BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 24, 2021
In 1980, as the state senator from Houlton, I voted for the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act. I regarded this legislation and the corresponding federal act as a reasonable compromise. I continued to hold those views during my four years as Maine’s attorney general. Upon becoming the co-chair of the Judiciary Committee in 2018, I suggested we take bold action and tackle head-on the 1980 settlement act. We learned that because of the act’s restrictive language, Maine tribes have not benefited from more than 150 federal laws passed since 1980. Laws that wouldn’t just benefit the tribes in Maine but rural Maine. We need to restore the fairness and respect to the tribes in Maine that, in retrospect, was undermined and diminished by the Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement and Implementing Acts of 1980. ~ Michael Carpenter