Signal 007 — The Verses They Don’t Sing

There are 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States. 570 of them have sovereignty — the right to govern themselves, enforce their own laws, access federal programs designed for tribal nations. The Wabanaki Nations of Maine are not among them.

The Penobscot Nation. The Passamaquoddy Tribe. The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians. The Mi’kmaq Nation. Four nations that predate Maine, predate the United States, predate the English language being spoken on this continent. In 1980, the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act turned them into municipalities.

Not a metaphor. The law literally treats them as towns. When Congress passes legislation for tribal nations — the Violence Against Women Act, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, anything after 1980 — it doesn’t apply to the Wabanaki unless Congress specifically says so. They signed the Settlement Act to get fair compensation for stolen land. What they got was a legal framework that stripped their sovereignty and called it a deal.

For 46 years, they’ve been trying to get it back.

This month, the Maine Legislature passed two bills in what was Governor Janet Mills’ final session. This was the window. The Wabanaki Alliance, tribal leaders, and advocates had spent years building toward this moment — comprehensive sovereignty reform, starting with the preemption clause that locks them out of federal Indian law.

What they got was a tax break and a task force.

LD 785 exempts tribal members who work for their government from state income tax, exempts new manufactured homes on tribal lands from sales tax, and gives the Mi’kmaq Nation a non-voting representative in the State House. LD 395 creates a task force — five tribal leaders, four lawmakers, some government members — to study the federal laws the Wabanaki can’t access and make recommendations. The same kind of task force the Legislature convened in 2019.

The full sovereignty reform — the preemption clause, the thing that actually matters — was dropped. Governor Mills opposed it. The tribes accepted the compromise because something is better than nothing, and they have been getting nothing for nearly half a century.

Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis put it plainly: the tribes remain “second-class citizens even in our own space.”

Here is where it gets sharp. In January 2026, Governor Mills allowed LD 1164 to become law — authorizing the Wabanaki Nations to operate online gambling. iGaming. The press release called it “economic opportunity.” The governor’s office framed it as a legacy achievement for tribal relations.

Read that again. The state will let the tribes run online casinos. The state will not let them govern themselves.

This is the pattern. Not cruelty — something more durable than cruelty. A system that gives just enough to claim progress while withholding the thing that would make the giving unnecessary. Tax exemptions instead of sovereignty. A representative who can introduce bills and vote in committee but not on the floor. A task force to study the problem everyone already understands. Revenue rights but not governance rights.

Every other federally recognized tribe in America — all 570 of them — can access VAWA protections for their citizens. Can build their own justice systems. Can apply for federal grants designed for tribal nations. The Wabanaki cannot. Not because Congress excluded them. Because a 1980 state law did, and no Maine governor has been willing to undo it.

The task force will meet. It will study. It will recommend. And in the next session, with a new governor, the Wabanaki will be back at the table asking for what 570 other nations already have. Again.

Woody Guthrie wrote verses to “This Land Is Your Land” about private property signs and hungry people standing in line. They don’t teach those verses in school. The version everyone knows is a celebration. The version Guthrie wrote is about who the land actually belongs to and who gets told to keep walking.

Maine has a version it sings about tribal relations — iGaming bills and tax breaks and task forces. Progress. Partnership. Respect.

The verses they don’t sing: four nations that were here first, still waiting to govern themselves on their own land, 46 years into a settlement that settled nothing.

// NEON BLOOD

Sources:
ICT News: Legislature takes few steps toward Wabanaki sovereignty
Maine Morning Star: Legislature takes few steps toward Wabanaki sovereignty
Maine Public: Tribal leaders endorse compromise bills
Governor Mills’ Office: LD 1164 iGaming bill
MITSC: Summary of the 1980 Maine Indian Land Claims Act