Frequently Asked Questions

The legislation would make substantial changes to the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Implementing Act (also known as the Maine Implementing Act) to address problems with the law that prevent the Wabanaki Nations in Maine from exercising their inherent right to self govern, as all other federally recognized tribes in the United States are able to do under Federal Indian Law. The bill would implement many of the 22 consensus recommendations reached by a bipartisan task force in 2020 tasked to review the law’s effectiveness. The recommendations cover tribal court jurisdiction; hunting, fishing and natural resource regulation on tribal land; taxation authority; and trust land acquisition. The changes would bring the rights and authority of all four Wabanaki Nations (Passamaquoddy Tribe, Penobscot Nation, Mi’kmaq Nation, and Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians) in line with the other 570 federally recognized tribes in the United States. 

LD 785 is sponsored by Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross and co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of more than 100 legislators, including House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, and Senate President Mattie Daughtry. 

This bipartisan bill amends the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act and the Aroostook Band of Micmacs Settlement Act so the Wabanaki Nations can benefit from most existing and future federal laws that apply to the more than 570 other federally recognized tribes. Under the Settlement Acts, when Congress passes federal legislation, Wabanaki tribes in Maine must be explicitly written into the legislation. The Wabanaki Nations are the only federally recognized tribes to be treated in this way. 

LD 395 would modernize the Settlement Acts, ensuring tribes in Maine are not excluded when Congress passes federal legislation for tribes nationwide, as they have been at least 151 times in the past 40 years. This would benefit not only the Wabanaki Nations, but also rural Maine. 

The bill excludes federal tribal gaming laws, stipulating that the Wabanaki Nations would be subject to state gaming laws. It also extends to the Mi’kmaq Nation — which did not participate in the original Settlement Acts — the same rights and provisions granted to Penobscot Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians. 

LD 395 is sponsored by Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross and co-sponsored by Democratic, Republican, and Independent legislators, including Maine House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham.

In the 1970s, the Passamaquoddy Tribe successfully sued the United States to establish the tribe as a federally recognized Indian tribe to whom the United States owed a special trust responsibility. Shortly thereafter the Penobscot Nation joined the legal action. In the years that followed, state and federal courts recognized that the tribes in Maine had the same sovereign powers as tribes elsewhere in the country. Around this time, the U.S. government sued the state of Maine on behalf of the Passamaquoddy Tribe and Penobscot Nation over the illegal sale and seizure of tribal lands in violation of the federal Non-Intercourse Act of 1790. After four years of negotiations aimed at resolving the dispute out of court, and with the tribes facing intense public and political pressure to accept an agreement, the federal Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (MICSA) and the state Maine Implementing Act (MIA) were ratified in 1980.  

Collectively known as the Settlement Acts, MICSA and MIA required the Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot nations to give up claim to their dispossessed lands in exchange for a federally funded pathway to buy back just 2.5% of the 12 million acres unlawfully claimed by Maine. Congress later enacted a separate federal law to address similar claims brought by the Mi’kmaq Nation (Aroostook Band of Micmacs Settlement Act enacted 1991). 

The Settlement Acts allow Maine to exert an unusual level of jurisdiction over tribal affairs not found in any other state, and the interpretation of this element of the law has been disputed ever since. For more than 40 years, the state of Maine has used the Settlement Acts to deny Wabanaki Nations’ authority to self-govern, a position in direct conflict with the foundations of Federal Indian Law.  

The state of Maine contributed no money to the settlement. The federal government appropriated $81.5 million, to be used for:

• $54.5 million for a Land Acquisition Fund, to be divided evenly between the Penobscot Indian Nation and the Passamaquoddy Tribe. Just under $1 million of those funds were later shifted to a land acquisition fund for the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians. 
• $27 million for a Settlement Fund, to be divided evenly between the Penobscot Nation and the Passamaquoddy Tribe to be held in trust by the U.S. government. Notably, the money is invested by the Secretary of the Interior as agreed to by both tribal governments. Interest from the investments is distributed quarterly to both parties. Additionally, interest from $1 million each is designated to be spent for the benefit of elders over 60 years of age.

The settlement did not give land to the tribes; it simply provided a federally funded mechanism for land restoration. Both the Passamaquoddy Tribe and Penobscot Nation are eligible to purchase up to 150,000 acres — just 2.5% of the 12 million acres unlawfully claimed by Maine — from willing landowners. The acreage would be put into a trust held by the U.S. government for the benefit of the tribes. Tribal trust land cannot be sold, condemned, taxed, or subject to state jurisdiction without federal approval. 

