PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 24, 2021
In a news release recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day, posted online Oct. 12, Gov. Mills echoes statements made the two previous years about this new state holiday replacing Columbus Day. Curiously, with each passing year, Gov. Mills’ language has become vaguer in her references to the “first stewards” of Maine. Why not use the names of the very people this day is intended to honor? We need action – not self-congratulatory words or feel-good references to Maine’s “first stewards” that completely gloss over the many ways our state continues to keep the Wabanaki people under its thumb. ~ Shirley Hager, co-author of “The Gatherings: Reimagining Indigenous-Settler Relations,” and James McCarthy, retired journalist, Brunswick