Disagreements threaten uneasy truce between tribes, Maine

Disagreements threaten uneasy truce between tribes, Maine

PLEASANT POINT, Maine (AP) — Eighty-one years after a neglected tribal water supply caused a devastating outbreak of typhoid fever and a century after the state outlawed spearfishing of the salmon that fed their ancestors, Native American tribes who trace their history back millennia say their trust in the government of Maine is at an all-time low.


Passamaquoddy tribal Chief Frederick J. Moore poses on the waterfront at Pleasant Point, Maine. A century after the state outlawed the salmon spear fishing that fed their ancestors, Native American tribes who trace their history back millennia say their trust in the government of Maine is at an all-time low.


What has long been an uneasy peace between the state government and the tribes who desire sovereignty has degraded with clashes on issues ranging from fishing rights to new casinos — a dispute so vitriolic that Gov. Paul LePage withdrew an executive order that sought to promote cooperation between the two sides and some of the tribes abandoned their seats in the legislature.

"This marriage between the tribe and the state is little more than a shotgun wedding between unwilling partners," said Fred Moore, the chief of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point. "There's always value in reconciling, but that requires both sides to want to come to the table."

Moore said he wants a productive relationship, and will continue working for one, but he is quick to add that "the honeymoon is over" between the state and his tribe, which had lived in Maine for thousands of years before the first European settlers arrived. The Maine tribes' turbulent history with the state, which ranges from the 1934 disease outbreak to voters' defeat of a 2003 proposal to open a casino in southern Maine, is documented by the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor.

Moore said the Passamaquoddies are finished "going to Augusta asking for things." The state's recognized tribes — the Passamaquoddies, the Penobscot Nation, Aroostook Band of Micmacs and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians — are only a small portion of the state's population, about 8,000 people from a total population of about 1.3 million. Their legislative representatives are permitted to introduce bills, but their votes are not counted. And doubts linger about whether they will participate in Maine's coming legislative season after the last one proved tumultuous.

. . . .

http://www.mail.com/news/us/3958388-disagreements-threaten-uneasy-truce-tribes-maine.html#.23140-stage-hero1-6