Proposal to Restore Sovereignty to Tribes in Maine Advances

By DAVID SHARP, Related Press

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Maine Senate superior a historic proposal Friday to revive tribes’ sovereignty, guaranteeing they’ve the identical rights as different federally acknowledged tribes throughout the nation.

The Senate motion, made with out debate, got here a day after the Home authorized the invoice that addresses sovereignty rights that have been forfeited by tribes below the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980. Extra votes are wanted.

Additionally Friday, a tribal legal professional rewrote language of a separate invoice to make sure the governor’s assist for letting the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Nice Level regulate its personal ingesting water.

And the Maine Home superior a proposal that might funnel cell sports activities betting income to tribes within the state.

The three measures got here up this week as lawmakers decide up the tempo in hopes of adjourning subsequent week.

The chief of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Nice Level stated she was celebrating the steps ahead whereas reflecting on all of the onerous work by so many tribal members through the years.

“Folks don’t perceive the depth of injustice except they’ve lived it. The Wabanaki individuals have lived it for a whole bunch of years. We lived it and we feature it, each single day,” Maggie Dana stated Friday from Augusta, the place she’d been monitoring the votes.

The sovereignty problem dates again greater than 4 many years, and has lengthy been a supply of frustration for tribes who’ve engaged in conflicts with the state over environmental, fish and wildlife guidelines.

The Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and Maliseet traded some rights to the state authority below an $81.5 million settlement that was signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980. The Mi’kmaq are topic to related phrases below their very own settlement, adopted in 1991.

The proposal to amend that settlement would make sure that Native Individuals in Maine are handled the identical because the nation’s different tribes. They’re at the moment handled as municipalities, topic to state legislation.

The proposal to present the Passamaquoddy at Nice Level the precise to manage its personal water provide is an outgrowth of the sovereignty problem.

The tribe stated it has been unable to unravel the water issues by working with state businesses, so it needs the precise to deal with the difficulty itself, working with the U.S. Environmental Safety Company.

The Home and Senate already gave that proposal sturdy assist, however revisions have been made to deal with the governor’s considerations.

Ultimately, the invoice will nonetheless enable the tribe, working with the EPA, to manage water high quality on the reservation and two extra tribal-owned parcels in Perry, stated Michael-Corey Hinton, chief of Drummond-Woodsum’s Tribal Nations Observe Group.

The brand new language makes express that it might apply solely to these parcels, and never different tribal land throughout the state, he stated.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, in the meantime, helps the proposal to present tribes management of a cell sports activities betting market.

The modification is one thing of an olive department from the governor who made serving to Native Individuals a marketing campaign promise, however has expressed considerations about unexpected penalties of expanded sovereignty.

That sports activities betting invoice would enable Maine to affix dozens of states that enable on-line sports activities betting, with the tribes benefiting from the income. Critics embody the Hollywood On line casino in Bangor.

Copyright 2022 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.