Maine
Maine businesses recognize Indigenous Peoples Day in different ways
Jay Morin, right, a Keller Williams Realty agent, makes a video recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day for his professional Instagram account with the help of his son Trase on Friday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Jay Morin was busy Friday afternoon, making a video for his professional Instagram account that would recognize Monday as Indigenous Peoples Day.
An associate broker with Keller Williams Realty, Morin made a similar video last year for the nearly 1,200 followers of his social media account, which features home improvement projects. This year, he became the Texas-based company’s “cultural ambassador” for the state of Maine – a role he has embraced.
“I’ve always respected other cultures, especially the Wabanaki people of Maine,” Morin said. “I believe we are all immigrants and we should respect the people who were here first.”
Like local government offices and schools, Keller Williams’ Portland office will be closed Monday in observance of Indigenous Peoples Day – a state holiday since 2019 – out of respect for the Wabanaki Nations in Maine, Morin said. Banks and post offices will be closed because it’s also Columbus Day, a federal holiday since 1971. Many retail and other businesses will be open.
Five years after the state changed the name of the October holiday, workers haven’t gotten an extra day off across the board. It’s one of the most inconsistently celebrated holidays in the U.S., and many Maine businesses recognize the day however they did before. Some are trying to foster greater cultural and historical awareness.
President Biden has repeatedly proclaimed Indigenous Peoples Day to be a holiday, but it isn’t recognized under federal law. Maine is one of 18 states and the District of Columbia that officially celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day or a similar holiday instead of or in addition to Columbus Day.
Maine replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, recognizing that the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Mi’kmaq and Maliseet tribes have lived in the region for at least 13,000 years.
The Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce will be closed in observance of Indigenous Peoples Day, said President and CEO Quincy Hentzel.
“It is an annual paid holiday for our employees,” she said. “We believe many businesses within our region will be joining us in observance.”
The Maine State Chamber of Commerce and many of its members also will be closed Monday in observance of the holiday, said President and CEO Patrick Woodcock.
Maine businesses have made progress in recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day, said Maulian Bryant, Penobscot Nation ambassador and incoming executive director of the Wabanaki Alliance, which was formed in 2020 to promote tribal sovereignty.
“There probably are businesses that haven’t gotten on board,” Bryant said, noting that some people still call it Columbus Day.
“But all of the education and advocacy work that we continue to do will continue to make progress,” she said. “Not everyone is going to get there at the same time. You never know where the seeds that are planted will grow.”
LARGE EMPLOYERS TAKE NOTE
MaineHealth, the state’s largest private employer with nearly 24,000 employees, recognizes Indigenous Peoples Day in company communications and through diversity, equity and inclusion training programs, said spokesman John Porter.
Employees may use one of 11 paid holidays to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day, Porter said. The system’s nine hospitals are always open, he said, but its ambulatory practices are closed on New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“We try to recognize all heritage days and events, like Martin Luther King Day and Hispanic Heritage Month,” Porter said. “We also recognize that we have an increasingly diverse workforce and we want people to be able to take time off on the days that are important to them.”
At Bath Iron Works, its 6,900 employees will be working Monday, just as they would have when the state celebrated Columbus Day. However, the company recognizes Indigenous Peoples Day in other ways.
“We are almost a 24/7 operation, with three shifts running each day, plus overtime on weekends, so the yard doesn’t stop working very often,” said spokesman David Hench.
While some exceptions exist, most BIW employees get Presidents, Memorial, Independence, Labor, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s days off, he said. Most also get two “floating holidays” to be used at the worker’s discretion, such as on Indigenous Peoples Day.
The company also promotes Indigenous Peoples Day through social media and digital messaging boards throughout the shipyard. Facebook posts highlighted the holiday in 2022 and 2023.
“We also have communications recognizing MLK Day and Juneteenth,” Hench said. “During Hispanic American, Asian American, Pacific Islander and Black History months, we typically run communications connecting people of that heritage to our ships or the shipyard.”
CHANGE TAKES TIME
Businesses typically aren’t leaders of social justice movements, said Tae Chong, a Portland-based diversity, equity and inclusion consultant.
“If there’s community consensus on an issue, they will amplify it,” said Chong, who specializes in multicultural markets and workforce strategies in northern New England.
It usually falls to social justice advocates, educators and civic leaders to forge public policy changes that can transform how people think, feel and act, he said.
In that way, Maine’s adoption of Indigenous Peoples Day has had a significant impact on the Wabanaki tribes, said Bryant, the Penobscot Nation ambassador.
Growing up, Bryant didn’t know Columbus Day was a holiday, she said. In her community, schools, businesses and government offices used to stay open on the second Monday in October.
