#wabanakinations — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #wabanakinations, aggregated by home.social.
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#Maine - #WabanakiAlliance holds U.S. Senate candidate forum, participants discuss gaps in #IndigenousEducation
By Arianna Perdomo on April 20, 2026
"Democratic U.S. Senate candidates #DavidCostello and #GrahamPlatner outlined their positions on tribal sovereignty and education during a debate organized by the Wabanaki Alliance on April 16 on Indian Island in Old Town, which is home of the #PenobscotNation. The event was hosted by Penobscot Nation members and offered a chance to discuss non-partisan policy affecting #WabanakiNations and candidates’ plans to support those communities.
"Located less than 15 minutes from the #UniversityOfMaine, #IndianIsland sits along the #PenobscotRiver. This reservation serves as a cultural and historical center for the Penobscot people. Within the community there are buildings and museums that reflect ongoing preservation efforts of Wabanaki culture. According to the Wabanaki Alliance, the Penobscot Nation is one of the oldest continuous governments in the world and remains committed to protecting territories, culture and language as a federally recognized #SovereignNation.
"The debate was moderated by Dr. #DarrenRanco, chair of the #NativeAmerican programs at #UMaine. Notably, Democratic candidate Gov. #JanetMills and five-term Republican candidate Sen. #SusanCollins were extended invitations to participate, but were not in attendance. However, Costello and Platner offered insight on their approach to ongoing issues facing Wabanaki nations.
"Opening remarks were delivered by #MaulianBryant, executive director of the Wabanaki Alliance and Chief of the Penobscot Indian Nation, #KirkFrancis. Each candidate then gave a five minute opening introduction explaining why they are running.
"The first round of the debate consisted of eight questions surrounding topics of tribal sovereignty, environmental justice, regulation and the implementation of legislation that would help address these issues. Costello and Platner agreed that there needs to be a restructuring of the government and a new balance of power. Both candidates stated that they would support legislation that helped extend the power to engage the Wabanaki people in issues that are important to them."
Recording of the forum:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_yvkISNZEc&t=74s#USSenate #UselessSusanCollins #MainePol #Elections2026 #TribalRights #Wabanakik #WabanakiSovereignty
#WabanakiCulturalPreservation #WabanakiHistory #NativeAmericanHistory #CulturalPreservation #WabanakiConfederacy -
March 24, 2026: "This show features Evan Richert and Roger Milliken Jr., two longtime leaders in land use, planning, and conservation in Maine.
"They took a close look at the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act to answer a key question: who is right—the State or the #WabanakiNations?
"Their conclusion is clear—the Wabanaki Nations’ interpretation is correct, and the State’s position deserves closer scrutiny.
"We’ll talk about what they found, why Maine stands apart on Tribal sovereignty, and what it means for the future of justice in our state."
Audio archive:
https://www.wmpg.org/wmpg-podcasts/wabanaki-windows/#CommunityRadio #CommunitySupportedRadio #CollegeRadio #WMPGFM #NativeAmericanNews #LandBack #SettlementAct #MainePol #Podcasts #NativeAmericanIssues #MaineTribes #WabanakiAlliance #Sovereignty #WabanakiNations #TribalRights #WabanakiConfederacy #IndigenousSovereignty #PassamaquoddyNation #PenobscotNation #HoultonBandOfMaliseetIndians #MikmaqNation
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This article from the March 2024 issue of #DownEastMagazine has a lot of background behind the Maine Settlement Act. A must read!!!
What Would #TribalSovereignty Mean for the #Wabanaki?
For more than 40 years, the tribes in Maine have had to play by different rules than other indigenous groups across the country, and they have suffered in tangible ways as a result. Now, a push for greater tribal autonomy has come to a head
"18th-century treaties were never intended to deed away land. Like many American #Indigenous groups, the #Wabanaki viewed stewardship as a communal undertaking — they didn’t share European conceptions of private land ownership. Unattuned to this foreign mindset, the Wabanaki signed treaties assuming the documents outlined land use, not ownership."
