The Wabanaki Alliance was formed to educate people of Maine about the need for securing sovereignty of the tribes in Maine.

"In 1980, the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act was passed by Congress and ratified by the tribes and the State of Maine. The Settlement Act was supposed to be a living document that would be improved upon. Under political duress the tribes agreed to the Settlement Act but with the hope to continue improving the relationship between the State of Maine and the tribes. For forty years this has not happened.

"Because of the 1980 Settlement Act the Tribes in Maine have had their sovereignty stripped from them. The promise of improving the Settlement Act has never been fulfilled. Now the Tribes in Maine are treated less than every other federally recognized tribe in America. The Wabanaki Alliance is not asking for special privileges but fairness by having the same or similar sovereignty as the more than 500 other tribes across America.

"We ask all those who support the sovereignty of the Tribes in Maine to educate themselves on the issues, why they are important and join us in securing sovereignty.

"Use the resources on this page to learn more about the issue and its history, and then visit our Take Action page to find out how you can support Wabanaki sovereignty."

https://www.wabanakialliance.com/sovereignty/

#MaineSettlementAct #IndigenousSovereignty #WabanakiTribes #Micmac #Miqmak #IndigenousActivism
#FirstNations #MaineTribes

Letter: #MaineTribes deserve #sovereignty, #justice

February 26, 2024

"The Legislature is holding a public hearing this week [last week] on a bill regarding the sovereignty of Maine tribes. I hope it will eventually pass with enough votes to convince Gov. #JanetMills to sign it.

"I am a supporter of #RestorativeJustice, which seeks to repair the harm done by crimes both legal and political. One of #Maine’s most effective practitioners of restorative justice is the #TribalCourt run by the #PenobscotNation.

"The tribes, of course, have been treated abysmally by the ruling white culture of Maine for centuries. There was a time, for example, when a bounty was placed on the heads of tribal members, and discriminatory conduct continues.

"The federally recognized tribes in Maine are unique in a demeaning way: They alone do not have #sovereignty on the lands they occupy. I have heard the governor indicate that the 1980s #LandClaimsSettlementAc makes it difficult to accommodate sovereignty in Maine. But just think: The bounty was erased after a time, women gained the right to vote, Black people were recognized as fully human and on and on. Change is a fact of political life, and the time has come to grant sovereignty to Maine tribes. Please pass #LD2007 and let’s have some justice for a change."

Jay Davis
Belfast

Source:
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2024/02/26/opinion/letters/letter-maine-tribes-deserve-sovereignty-justice/

Link to LD2007 - An Act to Advance Self-determination for #WabanakiNations
https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bill/display_ps.asp?LD=2007&snum=131

#LandBack #MaineSettlementAct #MaineTribes #IndigenousSovereignty #WabanakiTribes #WabanakiNations #Micmac #Miqmak #IndigenousNews #MaineLegislature

This article from the March 2024 issue of #DownEastMagazine has a lot of background behind the Maine Settlement Act. A must read!!!

What Would #TribalSovereignty Mean for the #Wabanaki?

For more than 40 years, the tribes in Maine have had to play by different rules than other indigenous groups across the country, and they have suffered in tangible ways as a result. Now, a push for greater tribal autonomy has come to a head

"18th-century treaties were never intended to deed away land. Like many American #Indigenous groups, the #Wabanaki viewed stewardship as a communal undertaking — they didn’t share European conceptions of private land ownership. Unattuned to this foreign mindset, the Wabanaki signed treaties assuming the documents outlined land use, not ownership."

By Rachel Slade
March, 2024

"The #HoultonBandOfMaliseets’ administrative headquarters, built to resemble a log cabin, sits on a small tract of tribal land in Aroostook County, just north of where I-95 intersects the Canadian border. A few steps away, the #MeduxnekeagRiver roars past, the sound of rushing water a reminder of the harm done by 19th-century log drives, when clearing the river of obstacles turned the flow fast and shallow. A decade ago, the Maliseets took it upon themselves to start a #restoration project, partnering with federal and state agencies and nonprofit groups to add boulders and bends to the Meduxnekeag. To date, they have covered a four-mile stretch, recreating conditions that will cool and oxygenate the water, in order to help insects, birds, and fish thrive. The work requires patience. So does much else. The river is hardly the only historical damage tribal leaders around the state have been attempting to repair.