To this day, neither tribe has been able to purchase the full amount of land provided for in the settlement. The tribes may only access the Land Acquisition Fund when they are able to purchase land and only receive interest from the Settlement Fund. 

No minimum land acquisition acreage provision was made for the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians. Though subjected to provisions constraining their right to self determination, the Mi’kmaq Nation derived no benefits from MICSA.

No. A fundamental pillar of the Settlement Acts was a pathway for the Passamaquoddy Tribe and Penobscot Nation to each acquire up to 150,000 acres of trust land. That has not happened for either tribe. Additionally, no land base guarantee was made to the Houlton Band of Maliseets or Mi’kmaq Nation. The Settlement Acts have also failed to bring legal certainty to tribal-state relations, as litigation over differing interpretations of the acts began shortly after their enactment and has not abated since. Soon after the legislation was enacted, the state asserted that by signing the Settlement Acts, the tribes had agreed to be treated as municipalities by the state, giving up rights the tribes never knew to be on the table. The state has consistently maintained the tribes are almost entirely subject to state law and cannot benefit from more than 150 laws passed by Congress since 1980 for the general benefit of Indigenous citizens. The tribes have disputed these interpretations and the result has been more than 40 years of continued litigation and strained tribal-state relations.

There are three types of sovereign governments in the United States: the federal government, state governments, and tribal governments. Tribal sovereignty refers to the inherent authority of tribal nations to self-govern, including the authority to establish their own form of government, determine citizenship, preserve cultural identity, provide government services, and make and enforce laws. 

There are currently 574 federally recognized tribal nations in the United States, including the four Wabanaki Nations in Maine. Federal recognition means that the US government acknowledges tribes as sovereign governments, as well as its own “trust responsibility” to protect tribal land rights and natural resources, preserve tribal sovereignty and self-governance, and carry out legal mandates of federal Indian law.  

Despite the recognition of tribal sovereignty in the Constitution, it wasn’t until the 1970s that the federal government began to take steps to support, rather than undermine, tribal self-governance. Ironically, this evolution came at the same time that sovereign authority was being stripped from the Wabanaki Nations through the Settlement Acts. While the restoration of self-governance has proved critically important for tribes throughout Indian Country, the Wabanaki Nations in Maine have been left behind, unable to access the full benefits of their sovereign status. 

For more information on tribal sovereignty, visit our Understanding Tribal Sovereignty page and this resource created by Wabanaki Alliance Tribal Coalition member Maine Center for Economic Policy, developed in collaboration with tribal leadership.

Unless Wabanaki Nations are explicitly named in a federal Indian law, those laws are blocked in Maine if they “affect or preempt” Maine law. This language is vague enough to ensure that almost any federal Indian law can be blocked. Since the Settlement Acts passed, only one federal law, the Violence Against Women Act, has been successfully extended to the Wabanaki — a full 17 years after provisions to protect Indigenous women were included. 

Since 1980, Congress has enacted more than 150 federal laws for the benefit of tribal nations, and Maine has fought to block access to many of them. Without the access to policies, programs, and funding that build and support self-governance, economic growth in the Wabanaki Nations and their surrounding rural communities is severely stunted. Compared to tribes outside of Maine, all four Wabanaki Nations lag severely in economic development. Research by The Harvard Project on American Indian Development shows that between 1989 and 2018, income in Maine grew 25%, while income growth for Wabanaki citizens was just 9%. In 2021, the average income for Mainers was more than twice as high as Wabanaki citizens’. Compared to the rest of Maine, the Wabanaki child poverty rate is almost four times higher. 

Researchers estimate that restoring self-governance capabilities for the Wabanaki Nations would result in the direct and indirect addition of more than 2,700 new jobs – 85% of which would be gained by the tribes’ neighbors in rural Maine. It would also add an estimated $330 million each year to Maine’s gross domestic product, with the benefits of this growth concentrated in rural and economically deprived portions of Aroostook, Penobscot, and Washington counties.

The right to self-govern is a cornerstone of any sovereign nation and is held by all federally recognized tribes. However, the Settlement Acts prevent the tribes in Maine from exercising this right as the vast majority of tribes elsewhere in the United States do. Among the rights denied to the tribes in Maine are:

• The right to exercise criminal jurisdiction over all categories of crimes committed by Native Americans on tribal lands.
• The right to legislate and adjudicate civil regulatory issues arising on tribal lands, such as the right to enact and enforce environmental quality controls or to regulate on-reservation businesses.
• The right to levy and collect taxes.
• The right to conduct gaming in collaboration with state and local governments.
• The right to be immune from lawsuits by private individuals and state governments.
• The right to acquire reservation and trust lands without the consent of local and state governments. 
• The passage of LD 2007 in 2024 restored much of the Wabanaki Nations’ right to exercise criminal jurisdiction over many crimes committed by Native Americans on tribal lands, but work remains to move toward the same justice model for major felonies that other tribes have. 

