Indigenous Peoples Day rally urges Maine voters to restore tribal treaties to printed constitution

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Several hundred people rallied on the state’s fifth Indigenous Peoples Day in support of a statewide vote requiring tribal treaties to be restored to printed versions of the Maine Constitution.

The march and rally outside the State House on Monday came as Native Americans seek to require portions of the original Maine Constitution that detail tribal treaties and other obligations to be included for the sake of transparency and to honor tribal history.

“They have been removed from the printed history, and we want to put them back. And it really is that simple. There’s no hidden agenda. There’s no, you know, secrets here. It’s just about transparency, truth and restoration of our history,” Maulian Bryant, Penobscot Nation ambassador and president of the Wabanaki Alliance, told the group.

The group gathered for music and to listen to speakers before marching to the front of the State House to encourage support for the amendment, which is on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Maine inherited the treaties from Massachusetts when it became its own state in 1820. The language still applies even though references were later removed from the printed constitution.

“To have a constitution in the state of Maine that has a whole section about the tribes being struck out, for absolutely no good reason, is unconscionable,” said Democratic Senate President Troy Jackson.

Jackson said people often “wrap themselves in the Constitution” during political debates. “We should wrap ourselves with the whole Constitution,” he said.

Maine voters will have a busy ballot despite it being an off-year election.

There are four statewide ballot initiatives including a proposal to break up the state’s largest investor-owned electric utilities and replace them with the nonprofit Pine Tree Power and an elected board. The proposal to restore tribal treaty language is one of four constitutional amendments on the ballot.

The tribal treaty vote comes as Native Americans in Maine are seeking greater autonomy. In recent years, lawmakers have expanded tribal policing authority, returned some land and allowed the Passamaquoddy Tribe to work with the federal government to clean up water, among other things.

In January, state lawmakers will once again take up a proposal to expand sovereignty of Native Americans in Maine by changing the 1980 Maine Indian Land Claims Act to allow the tribes to be treated like the nation’s other federally recognized tribes.

The settlement for the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and Maliseet, along with a 1991 agreement for the Mi’kmaq, stipulates they’re bound by state law and treated like municipalities in many cases.