Staff Writer
HOULTON — Creating and sustaining a separate and unique government has been the primary focus of the members of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians since the tribe was officially recognized by the federal government in 1980.
Prior to that recognition, other Maine tribes were included in the Maine Settlement Act in 1980, which gave native tribes living in Maine the right to govern themselves without state interference. Some of those rights included hunting and fishing rights, as well as a number of jurisdictional matters. Recently, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians set out to be at parity with other Maine tribes. Their efforts were not successful and the HBMI Chief Brenda Commander feels the tribe has experienced a tremendous setback.
“It’s just disappointing that we put so much effort into something that wasn’t going to be,” she explained. “We laid our cards out on the table for nothing. It was just crushing.”
The changes, which the HBMI was looking for, were rejected in the Bill LD 2221 — An Act to Implement the Recommendations of the Tribal-State Work Group. Specifically, what the band was looking for was complete control in their general powers, such as setting hunting dates, creating their own ordinances and just basically having the same native rights and freedoms such as the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes. Chief Commander said what did happen was the bill received new recommendations from neighboring town representatives, which were later adopted. Now, the band has 90 days to accept those recommendations, or the bill dies. Chief Commander feels the recommendations laid out have damaged the relationships between the band, state and local towns.
“I was very surprised that the towns actually would be concerned about that,” she said. “I understand that they have some public safety concerns, but I feel as the tribal leader that that could happen on the other end and it has happened.
“There is a fear out of there of the unknown over what this bill could do,” said Commander.
Chief Commander said testimony from those rejecting the bill called some of the language “radical.” Commander said there was nothing different in LD 2221 than what the other tribes currently have today.
“We would just like to have parody just like the other tribes,” she said. “The tribes and the towns, such as the Penobscot and the Passamaquoddy, the world hasn’t caved in.”
Chief Commander was asked whether she felt as though the Houlton Band was being treated unfairly or as second-class citizens. She said “no.”
“No … we’re second class Indians,” said Commander. “There’s no consistency on how the state treats tribes. We were told in 1980 that we could come back at some point and make further agreements with the state solely because we were not organized back than. We had nothing.
“Our people had nothing,” she explained. “Our people suffered. They were cold, hungry; they were homeless, poor and treated terribly. It was our tribe and the efforts of our elders that brought a new life for them.
“And that’s all we do as tribal leaders to work and continue to do that and I feel we have grown over the past years and we’ve built up, as far as any other tribe has, as far as governmental capacity, and I just felt it was time and we were so hopeful,” she said. “In the end, we’re somewhat traumatized by the whole process by the state people and others.”
What happened was the neighboring governments in Littleton and Houlton found that there were a few issues LD 2221, which could create problems later on. Houlton Town Manager Doug Hazlett said he felt as though a number of crucial services could be jeopardized if the bill had been passed in its original form.
“In general principal, you can’t necessarily argue against parity, but I think that you have to understand the differences between the size of the land, the location of the land, the territory that this bill carves out on the outside of Houlton means that the housing complex in the band is going to be a separate municipality located within the municipality of Houlton,” explained Hazlett. “That’s different than what exists downstate state. All the services that are provided today, we have to decide how to continue to provide them if they are — fire, ambulance, some of the policing functions, road maintenance, schools. These are all of the open questions that we have to resolve before this bill is implemented before discovering we were wrong.”
Hazlett said he has no problem with the band wanting to move forward as an independent entity of the state, however, he said he has to be committed to protecting the interests of the people of the town of Houlton first.
“The thing that has to happen next is, the bill has been enacted and we have between now and 2009 to work out all the requirements of the bill between the band and the town of Houlton,” he said. “I am confident that if we work in the spirit of harmony and good negotiating, there isn’t anything here that can’t be resolved. The fact of the matter is that the town and the band have been working very well together and I certainly respect them.
“I think they have every right to move forward,” he said. “I think we both have an obligation to understand what that means and to be certain that when that’s implemented, it’s implemented in such a way that protects the citizens of Houlton and the citizens of the Houlton band.”
Hazlett said the town and band need to make sure that everyone understands what those changes in the bill are going to mean. He said to be in agreement in general principals is one thing, but when it comes to the functions of government — they have to be untangled, they have to separated.
“How do you do that and continue to supply the services, the protection, the rights and responsibilities for the two citizen groups, that’s what we have to do,” he said. “Clearly, the boundaries of our town and residents of our town are going to change and we’re fine with that. Let’s just make sure that we know what that means.”
If the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians create a separate jurisdiction, that could prevent fire and police responders from going into that jurisdiction. Hazeltt said those specifics need to be finalized for the safety of everyone involved.
“Over the next year, we’ve got to determine how do we implement this, how do we move forward, how do we get on a positive road in accomplishing what is in the best interests of all parties and to do so in an intelligent, harmonious and constructive manner,” said Hazlett. “We’ve got to see if there are any unintended consequences.
“On the other hand, I’m very proud of the accomplishments of the Maliseets,” he said. “They have come a very long way. They a very viable, vibrant government and they provide great services to band members and I’d like to continue to see that move forward. I absolutely hope that as these issues get worked out that the relationship between the Houlton Band of Maliseets and the town, not only remain strong, but also get stronger.
“We are partners in all of this,” he added. “We’re neighboring communities. We have to make this work.”
The same issues exist for the government of Littleton. Town Manager Jennifer Gogan echoed Hazlett’s concerns and said they just want to determine the extent of jurisdiction and exactly who will be in charge of certain services as well.
“We want to be clear who has jurisdiction to do what,” said Gogan. “Who’s building code is going to be enforced for example. It’s not that we have a problem, we just don’t want there to be a problem that we can’t foresee. We don’t want something to come up in the future.
“The reason we need these details worked out is that their property is located within the town of Littleton,” she added, which is the same issue for Houlton. “This is the first time that this has happened within town borders and there’s a slight difference there. It’s not that there’s going to be a problem, there are some details that need to be ironed out.”
The Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes do not have land within any neighboring communities, which is what appears to the be the underlying issue concerning LD 2221 and the HBMI’s general powers.
Chief Commander doesn’t feel as though that’s an issue at all and she doesn’t think that the tribe members are going to go along with the amended bill either. She said a meeting is going to be held on Thursday, May 22 for tribal members to discuss the changes and recommendations made to LD 2221. The bottom line is Commander said she’s just looking out for what’s best for her people and they’re not looking to cause problems for anyone else.
“After May 22, we’ll know better how people feel about that,” she said. “We don’t want to harm our neighbors that live around us. Why would we propose those (laws) and hurt our own people?
“If it’s going to benefit us as a tribe, it will not harm the outside and I even asked if it got passed as we wanted it to, and if it’s not working, we’ll go back down to the state,” she explained. “We don’t want havoc or conflicts, but we need to have more autonomy as a tribe and we need to be able to make those decisions ourselves. It has been our own leaders, in our tribe, to move this tribe forward. No one else has made any efforts to help do that.
“It’s not been the state, it’s not been the town, it is a result of us being recognized in 1980 and then being afforded the opportunity of receiving federal funds,” she added. “With those federal funds, it’s up to the tribes to move into the direction that they’re going to take. I think we’ve done so much here and we’re going to continue to do that and be positive about the projects that we have worked on.”