Learn more about the rights of federally recognized tribes from Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior.

A 2012 letter from the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission, created by the 1980 Maine Implementing Act to continually review its effectiveness, found that the Settlement Acts “created structural inequities that have resulted in conditions that have risen to the level of human rights violations.” In 2019, acknowledgement of these inequities and the determined diplomacy of Wabanaki tribal governments prompted the Maine Legislature to create the Task Force on Changes to the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Implementing Act. The task force was composed of a bipartisan group of tribal leaders, legislators, and state officials. After six months of hearings, meetings, interviews, and research, the task force issued a report in January 2020 with 22 recommendations to restore tribal self-governance over a range of issues, including the prosecution of crimes on tribal lands; the regulation of fishing, hunting, and other uses of natural resources on tribal lands; gaming; taxation; and land acquisition. 

The recommendations formed the basis of state legislation in 2022 and 2023 that received strong bipartisan approval in the legislature, but were ultimately blocked by Governor Mills’ opposition. In Congress, legislation sponsored by Rep. Jared Golden that would have extended the benefits of federal Indian laws to the Wabanaki Nations failed to advance in the Senate following opposition from Sen. Angus King.

Generally speaking, yes. Tribal lands in Maine are typically open for public access and recreational use unless they have been closed for a specific reason. Hunting and fishing on tribal lands typically requires a permit, as would be the case on state or federal lands. Just as any private landowner in the state, tribes in Maine have the right to post their land. With few exceptions, tribes in Maine do not post their land.

Both of these bills are sponsored by Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross and co-sponsored by other Democrat, Republican, and Independent legislators, including leadership in both caucuses and in both chambers. This follows unprecedented levels of support for a similar bill that passed in 2023 with two-thirds of legislators voting in favor before Gov. Janet Mills vetoed it. In addition to legislators, all four Wabanaki Nations support LD 785 and LD 395, along with hundreds of businesses; organizations advocating for the environment, conservation, and economic and social justice; faith-based and youth groups; unions; and professional and philanthropic organizations that make up the Wabanaki Alliance Tribal Coalition, as well as thousands of individual Mainers. 

Mainers understand that passing these bills is about fairness and equity. Recognizing the Wabanaki Nations’ inherent right to self-govern helps move the Wabanaki Nations and the state of Maine forward together, with improved economic opportunity, careful stewardship of the land, and renewed partnership among neighbors. 

Gov. Mills’ position on these bills is not yet clear. In the past, as Maine Attorney General, she defended the state’s existing interpretation of the Settlement Acts. As governor, she has expressed some willingness to negotiate, but continues to oppose comprehensive efforts to amend the Settlement Acts. Most recently in 2025, she vetoed a bill that would have prohibited the state from using eminent domain on tribal land. In 2023, she vetoed LD 2004, a bipartisan bill that was similar to the bill (LD 395) legislators are taking up this year. She also opposed the ultimately successful effort to restore Maine’s treaty obligations to the state constitution, and opposed US Rep. Jared Golden’s federal legislation that would have allowed future federal tribal laws to apply to Wabanaki Nations. 

Efforts by tribal leaders, activists, and allies over the past few years have resulted in the successful implementation of a number of Wabanaki priorities, including: the jurisdictional authority of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and the Mi’kmaq Nation has been brought in line with that of the other Wabanaki Nations in Maine; Wabanaki tribes now have exclusive rights to online sports betting; Indian mascots in Maine schools are now banned; Columbus Day has been changed to Indigenous Peoples’ Day; the coverage of the federal Violence Against Women Act has been extended to apply to Indigenous women in Maine; and certain state boards are now required to include tribal representatives. All of these actions have met with the governor’s support, as has the most recent success from the task force recommendations from the 131st legislature that expands a host of criminal jurisdiction classes to tribal courts. 

The Judiciary Committee will hold public hearings on these bills soon. The Wabanaki Alliance encourages all supporters to submit written testimony in support of LD 785 and LD 395. Learn how HERE.

Contact your legislators and urge them to vote YES on LD 785 and YES on LD 395, write letters to the editor in support of the bill, and talk with friends, family, and neighbors about why this legislation is important for the Wabanaki Nations in Maine and for the entire state. Learn more in our Take Action Toolkit.