Following four years of work by local tribes, the LD 1626 Wabanaki tribal sovereignty bill gained bipartisan sponsorship in the Maine Legislature, passed 81-55 in the House, and was voted “ought to pass” in the Senate.

For tribes, sovereignty would mean that they gain the rights necessary to govern themselves, largely apart from Maine state laws. Despite the urgent need for LD 1626 and the broad support it has garnered, Gov. Janet Mills proclaimed that she would veto the bill if the Legislature sent it to her to sign into law.

Accordingly, on May 9 the Legislature decided not to forward LD 1626 to Gov. Mills, and another legislative session ended without sovereignty for Maine’s tribes.

By rejecting this bill, Gov. Mills preserves Maine’s strained relationship with native people, neglects to provide basic rights for the state’s tribes and leaves Maine behind the rest of the nation.

A 1980 law called the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Implementing Act persists in limiting tribal sovereignty today. The law grants tribes rights which treat them as municipalities rather than self-governing nations. This leaves the Wabanaki without control over land-use regulations.

In some instances, the act also prevents their access to federal funding and laws which benefit more than 500 other tribes across the nation. For this reason, the ability for Maine tribes to make decisions about their own land falls short of the sovereignty rights afforded by most other states in the U.S.

In 2019, tribal leaders in Maine collaborated with the Maine Legislature to set up a task force addressing the limitations that this act has imposed upon tribal sovereignty. This group created LD 1626, “An Act Implementing the Recommendations of the Task Force on Changes to the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Implementing Act,” to subvert these limitations. This bill would improve tribes’ rights to make their own decisions about land-use regulation and criminal prosecution.

Citing concerns over losing the capacity to exact environmental and other legal regulations over certain territories, Gov. Mills’ rationale for not signing LD 1626 reveals her disinterest in generating a bill that would implement actual tribal sovereignty. The state losing the authority to impose regulations upon tribal nations is not a loss or a flaw in the legislation. Rather, it is the very point: the land belonged to the Wabanaki first, and it is not and has never been Maine’s to regulate.

To suggest that a lack of state intervention would perpetuate degradation of the land and losses to the communities located on tribal lands patronizes Wabanaki leaders and communities. These nations have well-established governing bodies and immense knowledge and capacity to care for their own land and people.

The competence of tribes to make decisions and determine governance for their own communities, as well as the need for the right to tribal sovereignty, are not up for discussion. Nor does Gov. Mills’ explanation for refusing to support LD 1626 shield her from the moral impetus to sign this bill into law.

Restoring the basic human rights of tribes in Maine is hundreds of years overdue, and each legislative session that passes without granting sovereignty rights stands as a testament to the states’ treatment of native people as second class citizens.

This past Tuesday, I co-led — along with our school’s Native American Students Association — a letter-writing event to Gov. Mills. During this session, we gathered knowledge about LD 1626 and wrote letters that were sometimes emotional, occasionally angry, and entirely adamant about the need for Maine tribal sovereignty now. Thus, dear reader, what we can do is reach out to Gov. Mills and keep people talking about LD 1626.

Going forward, the choice is simple: perpetuate Maine’s disgraceful history of denying tribes the right to their own land and political voice, or choose humanity, make history, and do right by the native people within the state.

Katie Draeger is an environmental and Hispanic studies major at Bowdoin College and leads the Climate Justice group on her campus.