Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

Poll results

Sponsored by: GoNetspeed, a fiber internet provider

Since long before the state was a state or even part of one, Maine has been home to nations of indigenous people. Today, that relationship continues to make news.

On Nov. 17, Gov. Janet Mills met with representatives of the Wabanaki tribes to discuss how the Legislature might expand their rights to self-governance. Under an $82 million legal settlement reached in 1980, Maine tribes do not have the sovereign status that hundreds of federally recognized tribes across the U.S. enjoy.

The meeting came days after the state's legalized sports betting market opened for business, an enterprise granted almost exclusively to the Maine tribes — the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Mi’kmaq Nation, the Penobscot Nation, and the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township and at Sipayik. 

Also in November, a national conservation group announced plans to turn over nearly 30,000 acres of northern Maine woodland to the Penobscot Nation.

Should Maine be doing more to acknowledge the sovereignty of its indigenous tribes?
Yes (72%, 287 VOTES)
No (20%, 79 VOTES)
Unsure (8%, 32 VOTES)
Poll Description

Sponsored by: GoNetspeed, a fiber internet provider

Since long before the state was a state or even part of one, Maine has been home to nations of indigenous people. Today, that relationship continues to make news.

On Nov. 17, Gov. Janet Mills met with representatives of the Wabanaki tribes to discuss how the Legislature might expand their rights to self-governance. Under an $82 million legal settlement reached in 1980, Maine tribes do not have the sovereign status that hundreds of federally recognized tribes across the U.S. enjoy.

The meeting came days after the state's legalized sports betting market opened for business, an enterprise granted almost exclusively to the Maine tribes — the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Mi’kmaq Nation, the Penobscot Nation, and the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township and at Sipayik. 

Also in November, a national conservation group announced plans to turn over nearly 30,000 acres of northern Maine woodland to the Penobscot Nation.

  • 398 Votes
  • 3 Comments
View recent polls

Sign up for Enews

3 Comments

  • November 30, 2023

    This is a civil rights issue. In 2012 the Maine Indian Tribal-State commission found the 1980 settlement act created structural inequalities and listed 22 issues to restore self-governance. Let’s do the right thing.

  • Bryan Wentzell
    November 29, 2023

    The more one reads and does the research the more one sees how clearly the State needs to amend the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act to fully acknowledge Wabanaki sovereignty, and that doing so will benefit ALL Mainers.

  • November 28, 2023

    Absolutely Yes!