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Every governor in my memory has played the overseer role when it comes to denying rights – hope – to the surviving members of the Wabanaki tribes remaining on shreds of their ancestral lands within Maine. I believe they encourage suspicion, fear and zero-sum thinking and policies, often in support of corporate interests and rarely in the interests of justice. They project that if “Maine’s tribes” or “our tribes” were freed from the constraints of the Maine Settlement Act we would be stepping off into chaos.
The reality is that there are over 560 indigenous tribes scattered amongst 35 other states, and there is an entire body of law that relates to federal-Tribal relations that has evolved over 180 years. If Gov. Janet Mills wants to avoid endless litigation with the Wabanaki, becoming the 36th state within that established framework would seem a rational decision.
Also real is the economic and social plight of the four federally recognized tribes within Maine, excluded by the Settlement Act from receiving funding from over 200 dedicated federal programs.
Those who oppose this simple act of equity and justice blithely ignore the fact that they are also preventing the expenditures of hundreds of millions of dollars annually in the 2nd Congressional District, a declining region that has not equitably benefited in Maine’s recent economic growth. Whatever basis Mills believes offers legit opposition to the Tribes’ full federal status, her opposition effectively signals the continuation of imperialism, colonization and racism as bipartisan state policy. Shameful!
Bo Yerxa
Waldoboro