Fight for Indigenous Sovereignty in Maine: A Chance to Make Things Better
Maine’s federally recognized Tribes (Penobscot Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, Houlton Band of Maliseet and Mi’kmaq Nation) are currently “treated like second-class sovereigns,” according to Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation. They have fewer legal rights and protections than any other Native peoples in the United States because of a pair of 1980 laws stripping them of their sovereignty.