PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 16, 2021
Donna Loring has been one of the most prominent figures in Maine tribal affairs of the past quarter century, serving on the Penobscot Nation’s tribal council, as that tribe’s longtime representative in the state Legislature and as an aide to two governors. She remains upbeat on the prospects for a substantive reset of the legal and diplomatic relationships between the state and Maine’s four federally recognized tribes. But she says ultimately it all comes down to sovereignty and Maine finally accepting that the tribes should have as much of it as tribes in other parts of the country do.