Tribes, state: Let's make a deal
Brunswick Times Record 02/25/2002
Brunswick
— The ongoing legal wrangling that has pitted Maine's Indian tribes against
the state and several paper companies is one step closer to a resolution.
In a speech at Bowdoin College on Friday, Chief Barry Dana of the Penobscot
Indian Nation said he and other tribal leaders are working with state officials
to reach an agreement on the issue of regulating water quality on tribal lands.
"We need to make it so everybody is playing the same game with the same
goal in mind, and that is to have clean water," Dana said.
The dispute began over whether the state or the federal government should
regulate water quality on tribal land. In January 2001, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency gave the state the delegation of wastewater discharge permits
in most areas of Maine under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System.
The agency and the Department of Justice are reviewing who should grant the
permits in areas that include tribal lands.
The tribes opposed state delegation of the permits on waters flowing through
tribal land on the grounds that the state would not enforce regulations to the
same degree that the federal government would, especially as they affect tribal
uses of the river.
"The EPA on a federal level would protect the tribes' uses of the
water," said Dana. "We have inherent rights that we've had since time
immemorial. We need to have the right to catch the fish and to catch clean fish.
We're still using medicines gathered from the river. I gather my own medicines
and I gather my own edibles."
As part of the dispute, three paper companies filed suit against Maine's tribes
seeking documents relating to the regulation of water quality. A Superior Court
judge ruled that the paper companies could have access certain documents. The
tribes lost their appeals to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and the 1st
Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. The U.S. Supreme Court later declined to
take the case. One of the paper companies has since dropped its lawsuit.
Now the state and the tribes are beginning to work together on these issues, to
look beyond the issue of jurisdiction and focus on protecting the environment.
"The ultimate goal is hard to say," said Commissioner Martha
Kirkpatrick of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, commenting on
the precise way to achieve environmental protection in this matter. "People
really want to improve the relationship. We all want the same thing. We all want
clean water."
Kirkpatrick, along with Gov. Angus King, Attorney General Steven Rowe and other
state officials met with tribal leaders Feb. 19 in an effort to reach some kind
of resolution to the dispute.
"What we're trying to do is put (the issue of jurisdiction) aside so we can
talk about water quality issues," said Kirkpatrick, who called the meeting
"very preliminary."
The meeting's participants also formed a subcommittee of tribal and state
officials to address the issues further. That subcommittee has not yet met,
added Kirkpatrick.
Kirkpatrick said one possibility is a written agreement that would outline ways
for the tribes to have meaningful input into water quality issues on tribal
lands.
For Dana, the issue boils down to sovereignty of tribal nations and their right
to use the land as they always have.
"We wanted to maintain our integrity as a tribal government and we weren't
going to budge on that. But let's redefine what the 'war' is going to look
like," said Dana. "Let's talk government to government."
Dana's speech at Bowdoin College was part of a Symposium on "Race, Justice
and the Environment," which addressed the relationship between
environmental protection, social justice and racial equality.
The keynote speaker was Wangari Maathai, founder and coordinator of the Green
Belt Movement in Kenya, which seeks political reform and resource protection.
The symposium was organized by John Rensenbrink, professor emeritus of
government and co-founder of the U.S. Green Party and the Maine Independent
Green Party, Becky Kouloris, project administrator for environmental studies,
Betty Trout-Kelly, assistant to the president for multicultural programs, and
Noah Long, Class of 2003.
Saturday's session featured panel discussions on the cultural and political
dimensions of the symposium's "Race, Justice and the Environment" theme.Elizabeth_Dorsey@TimesRecord.Com