By Associated
Press, 5/17/2001 14:22
Lawyers
for the Penobscot Nation and the Passamaquoddy tribe filed the motion with the
Supreme Judicial Court just prior to Tuesday's deadline.
Earlier
this month, the court ruled that the tribes must give three paper companies any
communications with state and federal governments about a dispute over
regulation of wastewater discharges into rivers that run through Indian lands.
A similar
case was argued in February before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which
has yet to rule.
As the
case wound through the courts, the environmental issues have been overtaken by
broader questions regarding sovereignty of the tribes.
In papers
filed Tuesday, the tribes said that as governments which predate ''the founding
of the Republic,'' they have the right to govern the general public's ''rights
of access'' to their reservations.
The
reconsideration motion also seeks a stay of the court's order to give the
Indians time to pursue an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Kaighn Smith
Jr., a lawyer for the tribes.
Bangor Daily
News
5/17/01
Court
asked to rethink ruling
By Nancy Garland, Of the NEWS Staff
PORTLAND — Two Maine Indian tribes have asked the state’s highest court to reconsider its May 1 decision requiring them to grant paper companies access to some documents related to water-quality regulation. The documents are being sought by the three companies under the state’s Freedom of Access law.
Lawyers for the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Penobscot Nation filed a motion saying they will appeal the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court should the Maine Supreme Judicial Court deny their motion to reconsider. The court papers were filed just before a legal deadline of May 15.
At the same time, the Indians’ lawyers made an informational filing in the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, where justices face another case related to the complex matter.
The latest filings follow an order that the tribes give paper companies any communications with state and federal government officials about a dispute over the regulation of wastewater discharges into rivers that run through Indian land.
While tribal leaders say the case strikes at the heart of an age-old fight for power and control of Indians and their lands, paper company lawyers say the tribal resistance is yet another way to rewrite the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980.
Matt Manahan, a lawyer for the paper companies, said the latest flurry of legal motions is “a delaying tactic.”
“I’m not surprised,” Manahan said. “The tribes have done everything possible to delay our efforts to obtain the documents and to delay the resolution to these proceedings.”
Manahan represents a 33-member coalition, including the three paper mills in question, that either discharge material into waterways or would be affected by the tribes’ effort to block the state from obtaining federal approval to regulate water discharges.
The paper mills involved in the dispute are Great Northern Paper Co., Georgia-Pacific and International Paper, formerly the Champion paper mill in Bucksport.
As the year-old case has wound through the courts, environmental issues have been overtaken by questions regarding the sovereignty of the tribes.
Barry Dana, governor of the Penobscot Nation, said the significance of the case is enormous. “This is about control of our reservations,” Dana said Thursday. “We doubt this is really about documents. It’s about the mills’ right to pollute the waters our people have occupied for thousands of years.”
Passamaquoddy tribal governor Rick Doyle said the paper mills “started a legal fight about rights of access to our reservations. They don’t want us or the federal government to have a say in the matter. They want the state courts to control the issue and make us municipalities.”
The dispute began when the paper companies invoked Maine’s Freedom of Access law in an effort to inspect tribal documents related to water quality. The paper companies claimed the tribes were municipalities under state access laws.
The tribes have denied the legal request and taken the dispute to federal court, claiming the land claims act gives them the right to govern access to tribal documents.
In September 2000, D. Brock Hornby, chief federal judge for Maine, dismissed the case. The tribes appealed the decision to the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, where a ruling is awaited.
In the meantime, the paper mills sued the tribes in state Superior Court under state public access law. Last fall, a judge ruled in Androscoggin County Superior Court that the tribes had to comply with the law because they were municipalities.
When the tribes refused to comply the judge ordered the arrest of tribal leaders, who appealed to state and federal courts.