It was a quiet protest against a historic figure who contributed to the decimation of Indigenous people in the Americas, she said.
Penobscot Nation Ambassador Maulian Bryant speaks to students at Hall-Dale Middle & High School in Farmingdale last September. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
Now, Wabanaki communities relish closing up shop and celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day.
“It’s been a really neat shift to see our offices close and our people celebrate the day,” Bryant said.
Many of the nearly 8,700 Wabanaki people in Maine live in Aroostook and Washington counties. In addition to the Penobscot Nation at Indian Island, near Old Town, they include the Mi’kmac Nation in Presque Isle, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and Passamaquoddy communities at Pleasant Point and Indian Township, near Calais.
This year, Jay Morin’s Instagram reel for Keller Williams calls attention to special events on Monday in Portland that will recognize Indigenous Peoples Day. They include a free Wabanaki storytelling exhibit at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine; and a free showing at the Portland Museum of Art of “Sugarcane,” a 2024 documentary about the abuse of Indigenous children at a residential Catholic school in Canada.
In promoting the new state holiday, Morin said he avoids debate over the former state holiday.
“That’s why I’m the cultural ambassador this year,” he said. “I’m a diplomat.”
Many Maine municipalities will open cooling centers this week with the National Weather Service issuing a variety of heat advisories covering the next few days.
The Maine DEP also issued an air quality alert for Wednesday with ground-level ozone expected to reach levels that are unhealthy for sensitive groups.
All of York County, interior Cumberland and Androscoggin counties, and the southern half of Oxford County will fall under an extreme heat warning from 11 a.m. Wednesday to 8 p.m. Friday.
The warning calls for “dangerously hot conditions” that could feature heat index values of up to 110 degrees, with overnight lows only expected to fall into the 70s, according to the weather service’s office in Gray.
The rest of the state — save northern Aroostook, Piscataquis and Somerset counties — falls under a heat advisory from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday. However, the weather service has also placed much of the state under an extreme heat watch for Thursday.
Heat index values, which measure how hot it feels to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature, are expected to reach up to 104 degrees during the heat advisory period, the weather service warns. They could reach 110 degrees Thursday, when the extreme heat watch is in effect.
Northern Oxford and Franklin counties, and central Somerset County, can expect a heat index value of up to 99 degrees Wednesday, according to the weather service.
The weather service advises people to drink plenty of fluids, stay in air-conditioned rooms when possible, avoid extended periods in the sun and check up on relatives and neighbors. It also warns not to leave young children and pets in unattended vehicles, as “car interiors will reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.”
Cooling Centers
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has also issued an air quality alert from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesday along the coast from Kittery to Acadia National Park. The agency warns that ground-level ozone concentrations are expected to reach levels that are unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Ozone levels may reach “moderate levels” further inland, according to the Maine DEP, including in all of Androscoggin and Kennebec counties, as well as parts of Cumberland, Knox, Lincoln, Penobscot, Sagadahoc, Waldo, Washington and York counties.
Elevated ozone levels can pose a risk to children, older adults and people suffering from respiratory or heart diseases, according to the Maine DEP. Anyone exerting themselves outdoors may also experience health effects, which could include coughing, shortness of breath, throat irritation and mild chest pain.
Ozone levels were already climbing in southern New England on Tuesday, according to the Maine DEP, and winds are expected to bring those conditions to Maine on Wednesday.
The Maine DEP recommends that vulnerable populations avoid strenuous outdoor activities, keep windows closed, and circulate indoor air with fans or air conditioners. Those with asthma are also advised to keep quick-relief medication handy.
Particle pollution levels are also expected to be moderate across the state on Wednesday due to wildfire smoke, the Maine DEP said in its announcement Tuesday. Wildfires in Colorado, which have claimed the lives of three firefighters, had burned nearly 90,000 acres as of Tuesday, according to the Denver Post.
Maine could face up to $50 million in penalties next year due to errors in its payments for federal food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Newly released data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture find that Maine’s error rate last year was nearly 11%, the bulk of which were overpayments. That’s in line with the U.S. average. But starting in October of next year, states with error rates above 6% must cover a portion of the SNAP benefits.
Anna Korsen, executive director of Full Plates, Full Potential, said the overpayments aren’t fraud — they’re human error. She said this new cost-shifting policy enacted last year under the Trump administration further complicates the SNAP application process.
“Instead, we could make this program more accessible and more efficient,” Korsen said. “And that would reduce the number of errors and also ensure that Mainers who are eligible for SNAP have access to it.”
She’s urging Congress to delay or reverse the policy under the farm bill that’s currently under consideration.
Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services said it’s taking steps to reduce the error rate, including modernizing its systems and hiring an additional 40 eligibility specialists.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
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