By Rachel Slade
March, 2024"The #HoultonBandOfMaliseets’ administrative headquarters, built to resemble a log cabin, sits on a small tract of tribal land in Aroostook County, just north of where I-95 intersects the Canadian border. A few steps away, the #MeduxnekeagRiver roars past, the sound of rushing water a reminder of the harm done by 19th-century log drives, when clearing the river of obstacles turned the flow fast and shallow. A decade ago, the Maliseets took it upon themselves to start a #restoration project, partnering with federal and state agencies and nonprofit groups to add boulders and bends to the Meduxnekeag. To date, they have covered a four-mile stretch, recreating conditions that will cool and oxygenate the water, in order to help insects, birds, and fish thrive. The work requires patience. So does much else. The river is hardly the only historical damage tribal leaders around the state have been attempting to repair.
"One of the four remaining Wabanaki tribes whose forebears arrived in Maine more than 10,000 years ago, the Maliseets inhabited an area now split between the United States and Canada long before the existence of an international border. Chief #ClarissaSabattis, who wears her heather-brown hair in two long, thick braids that drape over her shoulders, was elected to lead the #Maliseets in #Maine in 2017. Since then, she says, she has struggled daily with the complex legal relationships the tribes have with the state government, dictated by the 1980 #MaineIndianClaimsSettlementAct.
"The terms of the settlement were the result of a decade of legal wrangling (and centuries of fraught dealings before that) that resulted in the state wielding unprecedented power over tribal affairs. The tribes have come to find the arrangement both burdensome and unjust. 'Our tribal council is our governing body,' Sabattis said when I met her at the Maliseet administrative offices. 'We should have full authority to make the laws and serve our people without interference from other governments.'
"Several years ago, the Maliseets, Mi’kmaq, #Passamaquoddy, and #PenobscotNation banded together and formed #WabanakiAlliance to collectively push for #TribalSovereignty. Most of the country’s 570 other federally recognized tribes are sovereign, which in the context of tribal affairs implies a sort of quasi-independence: through a direct nation-to-nation relationship with the federal government, indigenous groups can run their own communities. They administer their law enforcement, courts, schools, health care, and civil infrastructure on their reserved lands with federal assistance and funding — and, unlike in Maine, can do so without state-level interference. Sovereignty also means that if the tribes believe the state has violated their federally protected rights, they have recourse both through federal agencies and courts. It’s a system under which tribes across the nation have begun to flourish in recent decades."
Read more:
https://downeast.com/issues-politics/what-would-tribal-sovereignty-mean-for-the-wabanaki/#LandBack #MaineSettlementAct #NoCompromise #MaineTribes #IndigenousSovereignty #Wabanaki #WabanakiTribes #WabanakiNations #PenobscotNation #Passamaquoddy #Micmac #Miqmak #Maliseets #IndigenousNews #JanetMills
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Let's see, vetoed #TribalSovereignty, is letting her brother destroy #Maine forests (#CMPCorridor), wetlands and a 200-year-old working farm (#GorhamSpur), and is all for opening up Maine to #ToxicRockets and #Mining! I can't wait for the Mills reign to be over!!
#MaineTribes and #JanetMills close in on deal to avoid another sovereignty veto
February 26, 2024
"The #WabanakiAlliance has advocated for years to amend the $81.5 million settlement to give tribes access to additional federal benefits available to tribes in other states, relating to issues such as health care, land acquisition and disaster assistance. The alliance has pointed to a Harvard University report finding they lagged economically behind tribes in other states.
"But Mills vetoed sovereignty proposals in the past few years and opposes the initial language included in the 41-page Talbot Ross bill that came out last week. Mills believes the more sweeping plan would lead to legal issues and create confusion, according to her office."
