Edward Hopper is one of my favorite artists. I’m glad one of his paintings will be on a forever stamp to help us celebrate our historic statehood (“During state’s bicentennial, Postal Service will issue stamps with Maine scenes,” Oct. 30).

Barry Dana, a former chief of the Penobscot Nation, said in the story that he feels we should not celebrate proudly our statehood considering our mistreatment of Native Americans here. That’s the other unfortunate side of the coin.

We will celebrate anyway with lots of chocolate cake and apple pie and speeches.

Perhaps over the next few years we should honestly examine our history with our Native American brothers and sisters. Dust off those treaties we’ve hidden away. Where we have cheated them or otherwise mistreated them, let’s just fix it.

Don’t talk about it or make empty apologies. If we took away self-determination give it back. If we took away resources give them back. Let’s take another look at land issues.

By our 300th birthday, maybe we can all celebrate.

James Nelson

Winslow