With the election only weeks out, over breakfast MB asked me to write "a paragraph" on a set topic -- why it is important to elect Maine Indians to the Maine Legislature. There are subtexts. Donna Loring is being Zelled by the Maine Dems just as MB was Zelled by Portland's big "D's". Zell is rather popular up here in Maine, and KE04 has just a couple of sunrises left here in Dawnland before the Zells -- Dottie's creatures running the Coordinated Campaign -- push four electoral votes onto the Red side of the tote board to advance a few state-level slugs fighting for leadership. So, here's the para:
Under current law, the two members of the Maine Legislature who represent the two towns of the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Penobscot Nation at Old Town are non-voting. In addition, under the current rules of the Legislature, which are subject to change by each Legislature, they also may not vote in Committee.
During the 130th Session of the Legislature, Senate Majority Leader Michael Michaud lead the fight to retain the no-votes-in-Committee rule for these two statutory representatives. The claim offered for not allowing Committee votes to Indians was that because Sipayik (Pleasant Point Passamaquoddy Reservation, between Perry and Eastport), and Indian Township (between Princeton and Calais), are within House District 134 and Senate District 4, and Indian Island adjacent to Old Town, are within House District 121 and Senate District 7, that voters for the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot representatives to the Maine Legislature are already represented, and that Indian voting in Committee would violate "one person, one vote". Majority Leader Michaud prevailed on the Committee Voting issue in the 130th Legislature.
The two statutory representatives to the Maine Legislature may introduce bills, as may any party who obtains even a "legislative courtesy" from a member of the legislature, and they may participate in the non-voting activities of Committees, as may any party that attends the Public Hearings
of any Committee.
The enrolled populations of the Passamaquoddy Tribe and Penobscot Nation if combined, are sufficient to form a majority if contained in a single House District. Because these populations are divided by the Legislature into two House districts, they are a non-voting minority in each.
The problem of Indian representation is not restricted to the Passamaquoddy Tribe and Penobscot Nation, though these are the only Maine Indians affected by the non-voting rule for their respective statutory representatives. The Houlton Band of Maliseets, the Aroostook Band of Mic'macs, and Abenakis in Western Maine are also affected. Harold Tomah (Mic'mac) ran for the House from Wells, (District 7) in 2000. He ran a respectable race, but the point is, he can not vote, or run for office, in a voting district where Indians are more than 1% of the population.
The 2000 census in Maine for "Indian" was 7,098, and for "Indian and one other race" is 13,156. Off-reserve Indians over the age of 50, particularly Abenakis, do not declare any "Indian" identity to civil authorities. An estimate of the total Indian population in Maine rises to that of a Senate District, some 36,400 persons, or four House Districts of 8,400 persons each. However, due to the non-contiguousness of the three largest areas where Indian voters reside, and the general dispersion of Indians to Maine's towns and cities, as well as to location that are "away", the contiguous district rule hotly debated elsewhere in the contexts of (non-Indian) "safe minority" or "gerrymandered" districts, completely dilutes the suffrage granted by the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, and not enacted in Maine until 1952.
This cycle there are two contested races for the 132nd Legislature in which Indians stood for election. Mary Beth Williams (Abenaki) stood in the primary election for a Portland House district, and despite winning endorsements from the Dirigo Alliance and the Portland Press Herald, her better connected and more conservative male opponent obtained the web of party officeholder endorsements and won. Donna Loring (Penobscot) stands in the general election as a Democrat in a competitive district against a moderate Republican. She has been shunned by her Party, and though a Lesbian, Equality Maine, which like the Maine Dems' Coordinated Campain, has leadership overlap with "Casinos NO!", endorsed her opponent, a straight white male Republican.
It is important to elect Maine Indians to the Maine Legislature because the leadership of Maine Democratic Party is wrong and needs correction. Maine's Democrats do not gain by preventing Indians from running competitive races in its primaries, or by preventing Indians from running competitive races in general elections. The ongoing violation of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 by the Maine Legislature as a whole is also wrong and needs correction.
Indian Self-Determination is not going to go away. Maine has two choices: to maintain the fiction that the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 is fully implemented, even though no Indian voting district exists, and both major State parties actively exclude Indians from all effective Party or elective office, or to "get over" its romance with racism and the "no special rights" rhetoric that poison public debate over what is in fact a long series of questions about status and dual-nationality that define Federal Indian Law.
The author is a member of the Maine People's Alliance
The real highlights of the day were the bizzaro "photo-shoot-and-hoots" by our around-the-bend Democratic candidate for the legislature, and a memorable visit by our resident skunk.
Charlie Harlow needed to make an impression on our friends, neighbors and volunteers by rolling past our lot time and again, doing the point-and-click with some cheap camera, and yelling something about "soiled Democrats". I could have misheard that last bit. He's rather pleased with himself that he got 26 more votes than MB did. The skunk sprayed the dog. Tomorrow dog meets water, hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. I'm partial to blonds, and he was due for a bath before he went to play with skunk.
Abenaki word of the day: segôgw. Glusskabe punnished Segôgw for being angry towards humans by running his ash pipe over Segôgw's back. The character in oral culture who most characterizes malice and mindlessness however is Malsum, Gluskabe's twin, not Segôgw.
Thanks for the update Guys. Here in the land of Zell, we have plenty of very conservative Dems, but very few of them actually cite Zell as 'inspiration'. I believe there's exactly 2 in the state leg. who do. But you post is less than clear about most everything else. For those of us who do not live there and who do not follow Dem politics in ME, why is it again that the coordinated Dem campaign is running at counter-purpose to the KE-04 efforts? Is it lack of communication, coordination, or effort or all 3 (we can replicate that in Ga.!), or is it something worse? If there's good 'ol boys running the show, this is to be expected, you suggest corruption and more (extended?) campaign tricks from the crew. Me, If I was being stalked by our local state leg. critter or hopeful, I'd have no qualms about paint balling him. I'd let him be the judge if he'd ever want to see me in court either. (Gee your honor, the kids were playing out front, and Mr. Slime ball must have come inbetween a good game of paint ball tag...).
I like obscure stuff, but I'm always left scratching my head when you post on local Dem politics up there.
Posted by: VJ at September 26, 2004 11:55 PM> why is it again that the coordinated Dem campaign is running at counter-purpose to the KE-04 efforts?
Because of '02 cycle issues and '06 anticipations, in Maine.
> Is it lack of communication, coordination, or effort or all 3 (we can replicate that in Ga.!), or is it something worse?
File under "worse". Indifference to top-of-ticket outcomes. Not my problem.
I wish you'd read the main article, and compare with the problems Guinier wrote about.
Sorry how long the comment took, and what are you doing up so late???
Posted by: Eric at September 27, 2004 12:54 AM