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2024/02/26/politics/janet-mills-maine-tribes-compromise/
#NoCompromise! #LandBack #MaineTribes #IndigenousSovereignty #Wabanaki #WabanakiTribes #WabanakiNations #PenobscotNation #Passamaquoddy #Micmac #Miqmak #Maliseets #IndigenousNews
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#MaineTribes and Leading #Environmental Organizations Join Forces To Oppose Proposed #Mine in Shadow of #Katahdin
Proposed #ZincMine at #PickettMountain being pursued by virtually unknown Canadian company
June 28, 2023
"Two Tribes in Maine today joined forces with leading environmental groups and a national public interest environmental law organization to oppose a proposed mine that would be located in the shadow of #BaxterStatePark and the #KatahdinWoods & Waters National Monument.
"The proposed zinc mine at Pickett Mountain is being pursued by a virtually unknown Canadian company, #WolfdenResources, that has never operated a mine before. A previous version of Wolfden’s request was widely opposed because the region holds enormous cultural and natural significance to #Wabanaki Tribes, outdoor recreation businesses, and Maine people.
"The #HoultonBandOfMaliseets, the #PenobscotNation, and the #NaturalResourcesCouncilOfMaine [#NRCM], represented by #Earthjustice and #Brann&Isaacson, joined the #ConservationLawFoundation in petitioning to intervene in the review of Wolfden’s permit application to the Land Use Planning Commission (#LUPC) to rezone the area for #industrial uses.
"'The Penobscot Nation strongly opposes the rezoning of this #ecologically important area. We share significant concerns over impacts to the #water quality and f#isheries of the area, which our members rely upon,' said #ChiefKirkFrancis of the Penobscot Nation. 'The West Branch of the #MattawamkeagRiver contains abundant, high-quality, cold-water fish habitat and Designated #CriticalHabitat for #endangered #AtlanticSalmon, identified as necessary for the recovery of Atlantic salmon in the Penobscot River. This mine would impact our traditional territories and forever alter our ability to maintain our relationship to this place.'
"The area Wolfden wants to mine is next to three State Heritage Fish Waters and is a centerpiece of the region’s growing outdoor economy. It contains the headwaters of the West Branch of the Mattawamkeag River, which is sacred to the Penobscot Nation and provides key, federally designated critical habitat for endangered Atlantic salmon.
"'The Katahdin region’s wild beauty and clean water are extraordinary. One look at this landscape demonstrates that this is no place to put a mine,' said Nick Bennett, staff scientist at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. 'Wolfden’s claims that it will treat #wastewater more effectively than any mining company on earth are not credible. This is too big a risk for #Maine.'
"'The legacy of metallic mineral #mining in Maine is one of empty promises of economic development, acid mine drainage #polluting waters and killing fish, and multi-million dollar c#leanups funded by taxpayers and not the fly-by-night mining companies like Wolfden,' said #SeanMahoney, vice-president and senior counsel at the Conservation Law Foundation. 'Rezoning this area to allow mining would fail to recognize the cultural and spiritual importance of the land to the #WabanakiTribes and threaten the natural resources and experiences valued by generations of Maine citizens.'
"After withdrawing its initial request because it was riddled with errors, Wolfden submitted a second rezoning petition in January that sparked another review by the LUPC. Comments by Wolfden’s CEO disrespecting Maine tribes and #MininLlaws have prompted outrage from the Penobscot Nation, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, and #conservationists. The company has lost tens of millions of dollars over the past decade.
"'This is one of the absolute worst areas to rezone for a mine,' said Aaron Bloom, a senior attorney with Earthjustice. 'The region is known for its vast contiguous forest, pristine streams, high-quality lakes, and aquatic species like wild brook trout and landlocked salmon. Why would we risk that, along with the outdoor economy that depends on it, on a half-baked proposal from an unproven mining company? The Commission must put Maine’s unique natural resources, and the well-being of the people of Maine and Maine’s Wabanaki Tribes, before short-term industry profits.'
"More than 700 hundred Mainers and local businesses, including Bradford Camps, Chandler Lakes Camps and Lodge, and the #MaineWildernessGuidesOrganization, have spoken out against Wolfden’s plans. In May 2022, residents of #Pembroke voted overwhelmingly to ban industrial-scale metallic mineral mining in their town in response to Wolfden’s plans to develop a mine there."
#WaterIsLife #Maine #WabanakiNations #Environment #Mining #CorporateColonialism #NoMining