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Maliseet Ambassador Osihkiyol Crofton-Macdonald, Passamaquoddy Tribal Representative Aaron Dana, Penobscot Nation Elder Donna Loring, and Mi’kmaq Nation Vice Chief Richard Silliboy are members of the Wabanaki Alliance board. They wrote this as part of Wabanaki Voices, an effort with the Wabanaki Alliance to share tribal perspectives in the Bangor Daily News opinion section.
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said in his sermon at the Washington National Cathedral, on March 31, 1968. Since 1980, when the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act was passed, the Wabanaki Nations have been trying to get back to the status they had in 1979. That status was being treated like the other 570 federally recognized tribes and going by federal law instead of state law. Though we have not reached the pinnacle of retaining the same rights as other tribes across the country, we have made progress.
In June 2020, the Wabanaki Nations — Mi’kmaq Nation, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Passamaquoddy Tribe, and Penobscot Nation — formed the Wabanaki Alliance. The alliance was created to educate the people of Maine about the need to secure the sovereignty of the tribes in Maine and the issues important to the tribes. This included legislators.
A tool to understanding where legislators stand on issues important to organizations like ours is to highlight legislative votes on their priorities. Considering there can be more than 2,000 pieces of legislation proposed each two-year legislative session, these voting records, or scorecards, are invaluable to Mainers understanding where their legislators stand on important issues to them. To further that understanding and respond to the general public interest in our issues, we, the Wabanaki Alliance, recently released our legislative scorecard for the 131st Legislature. This is the third legislative scorecard we have released.
We’re pleased to say that we are making progress on tribal issues with Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Though the end goal of our tribes being treated like the other 570 federally recognized tribes has been elusive, we are slowly but surely making inroads with legislators across the state. Take the progress in the Maine Senate as an example.
In the 130th Legislature encompassing the years of 2021-2022, the Legislature voted on numerous pieces of legislation that would affect the tribes. The legislation ranged from tax benefits similar to ones other tribes enjoy across the country to spur economic development to allowing access to clean drinking water on tribal lands. During the 130th session, the average score for a legislator was 67 percent with 21 legislators having a score of 100 percent and nine legislators scoring a zero.
In the 131st session, the most recent session, the Legislature voted on various tribal initiatives, such as ensuring Wabanaki studies are taught in our schools to allowing the tribes in Maine to access federal laws like every other tribe across the country. The state senators’ average score for this session was 92 percent with 25 state senators having a score of 100 percent and not a single state senator receiving a zero.
This is progress. But why?
Because legislators are willing to approach us and learn about our issues. When they do they realize supporting tribal priorities is supporting a more vibrant and prosperous Maine, especially in rural Maine. We are thankful to all 186 legislators, no matter their score, for their willingness to engage on our issues and learn.
We have more work to do in Augusta and with our federal delegation.
Rep. Jared Golden sponsored legislation in 2022, Advancing Equality for Wabanaki Nations Act, that would have provided access to the tribes in Maine to federal laws that other tribes benefit from. The legislation was passed out of the U.S. House and sent to the U.S. Senate.
Unfortunately, Sen. Angus King opposed the legislation so it died in the Senate. We find it ironic that King touts in his campaign ad that he attended Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial but doesn’t seem to understand that many tribal issues are civil rights issues. We’re confident that when King takes more time to understand tribal issues, he’ll become a supporter of the tribes, just as legislators in Augusta have made progress.
Yes, that moral arc of the universe is long but it’s beginning to bend toward justice here in Maine. Thank you to all of the legislators who have taken the time to listen and learn, no matter their score.
