For more than 40 years, the Wabanaki nations, the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Mi’kmaq and Maliseet, have been living under a legal regime unlike that of any other federally recognized tribes in the United States.

This is not a story of past injustice alone, it is an ongoing policy failure, one that Maine has the power to address but continues to ignore. While these nations have lived on and stewarded the land now called Maine for thousands of years, today they face unique political and economic obstacles rooted in outdated and unjust policy.

At the heart of the issue is the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (MICSA), which resolved longstanding land claims but came at a tremendous cost to Wabanaki sovereignty. This legal anomaly has denied the Wabanaki nations access to critical programs under laws like the Violence Against Women Act, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act and others.

The consequences are staggering. Since the late 1980s, they face greater health disparities, lower employment rates and diminished educational opportunities. According to the Wabanaki Alliance, unlike other federally recognized tribes, the Wabanaki nations are denied automatic access to more than 150 federal laws passed since 1980.

The Wabanaki nations have lived on this land for thousands of years, but today they are still denied rights that every other tribe in the U.S. has. This is a fact. The state of Maine has been denying rights from the native people for years. For example, the state of Maine was the last state in the U.S. to give Indigenous people the right to vote. And in 2025, the state of Maine still refuses to treat them as equals. The voices of the Wabanaki nations are being silent.

This is not just a bureaucratic quirk. It’s a civil rights violation.

Because of MICSA, Wabanaki communities are poorer, sicker and less empowered than they should be. They are forced to beg for basic services programs and recognition that other tribes receive by default. The state of Maine, in refusing to fix this, is instead choosing to uphold a system of second-class citizenship for native peoples.

Maine has made efforts to modernize its relationship with the tribes. In 2023, the Legislature passed a bipartisan bill to expand tribal sovereignty, but Gov. Janet Mills vetoed the measure. On July 7, 2023, Gov. Mills stated, “I do not believe that LD 2004, recently enacted by the Legislature, will achieve that goal. I fear it would result in years, if not decades, of new, painful, complex litigation that would only further divide the state and our people.”

The Wabanaki people are not asking for special treatment. They are asking to be treated the same as every other federally recognized tribe in this country.

Acknowledging the Wabanaki nations means more than ceremonial language or land acknowledgements. It means restoring their legal rights. It means honoring treaties instead of hiding them from our constitution. It means teaching every child in Maine the truth not just about the Wabanaki past, but about their present and future.