Tribal leaders, broad array of groups testify in support of bill to overhaul controversial 1980 agreement

Lawmakers heard more than eight hours of testimony on Tuesday in support of a bill that would dramatically change a decades-old agreement between the state and tribal nations in Maine. The hearing comes at a time when the Mills administration has been negotiating a separate proposal with tribal leaders. Tribal leaders and their many supporters regard 2022 as a potential make-or-break year to dramatically re-write a 1980 agreement that they say has harmed their communities. That 42-year-old agreement was supposed to resolve the tribes’ land claims against the state. But tribal leaders say the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act has resulted in their communities being treated as “wards of the state” rather than the sovereign nations, and has stymied economic development on their territorial lands.