Governor Mills? Chief Legal Counsel in Maine Sunday Telegram Op-Ed: Governor is Committed to Building on Progress with Tribal Nations in Maine

In case you missed it, Governor Mills? Chief Legal Counsel, Jerry Reid, penned an op-ed in yesterday?s Maine Sunday Telegram outlining Governor Mills? commitment to making continued progress with the Tribal Nations in Maine. In his op-ed, Reid details the history of the 1980 Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement Act, and he discusses the Governor?s interest in building on the recent successes achieved by the Tribes, the Mills Administration, and the Legislature.

?Gov. Mills recognizes that [The Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement Act of 1980] is a 40-year-old document and she believes that, working together, we should consider amendments to address unanticipated circumstances or identified problems,? wrote Reid. ?To that end, in recent years the governor, working with the tribes and the Legislature, has enacted the strongest water quality standards in the nation to protect sustenance fishing, amended the Settlement Act to allow tribes to prosecute non-tribal members for domestic violence-related crimes, and negotiated a new law that provides tribal members with new tax benefits and gives the tribes exclusive mobile sports betting rights.?

?That?s more progress in four years than any governor has made in the past 40. And Gov. Mills wants to continue to make progress. For example, she is interested in identifying federal laws that are not applicable to tribes in Maine and in working with the tribes and Maine?s congressional delegation to negotiate amendments to address tribal concerns,? Reid continued. ?As we move forward, the governor is committed to collaborating with the tribes and the Legislature to ensure that any changes to the Settlement Act are carefully drafted, well understood and fair to all people who call Maine home, tribal and non-tribal alike. We look forward to working with tribal and legislative leaders in that spirit.?

Read the full op-ed.

Under Governor Mills? leadership, Maine has:

• enacted into law new legislation that formalizes a State-Tribal collaboration process on policy decision-making, that delivers important tax benefits to Tribal communities, and that gives the Tribes the opportunity to benefit from online sports wagering in Maine;
• signed LD 906, An Act to Provide Passamaquoddy Tribal Members Access to Clean Drinking Water;
• enacted into law new legislation to amend the Settlement Act to expand the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy?s authority to prosecute domestic violence against non-tribal members in Tribal courts;
• established the nation?s strictest water quality standards to protect sustenance fishing in culturally important Tribal waters;
• enacted legislation that transfers ownership of culturally significant land in Meddybemps from State ownership to the Passamaquoddy Tribes;
• banned the use of Native American mascots in all Maine public schools through legislation signed by Governor Mills;
• replaced Columbus Day by establishing Indigenous Peoples Day in Maine
• established and funded the Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous and Maine Tribal Populations to promote, implement and coordinate programs that create and improve opportunities and incorporate the goal of eliminating disparities for historically disadvantaged racial, indigenous and tribal populations in Maine;
• created a process, through legislation signed by Governor Mills, to review all legislation for potential impacts on historically disadvantaged populations;
• pardoned the late Passamaquoddy Tribe advocate and attorney Donald C. Gellers for his 1969 conviction through what is believed to be the first and only posthumous pardon in Maine history.