This story was originally published by the Maine Morning Star.

Emma Davis
Maine Morning Star

As the movement to return more sovereignty to the Wabanaki Nations is poised to continue in the upcoming legislative session, tribal leaders say recent events underscored the benefits that even piecemeal wins have delivered for the tribes. 

When federal food assistance was suspended during the federal government shutdown, the longest in the county’s history, the Penobscot Nation reallocated thousands of dollars to bridge the gap, also relying on donated moose meat from hunters.  

“That was extremely taxing and stressful,” Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis told the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee earlier this month, “and without the resources that we’ve been able to gain by our own decisionmaking in an unrestricted way, we would not have been able to … supplement food programs.”

The Penobscot Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and Mi’kmaq Nation — collectively known as the Wabanaki Nations — are treated differently than other federally recognized tribes, more akin to municipalities than sovereign nations because of a 1980 land settlement agreement. Wabanaki leaders have said that their Tribes signed the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act to get fair compensation for stolen lands, not to give up the level of sovereignty that has been interpreted by the state and courts to date. 

Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, has approached changing this dynamic on a case-by-case basis, such as expanding Wabanaki authority over prosecuting crimes, permitting the Tribes to handle and reap profits from sports betting, and aligning the tax code with the rules that apply to other tribal nations throughout the country. 

Those financial gains are what helped the Penobscot Nation fill the food assistance gap, Francis said. Revenue from the sports betting change in particular helped the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians replace and refurbish housing stock, Maliseet Chief Clarissa Sabattis said, but the Tribe still only has about 90 units to offer its about 2,000 citizens.

“Those things trickle down,” Sabattis said. “It does affect the livelihood and the health of our people.” 

Piecemeal changes have helped, Francis, Sabbatis and other Wabanaki chiefs say, but the remaining barriers to self-governance leave persistent disparities between tribal citizens and other Mainers, such as health inequalities and limited economic mobility.

The Maine Legislature formally recognized a need to alter the Settlement Act in 2019 by tasking a bipartisan group of state legislators and tribal chiefs to recommend changes. Those 22 recommended changes have since been taken up in several proposals with varying success and will again be considered when lawmakers return in January.  

Other changes being considered

Two bills that the Legislature will contemplate next year are nearly identical to past proposals that were blocked either by the governor or through the Legislature’s opaque funding process.  

LD 785 is omnibus legislation that would implement the remaining task force recommendations, while LD 395 focuses on just one of the recommendations, restoring the Wabanaki Nations’ access to beneficial federal laws. Both are sponsored by Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Cumberland).

The omnibus legislation is essentially the proposal that the Legislature initially passed in 2022, but lawmakers on the budget committee did not fund the bill, essentially killing it, despite its relatively small fiscal note.

The proposal regarding federal laws mirrors a bill that the Legislature passed in 2023 but Mills vetoed, writing in her veto letter that she doesn’t “want to see the Wabanaki Nations unfairly excluded from benefits that are generally available to federally recognized tribes” but she fears the way the legislation sought to do so would “result in years, if not decades, of new, painful litigation that would exacerbate our government-to-government relationship and only further divide the state.” 

The Settlement Act made it so federal legislation that applies to all other tribes doesn’t apply to the Wabanaki Nations unless explicitly written into the law. LD 385 would flip this paradigm by allowing the Wabanaki Nations to access federal laws unless they are expressly excluded. 

Among the many federal laws that do not apply to the Wabanaki Nations is one that offers federally recognized tribes the right to exclusively regulate and take in revenue from gambling on tribal lands.

Expanding on the 2022 sports betting law, lawmakers earlier this year attempted to give the Wabanaki Nations exclusive rights to operate internet gaming in Maine and afford the Tribes more revenue from gambling at private casinos. The latter legislation is being carried over into next session, while the igaming bill was held by the governor, meaning Mills can either veto it within the first three days of session or allow it to become law without her signature.  

Mills vetoed other legislation this year that sought to prevent the state from being able to seize tribal land for public use. 

When asked how Mills will approach the issue of tribal sovereignty next session, press secretary Ben Goodman wrote in a statement that “the governor looks forward to working collaboratively with Tribal leaders and the Legislature to build upon the progress of recent years.” 

The Governor’s Office declined to share Mills’ stance on specific legislation, with Goodman writing, “The governor will review each bill as part of the upcoming session.”

Given Mill’s earlier objections, there is skepticism that the pending bills will ultimately be successful next year. But with Mills termed out (and running for U.S. Senate) in 2026, the proposals could have more luck under the next administration, as several gubernatorial candidates have already made day one pledges to restore full sovereignty to the Wabanaki Nations.  

Craig Sanborn, legal counsel for the Mi’kmaq Nation and citizen of the Penobscot Nation, told Maine Morning Star that although the governor hasn’t been amenable to several of the ways the Wabanaki Nations have sought to have their sovereignty returned, “at the end of the day, as she says, we keep coming back.”

“The relationship is not a short-term relationship,” he said, “Obviously, we’ve been here forever. The relationship that we try to build on is something that is a long game… we want to leave on a high note with her.”

While acknowledging the uncertain outcome of the current legislation, he said it is clear there have been improvements with tribal-state communication. 

Glimpses of that come from closed-door meetings, such as one between Mills and tribal leadership this fall, which Mi’kmaq Nation Chief Sheila McCormack described as positive. 

It’s also evident publicly, such as in the decision by the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians earlier this year to send a representative back to the Legislature for the first time since 2018. That representative is Brian Reynolds, who has been the tribal administrator for nearly two decades. 

The Penobscot Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe also withdrew their representatives in 2015, citing frustration with the state not recognizing their sovereign rights and with former Republican Gov. Paul LePage rescinding an executive order that sought to improve cooperation with the Tribes. The Passamoquoddy Tribe has continued to send a representative, currently Aaron Dana. 

These representatives cannot officially cast votes but can do so symbolically and otherwise participate in debate and educate lawmakers.  

“We do feel like people are receptive now,” said Sabattis, chief of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, “and people want to learn.”