MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • February 20, 2022
By passing a law that allows the Maine tribes to govern themselves, the state would not be giving them new rights. Instead, they would be restoring rights the tribes had for thousands of years, and that are already enjoyed by all other Native tribes in the United States. Out of an atmosphere of distrust and brutality came the 1980 Maine Settlement Acts, which ended the tribes’ land claims and put in place a legal arrangement that treated them more as a municipality than a sovereign people. The unique circumstances in Maine also keep tribes from taxing or regulating development on their own lands. Instead of full sovereignty, Gov. Mills favors a more limited approach. Lawmakers and the governor should keep in mind that the tribes governed themselves for thousands of years on the land we now call Maine.