"One of the four remaining Wabanaki tribes whose forebears arrived in Maine more than 10,000 years ago, the Maliseets inhabited an area now split between the United States and Canada long before the existence of an international border. Chief #ClarissaSabattis, who wears her heather-brown hair in two long, thick braids that drape over her shoulders, was elected to lead the #Maliseets in #Maine in 2017. Since then, she says, she has struggled daily with the complex legal relationships the tribes have with the state government, dictated by the 1980 #MaineIndianClaimsSettlementAct.

"The terms of the settlement were the result of a decade of legal wrangling (and centuries of fraught dealings before that) that resulted in the state wielding unprecedented power over tribal affairs. The tribes have come to find the arrangement both burdensome and unjust. 'Our tribal council is our governing body,' Sabattis said when I met her at the Maliseet administrative offices. 'We should have full authority to make the laws and serve our people without interference from other governments.'

"Several years ago, the Maliseets, Mi’kmaq, #Passamaquoddy, and #PenobscotNation banded together and formed #WabanakiAlliance to collectively push for #TribalSovereignty. Most of the country’s 570 other federally recognized tribes are sovereign, which in the context of tribal affairs implies a sort of quasi-independence: through a direct nation-to-nation relationship with the federal government, indigenous groups can run their own communities. They administer their law enforcement, courts, schools, health care, and civil infrastructure on their reserved lands with federal assistance and funding — and, unlike in Maine, can do so without state-level interference. Sovereignty also means that if the tribes believe the state has violated their federally protected rights, they have recourse both through federal agencies and courts. It’s a system under which tribes across the nation have begun to flourish in recent decades."

Read more:
https://downeast.com/issues-politics/what-would-tribal-sovereignty-mean-for-the-wabanaki/

#LandBack #MaineSettlementAct #NoCompromise #MaineTribes #IndigenousSovereignty #Wabanaki #WabanakiTribes #WabanakiNations #PenobscotNation #Passamaquoddy #Micmac #Miqmak #Maliseets #IndigenousNews #JanetMills

Let's see, vetoed #TribalSovereignty, is letting her brother destroy #Maine forests (#CMPCorridor), wetlands and a 200-year-old working farm (#GorhamSpur), and is all for opening up Maine to #ToxicRockets and #Mining! I can't wait for the Mills reign to be over!!

#MaineTribes and #JanetMills close in on deal to avoid another sovereignty veto

February 26, 2024

"The #WabanakiAlliance has advocated for years to amend the $81.5 million settlement to give tribes access to additional federal benefits available to tribes in other states, relating to issues such as health care, land acquisition and disaster assistance. The alliance has pointed to a Harvard University report finding they lagged economically behind tribes in other states.

"But Mills vetoed sovereignty proposals in the past few years and opposes the initial language included in the 41-page Talbot Ross bill that came out last week. Mills believes the more sweeping plan would lead to legal issues and create confusion, according to her office."

https://www.bangordailynews.com/2024/02/26/politics/janet-mills-maine-tribes-compromise/

#NoCompromise! #LandBack #MaineTribes #IndigenousSovereignty #Wabanaki #WabanakiTribes #WabanakiNations #PenobscotNation #Passamaquoddy #Micmac #Miqmak #Maliseets #IndigenousNews

In other news, just confirmed my ancestral ties to the #Listuguj #Migmaq (#Miqmak #MicMac) #FirstNation. I always had a feeling I was connected to them! Celebrating my ties to them with this amazing music!
The Halluci Nation - Sisters ft Northern Voice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbrvwaVXJ48