AUGUSTA, Maine — Three years after a task force released recommendations on improving Maine’s 1980 settlement with Native American tribes, the Legislature and Gov. Janet Mills have not made several of the changes aimed at fishing, hunting and land use.
While various suggestions have not received much publicity, the changes would affect not only tribes but also other Mainers on tribal land. There would be major deregulations of hunting and fishing. One change would allow tribes to favor members over nonmembers in enforcing fishing and hunting regulations, a power that tribes in other states currently have.
Lawmakers and Mills, a Democrat, have met some of the 22 recommendations partially or fully by approving different bills since the Maine Indian Claims Task Force formed in 2019, but Mills has opposed more sweeping attempts to overhaul the landmark 1980 settlement that Maine tribes argue has prevented them from benefiting from federal laws covering other U.S. tribes.
Members of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee reviewed tribal legislation updates Tuesday and progress on the consensus recommendations of a legislative task force published in early 2020 after months of meetings.
Here are the big sporting policy changes that will be discussed in the next year.
Fishing and hunting regulations
One recommendation calls for amending the law that implemented the 1980 settlement to recognize federal law regarding the “exclusive jurisdiction” of tribes to regulate fishing and hunting on tribal lands.
Two others call for amending the law to “restore and affirm the exclusive jurisdiction” of tribes to regulate fishing and hunting by non-tribal citizens on tribal lands and for the state only to regulate those activities “for conservation purposes” while following treaties and federal law.
Tribes currently must not discriminate between tribal members and nonmembers with their hunting and fishing ordinances, but the past bill would have ended that prohibition and allowed tribes to favor their own members. The Inland Fisheries and Wildlife commissioner can also currently limit the fish Passamaquoddy and Penobscot members take within their reservations for individual sustenance.
Another requirement sovereignty supporters want to repeal is how the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes must maintain registration stations for wildlife killed in their territories, report registered wildlife to the state and make records open for inspection.
Additionally, a tribal-state commission now has exclusive authority to regulate the use of motors on bodies of water under 200 acres within Passamaquoddy or Penobscot territory. The task force has supported granting that power to tribes.
Land use and natural resources
One recommendation would amend the 1980 settlement to restore and affirm tribal rights “to exercise regulation of natural resources and land use” on tribal land to the full extent of federal law.
Land issues are particularly relevant for tribes at the moment, as the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and Penobscot Nation are opposing a Canadian firm’s effort to develop a mine near Pickett Mountain in northern Penobscot County.
The task force found the ability of tribes to regulate natural resources and environmental issues on tribal lands is “curtailed” in Maine, though Mills, state lawmakers and Congress have given tribes more authority on a few issues, such as water quality.
But Maine’s tribes would benefit from extended authority to seek a federal status that would allow them to obtain more federal funding and hold more power over environmental standards, the task force said. Those changes could also affect fishing.
